This Is Book’s Music

November 29th was the 15th anniversary of Mary J. Blige‘s album My Life, and in honor I put together a “Dust It Off” column where I talked about what moved me about the album. It seems Phonte Coleman had the same idea too and put together an article about his love for the album. You can read the full article by clicking over to Soulbounce.com.

November 29, 1994: the release date of Mary J. Blige‘s second full-length album, My Life (Uptown/MCA).

Depending on who you speak with, this was either the start of karaoke R&B or one of the best soul/R&B albums of the 90′s, in a decade where there were a few (Maxwell’s Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite, D’Angelo’s Brown Sugar).

One journalist had called Mary J. Blige nothing but a karaoke singer who performed over “old records”, or in her case, songs reconstructed from songs from the past, a hip-hop style of production that the genre used in order to keep itself relevant, according to them. However, what made Blige appealing to some was not only the strength in her voice, but her “around the way” vibe that appealed to B-boys and B-girls at a time when it seemed hardcore hip-hop had taken over the musical headlines. It was nothing more than Mary J. Blige singing over trusted breakbeats, and maybe she placed a feminine touch that even female MC’s were not known to do at the time.

Up until the fall of 1994, Blige was still being talked about for her debut, What’s The 411?. In a genre where singers came and went, either as groups or solo, it was hard to say what Blige was capable of doing after her debut. Uptown/MCA Records did drop a mid-way remix album which not only spawned the hit “You Don’t Have To Worry”, but made people become aware of a guy named Biggie Smalls. People did put faith in the Uptown brand, and words like Puff Daddy and Puffy Combs had not become the dirty words it would become as he gained further success in the 90′s. It was still the early 90′s, and Puffy was still the young guy at Uptown ready to make moves, we just didn’t know at what level.

People were expecting new music from Blige, but no one outside of her immediate circle knew what kind of impact it would make. But once the video for “Be Happy” was released, fans realized something was about to happen.

How can I love somebody else
If I can’t love myself enough to know
When it’s time, time to let go?

All I really want is to be happy
And to find a love that’s mine, it would be so sweet

She was no longer the around-the-way-girl, there was immense growth in lyrics that thinly disguised pain and sorrow, complimented by a view so optimistic, you couldn’t help but sing along in support. It felt like a twist to Janet Jackson‘s occasional lullaby approach in some of her songs. The chorus to “Be Happy” felt like a lullaby, or like a calming song mom used to sing to you, as if she was trying to pass some of life’s lessons on to you.

Now let it breathe

There was already a nice mixture of joy and pain in Blige’s music, whether it was metaphorically talking about angels trying to find their way home, or simply loving for the sake of loving. She wasn’t doing anything too revolutionary, in fact if she was a country singer, these lyrics would have been perfect. Love lost, love found, love the one you with, love without a limit. Yet as people bought and started to listen to My Life, people started to shape a more in-depth of Blige as a singer and as a woman. Since she was someone known, people started to hear stories of her relationships, particularly with Jodeci vocalist K-Ci Bailey. Was it a perfect union, would they live happily ever after, maybe it had nothing to do with the music but that relationship and the failure of it became a part of My Life‘s mystique.

It was an album that started off with Mary talking about how “what I got will make you spend money”, it was sassy as hell and people loved it. She did it with an appropriate “Mary Jane” loop from the Mary Jane Girls, it was weeded up and smokey, you could taste the richness. We now knew she was happy and she wanted to dance with the brilliant “You Bring Me Joy”.

While the overall vibe was of her looking and finding joy, the chorus of the song showed that something else was being veiled over:

I don’t know what I would do
Do without you
In my life, boy
I don’t know if I could live
Live without you
You bring me joy

It seemed just as when happiness entered her life, she was already looking towards something wrong. She then moves on with “I’m The Only Woman”, and it’s as if she feels if her lover must stray, she’s going to tell him why that’s not the wise thing to do:

I know that I was wrong
For all that carrying on
But are you gonna hold this
Against me for life
You know all I wanted to do
Is be your wife
And make you happy

The song was a lure towards her intended target, so there was a little sass and swagger, and the effectiveness of the Curtis Mayfield sample made it worth perfectly. The album moves on towards someone listening to the radio, where Keith Murray is dropping a freestyle of sorts. When the song is switched over, we prepare for the anthemic title track. The “peace and love and flowers” talked about in Roy Ayers‘s “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”, the song that was sampled and interpolated in “My Life”, is the core of the entire album. Blige wants that good love, but for her there’s more to life than live, and she explains this in the second verse:

Take your time, baby don’t you rush a thing
Don’t you know I know, we all are struggling
I know it is hard
But we will get far
And if you don’t believe in me
Just believe in He

Cause he’ll give you peace of mind
And you’ll see the sunshine
And you’ll get to free your mind
And things will turn out fine

