Heart & Soul

Bridge: A structure allowing passage over or around an obstacle; something that provides a link, connection, or means of coming together; a transitional section in a musical work; a means of communication or understanding between people. Encarta Dictionary: English (North America)

Patrice Gaines wears many hats. She is a mother, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, activist and mentor.  But perhaps one of her proudest accomplishments is founding the Brown Angel Foundation, through which she offers services and products aimed at healing and empowering teenage girls and women, especially women who have been incarcerated.  As a lecturer and motivational speaker she is a woman who knows from whence she speaks.  Gaines having been incarcerated, is a brown angel.

A peaceful and loving soul sister, Gaines has learned to act on her heart’s desire.  In fact, listening to her heart led her to her home on a plantation in South Carolina – a place she loves so much that she says she “aint never leaving.”

Gaines and I recently took it to the bridge, where we chatted about some of her favorite songs from the message-oriented music of the 1960s and 1970s.  Here is what she shared with me.

DJ: What are three of your favorite songs from the message-oriented music of the 1960s and 1970s ?

PG: That was such a great period in music — meaning it was a period wherein you could depend on a song to help lift your spirits or to make you feel that you weren’t alone in the struggle — so it was hard for me to narrow it down to three favorite songs.  But I did and  my first choice as a favorite song from that period is  James Browns’ “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothin’ (Open Up The Door I’ll Get It Myself.)”  It was just a little simple song with a little simple line and hook, but it was so powerful.

DJ: It was indeed and James Brown did that song in early 1969, during the period when he was still known as “The Hardest Working Man in Show Business.”

PG: That’s right, that was the follow up to his title as “Mr. Dynamite.”

I chose that one because when I first heard that song it made me feel so empowered. And I felt that Black people needed to feel empowered. The Civil Rights Movement was still going on, and that song came out after the riots that broke out in different parts of the country when Dr. King was assassinated.

We had gone through a lot as a people that could have left us despondent. There were days when the mood was sad, and so to hear that song – ”"I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothin’ (Open Up the Door I’ll get It Myself) — you just couldn’t resist the urge to straighten up and walk tall.

DJ - In what way do you relate the message in that song to the Civil Rights Movement?

PG - The Civil Rights movement was the push and pull for justice, equality, and opportunity. Brown voiced what many of us felt which was hey, that’s all we want is an opportunity, open up the door we’ll get it ourselves.   So again, I’ll say it was just a little simple song but it was so powerful.

DJ – What’s one of your other favorite message oriented songs from that period?

PG – One of my other favorites from that period is Marvin Gaye’s “What‘s Going On?”  When I think back on it, I felt like what Marvin was going through – his artistry, his life, the meaning of life, war and poverty, trying to make some sense out of the world in such chaos — I think everybody who ran and bought that album felt like he was talking to them. I also felt like it was very personal — like he knew what was on every body’s mind.

I have “What’s Going On”  on my iPod, and play it all the time. In fact I play that whole album actually. JB [James Brown] I play once in a while. I don’t think anyone could come through that era — the 60s and 70s – without playing his music.

DJ - What is your third favorite song from that era?

PG – Now, when choosing my third favorite song from that era, this is where I struggled.  It actually had me thinking — oh my goodness  I could only pick one more. What will it be?  I’m torn but I think I’m going with John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

DJ – Why was it a struggle for you to choose “Imagine” as your third favorite song?

PG – The only reason I struggled with whether to make that my third favorite  song from that era is because in a way “Imagine” reminded me of Marvin’s “What‘s going On?”

DJ – How so?

PG - It has that same timelessness. But I also choose “Imagine” because I am an optimistic person.  Those lyrics, to me, inspire hope.  They invite us to consider what the world can be in terms of living in harmony and unity. I think that when you’re in a quandary about this world you can play “What’s Going On?“ or you can play “Imagine”  because the words and music are soothing.

DJ - Patrice you said that from the moment you heard Browns’ “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothin’…)” it made you feel good.  How did you feel when you first heard “Imagine?”

PG - “Imagine” is another one that made me feel  good from the first time I heard it. I felt — it’s just so me.  But it also makes me feel a certain kind of melancholy.  Sometimes when I listen to “Imagine” I think of when John Lennon was killed. I cried because I thought he was such an absolutely astounding poet … just with that song.  It’s one of those songs that has a very positive and symbolic impact on me.  As a matter of fact, at the front of my house near the door on the wall I have a sign that says “Imagine.”

DJ - Well that’s three of your favorite songs from the message oriented music from the 1960s to 1970s.  But I’m curious what other songs would you choose?

PG- Like I said, I struggled trying to choose only three favorite songs from that era.  I thought about Nina Simone. There are songs she did that I love.

DJ: Absolutely. As a matter of fact “I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free)” is one of the songs that inspired this project.

PG: Yes, that’s one of the songs she did that I love. And also “Mississippi Goddam” and “Why (The King Of Love Is Dead).” And then I thought about “Wake Up Everybody” sung by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes with the lead vocals of the late Teddy Pendergrass.  From beginning to end the music and lyrics of that song would just shake you and make you feel you need to wake up in  mind, body and spirit.

The music is lulling while the message is intense: “Wake up everybody no more sleeping in bed. No more backwards thinking time for thinking ahead. The world has changed so very much from what it used to be. There is so much hatred, war and poverty. The world won’t get no better if we just let it be. We’ve got to change the world yeah, you and me.” I’ve always liked that one.

DJ - I think that we could probably go on and on, but have you any others?

PG – One of my all time favorites is Pharaoh Sanders’ and Leon Thomas’ “The Creator Has a Master Plan.” It puts me in a peaceful place. The music and lyrics sends me into a space where I begin to think about my place in the world and what is it?  What’s going on in the world and how can I help?

I know young people could point to some positive songs in the contemporary pool of music created today. But they seem to face a barrage of negative music too.  Back then there wasn’t the barrage of  negativity from music that went against the positive. We were so fortunate to have had  such an abundance of songs with positive messages of hope, and unity.  Also back then, you could depend on the music to not just have a funky beat, but motivate you, put you in a place where you felt like you could go on.

I’ll be interested in hearing what three message-oriented songs people choose as their favorites from that era because like I said we had a lot to choose from in terms of positive music. It was just a glorious thing to have had those choices.  Again its all about the lyrics and the kind of tone that is set in the message of these songs.   So it’s good to keep this music in our minds and on our iPods, if you can.

Note: The photo is of the author’s mother Gladys D. James,  in 1971 at a rally in Washington, D.C.