rcrawfordjournal-blog

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Journal 12

“Chains” – 2016 – Usher

This song uses a lot of repetition to make its argument more powerful. It is definitely a complicated song as far as its sounds go because there are always so many different kinds of sounds happening at the same time. Even though it’s only a 3-minute song, it packs in siren sounds, firework noises, shooting/gun noises, children’s spoken voices, at least three singing voices and a rapping voice, clapping, electronic bass, and complicated electronic beats, plus a lot of echo effects to make it seem like even more voices. With all this going on, there really aren’t any instruments that I can hear other than the voices, bass, and drumbeat. The voices themselves serve as the instrumental. The only exception is that during the rap verse a violin can be heard. Also, since there are constantly so many noises, when the song suddenly goes quiet just for a moment, that powerfully emphasizes what is right before and after. When this happens in the chorus, it serves to emphasize the lines “It’s still the same” as well as “you gave the name to us” followed by the n-word. When they repeat “We still in chains” the use of repetition is important because it underlines that line as the most important one, and I think it needs to be repeated as many times as it does in order for listeners to understand the full meaning of what that symbol actually means. Then towards the end, when they ask “You see these chains?” it forces the listener to evaluate this claim that black Americans are still “in chains.” I think another important aspect of this song is the use of gun noises as percussion because at least for me gun noises trigger feelings of fear and that jolts the listener into feeling a small part of the fear involved in living life black in America. Finally, I liked how they repeated the idea that people who are being shot are Americans, just like any other American, and even “in church too” but still are being targeted just because of skin color.

“Angel Down” – 2016 – Lady Gaga

I was shocked that Lady Gaga, such a successful white musician, would make this song and specifically tell the media that it was about police brutality and African Americans. It still doesn’t make any overt references within the song, but she has come out and said that that is what the song is about. It is definitely a very haunting song since it is so bare and simple with just the sparse guitar melody and her voice with an intense echo, plus a strange percussion sound that sounds kind of like a cartoon noise that would signify something flying or skidding, so I wonder what that is supposed to add to the song. Especially after the song being so bare and modest, when at about 2:50 the chorus background comes in and her voice becomes more powerful, and then when the chorus suddenly disappears, that makes the words of the song feel much more powerful and emotional. Lady Gaga apparently revealed that the song is about Trayvon Martin, but I think it is chillingly reminiscent of the case with Mike Brown after which one reporter referred to him as “no angel.” I think it is highly significant that Lady Gaga would refer to a victim of racially biased gun violence as an “angel” because people like Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, and Eric Garner have been depicted in the media as aggressive and violent in order to justify the violence done against them, so the assertion that they are angelic is very re-humanizing and moralizing and just flips the idea that they somehow deserved to be killed.

“Call It What It Is” – 2016 – Ben Harper 

I like this song but the lyrics are just a little bit off to me. For example, the first lyrics are “They shot him in the back / Now it’s a crime to be black / So don’t act surprised when it gets vandalized.” I don’t really know what “it” is or what that has to do with the first two lines but maybe I am missing something. Then when he sings “Gun control, mind control, self control, we’ve dug ourselves a hole,” I don’t really get what that means, because it seems conflicting of whether or not one would be in support of those three very different categories of control. In general the song just feels like it is missing something. The song also sounds very different depending on what version you listen to. Harper performs live with a more “chill” vibe even though this is definitely not a chill song, but in this song he sounds similar to a band like the Black Keys in his vocal style but also with some different kinds of percussion including a bongo-like drum and electric guitar(s?) and adding more instruments as the song goes on. Like “Chains,” this song uses repetition to drive home strong points when Harper sings that different things “ain’t easy.” I think it’s interesting that he goes from the idea that government and policing ain’t easy, to the transitional idea that hard times ain’t easy, to the idea that oppression, racism, fear, and suffering ain’t easy. It seems significant that he starts with a kind of bridge of empathy to the people in government and policing that are perpetuating racial violence, then goes through the idea of “hard times,” and then goes into oppression and further. I like that because it builds a bridge of understanding to people who are just not listening, but I am guessing that those people would not be listening to this song.

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Journal 11

“New National Anthem” – 2014 – TI

This song is really interesting because it combines Skyler Grey singing really slowly and clearly with TI’s fast-paced rap. The beat is somewhere in the middle, which is I think slower than most rap songs, but still kind of fast. The melody is interesting because it is a distorted voice repeating in the background. I am honestly amazed by TI’s voice though. I guess I never thought to take TI seriously as a rapper but he can really go off! The verses are so ridiculously fast-paced or maybe I am just used to the latest rap songs which have really slow verses. His lyrics are really well thought-out too. I didn’t notice until the second listen that he doesn’t necessarily say that it’s a unique problem for African Americans, but maybe moreso for non-white people in general. He does ask “what do you know about being a black man in America?”  but he also highlights the hypocrisy of white crime vs. black crime, the justice system, gun ownership and stereotypes. I think there is kind of a message of hope for racial unity by the fact that a white singer is singing the chorus. The chorus is very striking as Skylar sings “home of the brave and free…free just to murder me.” I think that is a very important message because American values are so hypocritical. They were designed to only apply to white people and they still do. Our country isn’t really the land of the free if people have to live in fear of being killed by the state just because of their skin color. I didn’t know there were any songs by prominent artists about this issue in my lifetime, so this song was really refreshing and inspiring to me.

“We Gotta Pray” – 2014 – Alicia Keys 

I honestly wouldn’t have liked this song if I hadn’t listened to the message. It’s very slow and it’s just her echoey voice with a harmony and the piano underneath. The song in general is very echoey. Her voice is very pretty, but this song is just not my style. However, after understanding the message, I definitely appreciate the social and cultural value of the song. In general, the lyrics are very vague, just saying “we gotta pray for the world tonight,” and “violence everywhere, barely hanging on…do you know who we are?” I might not have seen the racial message if not for the fact that the date is 2014 and the official music video includes images from the Black Lives Matter protests after Mike Brown was killed. However, this part is definitely very racially charged: “We are extraordinary people living an ordinary life, one extraordinary question: are we gonna run or fight?” Even more remarkable is that the same idea is later repeated with the question changing to “are we gonna live or die?” I am shocked that such a major artist would suggest literally “fighting” since lately so much “activism” revolves around this idea of peace and harmony among races even though Alicia is right black people deserve to fight back against racism and stand up for their rights even if it disturbs the false idea of racial unity in our country.

