In 1985 this went to #15 on the US R&B chart. It was written by Cynthia Weil who passed away this past week at age 82. Her songs have appeared in this space once before: she wrote “Black Butterfly” (1984) by Deniece Williams.
She and her husband Barry Mann wrote songs that sold over 200 million records, hitting the top ten on the US pop charts from 1962 to 1997, the R&B chart from 1963 to 1991. He wrote the music, she wrote the words. They were among the Brill Builiding’s songwriters, rivals to Carole King and Gerry Goffin.
Top-ten hits on the US R&B chart written by Weil, with or without her husband:
1963: The Drifters: On Broadway (#7)
1964: The Drifters: Saturday Night at the Movies (#8)
1964: The Ronettes: Walking in the Rain (#3)
1964: The Righteous Brothers: You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling (#2)
1980: The Pointer Sisters: He’s So Shy (#10)
1983: Lionel Richie: Running with the Night (#6)
1984: Peabo Bryson: If Ever You’re in My Arms Again (#6)
1984: Joyce Kennedy & Jeffrey Osborne: The Last Time I Made Love (#2)
1986: Lionel Richie: Love Will Conquer All (#2)
1991: Peabo Bryson: Closer Than Close (#10)
Honourable mentions:
1981: Quincy Jones ft James Ingram: Just Once (#11)
I look in your eyes and I can see
We’ve loved so dangerously
You’re not trusting your heart to anyone
You tell me you’re gonna play it smart
We’re through before we start
But I believe that we’ve only just begun
When it’s this good, there’s no saying no
I want you so, I’m ready to go
[Chorus:]
Through the fire
To the limit, to the wall
For a chance to be with you
I’d gladly risk it all
Through the fire
Through whatever, come what may
For a chance at loving you
I’d take it all the way
Right down to the wire
Even through the fire
I know you’re afraid of what you feel
You still need time to heal
And I can help if you’ll only let me try
You touch me and something in me knew
What I could have with you
Well I’m not ready to kiss that dream goodbye
When it’s this sweet, there’s no saying no
I need you so, I’m ready to go
[Chorus]
Through the test of time
[Chorus]
Through the fire, to the limit
Through the fire, through whatever
Through the fire, to the limit
Through the fire, through whatever
This is the first Tina Turner song I can remember hearing. I still think it is her best by far. It is a cover of a CCR song, but takes it to a whole other level. It came out in 1971, a top-ten hit on both the US pop and R&B charts. This version did not chart much outside of North America at the time.
Misheard lyrics: I thought:
And I pumped a lot of ‘tane down in New Orleans
was
And I pumped a lot of ‘tang down in New Orleans
I thought they shortened the word to slip it past the censors.
[Intro: Tina Turner]
Y’know, every now and then
I think you might like to hear something from us
Nice and easy
But there’s just one thing
You see we never ever do nothing
Nice and easy
We always do it nice and rough
So we’re going to take the beginning of this song
And do it easy
Then we’re going to do the finish rough
This is the way we do “Proud Mary'”
And we’re rolling, rolling, rolling on the river
Listen to the story
[Verse 1: Ike Turner & Tina Turner]
Left a good job in the city
Working for the man every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleeping
Worrying ’bout the way that things might have been
[Chorus: Tina Turner, Ike Turner, Both]
Big wheel keep on turning
Proud Mary keep on burning
And we’re rolling (rolling)
Rolling, yeah (rolling)
Rolling on the river (rolling on the river)
[Verse 2: Tina Turner, Ike Turner, Both]
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
And I pumped a lot of ‘tane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
Until I hitched a ride on the riverboat queen
[Chorus: Ike Turner, Tina Turner, Both]
Ya know the big wheel keep on turning
Proud Mary keep on burning
And we’re rolling (rolling)
Rolling, yeah (rolling)
Rolling on the river (rolling on the river)
Said we’re rolling (rolling)
Rolling, yeah (rolling)
Rolling on the river (rolling on the river)
[Verse 3: Tina Turner]
Oh, I left a good job in the city
Working for the man every night and day
And I never lost one minute of sleeping
Worrying ’bout the way that things might have been
[Chorus: Tina Turner, The Ikettes, Both]
Big wheel keep on turning (turning)
Proud Mary keep on burning (burning)
Rolling, rolling
Rolling on the river
Rolling, say we rolling
Rolling on the river
[Post-Chorus: Tina Turner, Tina Turner & The Ikettes]
We’re up, do do do do do do do do do do
Alright!
