THE ROAD TO FREEDOM WAS PAVED IN SOUL

by Travis Vertuca

Keep that beat rolling and keep those feet moving. Music can stir the soul and ignite a fire, surpassing distance and moving generation to generation. Time and again the drums have been struck, the strings have been strummed and the voice has been heard. Between the shadow of slavery and the world of today, African Americans and their music have spoken to the nature of the human experience. This music has evolved, yet remains to reflect upon the shape of American thought and culture. During the 1960's, R&B and Soul captured the minds of the youth and strived to achieve social change.

THE BEAT OF EVOLUTION

Rhythm has been the means of expression since the first caveman beat on rocks. The beat is what drives emotion, and emotion is what drives the body. Songs can be an article of history, or can relate to modern times, but all in all, the song has always been there. As language formed, tone and pitch taught the voice to act as an instrument. Walton states a heightened musical sensibility, the result of tonal language and education to pitch value, was readily transferred to instrumental music and in some cases led to 'talking' instruments - drums.1 As with language, music varies with geography and certain scales and tones are more common in certain areas. When slavery cast its shadow upon Africa, a new music made a transatlantic voyage and came to the United States. At first African music was outlawed by slave owners, but the oppression could not stop the slaves from singing and eventually making their own instruments (it is said that during this inventive period the banjo was born).

Our story takes us from the perils of the Atlantic to the soil of the southern states. The heart of soul was anchored in the sweltering heat of the delta blues. In terms of stanzas and bars, soul music is a derivative of blues. The chords and structure are nearly identical, as is the lyrical content (a standard three-line stanza followed by a musical response).

Slavery had ended but left the oppression and the ex-slaves had become the lower class. New means of inhumanity swept through the south and passion of melody was beginning to expose itself. The smuggling of music was made possible by the conversion of pain and frustration into code, thus confusing outside listeners, allowing the slaves to speak their minds without repercussions. Ortiz Walton, author of Music: Black, White and Blue describes the blues as a representation of collective yearnings and feeling, but the personal life of the Artist becomes the prototype of the collective. Thus one of the principal features of African music, collective representation, was preserved while the form and apparent content changed.1

Blues started in Louisiana and Mississippi as a means of expression for African-Americans. Although untrained, there were many musicians who formed the belt of the blues. Usually borrowing from gospel, blues had the spirit of the working class combined with the heartbreak of the lower class. If the music of the church was meant for God, than blues was meant for man (and maybe the devil). For the disfranchised citizens of the south, songs of cheating women, hard working and long hot days were easily identifiable, keeping collective representation intact.

One of only two photos ever taken of Legendary Bluesman Robert Johnson

Some songs and artists are clouded in folklore, only giving them a deeper meaning. Robert Johnson, one of the most influential bluesman by modern standards, claimed to have sold his soul to the devil to be able to play the guitar. His phenomenal ability and short life span (there were only two known pictures, dead at twenty-nine having recorded twenty-nine songs) only made him more popular. The legends of the original bluesman traveled by word across the south. Most seeds of the genre went unnoticed until the mid-twentieth century when the songs were documented for the library of congress. It was discovered that there were standard songs that traveled by word of mouth and had many different interpretations. An example of this would be the song Country Farm Blues by Eddie James "Son" House Jr. Considered to be prewar delta blues, House created a song understanding of the wealth and the soul of the insolvable problems of life.