There’s a spiritual side that she reveals, and yet a sign of vulnerability that she seems to struggle to hide, as shown by her glance to the camera on the album cover. It may not be the hidden-eye that Aaliyah had been known for, but it was very close, if not an accurate depiction of what Mary was ready, or not ready to reveal about her life. At that point in the album, things become much clearer. This is not going to be a complete album of joy, not without pain, not without loss, not without sorrow. Maybe the blue/grey tint of the album cover is meant to represent a vibe or a feeling, Mary’s Kind Of Blue if you will. “You Gotta Believe” feels like a confessional as Mary goes deep and comes out with something so revealing, you want to turn it off. Yet, you continue:

I told you once before
That I love you
And I need you
But let me tell you once again
You were my closest friend
I’ll never leave you
So hold me tight
All through the night
Caress me with your tender care
Anytime or anywhere

What takes this song home is the combined vocals of Big Bub of the group Today and a background singer who hadn’t made it on her own yet named Faith Evans. In late 1994, Today’s career was pretty much over but people still remembered Big Bub fondly, so to hear a hint of the old and a taste of what was to come: it was perfect and it was perhaps the “angels” on Mary’s shoulders trying to guide her along the way:
Anytime, anywhere
I will go with you anywhere
Won’t you trust in me baby
Stay with me
Till death do us part
You’ll always be right in my heart
Won’t you please stay with me
Baby please believe in me

Again, guided lessons, somber in tone not unlike a lullaby, very friendly and passionate.

Just when things couldn’t feel any more heartbroken than it already was, Mary goes down deeper in “Never Wanna Live Without You”
What is this feeling? I can’t sleep at night
Just thinking ’bout being without you
Work ’til I’m tired and I can’t eat a bite
Cause I know someday you’re going away

When Evans starts to sing “baby, won’t you stay with me a little while/baby, won’t you stay with me a little while/don’t leave me”, Mary starts to ad-lib about the desires in her needs, wanting to stand up strong but she can’t take it anymore, and the song casually fades. Suddenly, we know where she is, in her cover of Rose Royce‘s classic from the Car Wash film and soundtrack, “I’m Going Down”.

By performing this song and placing it at this point in the album, it’s obvious that, as the lyric goes, “my whole world’s upside down”. In the video, as she walks down on the stairs with a strut, there’s attitude there but the lyrics show a different side. Maybe by performing this song, it was a way of saying she wishes she could go back to a much simpler time, when one didn’t have to worry about life’s problems and relationships.

Side 2 begins with one of my favorite songs, “Be With You”, and by having a hint of Mountain‘s “Long Red” in the beat, it continues the hip-hop influence that was a big part of her music. It’s a b-boy vibe, but this was no b-boy singing. You want to dance to this song, and you did, and yet even before the song begins its first verse, Mary is shaping it with a brief message:
Does he love you
Does he care for you
Does he want you
Does he even care?

The melancholy of the synth line is very old school in feel, mixed in with the slight jazz chat in the background vocals, you listen and while you wish for her happiness, you’re realizing that maybe you’ve felt these exact same feelings she’s expressing. The beat is funky, what she’s saying inspires you, but then she gets to the last minute of the song when she says:
It seems like each and every time I come around
You don’t want me there
And it’s beginning to make me so scared
So scared that I might lose you
All I wanna do is be with you, baby baby baby baby boy

As if that’s not enough, she can’t take it anymore and it’s about “I just want to pick up the phone, yeah/and “oh it’s you, you, you”" and as the song begins to fade, she sings “mmm, mmm, mmm, yeah yeah yeah,YEAH!” in jubilation. Now that it’s all in the open, she calmly sings in the “I wanna be with you/i need to be with you, all day long”. If anything, we now know that at the beginning of the album she was proudly singing about what she’d like to do “all night long” and we’ve been listening to her feel sorrow and lonely in the morning, that 3am eternal, blue moon vibe.

“Mary’s Joint” is a bit of double-entendre,because while this obviously means that this is her song, and she’s going to sing it because it’s hers, it’s almost as if she can’t take this sorrow, so she’s going to light up a fat one and pass it to herself. “Don’t Go” purposely goes back to the background vocals she did in the song that’s sampled, Guy‘s “Goodbye Love”, and by playing with that sample, one can say that this is what Mary is trying to say to the intended target of the song, especially as she sings “don’t leave me, leave me, leave me/don’t go, don’t go”. With “I Love You”, she unleashes the three words that she hopes will be able to keep her man, and by using a sample that directly leads to the charm of Biz Markie, she’s hoping for a little bit of a feeling that will return to her. In the bridge, she then realizes that things will most likely never be what they were:

I wish you’d change your ways soon enough
So we could be together
You just don’t understand good love
But now all we have is memories
Of the way we used to be

The melody in the background is very melancholy, and I also love how she vocally revisits “Be With You” as she hums to herself, going back to the first song on Side 2.