[Verse 4: Tina Turner]
Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis, y’all
Pumped a lot of ‘tane down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
‘Til I hitched a ride on the riverboat queen
[Chorus: Tina Turner, The Ikettes, Both]
Big wheel keep on turning (turning)
Proud Mary keep on burning (burning)
Rolling, rolling, yeah
Rolling on the river
Rolling, rolling
Rolling on the river
[Post-Chorus: Tina Turner, Tina Turner & The Ikettes]
We’re up, do do do do do do do do do do
Alright!
Yeah
Ooh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Ooo
[Verse 5: Tina Turner]
If you come down to the river
I bet you gonna find some people who live
And you don’t have to worry if you got no money
The people on the river are happy to give
[Chorus: Tina Turner, The Ikettes, Both]
Big wheel keep on turning (turning)
Proud Mary keep on burning (burning)
Rolling, say we rolling, yeah
Rolling on the river
Rolling, rolling
Rolling on the river
[Post-Chorus: Tina Turner, Tina Turner & The Ikettes]
We’re up, do do do do do do do do do do
Alright!
Alright
Uh-huh
Wooo
Ohh
[Outro: Tina Turner & The Ikettes]
Rolling, rolling, yeah
Rolling on the river
Rolling, rolling
Rolling on the river
Rolling, rolling, yeah
Rolling on the river
“Queen Cleopatra” (2023) on Netflix is part of its “African Queens” (2023- ) television series produced and narrated by Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of Will. The trailer came out in April 2023, causing a moral panic when Cleopatra appeared as, *gasp*, a Black woman (pictured above). The BBC says that Adele James, who was cast as Cleopatra, is “a British actress who is of mixed race”.
Director Tina Gharavi:
“Why shouldn’t Cleopatra be a melanated sister? And why do some people need Cleopatra to be white? Her proximity to whiteness seems to give her value, and for some Egyptians it seems to really matter.”
Like Santa Claus and Jesus, Cleopatra is one of those figures people tend to see in their own image. And can get highly emotional when others have the nerve to see her in their image. Even in ancient times, Romans made her look Roman, Egyptians made her look Egyptian. But not everyone is that way: Shakespeare saw her as “tawny”, meaning not fully black or white but somewhere in between.
Like Obama and Meghan Markle, Black people in high places is apparently a bridge too far for many White people and their hangers-on. It seems to threaten their at-least-i’m-not-a-n***** racist sense of self-worth.
The series is way more level-headed than the trailer: it points out that we do not know who Cleopatra’s mother was or even who her father’s mother was. So that means she was 25% Greek Macedonian and 75% who-knows-what. I would add that even if she was 100% Greek Macedonian she would still not be White enough before 1965 to get past US immigration authorities.
People in Egypt, then as now, come in all shades. And Alexandria, where Cleopatra was born, was a centre of world trade, one of the most diverse places on earth at the time. Given the US’s One Drop Rule, it would not take much to make her Black.
Race: in Cleopatra’s time people thought more in terms of culture and religion than race. The Greeks divided the world by language, the Jews by religion. Race is a modern obsession. Unlike in the US, there was no racial litmus test. And even in the US itself ideas about race have shifted over time (see above).
They should have cast an Egyptian actress, of whatever shade. Egypt has a large film industry and English is widely known. It can be done!
Fear of a Black Cleopatra: What the moral panic over Cleopatra’s race has re/taught me:
Even respected Egyptologists whose books I have, like Zahi Hawass, can let their racism override their scholarly objectivity.
Many White people (and Egyptians!) have an emotional need for her to be White – or at least Anything But Black.
Even White people unknowingly agree that “representation matters”.
Whitewashing in Hollywood and in history books is feature, not a bug.
People can be so close-minded and knee-jerk!
Saddened but not shocked.
Adele James herself:
“Blackwashing isn’t a thing, is it? I find it sad that people are either so self-loathing or so threatened by Blackness that they feel the need to do that, to separate Egypt from the rest of the continent.”
Note: This is so far back in time that dates can be off by up to 50 years or so. I follow the dates in “The Princeton Dictionary of Ancient Egypt” (2008) by Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson.
Location: north-eastern Africa, the last 1,000 km or so of the Nile, from the First Cataract (near modern Aswan) to the Mediterranean Sea. To the south lies the Kingdom of Kush ruled from Kerma.
Population: 1.0 million.
Major cities: north to south: Avaris, Memphis, Abydos, Thebes, Elephantine.
capital: Avaris and Thebes as rival capitals.
Language: Late Egyptian spoken, Middle Egyptian written.
Religion: idol worship of many gods, especially Seth (god of chaos) based in Avaris in the north, and Osiris (god of the undeworld) based in Abydos in the middle of Egypt, a centre of pilgrimage. New: The Book of the Dead.
