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Music to know me by
5 Jan 2024 05:12 pmSongs and tunes that have shaped me and reflect who I am.
There was never a time when I didn't know this song.
It feels like a should to link to their performance from the March on Washington because that context was vital as well, but this is closest to the version I grew up listening to. The determination and passion in Mary's singing was what my mother wanted to be, and what I tried to live.
More than any other song, this is the one which opens me up to the deep grief I've carried for 35 years for the mother who turned her back on the values she raised me with.
Peter, Paul and Mary, "If I Had a Hammer"
Choosing a few songs to represent the wealth of jazz, gospel, Motown and soul I grew up with is impossible - Smokey Robinson, Aretha, Martha Reeves, Tammi Terrell, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, Jackson 5, Odetta, Miriam Makeba, Harry Belafonte, Sister Rosetta, Sammy Davis Jr, Ella, Lady Day, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Hampton, Hodges. But to pick just one, it suddenly becomes easy.
The utter magnificence of this woman's voice. Her control, her phrasing, her power. And then Satch comes in. Mahalia Jackson and Louis Armstrong, "Just a Closer Walk With Thee"
"The ink is black, the page is white, together we learn to read and write...
"A child is black, a child is white, together they grow to see the light"
The hope of my childhood that real change was possible. It still could be.
Three Dog Night, "Black and White"
"...when this crazy world is free, free from doubt, when it finds out, exactly what we are meant to be - that we are one, we're all the same..."
The Tops turn a song by the Moody Blues into an extraordinary anthem.
The Four Tops, "A Simple Game"
to be continued
There was never a time when I didn't know this song.
It feels like a should to link to their performance from the March on Washington because that context was vital as well, but this is closest to the version I grew up listening to. The determination and passion in Mary's singing was what my mother wanted to be, and what I tried to live.
More than any other song, this is the one which opens me up to the deep grief I've carried for 35 years for the mother who turned her back on the values she raised me with.
Peter, Paul and Mary, "If I Had a Hammer"
Choosing a few songs to represent the wealth of jazz, gospel, Motown and soul I grew up with is impossible - Smokey Robinson, Aretha, Martha Reeves, Tammi Terrell, Marvin Gaye, Gladys Knight, The Temptations, Jackson 5, Odetta, Miriam Makeba, Harry Belafonte, Sister Rosetta, Sammy Davis Jr, Ella, Lady Day, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Hampton, Hodges. But to pick just one, it suddenly becomes easy.
The utter magnificence of this woman's voice. Her control, her phrasing, her power. And then Satch comes in. Mahalia Jackson and Louis Armstrong, "Just a Closer Walk With Thee"
"The ink is black, the page is white, together we learn to read and write...
"A child is black, a child is white, together they grow to see the light"
The hope of my childhood that real change was possible. It still could be.
Three Dog Night, "Black and White"
"...when this crazy world is free, free from doubt, when it finds out, exactly what we are meant to be - that we are one, we're all the same..."
The Tops turn a song by the Moody Blues into an extraordinary anthem.
The Four Tops, "A Simple Game"
to be continued