Down South, when you do anything, that's wrong
Down South, when you do anything, that's wrong
Down South, when you do anything, that's wrong
They'll sure put you down on the country farm1

Put you down under a man they call "Captain Jack"
Put you under a man called "Captain Jack"
Put you under a man they call "Captain Jack"
He'' sure write his name up and down your back

Put you down in a ditch with a great long spade
Put you down in a ditch with a great long spade
Put you down in a ditch with a great long spade
Wish to God that you hadn't never been made

On a Sunday the boys be lookin' sad
On a Sunday the boys'll be lookin' sad
On a Sunday the boys be lookin' sad
Just wonderin' about how much time they had2

Songs spread and became anthems to the disheartened, creating a base audience of people who were socially aware due to the morally unjust ideals imposed by society. Music was not recorded on sheets, but memorize, often altering its structure. These songs were the truth, they were not sugar coated (or at least they weren't meant to be, I'm talking to you Eric Clapton) nor were they meant for the mainstream. The songs were meant to keep hope alive, to have something to look forward to at the end of a hard day, or to tell stories of important values. The cotton fields, loading docks, riverboats and plantations held within them a sound all their own. This sound was a desire to love but only a cold and empty world to embrace.3 Sympathy for the working class was coming. Songs were moving like winds through the south and soon would spread across the hate that had bound them. This is how forms of art make their way into the public eye.

THE DISC JOCKEY

In the early nineteen thirties, the disc jockeys made their unfriendly debut into the music timeline. Beginning as a way to use the radio as a means of a market, disc jockeys were the commentary between the songs. Over time, DJ's took control of the song selection and were able to deem what was playable on the radio. Far from welcome, disc jockeys were at first shunned for their misuse of power. Performers such as Bing Crosby and Fred Waring had labels bearing the words "NOT LICENSED FOR RADIO BROADCAST," in hopes to deter consumers from promoting the radio. This was to become a temporary fix. By 1935, the disc jockey took credit for the increase in sales for sponsors as well as record sales, which had plummeted during the depression. This increase was obviously due to the ending of the depression, but at the time the broadcast companies saw this as a chance to make their move. After World War II, radio attempted to captivate audience by using big names, including both Duke Ellington and Ted Husing, to spin records. Throughout the forties and fifties, the fire was on and the disc jockey was a controversial figure, regarded by some and hated by others. In time, the musical selection was tamed and radio station managers began to think of the local airwaves.

SETTLE DOWN, STREAMS OF SOUND

The dysfunction of the radio hierarchy gave the airwaves back to the public. The people made a decision and the radio was now a means of expression. The path of available music was ready to expand and shape the world as well as future generations.

As the nineteen fifties came to an end, the culture line was starting to come into focus and Rhythm and Blues emerged to become synonymous with soul. As a faster paced, blues oriented genre, the artists of R&B realized they were onto something. The new genre gave room for pop sensibilities to combine with African-American culture. The message of the music was only apparent to the creators and very aware members of the public. At first the genre was considered to be a passing fad, but as the winds of rhythm grew stronger and louder, they touched the souls of young white America.2 White audiences began listening to black artists, which softened some minds during a tense time, yet also made for some angry parents. Society deemed the youth of America was not to be dancing to the tribal beats of African music that was Rhythm and Blues, but it blossomed despite its bad reputation.3

After a short period of time, the record executives found there was a profit to be made of Rhythm and Blues. Dollar value of the black consumer market rose from $3 million in 1940 to $11 million a decade later and $20 million by 1961.4 Seeing as it was impossible to neglect the black audience, white executives began to create rosters of black musicians. From 1955 to 1959, Mercury, Capitol, Decca and the then recently formed ABC-Paramount were among the ten most successful producers if black chart hits5

The link between white audiences and R&B was often seen as a rebellion against white radio but also symbolically represented a revolt against the social norm and expectations of the adult white middle-class as encoded and disseminated through church, school and the work place. To listen to R&B required a certain amount of enterprise and individualism according to the white consensus and it was considered common for "deviant" lifestyles to form around the genre. White teens traveled to the other side of the tracks to hear musicians outside of the dominant culture, but eventually imitations of soul found their way into the white mainstream.