Government: The northern half of Egypt is ruled by the 15th (Hyksos) Dynasty from Avaris in the Delta, the southern half by the 17th Dynasty from Thebes. Abydos is independent of both.
imports: copper, timber, pottery, gold, etc. The 15th Dynasty trades with Crete, Cyprus, Byblos, Ugarit, Aleppo, Hattusa (the Hittite capital), and Kush (Nubia). The 17th Dynasty, the southern half of Egypt, is cut off from international trade.
Currency: none. Barley and gold a common medium of exchange.
Transport: Nile River, sail boats, barges, donkeys. Rare: roads, horses, and wheeled transport. Camels unknown. Horses did not start to become common till the -1500s.
Technology: irrigation, mud bricks, stone blocks, paper, glass, bee-keeping, linen (not cotton or silk), bronze (not yet iron), mechanical lock, saw, alphabet, bathroom mirrors. Hyksos technology (horse and chariot, compound bow, bronze body armour, etc) has not yet taken hold.
The last 100 years: the -1600s:
Hyksos: after -1650 they take over the Delta and even Memphis – the first time the ancient capital has fallen to foreigners. Egypt’s days of splendid isolation are over – forever. The kings of Egypt flee to Thebes, leaving the Hyksos to rule the northern half of Egypt, as far south as Hermopolis (300 km south of Cairo).
The Hyksos have Semitic names and probably come from the Levant (what is now Syria, Lebanon and Israel). “Hyksos” is the Greek version of the Egyptian term heka khaswt – “rulers of foreign lands”, the name Egyptians gave to the princes of the Near East. The Hyksos may never have been a majority in Egypt, though when they arrived in the eastern Delta it was already majority-Palestinian thanks to centuries of immigration.
The Hyksos do not impose their culture on Egypt but instead take on some Egyptian ways, even worshipping Egyptian gods, taking Seth to be Baal and Hathor to be Astarte. The Egyptians will, though, copy their military technology and outlook in the -1500s, leading to an Egyptian empire in the -1400s.
Josephof the Bible: Josephus and others say he was a Hyksos. He arguably did arrive in Egypt the -1600s, though the traditional chronology puts it in the -1800s.
The Book of the Dead makes its debut in about -1650. It is the definitive guide to the afterlife. Price: six months’ wages or three donkeys.
The Edwin Smith Papyrus, a medical text (pictured at top), dates to this time. Hyksos rule did not stop Egyptian science and literature.
May 2023 has brought us a Black Cleopatra on Netflix and now a Black mermaid from Disney in its live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” (1989). It stars Halle Bailey. She has appeared in this space before with her sister Chloe. And so has this song. Now they are together as one. The film comes out this Friday (May 26th), the soundtrack this past Friday (May 19th).
[Verse 1]
Look at this stuff, isn’t it neat?
Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete?
Wouldn’t you think I’m the girl, the girl who has everything?
Look at this trove, treasures untold
How many wonders can one cavern hold?
Lookin’ around here, you think, “Sure, she’s got everything”
I’ve got gadgets and gizmos a-plenty
I’ve got whozits and whatzits galore
You want thingamabobs? I’ve got twenty
But who cares? No big deal, I want more
I wanna be where the people are
I wanna see, wanna see ’em dancin’
Walkin’ around on those—, what do you call ’em? Oh, feet
Flippin’ your fins, you don’t get too far
Legs are required for jumpin’, dancin’
Strollin’ along down a—, what’s that word again? Ah, street
[Chorus]
Up where they walk, up where they run
Up where they stay all day in the sun
Wanderin’ free, wish I could be part of that world
[Verse 2]
What would I give if I could live out of these waters?
What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand?
Bet’cha on land they understand
Bet they don’t reprimand their daughters
Bright young women sick of swimmin’
Ready to stand
I’m ready to know what the people know
Ask ’em my questions and get some answers
What’s a fire and why does it—
What’s the word? Burn?
When’s it my turn?
Wouldn’t I love, love to explore that shore up above?
[Outro]
Out of the sea
Wish I could be part of that world
“Dispute between a man and his Ba” (by -1795) is one of the best lyric poems written in Ancient Egyptian that we have. It comes down to us on a single piece of papyrus (pictured above), discoverd in 1843. In it a sick man weary of the world longs for death but his ba or soul tries to talk him out of it. Soaring poetry ensues – from the man, not his soul. Its themes are universal – you do not have to understand Egyptian religion to get something out of it.