In “No One Else”, she finally gets bold and stops blaming herself, or at least tries not to take full blame for the collapse of her relationship. Now we’re at the end of the album, and the intro sounds like a Disney moment, where the birds start coming in, and the world is a much better place to be. Again, the happiness felt in the intro quickly disappears as she sings:
How can I love somebody else
If I can’t love myself enough to know
When it’s time, time to let go?

By the end of My Life, love and happiness may not have been full achieved, but Mary knows what she’s looking for and decides to venture forward to continue on in life.

Maybe the album was felt so much because for years, her target audience had grown up with hip-hop but no one was feeling the heart and emotion of the kind of music she grew up listening to. Others knew. Maybe My Life was her way of growing up, and indirectly it was an album where her fans were growing up too, passing on life’s lessons just as her family and friends passed them on to her. Her audience were learning about their lives, how to cope and deal, and how love isn’t just what you see on TV or see in a music video. As she says in the title track, “if you’d look at my life, you’d seen what I’ve seen”, which made the listener want to know what her life was about. Listeners also saw/heard it as reflection, because they could look into themselves to wonder what in life lead them to where they were. If there was sadness and grey skies, Mary proudly told everyone that you’ll one day see the sunshine, and everything will turn out fine… if you allow it.

Maybe she was the soul that some felt hip-hop lacked, which is why she has always been embraced by hip-hop audiences. People call her the Queen of hip-hop soul, but does that indicate hip-hop has no soul, or was it soul music’s way of saying “we can be relevant in the shadow of hip-hop”? Whatever way it was marketed, it’s safe to say that My Life was an album that hit the marketplace at the right time. If hip-hop heads were asking themselves if their own minds were old because they were 17, or they were Wu’d out, Mary simply said “this is me”. It’s safe to say while the hip-hop cosmetics helped her finish her mission, she really didn’t need hip-hop to make this statement. Then again, maybe she needed hip-hop to get her from point A to point B in her life, and she celebrated the music and community, and the feeling behind/within it to make her say it. Through hip-hop, perhaps she realized something that Monday Michiru refered to in one of her songs six years later, in that everything she ever needed was right… there. In other words, it went back not only to her love of hip-hop, but soul/R&B, funk, and jazz.

For those of us who listened to My Life and embraced it, we did so because it became a part of our lives. We not only wanted to support Mary so she could feel good, but we heard our own pain and sorrow, and looked towards a positive outlook so we could be happy, with whomever it was. Living life is about letting go what we can’t hold on to, to not possess what really isn’t ours. As the old saying goes, if you love something or someone, set them free. Maybe they’ll come back, maybe not, but you can’t hold on to what was never yours, because there’s a lot more to find in the road ahead.

Mary J. Blige herself talked about being in a drug and alcohol filled haze in those early days, especially in the My Life era, go to any in-depth discussion about her music and people will say “I love Mary when she was coked up”. It’s not that anyone wants her to be a drug addict, but there was a sense of power in her music in her search for something better. Maybe she knew, through her lyrics, that once you hit an all time low, you can only look up. She did, metaphorically and perhaps spiritually. The lessons she offered was for listeners to give themselves a boost when it may feel like picking yourself up was not worth the effort. 15 years later, the inspiration to “Be Happy” and “find a love that’s mine, it would be so sweet” continues, and will no doubt be an inspiration for anyone who reaches a low and looks forward to bigger and better.

Thank you, Mary J. Blige.

NOTE: This is an article I wrote last year when I was a contributor to FudgeFM. The website is no longer, but I felt it would be a perfect time to revive it for those who didn’t read it the first time.

Do you remember the 21st night of September?

Thirty years ago, Earth, Wind & Fire released a song that for some was a new era for the group. In 1978, the band were on top of the world, higher than the Earth they featured in their logo. The group played some of the best soul music around, moving dance floors across the country and selling out concert halls. Their albums were massive sellers: That’s The Way Of The World, Spirit, and All’N'All, and what household didn’t have the double LP Gratitude? You want hits? How about “Sing A Song”, “Getaway”, “Saturday Night”, “Shining Star”, “That’s The Way Of The World”, “Mighty Mighty”, “Serpentine Fire”, and “Fantasy”. Maurice White went back to his jazz roots when he joined his former boss, Ramsey Lewis, to record the song “Sun Goddess” with the rest of Earth, Wind & Fire. Those who may not have been hip to Ramsey Lewis were able to discover a talented musician through EW&F, and vice versa. EW&F were not just the monarchs of soul and funk, but they were a pop band, with massive pop success. Their version of The Beatles’ “Got To Get You Into My Life” was done for the massive Hollywood failure Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but the one thing EW&F were able to do is create a Beatles cover that was better than The Beatles (and I’m one of the biggest Beatles fans out there). Had the group stopped recording and touring, it would have been fine, for their successes would have been set in stone.

