- 01“Bingo”the DramaticsI knew the Dramatics from history, or at least music history.from the chapter
- 02“All Because of You”the DramaticsA few years later, Motown took over Golden World, and the Dramatics released a regional hit, “All Because of You.” That night in 1967, they were scheduled to perform the song at a showcase.from the chapter
- 03“It Ain’t Fair”the RootsThe song that the Roots wrote for the movie, “It Ain’t Fair,” with Bilal singing, made it more real all over again—it was a song about pain and injustice that we recorded at Diamond Mine in New York, where I thought we could get a sound like Motown’s Studio A.from the chapter
- 04“Grow”Algee Smith and Cleveland Larry ReedI’m thinking of “Grow,” where the actor Algee Smith, who plays Cleveland Larry Reed, duets with the man himself.) Despite my overall discomfort with the execution of the film—when is Black pain art, and are there times when depictions of it cross the line?—we managed to turn the …from the chapter
- 05“Egyptian Song”RufusRufus’s “Egyptian Song” reminds me of the nights before they went away.from the chapter
- 06Song BirdDeniece WilliamsDeniece Williams’s Song Bird reminds me of when the loneliness of being at my grandmother’s started to sink in.from the chapter
- 07“Saturday in the Park”ChicagoLike many children of the ’70s, I first came to know the band Chicago through their monster radio hits, like “Saturday in the Park” or “25 or 6 to 4.” As time went on, I came to know them by their albums, too.from the chapter
- 08“25 or 6 to 4”ChicagoLike many children of the ’70s, I first came to know the band Chicago through their monster radio hits, like “Saturday in the Park” or “25 or 6 to 4.” As time went on, I came to know them by their albums, too.from the chapter
- 09Chicago IIIChicagoFor a little while, I was drawn to Chicago III , which came out the year I was born—and, even closer than that, the month I was born (it was released on January 11; I was released on January 20).from the chapter
- 10“Mother”ChicagoIt was “Mother,” which was about birth, but not mine or the album’s—it was about the way that the planet birthed us all, and why we should be more respectful of our time with it.from the chapter
- 11ImagineJohn LennonNow skip forward slightly to September 1971, the same month as John Lennon’s Imagine , the debut album by Labelle, and Aretha Franklin’s Greatest Hits (since supplanted by a million other collections, but if you’ve seen the …from the chapter
- 12Greatest HitsSly & The Family StoneNow skip forward slightly to September 1971, the same month as John Lennon’s Imagine , the debut album by Labelle, and Aretha Franklin’s Greatest Hits (since supplanted by a million other collections, but if you’ve seen the cover image once, you’ve never forgotten it—it’s the one where she …from the chapter
- 13Goin’ Back to IndianaThe Jackson 5Not to mention the Jackson 5’s Goin’ Back to Indiana , their sixth album and the soundtrack of a TV special that had aired only two weeks earlier and showed what big stars the Jacksons had bec …from the chapter
- 14“George Jackson”Bob DylanBob Dylan had a song out about George Jackson by November 1971, in two versions: one “Big Band,” one solo acoustic.from the chapter
- 15“Let’s Go Get Stoned”Ray CharlesOne of the backup singers on the Big Band version was Jo Armstead, who had been an Ikette, a backup singer for Ike and Tina Turner, and gone on to write hits with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson, including “Let’s Go Get Stoned.” Later in life, after leaving the music industry, …from the chapter
- 16“Lunchmeataphobia (Think—It Ain’t Illegal Yet)”FunkadelicIn the words of George Clinton (who was in Detroit that fateful night in July 1967 with the Parliaments, in fact on the same bill as the Dramatics at the Fox Theater for The Swingin’ Time Revue ), “Think—it ain’t illegal yet.”from the chapter