White Audiences Dancing to R&B

White singers began to use songs performed by black artists in an attempt to "legitimize" and attract the white audience. These imitations as a whole varied with geography, class and gender developing into a conventional set of white stereotypes about blacks and their culture. Whites habitually reduced R&B, a richly diverse musical genre which embraced every aspect of human experience, to the hypersexual, sensual and instinctual characteristics they had associated with and projected onto blacks for centuries.3 For a portion of the white audience R&B was a critique of mainstream America and class, gender and social order, but this conclusion was made through the lens of racism and race wars. Atlantic Records, trying to corner the black market away from Capitol Records, cultivated a clean, well-mannered infusion of Rhythm and Blues, fusing elements of blues alongside traditional white pop. Popular culture was again trying to suppress black culture.

Members of the white music industry initially had hopes to lessen public concerns by hiding the racial origins and propriety of new music styles. In 1951, Alan Freed, a DJ for WJW-Cleveland and WINS-New York, made a deliberate attempt to cover the origins of the recent "fad" by calling black R&B by the name of "rock and roll." Not all society was thrown off by this change in vocabulary, many white youths found this cynical foray of renaming a sound reason to promote the allure of the forbidden world of black culture.

Far from being accepting of the outrageous view harbored by whites, groups such as SNCC and SCLC were not exactly accepting of the thought of black youth as being a rambunctious culture fit for white teens looking for a thrill. Martin Luther King Jr. outlined his thought of modern musical trends and their similarity to Gospel, saying the profound sacred and spiritual meaning of the great music must never be mixed with the transitory quality of rock and roll music.6

The American songwriter had long been trying to harness the dollar value of black people, but during the mid-1950's in Memphis, a young man by the name of Elvis Presley would shake the box. Recorded at Sun Records, Elvis' "All Shook Up" and "Don't Be Cruel," both written by black musician Otis Blackwell, topped charts and captivated audiences. Retaining songwriting credits now became a new ideal for black musicians. The market for traditional R&B expanded yet again into a new field, and eventually black musicians gained the ability to secure better legal protection of copyrights in order to receive royalty payments. Although this was better than nothing, one still has to remember that the fight against oppression still lingered in the air. Henry Glover, a writer who provided many hits for Federal-King, found that in 1950 publishing company who managed his songs grudgingly paid him one cent (half of the average rate) per recorded side. After rallying for a more profitable and fair publishing deal, Glover had increased his wage from one cent to fifty cents, a large leap for blacks in the music industry.

THE BRITISH INVASION

The year 1964 brought in visitors from overseas. The Beatles had begun to make their way into American culture and, along with many other act from abroad, crossed the Atlantic to serenade the states. The refreshing side to the British invasion was the broadening of American societal construction into the global scale. White youths were again listening to music that was inspired by black R&B, but this time the performers encouraged white American exploration and patronage of black music as opposed to reforming and recording black songs to fit the white stereotype. Along with the Beatles, many other prominent foreign groups of the 1960's, including Them and The Animals, cut their teeth on traditional Rhythm and Blues. High priestess of Soul Nina Simone noted that her travels in Europe resulted into her discovering children and youths playing and singing Negro Rhythm and Blues.4 Receiving credit and respect from abroad was a drastic difference from the attitude of white America.

On one level, progress was being made with national media covering a genre created by black culture, yet on another level a radical change with law making officials was progressing. Transforming equal rights into a national issue against federal authorities was an uphill battle. Legislation slowly made its way through the government and tension was rising. Society was beginning to reach is limit as brother was set against brother. The heat of the summer boiled the blood of the movement a change was soon to be on its way. In June of 1963, President John F. Kennedy first publicly advocated his civil rights legislation, creating a frenzy of emotion that spread like wildfire.

Sam Cooke Performing in 1962.

A CHANGE IS GONNA COME

On September 16th, 1964 a new program made its debut on the ABC television network. Entitled Shindig, this was a show that premiered shortly after Billboard had published an article explaining that rhythm and blues was on its way to the grave. Shindig was based on the studies of interracialism amongst audience as well as artists, and became a product and a reflection on both black and white cultures. A long list of rhythm and blues acts graced this stage, but its debut performer caught the eye of the public.4

Figureheads of the black pop era emerged slowly but surely. Male R&B balladeers such as Gene McDaniels, Sammy Turner and Wade Flemons started to record in a much more soulful vein, presenting the radio with a new avenue for black performers, but the key singer in this era was the one and only Sam Cooke.