“Don’t Shoot” – 2014 – The Game & other artists

This song seems to be strongly influenced by trap music with a kind of depressing sounding tone and vague electronic beat and some piano. The added sound of the kids’ voices on “we all got shot” and “God ain’t put us on the earth to get murdered” makes that message so much more powerful because it really is kids getting killed and that’s a hard idea to comprehend. There are so many different voices on this track which also drives home that message of unity among the black community. This is evident in the lyrics, “unity is a blessing, so it’s time we come together, use our voice as a weapon.” The many rappers on this track (and DJ Khaled if he counts as a rapper? I don’t really know what he is?) all come together to use their voices as a weapon for social change. I think a similar and very important idea is the line, “I am Michael Brown,” in the same verse. That’s what motivates their protest on this song and them all coming together in unity – because they all identify with Mike Brown and feel connected and one with him. They call out other artists, and people in general, who aren’t doing anything about this important issue. For example, one rapper says, “Heard another brother slain up in St. Louis. Sure the mother feel the pain, but what you famous doing?...when the light finally catches you, you ice challenge…you have yet to pay your debt.” While the ALS ice bucket challenge was important, it was in many ways a distraction so (white) people could do something to feel active and like they are playing a part in their society, even though they’re ignoring other issues that impact civil rights in society.

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Journal 10

“Where Is the Love” – 2003 – Black Eyed Peas

I’m not going to lie, I kind of hate this song. I think I’m bitter because I want to jam to it because it throws me back to my childhood, and I really like the beat, with I think bass guitar, wavy electric guitar sound, keyboard, high-pitched synthesized strings, and other electronic sounds with a very distinct drum beat; it’s just super danceable. But the lyrics ruin it and it makes me upset. It’s too close to that all-lives-matter, love-trumps-hate political message that has thrived in recent months and just makes me cringe. I just feel like “Let’s end inequality by spreading love!” is the worst idea ever, not to mention the whitest idea ever. There are four voices and they’re all very different; a singy-rap voice, a more traditional rap voice that’s more high pitched, Fergie of course who has a higher-pitched feminine voice but only really throws in some vocalizations throughout, and a deeper male singing voice who I guess is will.i.am. They all work very well together…to create a song that promotes shutting down black resistance to inequality. Maybe I am reading these lyrics all wrong, but how about this line: “If you only have love for your own race, then you only leave space to discriminate. And to discriminate only generates hate, and when you hate then you’re bound to get irate.” Okay maybe that’s aimed against white people, but to me, it sounds like it could at least additionally be turned against black people, who in my opinion deserve to harbor at least some resentment to white people. Even worse is this line: “Can you practice what you preach? Would you turn the other cheek?” There’s NO way this isn’t about black people. I don’t even know what this would mean if it was about white people, but if it was turned against the black community, it would involve accusations about “black on black crime” and “get over slavery, it was so long ago, oh my God,” which are just all too familiar. Finally, the line, “Whatever happened to the values of humanity? Whatever happened to the fairness and equality? Instead of spreading love, we’re spreading animosity, lack of understanding leading us away from unity” is SO problematic to me because it implies that society has somehow declined from a previous state of unity and equality, which at least in American history has never happened! In all, maybe I am wrong and it’s about hate against black people but the fact that they’re not explicit about it means at the very least it can be weaponized against black people especially those with any sort of negative feelings about white people, and I just have a problem with that potential that is left there.

“Don’t Give Hate a Chance” – 2005 – Jamiroquai

I don’t really know how to describe this style of music other than electronic funk. Wikipedia categorizes this band as “acid jazz,” which seems accurate. The song features a very driving beat, prominent bass guitar that basically acts alongside the drumbeat but becomes more complicated and melodic as the song progresses, and some confusing electronic noises interspersed throughout. The vocal is basically as if a less growly James Brown had been autotuned (plus lots of background vocals like “oooh” and “we’ve got all this love to give”). The main vocal is a little hazy so my attention is really drawn to the overall beat and vibe of the song, but the lyrics are very similar to “where is the love” with the message of hate. However, this song seems to be more clearly directed towards white people. I was concerned at first with the lines like “Why can’t we be together?” and “There’s a cold streak living inside us, there’s no rainbows just bullets and bombs.” But then the message became more racially specific: “why do we see these colors, it’s only skin deep…can’t you see it’s killing us…trigger happy fantasy…you’ve been taking our dignity for too long…” I think that is a very specifically Black message, directed towards white people. However, after looking into Jamiroquai, the band is British, and the lead singer looks very white? Maybe he’s speaking through another voice for the purposes of the song, but I am just so confused.

“Accidental Racist” – 2013 – Brad Paisley

I am so not ready to talk about this song. First of all, country music is so difficult to describe. The instruments include a violin or something, and then this noise that is maybe a string but I absolutely can’t pinpoint it; it makes this awful wailing noise and it’s in every country song ever. The drumbeat is kind of muted, but it’s there. As for the voice, there is again a very distinctive sound for a country singer’s voice but it’s so hard to describe. Other than obviously the southern accent, I guess it involves being kind of deep and very smooth. (I was surprised by how well LL Cool J’s voice as a New Yorker rapper blended into the song at the end, though. It was kind of jarring, but I guess it fits into the kind of country music as of 2013 leading up to today’s bro-country which often features kind of pseudo-rap, I guess.) More importantly, the message of this song is kind of nice, I guess, and it’s a start, but I think it misses the point and maybe even does more harm than good. Maybe I am impossible to please with a racial message, but I really have a problem with our friend Brad calling himself “just a proud rebel son with an old can of worms” walking around in his Confederate flag shirt as if that’s just fine. “Just like you, I’m more than what you see,” Brad sings to his imagined black audience, who is presumably oppressing him for his racist shirt. He continues, “I try to put myself in your shoes and that’s a good place to begin, but it ain’t like I can walk a mile in someone else’s skin.” What does that even mean, Brad? Are you saying your capabilities for empathy run out at a certain point? …And then LL Cool J comes in and makes everything so much worse. I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt; I really did. When he said, “you should try to get to know me, I really wish you would,” and when he talked about “dodgin invisible white hoods,” I was really with him. However, then he dropped the bomb, “I guess we’re both guilty of judgin the cover not the book.” As if him making judgments about a man who could literally be a threat to his life as a black man is an equal injustice against humanity as a white man being racist. As if there’s no such thing as racial power dynamics. He goes on to say, “I’d love to buy you a beer, conversate and clear the air,” as if it’s on him, of all people, to make the move and literally make the payment in order to fix race relations. Okay, that’s fine, but the worst part is probably, “if you don’t judge my do-rag, i won’t judge your red flag,” followed by, “If you don’t judge my gold chains I’ll forget the iron chains.” I lied, the worst part is, “RIP Robert E Lee, but I’ve gotta thank Abraham Lincoln for freeing me, namean?” No, just kidding, the worst part of this whole thing is the YouTube comments, including this gem: “FANTASTIC SONG, BOTH OF YOU SHOULD BE PROUD. TIME TO LIVE IN THE FUTURE. FUCK OBAMA, HOLDER, JACKSON, AND OLD GUTTER SLIME RACIST SHARPTON. AMEN.” I disagree with everything this YouTube commenter has to say and I hate this song with my whole heart forever.

