APPENDIX B
Enduring Through Music:
Here, There, and Everywhere

When we think of the unfair and unjust, we immediately think of both "anywhere but here" and "not here, not there, not anywhere." When we think of that which is fair and just, we think "here, there, and everywhere."

This appendix carries more detailed examples of how Blacks have endured White oppression, nationwide, especially through our music, which for us is "here, there, and everywhere." Lyrics listed below are for these songs:

"Keep on Pushing"
"We’re a Winner"
"Move on Up"
"Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud"
"Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now"
"Save the Children"
"What’s Going On"
"Redemption Song"

Think of Black music and soul and rhythm and blues as ways to overcome and transcend the treatment Whites wouldn’t want done to them. Despite it all, we have maintained a wonderful attitude.

Stella may have lost her groove and had to get it back. But Blacks have always had their groove, whether the riffs of Jazz, the soul-satisfying Negro Spirituals during slave days and beyond, the uplifting of "Amazing Grace," the syncopation of the Black-invented banjo, our dealing with inequities through the singing of the blues while keeping our spirits up with ragtime and honky tonk, whether we danced to the jazz piano of Jelly Roll Morton or the soul piano of Ray Charles, or the soaring jazz trumpet of Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong, the guitar of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the marimba of Lionel Hampton, or we mentally swung to the jazz of Preservation Hall in New Orleans, or Duke Ellington in Harlem’s Cotton Club, with the Congeroo, Lindy Hop, and the Conga at Harlem’s Savoy Ballroom, or the wondrous sounds of Leadbelly, Josh White, Muddy Waters, David "Honeyboy" Edwards, B.B. King, Charlie Parker, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Miles Davis, Sam Cooke, the Motown sounds, James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield, not to mention the great ladies of song: Ruth Brown, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Lena Horn, Dorothy Dandridge, Arethra Franklin, Diana Ross, and so many more.

Blacks on chain gangs and work crews passed the time singing work songs and spirituals. They could chain us but they could not break us. They could claim our bodies but they could not claim our spirits. For centuries in America, we have sung the songs that have been our saving grace through generations of abuse, the kind of Pentecostal jazz disco that shaped Elvis Presley (rock & roll is a form of Black blues music). Our music was necessary for our indigent community's survival, keeping us in touch with the higher Spirits of life through good times and bad. Indeed, music is even more important to some Black teenagers than sports. Music was always the vehicle through which a slave could travel through time substituting fantasy for reality. Some tunes were sad, some happy, and some triumphant. There were church songs, work songs, love songs, and folk songs. And this is true of any oppressed people. But even our music has slipped. We need more Black artists standing up as James Brown did with his "Don’t Be a Drop-Out," and "Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud," and "Open Up The Door," or Curtis Mayfield’s "Keep on Pushing," We’re a Winner," "People get Ready," and "We’re Moving on Up," or the McFadden and Whitehead song, "Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now."

Too many Black artists today glorify sex and drugs and depravity and negativity. They hurt our young Black men when, with their music, as the musicians of old, they could help them, lift them up, so they don’t wind up as drop-outs, that that respond that they are Black and proud, not down and out, and keep on pushing to move up. We considered these our anthems. Below are the words to several of the songs that meant much to my generation. When young Black men start getting excited about this kind of music again, when young Black music moguls return to the reality of life as Black men in America, rather than the pursuit of riches and appearances on TV shows where they can brag about their "cribs" and "living large," then we will be back on the right track. For them, who may read this, I offer these songs as a hope that it will inspire them to seek a way to inspire young Black men to aspire, not expire on drugs and violence. These were our anthems. I urge today’s young Black musicians to develop anthems for their generation as well, anthems of hope and overcoming, of not taking their eyes off the prize, freedom politically and economically for all. Curtis Mayfield, particularly, is misunderstood by gangsta rap that tries to immitate him, as for Curtis, he advocated that young men make themselves into the ultimate soul man, which for hiim meant anti-drug and anti- violence.

