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SHOUT! Black Gospel Music Moments - The Highway QCs

The Spence Taylor-led Highway QCs transform the old classic “I’ll Fly Away” into a Temptations styled psychedelic soul romp!

Despite a long history of great gospel songs, the Highway QCs are sometimes considered just a farm team for the Soul Stirrers. After all, Stirrers like Sam Cooke, Johnnie Taylor and LeRoy Crume all got their start with the QCs.

But with the arrival of Spencer Taylor in the late 1960s, the QCs were re-invigorated yet again – and the Taylor-led QCs are still on the road as of mid-2024!

One of their best releases was their reimagining of the “I’ll Fly” as “Be at Rest (I’ll Fly Away) from the album by the same name. Produced by the Dixie Hummingbirds’ Ira Taylor, the Highway QCs transform the old classic into a gospelized version of the Temptations’ “Ball of Confusion.”

2435 Highway QCs - Be a Rest (I'll Fly Away).mp3

MUSIC: (2435) The Highway QCs, Be at Rest LP, “Be at Rest (I’ll Fly Away),” Side 1, Track 1 (September 1, 2024)

I’m Robert Darden … “Shout! Black Gospel Music Moments” is produced by KWBU and the Black Gospel Music Preservation Program at Baylor University Libraries.

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Robert F. Darden is the author of two dozen books, most recently: Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume II: Black Sacred Music from Sit-In to Resurrection City (Penn State University Press, 2016); Nothing But Love in God’s Water, Volume I: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement(Penn State University Press, 2014); Jesus Laughed: The Redemptive Power of Humor(Abingdon Press, 2008), Reluctant Prophets and Clueless Disciples: Understanding the Bible by Telling Its Stories(Abingdon Press, 2006); and People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music(Continuum/Bloomsbury, 2004).