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Journal 9

“Changes” – 1998 – performed by 2pac

I am excited because we are now getting into the type of music I really like. The instrumental background involves a piano sample from Bruce Hornsby’s “Just the Way it Is” and an intense driving drumbeat as well as a bass line I think electronically. The vocals are composed of background vocals that sound very Chris Brown R&B (as well as singing the chorus), but featuring Tupac’s steady and confident rap verse. I think it is really interesting that Tupac samples Hornsby in this song, especially because he has a much different message in this song. Instead of “that’s just the way it is” meaning that racial injustice pervades our society and dates back throughout the past, Tupac is actually saying that something in fact has changed (for the worse) – “things changed, and that’s the way it is”; “that’s just the way it is, things’ll never be the same.” I think this negative change could either refer to the crack epidemic or mass incarceration of black people (or potentially both because they are closely related). A lot of the lyrics of this song deal with people being hooked on crack cocaine, particularly kids. For example, Tupac says, “Give the crack to the kids, who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.” While he doesn’t directly say so, the issue of crack addiction is subtly racialized in society because racist stereotypes associate African Americans with drugs and crime, leading to a self-perpetuating cycle. This in fact leads to mass incarceration of specifically black people, which Tupac references in the lyrics, “it ain’t a secret, don’t conceal the fact, the penitentiary’s packed, and it’s filled with blacks” even though as mentioned earlier in the song, “both black and white is smokin’ crack tonight.” A consistent theme throughout the song is the constant social devaluing of black lives, whether through the criminal justice system, gang violence, or welfare programs.

“Cop Killer” – 1993 – performed by Body Count 

I was not expecting to hear the rock sound of this song! I was expecting it to be a rap song like “Fuck the Police.” There is a heavy and very repetitive sound of an electric guitar as well as a bass guitar and a driving drumset beat. Something sounds a little jarring about it though, I think that the vocal is so clear and distinct both in enunciation and in standing apart from the instrumental. Another interesting part of the instrumental is that machine gun shooting noises are used as percussion. I was also shocked at how vivid the lyrics are. In my opinion this song is way more shocking in its content than “Fuck the Police” because at least that song was staged as a fictional trial with an element of satire or something, but this is straight-up a declaration that they intend to violently murder police officers and they don’t care if they have lives or families. I like the repetitive element of “fuck the police” throughout the song because even though it’s so repetitive, it feels like it actually gets more powerful each time it’s said, maybe because it’s such a radical thing to say. I think it especially becomes powerful when they list off names for whom they are getting revenge by killing cops who beat or murdered their friends and community leaders. I am still reeling from how direct and violent the lyrics are but I really like it because it’s just so out there. I can’t wait to hear what people had/currently have to say about this song.

“Free Your Mind” – 1992 – performed by En Vogue 

I have heard this song so many times and have never ever actually listened to it. In fact the most recent time I heard it a white drag queen was performing it, and looking back the racial message was totally lost, and honestly it’s shocking that that even happened now that I am actually looking at the lyrics (like, “Be color blind,” it’s so obvious, what the heck?). My favorite thing about this song is the instrumental. It’s just so heavy and energetic especially with the guitar (especially during the chorus) and the drum throughout. There is some really interesting percussion too because I think there is a cowbell in there. The vocals are awesome too, really high-pitched, and something about the vowel sounds is really shaky and rock-sounding. The backup vocals and harmonies are my favorite part about the vocals because they make really intense chords. The lyrics are about prejudice, as a spoken voice indicates at the beginning of the song. It seems to be about how boxes drawn around racial identities are limiting for all people regardless of their race. This is similar to Michael Jackson’s message in the song we studied last week. The message of “free your mind and the rest will follow” is repeated many times throughout the song, which I take to mean that once people lose their stereotypes about race, racial inequalities will then disappear. This sounds very DuBoisian to me because it’s about changing the ideology through dismantling stereotypes in order to create racial change and bring about equality.

“Like a King” – 1993 – performed by Ben Harper

This song has an interesting instrumentation including a tinny-sounding drum like a bongo or something, a twangy string instrument that sounds kind of Eastern like a sitar, and a super low vocal backdrop acting as a bass line. Harper’s voice is very indie-sounding to match the general sound of the song. This is one of several songs to mention Rodney King, including at least “Cop Killer” and I think others, so I thought I would look up what happened to him in this time period. I saw that he had been severely beaten by the LAPD in 1991 and the footage had caused a worldwide controversy. Racial advocates were especially enraged when the officers were acquitted, and riots ensued. This sounds very familiar to police brutality protests today. The message of this song is very similar to the general tone of the Black Lives Matter movement, protesting that black lives and black people’s bodily integrity are treated as if they don’t matter as long as the criminal justice system has its way. Harper compares the LAPD to a “legal lynch mob” because their police badges give them license to kill black people at will and not face legal consequences. However, I don’t really understand what he means when he says “Martin’s dream has become Rodney’s worst nightmare.” I don’t know if that is saying there was something flawed about MLK’s dream in the first place or just that the dream has not yet been achieved.

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Journal 8

“Just the Way it Is” – 1986 – performed by Bruce Hornsby

Instrumentally, this song includes some very calming piano music as well as a very 80’s synthesized drum beat and a little bit of synthesized horn sound. About a minute into the song, a muffled and echoey voice enters. Hornsby’s singing voice is very smooth and clear. The lyrics are interesting because they come from the perspective of about twenty years after the Civil Rights Act was passed. Today, being about fifty years removed, it’s easy for us to distance ourselves from the civil rights era, but I bet people even in Hornsby’s time also had an attitude like, “it’s been twenty years already, just give it a rest!” Therefore, Hornsby sings about his frustration with the public’s feelings of complacency with the status quo in racial inequality, suggesting that the main attitude is: “that’s just the way it is / some things will never change.” He suggests that the problem is not necessarily with the law but with individual attitudes: “well they passed a law in 64 to give those who ain’t got a little more, but it only goes so far because the law don’t change another’s mind when all it sees at the hiring time is the line on the color bar.” Evidently, these individual attitudes can add up to create systemic harm for African Americans seeking employment or other goals that would necessitate equal treatment. Interestingly, the song doesn’t necessarily sound either happy or sad; in fact, if anything, it’s a happy song, because the last minute of the song is super upbeat, fun piano variations on the main melody. I think maybe this mood of the song is a comment on how people see problems of racial injustice as “that’s just the way it is” instead of being outraged.