Earth, Wind & Fire were appreciated by the world for they truly created world music, coming from White’s love of Brazilian music and of course always reminding people about the roots that lead to the motherland. Had EW&F made music for cartoons or oatmeal, they would have been big hits too. The band were so successful, it moved Columbia Records to give White his own label in order for him to bring in new talent. The passing of friend Charles Stepney did not slow the group down, White was able to seek such people as Tom Washington (a/k/a “Tom Tom 84″) which helped keep them on the top of the charts. But this was different. While George Clinton found it easy with his success to have contracts with multiple labels, Earth, Wind & Fire was one group with one goal, so White having his own boutique label was perhaps not as much of a surprise as it was a long time coming. The label was simply called American Recording Company, or ARC. The label’s first release was given the catalog number of 3-10854. The song: “September”.

“You know a song is a true classic when it’s as timeless as Earth, Wind & Fire’s iconic “September” Maurice White, Philip Bailey and company nailed it down to a science. They recorded a great song about something we don’t really hear much in music today and that’s about being happy and feeling good about life. Today’s artists including myself could learn a lot from the message in EWF’s music and that goes for society at large too. “ -Pete Marriott

I remember hearing “September” when it was first released and I had to have the 45, that was mandatory for me. As someone who loved Open Our Eyes, Spirit, and All’N'All (That’s The Way Of The World seemed to be an album a number of my relatives had, but not me, I would enjoy this album after the fact), “September” was merely a continuation of their great music. It was on a new label, and that seemed like honor of the highest order. Maybe because it was on a new label (but still distributed by Columbia), it felt like a new EW&F. The group were slowly being associated with disco even though they weren’t a disco group, and the song seemed happier, poppier, boppier at the time. If the group hadn’t thought of making music specifically for a pop (read “white”) audience, “September” seemed like it was… something. But was it? At the age of 8 I wasn’t concerned with that, but some would call it the start of the group’s downfall, a disco song, their “white” song. People seemed bitter about “September” for any and all reasons: it was too disco, too bland, too happy. Too happy? Good music can and should steer you away from the problems one has in life, and EW&F were always about the celebration of life. In fact, “September” was not only about falling in love, but with a bit of “blue talk and love” it might lead to the creation of life, to celebrate “the true love” that was shared on the 21st day of September. It was far from a negative song, and yet perhaps due to their success, people were more than ready to pop the bubble they were riding. On the Shining Stars DVD, bassist Verdine White said the song came out during a time when everyone was about indulgence, and whether you were a kid like myself growing up or an adult heading to the clubs, it was about looking at indulgence and thinking that’s what being a grown-up was about, or living and loving all of it. People associate the look and feel of “September” with what represented disco, but Verdine White said the big afros were about power, the platform shoes were about standing tall. Being black meant having to represent and prove yourself four times as hard as the next man, because the next man might be the one to bring you down. When “September” was released, there was no doubting that EW&F were the best of any league, and as a lifelong EW&F fan, it remains one of the best songs they ever recorded.

“All I have to say about EW&F right now is that they were an amazing a powerful band with transformative music that I still get requests for almost everytime I DJ… in any setting. I can only hope to create what they have. Much thanks and respect for their contribution to music and listener’s souls.” -Miles Bonny (artist/producer)

“September” was a bit hit for the group, making it up to #1 on Billboard’s R&B Singles chart and #1 Billboard Pop singles. In the UK, it went up to #3, becoming their biggest UK single. “September” was also released to promote the The Best Of Earth, Wind & Fire album, which has since sold over 5 million copies (quintuple platinum). While other compilations have been released in the digital area, when it comes to offering suggestions for EW&F newbies, The Best Of Earth, Wind & Fire is generally the album that is mentioned first, for it features all of their hits up until and including “Got To Get You Into My Life” and “September”. EW&F were seeing gold and platinum, and were being honored for it in abundance.

Man, I’ll tell you that the older I get, the more I’m coming to realize that EWF is the greatest recording group of all time. I mean seriously, the feeling that just exudes from the music they play is incomparable and just fills me with such optimism for some reason. And I know it’s not just me. I mean really, who doesn’t love them? Think about “September” – that’s like the ultimate crossover song but not not crossover in the sense of selling out. The song just appeals to everyone, from block parties to bar mitzvahs to the Republican National Convention! -Cosmo Baker (The Rub)

As with any greatest hits compilation, The Best Of Earth, Wind & Fire sold enough to where the group didn’t have to worry about releasing anything else. But with success came increased pressure to equal or better the success of “September”. Maybe the pressure came more from record label executives than it did from the group, but everyone in the group must have felt that everything that goes up eventually has to come down. Maurice White moved The Emotions into the studio with them and recorded the group’s definitive disco song, “Boogie Wonderland”. The song was great, featuring all of those trademark Philip Bailey falsettos, and while it did make it to #2 on the R&B singles chart, people who were becoming disenchanted with disco merely put it into the fire during the “disco sucks” furor. The B-side to the single, an instrumental mix of the hit, was nominated for a Grammy in 1980 for “Best R&B Instrumental Performance”. Some fans, both old and new, felt at the time the group should have never conformed to mainstream pressure, with many of them looking at “September” as the beginning of the end.

