JULY 4, 2017
“CHOICE OF COLORS” (WRITER: CURTIS MAYFIELD)
ARTIST: THE IMPRESSIONS
RELEASED 1969 ON 7” 45 AND ON THE YOUNG MODS’ FORGOTTEN STORY LP
Happy Independence Day. Here’s Curtis Mayfield, one of
America’s great songwriters.
Having already stated his place as a black man in America in
the 1960s with the proud “This is My Country,” and singing songs of uplift like
“We’re a Winner” and “Keep on Pushing,” he now cast a challenge to his fellow
people of color.
Do you respect your brothers’
woman friend? And share with black folks not of kin?
As Sly Stone did in “Stand,” Mayfield seems to be urging
people to stop waiting for someone else to lift them. Mayfield’s message was
always that it’s all in you. And your
love is better than your hate.
People
must prove to the people/a better day is coming/for you and for me
With
just a little bit more education/and love for our nation/we can make a better
society.
While that seems impossibly square in some ways, Mayfield had
lived it; he knew that hard work could get you out (and keep you out) of
trouble. And as a successful black man, Mayfield had come up against his share
of challenges from the often corrupt industry in which he worked.
He was an incredible musician and a hard worker. He was a
positive presence in Chicago, and in the world. He got big but stayed in
Chicago and helped others create music. Curtis Mayfield was a
hero to me, and I don’t have many heroes among people I never met.
That he was able to cast the challenging message of “Choice
of Colors” in sweeping, gorgeous, symphonic music was the gift of Curtis
Mayfield. He made music to show us that your better self is stronger than
anyone else’s bad self.
The lyrical and musical quotes from “We Shall Overcome” are
almost too on point, but with Martin Luther King dead less than a year, it’s
not as if this was canned and bottled history. Curtis Mayfield, Sam Gooden, and
Fred Cash had a message to deliver and they did it with panache and skill.
This superb 45, issued in June 1969, reached just #21 on the
Billboard pop chart, though it went
to #1 on the magazine’s R&B list. Shamefully, top 40 stations in the
Impressions’ hometown of Chicago didn’t even bother to program the record, and
it also failed to get exposure on similar radio channels in New York. It was a
moderate hit among pop audiences in Los Angeles, Kansas City, St. Louis, and
Toronto, and huge among both black and white audiences in San
Francisco/Oakland.
We’re in a lot of trouble right now in this country, with a President
who spews bigotry and ignorance as his minions shred the social fabric. The
only thing any of us can do right now is persevere through our current troubles,
not lose hope, and not let the misguided drive us off our course of love.
Happy 4th, Curtis. America misses you.
Listen.
Stu, YOU SAID IT ALL. Great commentary. Amazing we still have race riots and the prez incites violence. What a TRULY beautiful song now and then both!
ReplyDeleteThis one doesn't connect with me, musically, the way much of Curtis' music does, but the lyrics are fantastic, and THAT VOICE - oh my God. And I concur with the above commenter on your text today. I wish I'd seen it on the 4th.
ReplyDeleteBob