“Fuck tha Police” – 1988 – performed by NWA

I am so excited about this song and so upset that I am missing the class discussion today for ethics bowl. Anyways the song starts with the classic record scratch sound of hip hop from this time. It mostly features a repetitive staccato saxophone line, an intense drumbeat, and quite a few record scratches throughout. The rappers’ voices are super 80’s sounding, just very loud and forceful but almost a little bit high pitched. The song features some interludes of police skits, similar to that Stevie Wonder song we listened to. I like how the song is framed as a “trial” in which the MCs are putting the police on trial. In general this song is a major reversal of a harmful dichotomy that provides the police with an undue amount of power over black lives. For example, when they say, “Without a gun and a badge, what do you got? A sucker in a uniform waiting to get shot, by me, or another nigga,” this line is highlighting something people unquestioningly take for granted, which is that police are exempt from being vulnerable to street violence, even though they themselves can shoot people if they deem it necessary. In general, this song suggests that police are two things: 1. inherently evil (and yes, all cops) because they systematically victimize black people, and 2. cowards because without the uniform, the gangsters would be the ones with power over the police’s lives on the street. My favorite part is the last skit, which imagines a reversal of the power dynamic: “the jury has found you guilty of being a redneck, white bread, chickenshit motherfucker” “wait, that’s a lie! that’s a goddamn lie!” “get him out of here!” “I want justice!” “get him the fuck out my face!” “I want justice!” “out, right now!” “fuck you, you black motherfuckers!” While I’m sure this song was (and still is) extremely controversial for literally encouraging the violent death of police officers, I think it is very effective in its exposure and imagined reversal of the existing power dynamics among police officers and “criminals,” i.e., urban-dwelling black men.

“Negro wit an Ego” – 1990 – performed by Salt n Pepa

This song mainly involves a breakbreat drum and synthesized organ. There is a short instrumental intro and then this moaning wail in the background to transition to the verse. Their voices start quick and unapologetic: “here, we, go. I’m a negro wit an ego.” Salt n Pepa’s voices/affects sound similar to the style that NWA has, which is a style I associate with the Beastie Boys for some reason, which is probably problematic. Salt n Pepa do of course have feminine voices, though, so that does change the style a little bit, especially in the sung chorus, “Put some faith, in your race.” I appreciate the message of this song because black women are often accused of having a bad attitude, so I love that they are owning their right to have what is pejoratively called an “ego” but could otherwise be described as self-assurance or confidence: “I’m proud of who and what I am so call me a negro with an ego.” Since African Americans are so discouraged from loving themselves, this kind of self-love is almost a kind of radical political statement. Additionally, for women (especially black and Latina women), self-confidence is usually understood as something sexual, which is why they say “No, we ain’t trying to be sexy.” Their confidence is for themselves, not for anyone else. My two favorite lines are one after the other: “When I drop a nine-eleven on my 200C the cops are surprised to see a minority behind the wheel of this car it must be narcotics how else could she have got it?” This is similar to the line from NWA about “me and Lorenzo rolling in a Benzo” – black people are not allowed to be opulent without suspicion of crime, which is a concept rooted in the economic and ideological oppression of black people. Then, “A brown skinned female with two problems to correct – wrong color, wrong sex.” This line shows the intersection of how black women are oppressed by both race and gender inequalities.

“Black or White” – 1991 – performed by Michael Jackson

This song is about unity across racial lines, or at least equal treatment. The percussion is really interesting. It involves a regular drumbeat plus claps and something kind of twangy and tropical. Plus, there is a bass line that zips up and down, and a bright happy guitar line. Michael Jackson’s voice is really pleasing, kinda half-shouty but also really smooth not super raspy like James Brown. He includes lots of vocalizations, like “eee,” “yeah,” or “jam on,” which I guess is also similar to James Brown. I thought it was interesting how this song blurs the lines between black and white, because other songs like James Brown’s “I’m Black and I’m Proud” and Salt n Pepa’s “Negro wit an Ego” very much assert being proud of one’s blackness, but MJ is almost advocating a kind of colorblindness here that would come into conflict with that idea. My own personal bias is that I believe colorblindness is ultimately harmful because it can be used as an excuse for insidiously racist assumptions or behaviors. However, it’s interesting to think about the intersection between racial justice and “colorblindness” in the context of Michael Jackson’s life because he was in this middle ground between blackness and whiteness – he was black by heritage but towards the end of his life he looked very white due to medial complications and different changes to his look. So I definitely think that influenced his take on this issue, and it gives me more to think about why I might have a problem with the idea of colorblindness or what I am overlooking in how that idea might be good for people who don’t fit in a neat box of either “black” or “white.”

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Journal 7

“Living for the City” - 1973 - performed by Stevie Wonder

I listened to the album version of this song which is over 7 minutes long as well as the single version which is only 3:40. Wonder’s voice is very clear - he voices each word slowly and clearly, seemingly to make sure the listener hears everything he has to say because it’s important. The sound of the music is kind of disco-y with some keyboard/synthesizer sound and a steady drumset beat as well as a synthesized horn part and a chorus in the spaces between verses. I think the added material in the longer version slightly changes the meaning of the song. The song in itself is more about economic inequality in the city, but the extra material starting at around 4:30 in the album version shows the structural racism that ties into that economic inequality in cities. It starts with a man saying “wow, New York, just like I pictured it!” but it quickly sweeps into someone approaching the man saying, “hey brother...you wanna make yourself 5 bucks man?” Almost immediately they escalate into confused shouting and there is a swarm of police sirens. Before the speaker knows it, he is being arrested (while protesting that he doesn’t understand what is going on) and a voice says “A jury of your peers has found you guilty - 10 years.” Then the man is thrown in prison and called the n-word before the song quickly resumes with a final verse. I think all of this adds an image of how quickly and powerlessly black people in cities (and maybe everywhere?) are swept into a system that incriminates/incarcerates their community in particular (emphasized by the addition of the racial slur at the end of that part). When the shorter version ends without adding this component, it leaves a message that is less racialized and could be applied to people of all races living in urban poverty. The longer version does not allow this “universality” so I think the longer version is more effective.