Obviously it was not the end, but again the good vibes EW&F were celebrating seemed to turn off a certain part of the population who just didn’t get it. The group would follow up “Boogie Wonderland” with the ballad “After The Love Has Gone”, which is significant for a few reasons. “After The Love Has Gone” was written by David Foster, Jay Graydon, and Bill Champlin, and perhaps because of the Foster touch it would eventually win two Grammy awards in 1980, one for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals, and for Best R&B song. The song was similar in feel to 1975′s “That’s The Way Of The World”, and one that touched on a part of life that isn’t always happy and celebratory. The feel of the song would eventually revive itself when David Foster would help resuscitate Chicago’s career in the 1980′s, a group co-writer Champlin (who was a member of Sons Of Champlin) would eventually join. The two bands known for their incredible horn sections would eventually tour for the first time in the 21st century, with Champlin being able to sing and play the songs he created for Chicago and one of EW&F’s biggest hits.

The I Am album, recorded in September 1978 but released the following summer, equalled the success of All’N'All and kept the group on the top of the charts and making them a must-see group in concert. By the end of the decade, millions of fans were ready to put disco into a coffin and burn it, and fortunately EW&F were able to survive the mess and continue to make hits throuhgout the early 80′s, with “Let’s Groove” showing that the group were more than capable of keeping people heading to the record stores. “Let’s Groove” was the last pop hit for the group, and while “Fall In Love With Me” two years later did well on the R&B charts, it barely made a dent on the pop chart. Soul music was also changing significantly, with Prince’s rock influences making people take notice of what was coming out of Minneapolis, a number of other artists preferring to take mellow jazz and turn it into a bit of the quiet storm, and millions of young kids were discovering a new, more energetic sound that made it possible to dance on cardboard. It didn’t have an official name, but it would soon make a name for itself very soon.

As for EW&F, here was a group who were on the top and were now selling mildly. 1983′s Electric Universe was a minor success, but it was hard to measure up to what Michael Jackson’s Thriller was doing on the charts. For the first time in almost eight years, EW&F were without a single, and it was then that the group decided to take a time out. Maurice White would release his self-titled debut album which offered up his cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me”. Philip Bailey was able to work on a full album with Genesis vocalist/drummer Phil Collins, leading to their duet “Easy Lover” and one of Bailey’s best songs from his solo career, “Walking On The Chinese Wall”. It would be a few years before EW&F made a return with “System Of Survival”, and while not making an impression on Guns N’ Roses fans, they did reach the top of the charts. The group continues to record and tour today, and a number of tribute albums have been released in honor of EW&F, including a smooth jazz tribute and the Interpretations album featuring covers performed by Me’Shell NdegeOcello and Kirk Franklin.

For me, “September” is a look back at my childhood at a time when I had no concerns about anything. I wanted to play, I wanted good food, I wanted good music, and I was not afraid to dance. For any of us who grew up with the music, it goes back to when things seemed a lot easier. Musically, it’s still a fun song. Lyrically, they were saying that we shouldn’t worry about those cloudy days, live life to the fullest, and live it with love. People still look fondly at that era for feel good music, when talking or even thinking “blue talk” meant hearing the jangle of your dad’s belt or getting ready to consume some chili pepper water. Even with the overabundance and availability of any and all music, you rarely hear about “feel good music”, as if it’s a bad and retro thing to experience, something only experienced in movies with 1970′s flashbacks. The music still exists, it can be heard in all genres, but people perhaps are in denial of wanting to feel good. As Sly Stone said at Woodstock in August 1969, music is not a fashion, it is a feeling, and if you embrace that feeling, perhaps it will do us some good.

Maybe it’s time to chase the clouds away once more. And we say “ba de ah”…

“September,” to me, will always be known as a ‘Black family reunion song.’ It’s a song that you could play around Black folks young and old, and nobody can front on it.

On a side note , the closest thing that compares to EWF in music today is the music of Blaze. They’re a house duo and their main guy Josh Milan writes and sings alot of stuff that’s very reminiscent of EWF. Really incredible stuff. -Phonte Coleman (Little Brother)

(Thank you to Pete Marriott, Norman E. Mailer, Miles Bonny, Cosmo Baker, and Phonte Coleman for your contributions to the article.

