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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / Kiss My Black Ass / A Reason to Sing.

A Reason to Sing.

by | 90 Comments

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[EDIT: Yes, this is Woodrow/Asim, in my new nick!] Nothing pisses off The Right, like actually enjoying your life, even when that life holds pain and sorrow.

So let’s talk late 90s’ pop tunes!

Specifically: how one of them came to be played at the Inauguration…and how it reminds me, of the emotional richness from singing Gospel, many years ago. A richness that can help, to push back a bit of the darkness.

Let’s start with the song — “You Get What You Give” by the New Radicals, aka Beau Biden’s “theme song” as he fought cancer…:

…and a One-Hit Wonder. Yet, despite it’s seemingly ephemeral nature, so many of us who heard it at that time, kept it close to our hearts. As a struggling dancer myself, it was a massive uplift for me.

And for a Beau Biden who, years later, would struggle with something much more serious in his life? It became a balm, one he passed onto his “old man” — a man who is now our President, and who had the band come back from the dead to play the song at his Inauguration.

But why this song? And what the heck does any of this pop pablum, have to do with the long and treasured history of Gospel Music?

So let’s dive into Joy…and Pain. How “life is more, than mere survival.”

I suspect Beau and Joe came to this song for the same reason a lot of us did — because it made us feel, deep in our gut, emotions we don’t always acknowledge in our words and deeds — that we feel we cannot. And said feeling was of a song that, despite its catchy tune, despite lyrics reaching out for joy, it’s also drenched in — and it’s infamous ending reeks of — pain. Of a loss, of control over our lives, and screaming out for that to change.

And if it can’t change, much like the Serenity Prayer, you learn to accept.

In that, yeah, it reminds me of the Gospel I sang, as a kid.

Gospel Music (and in this, I’m laser-focused on the songs from the African-American tradition) has a lot of emotional power, power that comes from shared burdens and pain. By its very nature, both coming from the long history of Christianity, and the specific “out of bondage” narrative of the African-American traditions, they are oftentimes songs about finding joy in the worst of pain. The old saying of “Making a way out of no way” is richly echoed by “You Get…” without aping or appropriating, and that gives it a ton of power that helps explain it’s near-cultish survival.

When the Florida Mass Choir sings that Jesus “makes my bridge over troubled waters/makes my hope — hope! — for tomorrow,” yeah, it’s a Christian version of “You Only Get…”‘s chorus around “One dance left, this world is gonna pull through/Don’t give up, you’ve got a reason to live”. Both are reminders that there’s power in sharing our burdens, a topic I expect to return to, in my tenure here.

But more critically, Gospel does this not in the style of a hopeless, painful singing style, not in ways that drag down the actual listening experience. You learn to sing Gospel as an act of defiance, of joyous surrender to the moment, and to God/Jesus (yes, that’s a whole-assed topic itself…). Gospel taught me, and “You Get” reinforces, that you can sing about horribly painful subjects, about the ugliness of the world around you, and do so in ways that empower you to step into tomorrow.

That’s…not for everyone, to say the least. Toxic Positivity is a real thing, and so is real no-joke Depression that turns everything dark, with no light from anything. These words, my writing here today, should never be used to mask or force people into some “damned light”.

But, in the aggregate, they do matter. Pushing back fear, always matters. Building connections, especially across the boundaries of artifice and culture, always matters.

And if me building a connection between a lamented son’s favorite song, and a musical style that lifted up millions for decades, helps you, today? I’m glad.

And if it just confused you? Well, welcome to the fun house that is my mind.

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  2. 2.

    MisterDancer

    Hi all! [EDIT to add: IT’s Woodrow/Asim using my new nick!]

    I’ve been working on this for a couple of days; I’ll do a more proper intro post later, but — yeah, it’s Sunday. When better to talk about Gospel music? :)

    And now I’ll get back to my Chidi Anna Kendrick Movie Marathon. :) I did final edits on this finally watching PITCH PERFECT after so many years, and now I’m trying MR. RIGHT on for size.

    Thanks for reading!

  4. 4.

    MisterDancer

    @Baud: I’m bad about rules like “you should introduce yourself, first,” Baud.

    It’s Woodrow/Asim, using my new nick. :)

  5. 5.

    raven

    @Baud: Try to keep up.

     

    Enough with the classics, out with the old, in with the new.

    I am very excited to announce that we have two new front pagers who will be contributing to the blog, promoted from the comments section. It’s our 20th and it is time for some new blood and new perspectives.

    Everyone say congratulations to Woodrow and the Thin Black Duke and welcome them aboard this hell bound shit show.

  6. 6.

    Baud

    @MisterDancer:

    Ah.  Thanks for clarifying. John mentioned you and Duke were posting soon, so I was like “who’s this third guy?”