“Pastime Paradise” - 1976 - performed by Stevie Wonder

The first thing I noticed about this song is that Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” must have sampled it and also been inspired by it in its lyrics. That string sound is very distinctive and it has also probably been sampled in other hip hop songs. The instrumental portion is more complicated than I had ever realized though, because it’s more than just the repetitive high-pitched violin (?) from the chorus, but there is also a complex bass part and a varying string line throughout the verses/bridges. As for the voice it is just Stevie singing the lyrics, but as the song goes on, more and more of a chorus joins in. I think adding the chorus adds to Stevie’s point that many people are caught up in the harmful mindset he is singing about. He describes this mindset that a lot of people are stuck in, in which people obsess over a “pastime paradise” or a “future paradise” instead of focusing on the moment. This is not only a personal problem, but a problem for civil rights - by not focusing on the now, “race relations,” “segregation,” “exploitation,” “mutilation,” and other “evils of the world” can run rampant. I like this message but I am confused about what the “pastime paradise” is that Wonder is referring to.

“War” - 1976 - performed by Bob Marley

After the Marvin Gaye song last week that was about the Vietnam war that I thought was about race relations, I really expected this song to also be about the Vietnam war. But it really was about a race war this time. This song is unique compared to the others we have studied so far because it is reggae so the instrumentation is different, involving a different kind of drum, some trumpets, bass, and other reggae instruments. Marley’s voice is also different because he sings with a Jamaican accent and a little bit of Jamaican dialect (like “Me say war”). He makes his points very slowly which is probably just due to the style of a reggae song, but it almost seems like he is slowly spelling things out for his listeners because they just can’t get it. Like when he says “Until the philosophy which hold one race superior, and other, inferior, is finally, and permanently, discredited, and abandoned...me say war,” that is all one entire verse. This song is also different from most other songs from the civil rights movement so far because of the line, “War in the east / War in the west / War up north / War down south.” It is important that Marley recognizes the widespread racism all across the country and not just in the South, especially as someone with an outside perspective coming from Jamaica.

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Journal 6

“Southern Man” – 1970 – performed by Neil Young

I think this is the first song we have covered so far that is by a white artist. It has a different sound than the songs we have discussed until now, since he is an outsider as a white guy. It has more of a rock sound (which honestly is a genre inspired by black music anyway but still). The instruments are still the same as many songs so far have been: I hear a piano, drum, guitar, and bass, plus the vocals. There are multiple voices, featuring Neil’s as the main one but all the voices (at least three) join in on the chorus, “Southern man better keep your head…” and on the final lines of the verses: “how long, how long…ahhhhh…” Young’s voice, as well as all of the voices to an extent, is kind of thin and nasal; I want to describe it as wail-y. The verses feature Young’s voice, which is kind of distorted by some kind of technology, and some other vocalists sing “oooh” in the background. I like the lyric, “Southern change gonna come at last, now your crosses are burning fast” because it takes the imagery of a burning cross as a tool of terrorizing black people and it flips the image so the crosses are actually burning up, destroying themselves and metaphorically destroying white supremacy. I think it’s really cool that Young, a pretty mainstream artist, was willing to take that stance even though it was so out of his domain as a white artist. I also appreciate that they made it a really good, catchy song, because I bet a bunch of slightly racist white kids listened to this song without really focusing on the lyrics and didn’t realize what it was about until they had already gotten into the song and it was too late.

Lift Every Voice And Sing – 1972 – performed by Ray Charles

I watched Ray Charles’s performance of this song from the Dick Cavett Show on September 18, 1972. I have heard this song many times before so it was interesting to me how different this version was and I wonder if it was common to have jazzy versions like this or if Charles’s adaptation was controversial in any way. I think it’s significant that Charles frames the song by singing beforehand, “I got something y’all…in my bones…make me wanna shout hallelujah.” Overall, it is just a very positive interpretation of the song. They even leave out the middle verse, which is not surprising, because it would be difficult to sing the lyric about “treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered” over such an upbeat rhythm and among such bright trumpet flares. There is a lot going on in this song – Ray sings with five female backup singers, who are apparently called the Raelettes, and there is also a piano, some brass instruments, and a drumset. Ray has a nice voice, but I like the women’s voices more, especially when they sing together and make harmonies. I like Ray’s performance in general because of his facial expressions and the way he dances around – he just makes me happy, and their performance of the song in general just kind of makes you happy, even though lyrically it has such sad themes. They trade off between Ray and the Raelettes while singing, but the Raelettes seem to sing the more serious lyrics. They zip through the lyrics quickly and Ray doesn’t sing all of the words super clearly, so it seems to be more about the general feel of the song. However, at the end, they much more slowly and soulfully reprise “Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won.” Honestly, I like this version a lot, but I really like more serious versions more. My favorite ever performance of this song was by the A&T gospel choir, which I saw during MLK week at UNCG. When the singers really embrace the emotionality and the serious themes of the song I think it makes it a lot more powerful.

What’s Going On – 1972 – performed by Marvin Gaye

This is definitely a different style from any songs we have done so far. The song kind of fools you, because it sounds so smooth and easy with the saxophone and the echoey percussion, and Gaye’s voice is so smooth and beautiful too, but the lyrics start with: “Mother mother there’s too many of you crying, brother brother brother there’s far too many of you dying,” so that is jarring. The song has a very familiar message: Gaye sings about promoting love, not hate. He seems to be asking police, or maybe the public in general, to actually talk to protesters to find out “what’s going on,” aka what it’s like to be black in America, instead of punishing them - especially with “brutality” - for speaking out about injustices. With that in mind, and since the message is so vague, the song really could be picked up and placed in a contemporary context and have just as strong of a social/political meaning. It is just ridiculously applicable to today. However, I am confused by the lyric, “father father we don’t need to escalate, you see war is not the answer for only love can conquer hate.” This is concerning to me because it seems to be like telling black people to stay peaceful...which is good, but also I don’t know if I agree with the message that love can conquer hate. Sometimes you do need to fight back. Plus, at this time, even peaceful protests were seen as acts of violence. So while I agree with the vague message of love over hate, I think it could have harmful effects as far as accusations for black protesters.

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Journal 5

“A Change Is Gonna Come” – 1965 – performed by Sam Cooke

This song is in 3 and the tempo is on the slower side. There is only one voice, and Cooke sings in a way that is just classically beautiful with long, clear, perfect-pitch notes. There is a little bit of echo on his voice, too, adding to the beauty of the song. As for the percussion there is a deep sound that I think is a timpani and then something else that I can’t identify at all but it sounds kind of “clack-y” for lack of a better word. The main instruments are strings, and I think there is a whole string section, which is joined by brass instruments later in the song as the instrumental part swells and gets super dramatic. The first words sung are “I was born by the river, in a little tent; just like the river, I’ve been running ever since.” I don’t know if the singer was literally born in a tent by the river or if that’s a reference to something, but I like the line about running your whole life just like the river. However, I don’t know what Cooke is saying he’s running from exactly. The main chorus is “it’s been a long, a long time coming, but I know a change gon come” with the first “long” and “know” being really drawn out. There is a kind of muted French horn sound under the chorus. The further the song goes, the more prominent the brass gets; in the second verse, they play these short bursts of sound on 2 & 3 1, as Cooke sings, “I go to the movie, and I go downtown, somebody keep tellin me don’t hang around.” Finally, when he sings “then I go to my brother and I say brother help me please but he winds up knocking me back down on my knees” he sings these long drawn out words and it emphasizes the exhaustion of this metaphorical knocking down. The song ends with “a change gon come, oh yes it will” with a high pitched long held note on strings, indicating hope that a change really will come.