Here are key excerpts from their songs. We need more of them for our Black inner city youth today:

Curtis Mayfield
"Keep on Pushing"
http://www.guitaretab.com/i/impressions/8666.htm
Keep on pushing
Keep on pushing
I got to keep on pushing,
I can't stop now
Move up a little higher
Some way or some how
Cause I've got my strength
Don't make sense, not to
Keep on pushing
Hallelu-jah
Hallelu-jah
Keep on pushing

"We’re a Winner"
http://www.murchisoncenter.org/malcolm/lyrics.htm#We're%20a%20Winner
We're a winner
and never let anybody say,
"boy you can't make it"
Cause a feeble mind is in your way
No more tears do we cry
And we have finally dried our eyes
And we're moving on up
Lord have mercy, we're moving on up

"Move on Up"
http://home.concepts.nl/~avroomen/moveonup.htm
http://inkinen.trunkfunk.com/cm/lyrics/moveonup.txt
Hush now child and don't you cry
Your folks might understand you by and by
Move on up towards your destination
You may find from time to time
Complications
Bight your lip and take a trip
Though there may be wet road ahead
You cannot slip
So move on up and peace you will find
Into the steeple of beautiful people
Where there's only one kind
So hush now child and don't you cry
Your folks might understand you by and by
Just move on up and keep on wishing
Remember your dreams are your only schemes
So keep on pushing
Take nothing less - not even second best
And do not obey - you must have your say
You can past the test
Move on up!

"Don’t Be A Drop Out"

"Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud"
http://www.murchisoncenter.org/malcolm/lyrics.htm#Say%20it%20Loud
Work your bad self
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"
Look here, some people say we got a lot of malice
some say it's a lot of nerve
but I say we won't quit moving until we get what we deserve.
We've been buked
and we've been scarred
we've been treated bad, talked about
as sure as you born.
But just as sure as it takes two eyes to
make a pair,
brother we can't quit until we get our share.
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"
One more time
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"
Alright, out of sight
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"
Say it loud
"I'm black and I'm proud"

McFadden and Whitehead
"Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now"
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffeehouse/1659/aintnostoppinusnow.html
Ain't no stopping us now, we're on the move
Ain't no stopping us now, we got the groove
There's been so many things
That held us down
But now it looks like things
Are finally coming around
I know we've got
A long long way to go
And where we'll end up
I don't know
(Chorus)
But we won't let nothin' hold us back
Put our show together
We're polishing up our act well
And if you've ever been
Held down before
I know you refuse to be
Held down any more
Don't you let nothin' stand in your way
I want y'all to listen
Listen to every word I say
Every word I say
I know you know someone
Who has a negative vibe
And if you're trying to make it
They only push you aside
They really don't have nowhere to go
Ask them where they're goin'
They don't know

Marvin Gaye
"Save the Children"
http://www.sdf.se/~simon/marvin/songs/save_the_children.html
I just want to ask a question
Who really cares?
To save a world in despair
There'll come a time, when the world won't be singin'
Flowers won't grow, bells won't be ringin'
Who really cares?
Who's willing to try to save a world
That's destined to die
When I look at the world it fills me with sorrow
Little children today are really gonna suffer tomorrow
Oh what a shame, such a bad way to live
All who is to blame, we can't stop livin'
Live, live for life
But let live everybody
Live life for the children
Oh, for the children
You see, let's save the children
Let's save all the children
Save the babies, save the babies
If you wanna love, you got to save the babies
All of the children
But who really cares
Who's willing to try
Yes, to save a world
Yea, save our sweet world
Save a world that is destined to die
Oh, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
Oh, oh dig it everybody

"What’s Going On"
http://www.sdf.se/~simon/marvin/songs/whats_going_on.html
Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Ya
Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today
Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on
Ya, what's going on
Ah, what's going on
In the mean time
Right on, baby
Right on Right on
Oh, you know we've got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today. Oh

Bob Marley
"Redemption Song"
Old pirates, yes, they rob I,
sold I to the merchant ships.
Minutes after they took I,
from the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
by the hand of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation,
triumphantly.
Won't you help to sing,
these songs of freedom?
Cause all I ever have,
redemption songs,
redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery,
none but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
while we stand aside and look?
Oh, some say it's just a part of it,
we've got to fulfil the book.
Won't you help to sing
these songs of freedom?
Cause all I ever have,
redemption songs,
redemption songs,
redemption songs.

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