Med332 soul, funk and protest (civil rights movement)

#med332 Soul, funk and protest

I know you got soul…

‘Soul ain’t nothin’ but a feelin’ – Wilson PickeB

‘I am not a blues singer or an R&B singer, I’m a soul singer. We go into the studio without anything prepared, just record what come out. That’s soul – the way you feel’

– OKs Redding


•  ‘(Soul) is what comes from within; its what happens when the inner part of you comes out … Everyone wants to know where I got that funky style. Well, it comes from the church.’ – Milt Jackson


•  ‘Soul to me is a feeling, a lot of depth and being able to bring to the surface that which is happening inside … Its just the emoKon, the way it affects other people’ – Aretha Franklin

Origins

Gospel PlantaKon R&B

Origins

Gospel Paul Robeson

PlantaKon Huddie LedbeBer

R&B Robert Johnson

•  Go Down Moses -‐ Let My People Go •  Joe Hill •  We Shall Overcome (Peter Seeger)

1950s consumer boom

•  Staple Singers, •  Ray Charles, •  Sam Cooke, •  CurKs Mayfield and The Impressions

•  Jim Crow laws •  ‘separate but equal’ •  Civil Rights movement

1960s

Motown Detroit

AtlanKc New York

Stax Memphis

Chess Chicago

•  Uncloudy Day -‐ Staple Singers (1957) •  A Change is Gonna Come -‐ Sam Cooke (1964) •  People Get Ready -‐ CurKs Mayfield & the Impressions (1965)

•  Mississippi Goddam – Nina Simone (1964)

I was born by the river in a liBle tent Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since It's been a long, a long Kme coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky It's been a long, a long Kme coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will I go to the movie and I go downtown somebody keep telling me don't hang around It's been a long, a long Kme coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will Then I go to my brother And I say brother help me please But he winds up knockin' me Back down on my knees

Ohhhhhhhhh..... There been Kmes that I thought I couldn't last for long But now I think I'm able to carry on It's been a long, a long Kme coming But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will

Sam Cooke – ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ (1964)

Mass direct acKon

•  boycoBs, •  sit-‐ins, •  Freedom Rides, •  marches

Rosa Parks (1955) Montgomery Bus BoycoB

•  BoycoB lasted 381 days •  90% parKcipaKon •  Organised by Montgomery Improvement AssociaKon –  President: MarKn Luther King Jnr

Freedom Rides (1961)

Race riots

•  Birmingham, 1963 •  MarKn Luther King •  KKK

Nina Simone – ‘Mississippi Goddam’ (1964)

Malcolm X

•  NaKon of Islam (unKl 1964) •  Black naKonalism •  Black supremacy •  Pan-‐Africanism (post 1964)

Race riots 1964

•  Major riots in Harlem Detroit, Chicago and 40 other ciKes

•  WaBs Riots alone len 34 dead,1000 injured and 4,000 arrested Military and police ‘locked down’ major US ciKes (Ward 1998: 179)

Harlem, 1964

•  James Powell (age 15)

WaBs, 1965

Riots, 1966-‐67 •  Atlanta, •  San Francisco, •  Oakland, •  BalKmore, •  SeaBle, •  Cleveland, •  CincinnaK, •  Columbus, •  Newark, •  Chicago, •  New York City •  Detroit

Malcolm X assassinated (1965)

MarKn Luther King assassinated (1968)

Sly & The Family Stone

Sly & The Family Stone

Don’t Call Me Nigger, Whitey (1969) Luv N’ Haight (1971) Africa Talks to You, the Asphalt Jungle (1971) Thank You For Talking to Me Africa (1971) Family Affair (1971)

Stevie Wonder – ‘Heaven Help Us All’ (1970)

1970s urban crisis

In 1969 or 1970, I began to re-‐evaluate my whole concept of what I wanted my music to say […] I was very much affected by leBers my brother was sending me from Vietnam, as well as the social situaKon here at home. I realized that I had to put my own fantasies behind me if I wanted to write songs that would reach the souls of people. I wanted them to take a look at what was happening in the world -‐ Marvin Gaye on What's Going On, 1973

Marvin Gaye

•  What’s Going On •  Inner City Blues •  Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)

Marvin Gaye – ‘Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)’ (1971)

CriKcal of black urban experiences:

•  Mayfield’s Cur%s Mayfield (1970) •  Mayfield’s Superfly (1971) •  Isaac Hayes’ Sha2 (1971) •  Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book (1972) •  Stevie Wonder’s Innervsions (1973) •  Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life (1975)

Overt poliKcal consciousness

•  Say it Loud: Im Black, I’m Proud – James Brown (1970)

•  For the Love of Money – The O’Jays (1973) •  The Revolu%on Will Not Be Televised -‐ Gil ScoB Heron (1971)

•  Machine Gun – The Commodores (1974)

Gil ScoB Heron -‐ ‘The RevoluKon Will Not Be Televised’ (1971)

Funkadelic – ‘One NaKon Under a Groove’ (1978)

Grandmaster Flash – ‘The Message’ (1982)

Summary Ward (1999: p388) argues that aim of this music paralleled Civil Rights movement – to bring about a shift from racial segregation to integration – idea challenged by some material that is belligerent to racism and inequality. Black artists also started to get involved in the movement as political activists: Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke (Ward, 1999) ‘Black consciousness’ and ‘black is beautiful’ invoked new identification with black culture. Ideas explored by Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone et al. Soul-funk provided an important voice of social commentary on the problems of racism, poverty and the ‘urban crisis’. In the 1970s it produces both ‘utopian’ and ‘realist’ responses to these problems through musical and lyrical styles drawn from quasi mythical African heritage and Western religions.

Playlist for videos

•  hBp://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRCHqijqFjGudPuMuab5EjGoarYPcK7x4

Med332 soul, funk and protest (civil rights movement)

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