“Why Am I Treated So Bad” – 1965 – performed by the Staples Singers

This song is in 4, and the beat goes (1, 2&3&4&1, …) which gives it a very specific kind of feel. The song starts with a minute-long instrumental intro, but even though they are playing the same exact line over and over, they mess around on it and alter it so it’s not repetitive to the extreme. There is a darker bass-y sound in this song, and the instrumentation includes a guitar, bass, and piano. The first couple lines are “whyyyyy (why) am I treated so bad” with these stacked vocal harmonies that sound really cool. There are four singers: Roebuck Staples and three backup women singers. Their voices are not super powerful on their own, but the power is more in the harmony. The lyrics are very simple, asking why they are treated so bad and saying “I’ve done nobody wrong but I’m treated so bad.” The rhythm on that line in particular is really interesting to me because it sounds like the line is going to end but it just keeps going, so I think that is really creative. On a similar note, I like how the piano part just keeps on trucking through the whole song even though the pianist is throwing in all these super difficult fast-paced licks of a bunch of notes, which almost seem random but they fit into the song so well. A little over halfway through the song, Roebuck Staples starts talking spoken word style over the music about his church, where they didn’t have fancy things like electric lights and pianos and guitars – they just sat together and sang and clapped their hands, but he says it was still an amazing experience. On the second listen I realized he talks about people moaning in church to express something “even the devil” can’t understand, and then the singers all start singing “oooh” which blew my mind when I realized what they were saying. I love the tie between music, activism, and spirituality, so that was really interesting to me.

“Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud” – 1968 – performed by James Brown

This song is more aggressive than the others (in a good way!!). It starts with Brown shouting “UH!” with a drum beat accenting it, then “with your bad self” over a drumset, then a trumpet comes in, then “say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud” as the rest of the instruments come in, including a guitar and bass. I really liked the way it started by trickling in all those components, but especially the fact that it started with him shouting. I love Brown’s voice; it’s so raspy and unique and fun to listen to, but also sometimes he hits these random clear beautiful gliding notes and that’s also really nice to listen to in a more conventional sense. He has a very powerful voice and I think he knows it. I love the vocalizations too, especially when he gets squeaky at the end of his shouts. He’s not the only singer, though, because it’s a kid’s choir that sings “say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud!” I love that because it really is at a young age when black kids internalize the fact that they’re culturally expected to hate themselves due to their race. I think it’s really powerful that Brown has them own their blackness and not apologize for it. I think that’s incredibly important, even today. Also, when Brown sings “Some people say we got a lot of malice, some say we got a lot of nerve,” that definitely strikes a chord with events today, because people always find reasons to be mad whenever black people reach for equality.

[rcrawfordjournal-blog]

Journal 4

“Keep on Pushin” - 1964 - performed by Curtis Mayfield

The first thing you hear in this song is a drumroll. The drumroll is very short though, and it is followed by a blast of brass sounds and a high-pitched voice to open with the words, “keep on pushin!” The voices are very high, reminding me of a trumpet fanfare every time they reach the higher range. The song is in triple, by the way, which makes it feel like a song to dance to, especially with the repetitive 1-2-3-1 beat played by a bass instrument that sounds like a trombone to me with a little slide on the end of each series of notes. I like the “mmm” harmonies in between the lyrics. The high-pitched vocalizations are also funny because the word “higher” is repeated often, sometimes on the high notes themselves. The singers are talking about gaining strength and reaching a higher point in one’s life (or for African Americans to reach a higher point in society as a whole), so it is interesting how they incorporate high notes with that theme in mind. The main theme in the song, though, is perseverance: “I’ve got my strength, and it don’t make sense not to keep on pushin.” The lyrics are hopeful and determined to accomplish social change through hard work. They also hail God as part of their social mission, indicating that God supports their cause as they repeat, “hallelujah, hallelujah, keep on pushin.” Mayfield is confident, saying, “I know I can make it with just a little bit of soul.” The song is inspiring for activists because it’s almost like it’s common sense to keep going out there and protesting and also that it’s common sense that the protesters will win out in the end.

“Mississippi Goddam” - 1964 - performed by Nina Simone

I listened to a live version of this song that included video footage of Simone’s performance, which really added to my experience of the song. One thing I couldn’t figure out about this song was why the bass line is so familiar to me. It reminds me of some kind of genre or maybe a specific song, but regardless, it struck me as familiar. After that bass line is established, Simone starts with an easy piano rhythm and eventually starts singing. The first few lines are her repeating, “going home now…” I am still wondering what she meant by “going home.” The rest of the song seems to be an indictment of Southern culture, but she is from the South, so I don’t know if she is trying to reconcile those things or if she meant some deeper meaning by “going home now.” I was confused about the meaning of the song until she started singing about “hound dogs,” “schoolchildren sitting in jail,” and other aspects of violent inequality. The most powerful lines to me were “I think every day’s gonna be my last,” and “I’ve even stopped believing in prayer.” In general, Simone just seems weary. Her voice is so beautiful and she has a lot of power in her voice, but from her body language to the mourning in her voice she just seems like she’s had it with life as a black woman in a racist country. The piano eventually becomes more syncopated as her vocals become more complicated too. At the end, when she sings “everybody knows about Mississippi, everybody knows about Alabama,” she’s playing the piano and just going so hard and she’s just clearly so done that everybody knows about southern racism and yet nothing’s changing.

“Old Jim Crow” - 1964 - performed by Nina Simone

I listened to a recording of a live version, but it sounded like a studio version to me when I first listened to it because there is a lot of echo and it seems like very processed sound. The percussion is very interesting to me because it has a distinctive sound that I can’t really identify other than calling it reminiscent of elevator music, which is kind of pejorative. It reminds me of tropical music but also of swing music. I like the piano because it’s very jazzy and complex throughout the song. I think I also heard an electric bass, mostly peeking out at the end of the song, which reminds me of 80s music for some reason. Simone’s voice sounds different in this song than it did in “Mississippi Goddam” – she has more vibrato in this song and it’s very rapidly shaky. Her voice seems less powerful in this song; in “Mississippi Goddam” it sounded like it was coming from deep down in her core, but in this song she seems a little weaker. That makes sense given the lyrics, though, because the lyrics are about being worn down and weary from Jim Crow. I was interested in the line, “old Jim Crow what’s wrong with you? it ain’t your name, it’s the things you do” because I took that to mean that segregation and racism were not black people’s fault (represented by the caricature Jim Crow) but rather the fault of actively racist white people, but I don’t know if the line was supposed to mean something else. I also want to know what she means when she sings, “old Jim Crow, don’t you know, it’s all over now.” Is she telling Jim Crow that he’s about to get kicked out because people are rising up against racism? Or does “it’s all over now” mean something darker?