    Welcome aboard.  Looking forward to your posts.

  14. 14.

    zhena gogolia

    I love this essay. Part of my frustration with my broken arm is that I can’t play the piano, which is my major source of joy when repugs get me down. Hope I’ll be able to again some day.

  16. 16.

    raven

    “Making a way out of no way” was the title of one of my classmates dissertation way back in the 90’s!

  19. 19.

    Another Scott

    Welcome back. Excellent first post.

    The stanza:

    Wake up, kids
    We got the dreamers disease
    Age fourteen, they got you down on your knees
    So polite, we’re busy still saying please
    Frienemies, who when you’re down ain’t your friend
    Every night we smash a Mercedes-Benz
    First we run, and then we laugh ’til we cry

    is very well done. The teenage years are times of huge changes and trying to figure out who one is and where one fits. Adulthood seems impossibly far away, and at the same time too close.

    On the Gospel side, I can’t really cite anything except for Obama singing “Amazing Grace”. Quite often, music really is the best medicine.

    Thanks.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  20. 20.

    raven

    So, when I was in the Army in the 60’s a lot of the brothers I knew had had it with the “non-violent civil disobedience” path that was associated with the Civil Right Movement. I know how vital the church is in the African-American community but I wonder if this tension still exists?

  21. 21.

    Ohio Mom

    I had a moment of confusion as well. I misread the byline as mistermix, I’m reading along, and bam! “Singing gospel” doesn’t sound like mistermix or any of the other front pagers for that matter (which may be an example of why Cole enlisted our two newest fp’s).

    Anyway, I heartily agree, music can bring you hope and raise your spirits even as everything around you appears to be going to hell. On a particularly frustrating day last year, I caught Ohio Son working to modulate his mood by playing the Mountain Goat’s “I’m going to make it through this year if it kills me,” over and over. (May not be the actual sing title, that’s what I call it.)

  22. 22.

    FelonyGovt

    I never knew about this song’s meaning to the Bidens. I remember it as a light and pleasant ditty and didn’t think about it having a greater message.  The parallel you’ve drawn to gospel music is fascinating.

    I look forward to reading more of your posts!

  24. 24.

    SpaceUnit

    I personally never cared greatly for gospel music, probably because my views regarding Jesus and the Christian church would have gotten me burned at the stake until fairy recent times.  I see Jesus as an early enlightenment figure and don’t really understand the concept of divinity all that well.

    We heretics listen mostly to punk.  Stick it to the man!!

  25. 25.

    raven

    Maybe this answers my question

     

    “We were a bunch of kids,” recalled Kathleen Cleaver (who divorced her husband after he became born-again) many years later. “We didn’t understand the energy required to make real revolution. We discounted the organizing power of the black church, and we didn’t understand the spiritual commitment that would be necessary to achieve our goals.”

  29. 29.

    Matt McIrvin

    I remember realizing this song had achieved classic status when I heard a college marching band playing it at a halftime show, just a few years ago.

  31. 31.

    satby

    Pushing back fear, always matters. Building connections, especially across the boundaries of artifice and culture, always matters.

    Great inaugural post Mister Dancer! You’re quite right.

  34. 34.

    piratedan

    other songs in the same vein… I’ve always had a soft spot for Jimmy Eat World’s The Middle
    which speaks to haters in general and the need to simply be yourself…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKsxPW6i3pM

    I’m sure that there are others… that speak to struggle, perseverence and finding oneself

  36. 36.

    WaterGirl

    @Baud: MD can learn the second time it happens! :-)

    As for not having seen the announcement, I’m sure you read “enough with the classics”, figured Cole was dissing me, so you left in protest before you knew what the post was about.  I appreciate that!  :-)

  37. 37.

    Anne Laurie

    Welcome, MisterDancer! I am very much looking forward to reading more of your posts here!

    As for gospel music.. can we include Aretha Franklin? It certainly seems to have been a wellspring, and later a form of salvation, for her…

    Also, pathetic crayture that I am, I want to shout out The Preacher’s Wife. It doesn’t get much respect, but IMO Whitney Houston actually *was* compelling as a preacher’s kid who could only let loose singing gospel.

  38. 38.

    Ruckus

    @raven:

    I can not ligit answer your question but I can say I bet it does to some extent, if only because of the other side of the aisle. Hell it does on this blog, look at some of the comments in the prior post by AL. People want action and want it now! But reality strikes a blow and people find out that democracy takes time and effort, not bullshit and bluster, that it is a very long haul situation to change the power structure and it’s motivation, which has been and still is money. Sure they like the power but they like it because it’s profitable, not necessarily because it is or isn’t the right thing to do. Life and governing has always been about money, or more to the point, about wealth – and having more than others. Democracy isn’t about that at all. It’s not that it doesn’t take money, it’s that money/wealth is not the central issue. But money/wealth is the central pillar of conservative politics and always has been.

