Black History Month: Voices From Heaven
I have a simple question for everybody.
Do any of you realize that it’s STILL black history month??
Just thought I’d remind everybody because I keep forgetting. After I left public schools where it was mandated that they mention black folks at least thrice daily, well, after the first week, Black History Month becomes somewhat of an afterthought. I mean shit I guess we do kind of get tired about hearing that George Washington Carver invented the cotton gin, and that Eli Whitney invented the retractable dome, or even that Martin Luther King led the Nation of Islam with the help of W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington. And who can forget about Madame C.J. Walker creating the first post-it note with Crispus Attucks and Bobby Seale.
And if I have to hear one more time about Huey Newton creating his Fig Newton’s I just might scream.
I mean, I already KNOW all that.
[***Sidenote: Wouldn't you have LOVED to have been the person who got rich off of Post-It Notes??? Good gotdamn, if EVER there was an invention that didn't require much work, that was it. Somebody just took and cut some big ass paper into squares added some glue and said voila!!! Then, just to make them fun was like, hey...if we change the colors...people will love them. Next to the circle, this has to be the singlemost simple invention ever.***]
I like music. I’m sure thats a known fact by this point but fuck you. I just can’t live without my radio…or CD player. So today, I’d like to do a tribute of sorts to great black singers. Now this list that I’m going to create is a list of singers that I love and admire. This list will include singers who have passed on, some who flirted with death, didn’t pass on and are hence on borrowed time, and ordinary folks who are still alive. It will not however include the best singer out today…
Omarion. He’s just too young.
I keed, I keed!!
So without further ado, I present:
Panama Jackson’s Voices From Heaven (And Some In Heaven): Les Negroes Who Have Changed the World Thru Song
1) Donny Hathaway
I swear, this is one of the few grown ass men who’s ever brought a tear to my eyes, with the other being my father after an asswhippin’. Donny had one of the most beautiful voices EVER. So clear, so beautiful. So fresh and so clean clean. Truthfully, he hasn’t made a bad song. Though some albums are better than others, the album “Extension of a Man” best exemplifies Donny’s work. In fact, Donny’s voice was so good, he didn’t feel like he deserved it anymore and jumped out of a window of a hotel in New York City in January of 1979 in order to give his voice back to God. Apparently he took R. Kelly to heart when he said, “I Believe I can Fly”. Welp, he disproved the shit out of that theory.
All jokes aside, I’m still a little bitter at him for taking his own life. I just can’t quite forgive him for robbing the world of his gift.
Bottom line, Donny Hathaway had one of the best voices EVER and was simultaneously one of the most underappreciated and underheralded singers of all time. Ask Stevie where he got his style from.
2) Marvin Gaye
What can be said about Marvin Gaye except that a lot you negroes out there are here because of him. His voice was so sultry and silky that he could create an album that should have been entitled “Fuck You Anna” (real title: Here My Dear) and it still came out sounding like a gift from God. Marvin Gaye was dat nigga. That’s the only thing I can say about him.
And an extra special fuck you out to his daddy for pullin’ a bitch move and killing one of the few voices that God himself sent to change the world. Rat bastard. The fact that Marvin may have set up his own suicide is irrelevant here, his pops still had to pull the trigger.
3) Sam Cooke
“I was booooooooooooooooorn by the river…”
From “Cupid” to “Cha Cha Cha” Sam’s voice was just raw and uncut. He made the most kiddy songs sound like something you’d get you some “action” too. However, the song that still brings a slight tear to my eye is “A Change Gonna Come”. Good gracious that is a serious song. The man sang like he knew he was going to die.
Guess what?? He got shot in a hotel in Los Angeles messing with the wrong woman at the wrong time.
Guess he was somewhat of a psychic, huh???
4) David Ruffin (of The Temptations)
Neither drugs, nor hoes, nor crack cocaine, could keep David Ruffin from sharing with the world his gift of harmonious melody. However, those things did keep him from making tour dates and turned him into an asshole. If you’ve seen the move “The Temptations” he also delivered a hell of a lot of great lines. One of which I created an entire project around…peep:
Eddie Kendricks: I thought Otis and Motown were fed up with us?