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Journal 3

“Strange Fruit” - 1939 - performed by Billie Holiday

This song starts with an instrumental intro with a bright trumpet over a melancholy piano. Then Billie Holiday starts singing, and her voice is honestly kind of unsettling. It’s weird and different – she has a good, powerful voice, but it’s deeper and raspier than most other female singers and it just has almost a creepy tone to it, especially in this song. The lyrics are the most powerful part of this song, but she breathes so much life into them by striking the listener with each gut-wrenching word. The song contrasts the beautiful bucolic scenery associated with the South with the brutal reality of lynchings. The harshest contrast comes in this line: “pastoral scene of the gallant south / the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth.” That line is really difficult because the bulging eyes and twisted mouth make such a vivid image, especially compared to the beautiful pastoral scene. Again, when she sings “scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh / then the sudden smell of burning flesh,” it really highlights the hypocrisy of the South and of America in general. Billie’s voice gets the most emotional towards the end, when she drags out long notes like “drop” and “crop” – it almost seems like she fights back her emotions throughout the song and really finally lets loose on “crop” at the end. The second time I listened through the whole song, I almost wanted to cry and couldn’t really explain why – it’s just so vivid and still caught me off guard even though I have heard the song before and had already just listened to it once. I appreciate that she took the emotional power of music – which isn’t really possible with any other medium – and used it to rend people’s hearts with the emotional devastation of the racist South.

“Nobody in This World is Better Than Us” - 1940′s - performed by Leadbelly

This song is very short and simple. It is only just over a minute long, and just features the lone voice of Leadbelly, who sings the same tune throughout with different words for the verses. His main message is that it is unfair and hypocritical that the United States, especially the South, allows such an extreme degree of racism despite being a “democracy” and thinking of itself as so modern, and despite the fact that millions of African Americans served in World War I and World War II. If African Americans are out there dying for their country, Leadbelly sings, why can’t they get equal rights at home? He appeals to listeners’ religious beliefs, saying, “God made us all and in Him we trust” – suggesting that God actively disapproves of inequality and prejudice because all people are children of God, regardless of race – and “the Scripture says love they neighbor” – reminding Christians that they are supposed to exhibit love and tolerance to all people. He also appeals to secular beliefs in human equality because even if there is no God, we do all have to die – he sings, “six feet of dirt makes us all the one size,” reminding us that we share a human condition and race is just a temporary marker during this life. He sings that especially Southern views on race are absurdly backwards, as if “they want to bring back slavery again.” It feels like he ends by repeating “nobody in this world is better than us” in this hurried defiant whisper – which is interesting because it was probably such a controversial thing for him to say such a thing, even though all he’s saying is that black people have equal humanity to white people. That makes me think of how it’s so controversial today to say “black lives matter,” even though when you think about it, the sentiment that black lives matter should not be controversial.

[rcrawfordjournal-blog]

Journal 2

“Young Woman’s Blues” - 1926 - performed by Bessie Smith

This song is slow, but not sad. Since it’s blues, it has a slower tempo and droopy sad brass sound, but the piano is kind of bouncy, and her voice and her words are not really melancholy at all. I want to say Smith’s voice is pretty, but that makes it sound like it’s dainty, and it’s definitely not – her voice is very strong and has a lot of power behind it, like from deep in her gut. When I first started listening to the song, I thought the point of the song would be that her “man had gone away” and she was lonely and upset. And that would have been a good song too, but I was happy when I realized the song was more about Smith being proud and self-assured and independent. She’s okay with her man going away because she doesn’t need to marry or settle down; she’s perfectly happy just being single and drinking moonshine. My favorite line is “I’m a young woman and I ain’t done runnin round,” especially because I really like how her voice glides up on “young” the first time she sings that line. Reading the lyrics, I’m realizing just how powerful this song is and how radical it was for her time, especially for a black woman. This song, as well as many of Smith’s songs, seem to promote this message of sexual autonomy and freedom, which is important because in her time (and today, honestly) black women, and black people in general, are oversexualized and their sexuality is appropriated in such a way that they lose that autonomy. I like that she ends on the line that she’s a good woman and she can get plenty of men – she’s “runnin round” because that’s what she wants to do right now, so don’t feel sorry for her.

“Scottsboro Boys” - 1936 - performed by Lead Belly

“Scottsboro Boys” is very high energy and high tempo. I actually didn’t realize the first time I heard it, but on my second listen, I noticed that he actually speeds up a lot as he goes along. This surprised me because I had originally thought it started uptempo – but no, it gets so much faster. His voice speeds along through the lyrics, which are very repetitive, and it’s hard to hear them clearly but since it’s mostly the chorus repeated over and over, interspersed with some spoken word over the guitar, it’s easy to pick up on the message of the song. It is just the guitar and one voice, plus another man’s voice prompting the singer to explain a little more about the Scottsboro boys at one point. Like some of the other songs we have looked at, this song is confusing to me because its message is very heavy and sad (it’s about the unfair rape trial of nine black teenagers in Alabama) but the song doesn’t sound all that sad. When he says “going to Alabama…you better watch out” he follows it with “jump and shout,” giving the impression that you should be happy and dance. But maybe he is suggesting some kind of liberation through dance, because he seems to suggest that about music for people in the Harlem Renaissance. He sings, towards the end: “I’m gonna tell all the colored people livin in Harlem swing, don’t ya ever go to Alabama, just try to sing.” This revises a line that he sung previously but originally ended with “don’t ever go to Alabama and try to live.” He urges black people to stay in Harlem (or at least up North) and try to make art, which I’m sure he is passionate about as a musician.