  41. 41.

    eddie blake

    neat post.

    yesterday was bowie’s birthday. i mourn his loss, still kind of an open wound. his last record, his post 9/11 output was ethereal and haunting, just great stuff. such a genius.

  43. 43.

    MisterDancer

    @raven: Yeah, there’s a lot of complex interplays in the African-American community around the Church as a leader. I don’t even know how to start doing that topic any real justice; I’ve got books in my TO READ pile on just the role of the Church, much less the other forces you speak on.

    I think the best way to summarize is that Black folx are still Americans, and the decline in overall church attendance impact across all sectors of society, applies here as well. And, outside of that, my personal opinion is that there was a path to bridging that gap — Dr. King was more and more aggressive in calling out Whites who wern’t really onboard with systemic change, and in parallel, of course, Brother Malcolm was pushing back against the toxicity of the Nation of Islam.

    Now, none of that breaks away from the forces that were shaping the creation of the Black Panther Party, or other groups of like stylings. Yet I suspect there was some way to pull these various threads back into something like alignment, had there been will, and time.

  44. 44.

    Craig

    This is a well timed post, I was listening to gospel this morning. There’s a church on my corner that has a killer band and gospel chorus. I just sit on the porch and listen on Sunday.

  45. 45.

    bluegirlfromwyo

    I looked forward to your first post. You did not disappoint. Music is the best lens to view the world in all its complexity.

  47. 47.

    Yutsano

    I’m so glad I got the music education I got in college. We had a guest choir director for one semester. She was the director of a gospel choir at a church in Seattle. What I learned not only about gospel music but the Black experience in the US and the world shook me to my core. In even the most bleak gospels there is always hope. African traditions were more coöperative and African culture was much more advanced than the “primitive” tribes I was taught in high school. There are so many layers to the gospel tradition that woke my little Jewish ass up!

  50. 50.

    raven

    @MisterDancer: I’ve always thought (not in any way unique) that as long as MLK and Malcolm were seen as divisive they served a purpose to the power structure but when MLK made the connection with racism in America and racism in Vietnam they killed him. Same with Malcolm when he made the analysis that it was America that was the problem, not necessarily skin color.

  54. 54.

    West of the Rockies

    I love the clear-eyed recognition of trouble but a heart and head still full of fight.

    An excellent first effort, sir!

  56. 56.

    lowtechcyclist

    I’ll confess that I’ve never understood the appeal of this song.  It takes a good melody to pull me in, and this song barely has one (a problem I’ve never encountered with gospel music), so I never got as far as noticing the lyrics, even though I’ve heard it often.

    That said, the late 1990s were a good time for pop music.  Closing Time, Flagpole Sitta, The Impression That I Get…lots of good stuff back then.

  61. 61.

    Suzanne

    So the late 90s was, like, my time. I graduated from high school in 1998 and went to college that year. My roommate and I listened to music basically nonstop, as college freshmen/sophomores do. And Napster, of course. And other assorted hijinks. I was much more of an alternative and punk snob, while she was much poppier. The songs we both liked were few and far between, though we did both like that New Radicals song. The other one that stands out to me from that time that we both loved was “Singing In My Sleep” by Semisonic.

  66. 66.

    Geminid

    @MisterDancer: I never knew much about Congressman Bobby Rush (IL-1) except that he was a Black Panther and that Barack Obama’s first political campaign was a challenge to Rush (Rush won). So I was interested to read last week that Bobby Rush was retiring from Congress, and would devote more time to his role as Pastor of the Blessed Community Church of God in Christ, on Chicago’s South Side.

    Rush: “I am not retiring, I am just entering a new phase of my life.:

  67. 67.

    planetjanet

    Excellent post, MisterDancer.  I have always loved the Young Radicals.  I had no idea they were a one-hit wonder.  Maybe I am one of the few people with the CD.  The lyrics were always uplifting, encouragement to get through rough times.  I also loved “Someday We Will Know” from the same CD.  It strikes me as a powerful song and thought it was the bigger hit.  The pain of unrequited love, the hope the situation could reverse.  Someday We’ll Know

  68. 68.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us

    I like that song. New Radicals called it quits because they didn’t like the grind of touring, but the main creative duo kept writing and producing songs for others and were nominated for an Academy Award for best original song in 2015. The song was “Lost Stars” from the movie Begin Again.

    One of my faves from the mid to late 90s was Long December from Counting Crows. It’s not a gospel song, more a melancholy dirge but a catchy one.

  70. 70.

    Almost Retired

    Useless bonus trivia: The percussionist and background singer of the New Radicals was Danielle Brisbois. As a child actor, she played Stephanie Mills – a distant relative of Edith’s adopted by the Bunkers in the last season of “All in the Family,” after the shark had been well and fully jumped on that series.