David Ruffin: C’mon Corn, you know they can’t do it without us…we the voices…
Umm…he died too.
5) Teddy Pendergrass
From “Love TKO” to “Close The Door” to “Wake Up Everybody”, Teddy has one of the most distint voices in music. The harsh grit mixed with the smooth lova man vibe brought many a woman to her knees. Sad too, because that’s how he ended up in a wheelchair. Word to the wise, if you must get head in your whip fellas…watch the road, mmkay???
6) Amel Larrieux
This woman’s voice gives me the chills. No really, if you listen to the song “Freedom” on the Panther soundtrack, she has like two lines and then scats towards the end; whoooooooooooooooowee I just get the heeby jeeby’s listening to her. Her voice is so beautiful and effortless I’m almost convinced she’s really an angel sent here to touch lives. I’ve seen her live too. Right there in the audience, I developed feelings for her and fell in love. If she wasn’t married with all those kids…well, I still wouldn’t be in her league. She is easily one of the most underrated singers ever. My life is better because she lives and sings. I swear.
7) Lauryn Hill
Allow me to commit blasphemy for a second. I don’t think The Mis-education of Lauryn Hill is that great. Is it a good album…yes. But I’m not just goo goo for it. However, I cannot deny how beautiful her voice is. Lauryn pre-2002 was essentially the epitome of woman. Gorgeous, beautiful, lovely voice, smart, sarcastic, etc. Now she’s still got that great voice and I will never deny her place in the pantheon of great artists, but 18 kids and the same Marley later and she just needs help.
Jill Scott
I’d marry her on the spot….that is if she wasn’t already married. She sings with reckless abandon and can be fun, playful, or downright assholish. And I love her more everyday for it. I think her second album was some shit, but hey that’s just me. On Common’s nuclear bomb of an album, Electric Circus, she sings the song “I am Music” and good gotdamn, I was just wishing I could see her sing this song. I could hear the smile on her face. God, I owe you one. Thank you for Jill Scott.
9) Luther Vandross
Ya know what…he doesn’t even need an explanation. Luther can best be summed up using a title of one of his songs…
“So Amazing”.
10) Roberta Flack
She had the perfect complementary voice to Donny Hathaway as evidenced by the song, “Be Real Black For Me” and “The Closer I Get To You”. In my opinion, her career was never the same after Donny tested gravity, but she still has that voice.
11) Jeffrey Osborne
He was the lead singer of LTD, and brought such original classis as “Love Ballad” of which K-Ci and JoJo remade, and “You Should Be Mine” (or as most of us know it the “Woo Woo Woo Song”). You might not realize the name, but you know the music and the songs. Trust me on this one. And if you can’t trust me on this one….go die.
12) Beyonce
Fuck you. I don’t give a shit what you say. The girl can just flat out sing. If you disagree, you are a hater and should light yourself on fire…in the desert.
13) Missy Elliott
Okay, feel me on this one. I know a collective “huh” just came over the crowd. But her singing voice is SICK. Listen to her on LSG’s song “All The Time’s”. She floored me.
And yes I’ve seen Road To Stardom. And yes I hate Missy.
14) Chaka Khan
Good googly moogly. Have you heard her sing “Love Me Still”? Hell, her whole catalog is great. If you don’t agree, you are dead to me.
15) Angie Stone
I’ll admit, I hate her albums. But the woman can sing her ass off. Though apparently that hasn’t helped her little weight problem.
Hell Points: 1,000,002
EDIT/APOLOGY/FUCK YOU TO THE DAMN DIVA (145pm):
16) Whitney Houston
I can’t believe I forgot her. I apologize. If ever there was proof of what crack has done to the black community, Whitney is it. Once one of the best voices PERIOD, she has fallen to the side but we will always remember her for her remake of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You.” Whitney was once the woman all women wanted to sing like, now she’s the walking punchline and lead in the new afterschool special, “Crack Is Wack”.
*******
This list is by no means exhaustive and I’m sure many cases could be made. So make them muhfucka…