“Black, Brown and White” - 1938 - performed by Big Bill Broonzy

My first reaction when I started to play this song was that I loved his voice; it’s so smooth and pleasant to listen to. Then, suddenly, my second reaction was realizing that I had heard this song before. This was a weird realization because the nostalgia at having heard this before, plus the fact that it’s kind of an upbeat song, combined to make me feel very uplifted emotionally by this song even though it’s, again, about really unhappy times for black Americans. Big Bill Broonzy sings over a very repetitive guitar part, which keeps basically the same rhythm and switches among just a few chords throughout the song. I really like when he suddenly stops the guitar to emphasize the ends of important lines, particularly “get back, get back, get back” in the chorus. This is a random observation, but when he says “get back, get back, get back,” it reminds me of Big Sean’s verse in “Blessings” when he says “blessings on blessings on blessings, look at my life man that’s lessons on lessons on lessons” – something about the line is really rhythmically pleasing, I think because it takes the line to beat 3 of the next measure instead of stopping on 1. I like that the lyrics are about the daily oppression of black people: not just big horrible issues like lynching, but the smaller things that still add up and weigh on people, like wage inequality or going to a store and not getting served or called on in line. I was really happy that he said “I helped build this country and I fought for it too” – it was probably very controversial to make this statement, even though it was so true. This country was literally built by black people, so I was happy that he took ownership of that fact.

[rcrawfordjournal-blog]

Journal 1

“I Want to Go Home” - 1860′s - performed by Charles Wagner

This song is only about two minutes long, but it feels longer because the vocals are so drawn out. The lyrics are only made up of six lines, three of them being “Oh yes, I want to go home.” That line alternates with three lines about the kingdom of heaven, where “there’s no rain to wet you” and “there’s no sun to burn you”; I can’t make out the last of these three lines, but it has to do with building a kingdom. The lyrics themselves are not extremely sad, but they become so sad when Wagner sings them because of the way the song is arranged. The vocals are completely bare, with no musical accompaniment, no beat, and no obvious digital alteration of his voice. His singing voice is very vibrato as he draws out long notes, especially “I” and “home.” His singing style reminds me of when I was young and went to Catholic Mass. In those services the priest would sing a lot of his prayers, like “let us proclaim the mystery of faith.” He had a similar vibrato in his voice, but he wasn’t necessarily a good singer. He didn’t have perfect pitch like we expect singers to in our popular culture today. Wagner’s voice is like that, too. His emphasis seems to be more on the lyrics of the song and the pure raw emotion in his vocals rather than how perfect his voice is. I would even say the emotion itself takes precedence over the vocals; the first time I heard the song, I couldn’t really make out the words and I honestly wasn’t even listening for them because I was so overwhelmed by the emotion. Wagner seems more concerned with capturing that mournful soul of slavery than with having perfect pitch, which makes sense because it would almost be inappropriate to sing a pretty song about the institution of slavery, which was far from pretty.

“Follow the Drinking Gourd” - mid-1800′s - performed by Eric Bibb

This song goes at a faster pace than “I Want to Go Home” and features a guitar along with the vocal. It reminds me of the type of music they would play in an indie coffee shop, but Bibb’s voice has a similar deep and resonant quality as Charles Wagner’s voice that would distinguish it from the softer voices in indie folk rock. The song is lyrically about slaves escaping by following the river and covering their tracks in the water. Even though we went over the meaning of the song in class, I had to look up the meanings of all the different details in the song when I listened to it again. The “drinking gourd” refers to the Big Dipper constellation, which slaves referred to on their journey, and the “old man…a-waitin for to carry you to freedom” refers to a captain who helped slaves escape on the Underground Railroad in Alabama. This song is strophic because it repeats the same couple of melodic lines, and the same guitar line underneath, but changes the lyrics to an extent as it repeats. The line “follow the drinking gourd” repeats many times throughout the song, emphasizing that the most important detail to remember was to follow that constellation. Like “I Want to Go Home,” the vocals of this song have many long drawn-out notes and long pauses in between, so the guitar provides a percussive fill-in for those empty spots. The guitar keeps the beat and also adds an emphasis on certain words and lines. The vocals are more fast-paced than in the previous song, though, so they are often very syncopated. In this song, again, the singing is less about perfect pitch or a pleasant harmony and more about the message and the emotion; however, I think the guitar adds a quality that is more conventionally musical to our modern ears.

“No More Auction Block” - 1860′s - performed by Bob Dylan

I know I am supposed to talk about the musical elements of this song but my biggest concern with this song is why exactly is Bob Dylan singing this song? When I was looking into it online, no one seems to offer any commentary on why he decided to sing this old slave song. In fact, a lot of people seem to credit this song to Bob Dylan, not realizing that it’s a slave song. His website is very misleading; it provides the lyrics and says it was written and arranged by Bob Dylan himself. I seriously doubt that Bob Dylan or any of his ancestors were ever on an auction block, whipped, or forced to sweat a pint’s worth of salt. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, but I can’t find any reasoning anywhere of why he decided to sing this song. As for the musicality of this song, I think Dylan’s style meshes well with the qualities of the slave spiritual because I have always heard that his work is more about the words and the message rather than the aural appeal of it, which makes sense because his voice honestly is kind of awful – it’s very grating and whiny to me. Even though it features a more complicated guitar part, his version mimics the old qualities of slave spirituals in which the words and message are drawn out to place an emphasis on the emotional trials of slavery. I also listened to a version of this song by John Legend, who maintains a smoother sound but makes this song sound much more melancholy like Charles Wagner did with “I Want to Go Home.” Dylan’s “No More Auction Block” sounds almost uplifting, which is nice because it’s a hopeful message but it’s inappropriate to me since he is white and already in dangerous territory by singing that song. I know he is a very woke civil rights activist but I just don’t know if I am comfortable with that unless he justifies it.

“Wade in the Water” - mid-1800′s - performed by Angie Stone

This was my favorite of the four songs for this journal! It is much more complex with some kind of keyboard, I guess a synthesizer but I’m not musically literate enough to know for sure, playing a very syncopated line that complements the syncopated vocals well. There is also a drumset which opens the song with a flourish, getting you hype from the start. If I could describe this song in one word it would probably be “funky.” Even though the lyrics are repetitive, the music kept it interesting by constantly changing up the little flourishes on the keyboard and the singer’s varying vocalizations on those same lyrics. There aren’t really any sad vibes to this song – it mostly just makes me want to dance. In context, I don’t really understand the lyrics about God, particularly “there ain’t but one God that made us all / God’s gonna trouble the waters.” I don’t understand why God is going to trouble the waters for the slaves, unless it means God is going to stir up a rebellion in them. Overall, the song is very hopeful, especially when it says “the Lord in heaven will hear my prayer.” It’s not super bright or intense, though: Stone’s version is just laidback but still makes me feel happy. I listened to some other versions to compare it: Alvin Ailey’s version features a very intense beat and louder yelling, but Eva Cassidy’s version has a chill guitar like Eric Bibb’s song and a muffled echo-y vocal. I think Stone’s version finds a good middle ground between being too intense and too laidback (not that either of these interpretations of the song are bad, because I really like all three of them, especially Alvin Ailey’s which serves its purpose when he choreographs to it).