  71. 71.

    smith

    @Geminid:  Bobby Rush is my congressman, and I’ve had no complaints, especially after a previous reapportionment moved me into his district from that of the loathsome Dan Lipinski. From being represented by the worst DINO in Congress to a former Black Panther was an interesting leap, but definitely in the right direction.

  72. 72.

    geg6

    @MisterDancer:

    Love this and a way of seeing this that I never saw before.  FWIW, I always loved this song and wondered what happened to this band.  As for what my old friend Dionne calls church music, there’s nothing better.  The joy and strength and patience and pain, especially in an actual church setting with the choir and the whole congregation!  Almost makes this old white cynical atheist a believer.

  74. 74.

    Dan B

    @Leto: Whow!  That is a flashback to when a gay disco called Shelly’s Leg opened in Seattle.  It got very popular as a hip place and filled with straight people.  A big sign was posted stating that it was “A gay bar for gay people”.  I knew we’d won over the gay rights fight when the hot gay bar was not a place where straight men feared being hit on but was a bigger hit than any straight bar

    It was also great for gay people because it was a bright place – no shadows to hide in and furtively avoid being discovered.

  75. 75.

    Starfish

    @raven: I don’t remember who recommended it, but the book This Non-Violence Stuff’ll Get You Killed by Charles E. Cobb gets deep into all of this.

    In the South, people were very much, “We don’t think that non-violence stuff will work here” because they were experiencing so much violence. Anyway, they stayed armed and protected the non-violent leaders of the civil rights movement. A lot of people staying armed and leading the civil rights movement in the South were former military.

    There were also the Deacons of Defense who were both religious and armed.

  78. 78.

    lowtechcyclist

    @eddie blake: ​

    Always happy to be of assistance!

    @Suzanne: ​

    The worst earworm from the late 90s has got to be “Sex and Candy”.

    I don’t know what disco lemonade would taste like, but I’d like to try some and find out.

  79. 79.

    Dan B

    MisterDancer it’s great to have you on the front page!  Compelling furst post.  Thanks to JC for bringing you on board.

  81. 81.

    Laura Too

    @MisterDancer: What a treat, like mind candy only way more nutritious! You give me lots to ponder. A welcome voice, thanks for putting this together for us.

  82. 82.

    Lyrebird

    @MisterDancer: Thank you!

    May I shout “SING IT!” as well?

     

    Enjoyed your post.

    Nothing pisses off The Right, like actually enjoying your life, even when that life holds pain and sorrow.

    Who was it that was criticizing VP Harris for dancing?  Peggy Noonan?  Yeah.

     

    More power to you, and to the Veep, and to Joey O’Biden, and to BJ in the new year.

  83. 83.

    Tim in SF

    I remember hearing this song and, though liking it, not giving it a second thought. If I hadn’t read this post, I would have never gone to the Wikipedia page to read about it. It’s an interesting read. It’s worth reading the lyrics while listening to the song.

  84. 84.

    LeftCoastYankee

    Great post.  Unexpected connections about unexpected connections.

    Which made remember last week when I heard this Michael Franti song coming over the grocery store speakers (and I tried not to dance down the aisles).

  85. 85.

    Soprano2

    Welcome aboard, thanks for this post. I’ve never been a fan of listening to gospel music, but hearing it performed live can be a thrilling experience. I need the energy of the actual choir to enjoy it. Our local state university has a gospel choir; they perform at our Choralfest concert, and I always look forward to their performance.

    I’ve loved singing since I was a kid; it brings a lot of joy to my life. I was so glad we had choir last year even though we had to wear face masks to do it. I was willing to take the risk to have it in my life.

  88. 88.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Sister Golden Bear: Ooh – thanks for that.  I loved that song had forgotten about it until you posted the link.

    A 90s favorite for me was Soho’s Hippychick.  They had a live performance my sophomore year in college and it was awesome.

  89. 89.

    Elizabelle

    Welcome, MisterDancer.  Excellent first post.  Thank you for coming up with something so fresh, and thank you to jackals for all the good comments and music links.

    Very interested in the conversation about MLK and Malcolm X.  Would be interested in your (extended) take on that.  Raven had some great comments.

    Going to look at the lyrics for the Young Radicals song now.  Never really paid any attention to it before.  Just background music, but could remember the group’s name, in the event it ever came up in a trivia match …

    PS:  If I may ask:  why were you Woodrow/Asim previously, and why did you choose a newer ‘nym for blogging here?  Just snoopy.  Anyway, glad you will be writing more.

  90. 90.

    drunkenhausfrau

    Love this.  Despite my nym, my actual life’s tonic is dance… I take 7 classes a week.  For me, it’s Physically, mentally, but mostly, spiritually uplifting through whatever, even cancer.

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