Eternal mahalo and gratitute to Maurice White and everyone who has ever been a part of the Earth, Wind & Fire family from the days of the Salty Peppers to today.)

Two months before Woodstock was held in Bethel, New York, two people were married. These two people were my parents. My dad was the party guy with a love for cars, pakalolo, and of course music. My mom was straight laced and loved crafts, but she too had a love for music. My dad was into rock, folk, and Ravi Shankar, while my mom was into The Rolling Stones and embraced her soul 45′s. Both of them also were in touch with their Hawaiian sides and had a love for the music passed along to them by their parents. As an aging hippie might tell you, perhaps I “was in the cosmos” when my parents were married. 14 months after Jimi Hendrix played his last notes at the festival, I came into the world.

I had my share of toys, but one thing that was really my toy box was the family stereo and the records I could listen to (but not touch). Music was never not around, so if I went to my uncle’s house enxt door, I could listen to Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, while staring at scary album covers. Scary, at least, for a three year old. In my house, I remember seeing and hearing Santana‘s Abraxas, War‘s Deliver The Word, and two 45′s that my dad would sing to me, becoming some of my earliest musical memories: John Rowles‘ “Cheryl Moana Marie” and Johnny Nash‘s “I Can See Clearly Now”. When we moved from Los Angeles to Honolulu, it was because my dad’s father was not doing well. That year my sister was born. A few weeks later, my grandfather died. Even in the bad times, music was there to comfort us, make us sing, make us happy. That made an impact on me, and that impact will be with me until I am no longer around.

I definitely remember my parents looking like hippies, but that was part of the look, and many of my dad’s friends looked like that. He smoked and had beers, so did all of his friends. I did not grow up in a commune or under hippie circumstances, but my dad was very much a guy who was laid back and loose, kicking back like any Hawaiian wood, but also getting a hint of the California vibe. The Fonz was cool in the mid to late 70′s, but so was Bruce Lee. My dad was the coolest guy I knew.

The first time Woodstock affected me was when I saw the soundtrack album, the 3-record set on Cotillion, at the Kamehameha Super Swap Meet at the Kam Drive-In, when it had only one screen. It would later expand to two, but this was when going to a drive-in was still the in thing. My family made regular trips to the swap meet, and up until that point I think most of the records I listened to came from department stores like Holiday Mart, GEM, Sears, and even JCPenney. Let’s not forget DJ’s Sound City and House Of Music. But I clearly remember roaming around the swap meet, probably no more than 15 feet away from my parents and I saw a guy with a small bit of albums for sale. I remember a shiny rim from a car, and there it was: the Woodstock soundtrack with the blue/gray labels. 3-record set, I don’t think I had seen too many 3-record sets up until that point. 2-record sets were a luxury, but 3? Can someone actually listen to that much music in one sitting? I don’t know, but I had no idea who or what the record was, but the fact that it was a 3-record set made me want to have it. I was 9 years old, I had no money whatsoever. This wasn’t one record, it was 3, which meant the album was three dollars. WHOA, that’s a mighty big risk for my parents to take. It might mean I couldn’t have any extra snacks after school, but I had to have it. It felt as if they were reluctant, but I didn’t have adult perception so who knows, but they gave me the three dollars, I gave it to the man, and I got my record. We went home an hour later, I played it on my record player, and loved… some of it. I didn’t like the soft acoustic or folk stuff just yet, but I loved “Soul Sacrifice”, “I’m Going Home”, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, Sly & The Family Stone songs and the Hendrix section. I would get into the other elements down the line, I just remember not being able to play The Paul Butterfield Blues Band‘s “Love March” because the song was heavily scratched. Seems the original owner was a Hendrix fan, maybe not a Butterfield fan.

Getting the soundtrack coincided with this, although I am not certain which came first: the album or the movie. I remember seeing the movie for the first time on HBO, when the concert and/or film was about to celebrate its 10th anniversary, so either it was August 1979 or March 1980. But the promo was on HBO with radio DJ Casey Kasem saying at the end: “Woodstock: where it all began” as the logo showed on the screen while the panning of the crowd from the end of the film was shown in the background. I watched it, but not all the way through. I don’t think I had ever seen anything that was three hours in length, but I remember being blown away by The Who, Santana, and Sly & The Family Stone. When home video became affordable for all, I rented the original VHS pressing of the film. Back then there was no such thing as letterbox, so the movie was fullscreen, panning back and forth. It was very difficult to watch, because you would only see a partial image, and one of the trademarks of the film are the multi-images you can see. PBS and MTV would also show the film and their presentation was letterboxed, but I didn’t get to hrave a proper version until the director’s cut was released in 1994, released on DVD a few years later.