A crossover from Gospel, Cooke initially found himself to be a pop singer who appealed to white audiences. Hits such as "You Send Me" climbed the charts and with the help of (obnoxious) white studio producers, Sam gained a base white audience while also appealing to black culture. Many songs graced the black R&B charts and few made a marks on the pop charts, yet it was not his early songs but rather his persona that made him a star. Considered to be one of the most influential black artists of the time, Cooke gained more control of his career his professional peers, white or black. With the partnership of his road manager Cooke founded his own publishing company (KAGS), Production Company (Tracey) and two record labels (SAR and Derby). Using his enterprise, he signed only black recording artists to his label in order to give adequate royalties and provide a better means of production outside the dominant white spectrum.

Up until his death in late 1964, Cooke had not been publicly associated with the civil rights movement, but with the release of his song "A Change is Gonna Come," Sam made his way into the public limelight with his civil response to Jim Crow laws and oppression in America.7 Reflecting on the inevitability of change in the roles of black in society, this song was a direct look into the inner turmoil of Sam Cooke as a recording artist as well as a black man in a white man's world. 8

I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will

I go to the movie and I go downtown somebody keep
Telling me don't hang around
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will

And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knockin' me
Back down on my knees

There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will 9

The second to last verse was originally edited for radio broadcast because of its social implications, but was reintroduced for the record. This song was a departure from Cooke's previous work. Upon recording it, Sam Cooke decided that it was necessary to release, casting away concerns of losing his white fan base. Although only peaking at #34 on the Billboard charts, the exposure of this song reached as far as The Tonight Show. The song's moderate success on the pop charts was only a footnote to its success. Appearing in many films and the subject of many articles, "Change" is best known for its appearance as an anthem for the civil rights movement as well as acknowledgement by Rolling Stone as #12 on the magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list. 10

KEEP THAT BEAT ROLLING

The chain of evolution can't be deterred, but the soundtrack that accompanies the progression of the masses will also keep the spirit alive. Throughout history, art and culture have been the creative outlets that become the social commentary. From the science of language to the raw emotion of blues, the song can capture a time and allow future generations to understand a movement. The youth of America may not fully understand the turmoil and oppression that dominated the 1960's, but by using a progressive lens, not set on race and stereotype, it will be possible to appropriately view the work of musicians and artists who were the flag carriers for black culture. If you can hear the beat created by the footsteps of a march, progression can't be too far ahead.

1 Walton, Ortiz. Music: Black,White and Blue. W. Murrow. New York, NY. 1972. A sociological survey of the use and misuse of Afro-American music.
1 Walton, Ortiz. Music: Black,White and Blue. W. Murrow. New York, NY. 1972. A sociological survey of the use and misuse of Afro-American music.

2Eddie James "Son" House Jr. Country Farm Blues. Alan Lomax. Library of Congress. 1941

3 Redd, Lawrence N. Rock is Rhythm and Blues (The Impact of Mass Media). Michigan State University Press. 1974.

4 Ward, Brian. Just My Soul Responding. University of California Press. Los Angeles, CA. 1998.
5 New York Times, 28 January 1978, pp. D2-3. George, Death of Rhythm and Blues, p. 157.

6 M.L. King, "Advice for Living," Ebony (April 1958), p. 104.

7 Guralnick, Peter. Dream Boogie:; the triumph of Sam Cooke. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company, 2005.

8 Werner, Craig. A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America. Plume. New York, NY. 1999.
9 Cooke, Sam. "A Change is Gonna Come."Keep Movin' On. New York: Tracey Records, p 2001.

10 Wolff, Daniel J., S.R. Crain, Clifton White, and G. David Tenenbaum. You Send Me: The life and Times of Sam Cooke. William Morrow & Co. Chicago, IL. 1995.