Over the years, Woodstock has meant a lot to me, or at least it is an event I really wished I had been able to experience. Because of my musical tastes and interests, my parents had always playfully said “you were born too late”. But perhaps it’s automatic to search for events of the past that appeal to you, and want to know what it was like. Over the years, I wanted to read as many articles and books on the festival, wanted to listen to complete sets of every band that played. Online you can find about The Woodstock Project, appreciated by like-minded fans. What moved me was the fact that over 250,000 people were gathering merely for the sake of music. Right? I learned that it was about people with shared ideas and philosophies, or at least a need to discover different ideas and philosophies to find common ground, one of which was a love for music. The music was the message, it documented not only current events but the times that were. Yet that message would quietly turn into a hush, leaving many people to wonder what the fuss was about.

Without getting into a debate, one thing we can agree on: the music had a lot of integrity. Maybe it was of the times, maybe it became timeless due to it, it has become nostalgia for the thousands who were there and the millions who wanted to be there or claimed they were. By gathering for the sake of music, celebrating life and good times, it looked back to an innocent time when we were children, when our only care in the world was to be home before it got dark. It was an adult playground, and it was a chance to play in the sand, or in this case in the mud. Who couldn’t help but look at that event and go “wow, I wish I was there to experience the music, the atmosphere, the people, and the fun?” It’s an idea that seems to be long gone, but I know I’ve been looking for some sense of the dream that exists, but not on a grand scale. It was Joni Mitchell who wrote the song named after the festival, who described it perfectly. It’s as if the festival was filled with thousands of Peter Pan’s, and when it was over, everyone had to grow up and deal with the real issues of the world. But Mitchell caught wind of the innocence and knew what was being lost:

By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong
And everywhere was a song and a celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes riding shotgun in the sky
Turning into butterflies above our nation.

We are stardust, we are golden
We are caught in the devils bargain
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden

Perhaps one day people will be able to see a similar garden again, but I think it’s up to the youth to plant the seeds to make that garden a reality, for them and for their future.

Happy 40th Anniversary to the Woodstock Music & Art Fair.

Wikipedia states that August 9, 1994 was the release date for the first Gravediggaz album, known around the world as Niggamortis but known in the U.S. as 6 Feet Deep. However, I clearly remember buying the album in late July since I had to go to Portland, 200 miles from where I live, to buy it, as no one around here was selling it and I wasn’t willing to wait a week or two for a copy (back when it had still taken that long to get music. Waiting… those were the days.)

As the story goes, this was a project steered by Prince Paul and The RZA, when they weren’t sure where their careers were going. Prince Paul lost a deal with Def Jam when his Dew Doo Man imprint failed to go anywhere after the Resident Alien album failed to be released. Bad timing had a lot to do with it too, when Def Jam moved from Columbia to Polygram. Paul was signed with Def Jam when they were on Columbia, but Paul was left behind. There has been enough talk about his association with De La Soul at the time, and after creating Buhloone Mind State for the group, it seemed his relationship with Tommy Boy Records was uncertain. When he submitted the idea for what would become the Gravediggaz, Tommy Boy weren’t interested. Not good for a man who spent a lot of time with Tommy Boy as a member of Stetsasonic.

Prince Rakeem had been hoping to make it as an MC, and did well with “Ooh I Love You Rakeem”, enough for Tommy Boy to want more. Rakeem submitted a new project to the label called the Wutang Clan (no hyphen) and they passed. Tommy Boy had already promoted the Wutang on the back of “The Source” but early demos made Tommy Boy leery of wanting to take a risk on something that wasn’t like Naughty By Nature.

The demise of Stetsasonic left Fruitkwan without a group to be with or collaborators, and while he did appear in “Self Destruction”, it was pretty much over for him. At least until Prince Paul came into the picture.

Too Poetic had been a member of the Brothers Grimm before attempting a solo career on Tommy Boy with the great “God Made Me Funky”. The song itself was actually the B-side to a house-flavored track that didn’t move anyone, but those who were impressed by the self-profressed 5’4″ MC wanted to hear more. Tommy Boy didn’t bother working with him for anything past the first single.

Thus, you had a crew of Tommy Boy alumni whose careers were not dead, but perhaps could’ve been had they not had the confidence to work together to see what could happen.

When The RZA was involved with the Gravediggaz, he wasn’t really 100 certain that the Wu-Tang would work. The release of Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) really didn’t take off until four months after the album’s release in November 1993, when “C.R.E.A.M.” was released and became the jam for the summer of 1994. But even that didn’t mean anything. The Gravediggaz were not a side-project for The RZA as many have claimed over the years, but a full on project, and he was willing to work with anyone and anything to prove his talents as an MC/producer. He felt if the Gravediggaz made it, that would be his ticket out.

Looking back and going through interviews, it seems 6 Feet Deep/Niggamortis was an angry album for Prince Paul. It was hardcore in a horror movie sense, but still very nerdy. Nerd gangsta? It still had an incredible sense of humor, and when you hear the album, you can tell it is very much Paul’s baby, not far from his trippy work with Stet, not distant from his De La or Resident Alien work. For Fruitkwan, it was a chance for people to hear him away from Stet, away from the dominance of Daddy-O or MC Delite. For Too Poetic, he turned his flow and intellect up a few notches and let people know what they had been wanting for years.

The eventual album freaked people out because no one in hip-hop had ever talked about chewing your own fucking arm off when you were crucified, or being placed underground and struggling to survive. Gangsta rap had been about drive-by’s and gang warfare, but the Gravediggaz used death and the afterlife as metaphors not only for their own careers, but about life in itself, how having a second chance could be beneficial if offered. The Gravediggaz were the group all MC’s and fans would be hearing when, in the words of KRS-One, you were “outta here”, they represented the afterlife of hip-hop, the same way Cut Chemist would describe it in his collage masterpiece, “Lesson 6″.

It would be labeled “horrorcore” and there would be a short-lived horrorcore movement that literally went nowhere (dead on arrival), but the Gravediggaz were always manipulators of the sounds and words in their musical toy box, as all participants in hip-hop music should be. The album was released when the Wu were very much in the air, and for The RZA, Prince Paul, Fruitkwan, and Too Poetic, it was all or nothing. Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones (Part II)” was also making the rounds, and as the Wu-Empire began taking shape, 6 Feet Deep/Niggamortis was in the middle of the period between Enter The Wu-Tang and Method Man’s Tical, making The RZA to release the first out of the group to release a project post-36 Chambers.

It was an incredible time to be a fan of not only hip-hop music, but a Wu-Tang and Prince Paul fan. If you listen to 6 Feet Deep/Niggamortis real good, some of those beats he had been using for years, or samples that had been used but he flipped to make it sinister. It wasn’t happy De La slow music, it wasn’t sinister CHRONIC music, this was an album that broke a few hip-hop taboos without anyone knowing it. Maybe by 1993, everyone started to have expectations of what the music should be, and what it could or couldn’t be. People were quick to say the music was “black born and raised” and it must speak from “the Black experience”, but with that came the stereotypes from naysayers who felt that “as a Black artist, you should always sing or speak about that. But don’t speak about that, that’s stuff white people like.” I remember briefly when the Gravediggaz were considered too dark like heavy metal. Consider this the full album equivalent of De La’s “Who Do You Worship”, if you will, the stuff that would be perfect in a horror movie but not in hip-hop.

Then again, didn’t De La and Paul come from or lived near Amityville, as shown in the “Potholes In My Lawn” video?:

Regardless of what the album was meant to be or what it became, it marked significant changes for everyone. Unfortunately it changed the dynamic of the Gravediggaz when The RZA started to have more control over the music on the second album, which was done in tandem with Wu-Tang Forever, and Paul’s input on the final version was limited. In the end, the Gravediggaz would end up being Fruitkwan and Too Poetic, who unfortunately died soon after the release of their last album after a battle with cancer. Too Poetic should have had the same respect and attention that many MC’s from the early 90′s have today, and the resurrection he spoke about was about validating himself as a true talent.

Regardless, 6 Feet Deep/Niggamortis is an album that also marked a shift in how hip-hop albums were presented, and in comparison show how much hip-hop has put itself in a closet. The music that was about speaking and that freedom of expression suddenly censored and limited itself, but the Gravediggaz were very much honoring the words of Chuck D., when he said “our freedom of speech is freedom of death, you got to fight the powers that be”, even if for the Gravediggaz those “powers that be” were themselves.

Arm to the Leg, Leg
Arm to the Head
Yo, be the Rzarector
Resurrect the mental dead
G to the R to Y-M reaper
As I get deeper than a crypt, resurrect, kid!
Don’t go against the grain, mad slang is my thang
I leave the hearty party with a bang
Buzza boom check my tune, it gotcha hyper
Dont give a fuck about a sucker c-cipher
As you decipher the tricks of a viper
Swine is lethal, divine is evil!
I am original, we can build upon
The ill form and keep all your brain cells warm
Hocus pocus, yo! whats the focus?
Weak techniques you speak, the shit is bogus
Even in a mortuary, slangin’ some boom
As I seek the knowl from the womb to the tomb

Yo, deadly, deadly, YAH! get ready
Here come the styler, wilder than Freddy (dead)
Cause a Krueger, boom, I do ya
Just to let ya know Gravediggaz comin through ya
Dead stinkin’ rotten, your brainc ells forgotten
The past, you had your bumba raas pickin cotton
Now ya hate ya knotty hairstyles
I guess you figure the texture is too wild, child