Date: The single copy that we have, written on the front side of Papyrus Berlin 3024, probably dates to the second half of the 12th Dynasty, or roughly -1890 to -1795. The original, judging from the language in the copy, was probably written just a few decades before.
Language: Middle Egyptian in a hieratic script, a cursive form of hieroglyphic writing. It is one of the finest pieces of Middle Egyptian literature that we have. It was writings like this from this period that made Middle Egyptian the literary dialect of Egypt for the next 2,000 some years.
Excerpt:
To whom can I speak now?
Minds have become greedy,
there is no man’s mind to depend on.
To whom can I speak now?
There are no righteous,
the land left over to those who make disorder.
A huge theme in Egyptian writing is the balance between Maat (truth, justice, righteousness) and Isfet (chaos, disorder). It hung over not just the land of Egypt but even the gods themselves.
And even though the 12th Dynasty was a period of peace and prosperity for Egypt, its writers still lamented the sad state society had fallen into, as shown above.
Ba: According to Ancient Egyptians, a human being was made up of these five important parts:
body – at the centre of which was the heart, the seat of both feeling and thought (so much so that “heart” is often translated into English as “mind”).
shadow
name
ba – often translated as “soul” in English. Contains one’s personality. Released from the body at the funeral. Pictured as a bird with the head of a man.
ka – often translated as “spirit” in English. What gives you life. You die when your ka leaves your body. It is fed by extracting energy from food and drink, by way of the body during life, from offerings made at your tomb after death. (In a pinch, pictures of offerings will do.)
In the afterlife your heart is weighed against the feather of Maat (truth, justice, order, righteousness). If your good deeds in this life outweigh the bad, your ba and ka are reunited and can live on, with the help of nightly visits to your tomb and your mummified body.
In the “Dispute”, the man has faith and hope in these well-developed ideas about the afterlife. But despite such beliefs, Egyptians still feared death. The ba preys on that. They are forced to come to an agreement because they need each other for there to be any sort of afterlife.
Sobekneferu (r. -1799 to -1795), aka Neferusobek, was the first known queen of Egypt to rule in her own right, not in the name of an underaged son. She completed the Labyrinth, which the Ancient Greeks would gawk and marvel at over a thousand years later. She was the last ruler of the 12th Dynasty and its 200 years of peace and prosperity. The last of her line, in death she was worshipped as a goddess.
“Sobekneferu” means “Beauty of Sobek”. Sobek was the crocodile-headed god of the Fayum where her family was from. She built temples to him, especially in Crocodilopolis, the centre of his cult. She was also a priestess of Ra and of Amenemhat III (r. -1855 to -1808), her own father, whose religious cult she set up.
It is not uncommon for Egyptian dynasties to end with a queen. Not because women are bad rulers but because they are a sign the dynasty has run out of male heirs, leaving an opening for a new dynasty. In Sobekneferu’s case, Egypt went on as before, but after her death power passed peacefully to the 13th Dynasty. It seems that during her reign the top families had agreed to a rotating succession, where each family held the throne for two years or so. Egypt did not go into decline till some 50 years after her death.
Incest: Her father had a harem of hundreds of women. And yet his only male heir was Amenemhat IV, her brother – and husband. And he died after only nine years on the throne, leaving her in charge. It seems that 200 years of incest had caught up with them. Growing up she expected to marry her father, but wound up marrying her brother instead. They produced no son. Kings married sisters and daughters to keep power within the family and to maintain the balance of power among elite families. For the 12th Dynasty it helped to keep the peace for 200 years. But in the long run incest leads to sterility, leaving no male heirs, bringing the dynasty to an end.
The she-king: As queen she was called a king. The Egyptian word for queen just means “king’s wife”, of which there were many. She wore a male kilt over her dress, making no attempt to hide that she was a woman. In fact, her royal titles were feminized. For example, the hawk in her royal name was a female hawk. Her style of rule was also different, ruling by consensus rather than force. She played up her father more than a male ruler would have.
Statue: The statue pictured above is probably her. She certainly has her grandfather’s big ears and stern look. What seems to be its lower half identifies her as a king. The statue, kept at Berlin, was destroyed during the Second World War by Allied bombing.
Tomb: Her tomb, much less her body, has not (yet) been found. There are two pyramids in Mazghuna that are probably hers and her brother’s – they were built at the right time. The northern one is probably hers, but the name of its owner has not yet been found.
This came out in 2011, almost an age ago, going to #30 on the US R&B chart and #29 on the pop chart – and tennish in the British Isles and the Antipodes. I thought it was a much bigger song than that. As it turns out, it did go to #1 on the US dance chart.
To me it sounded like an M.I.A. song but I could not put my finger on it. That is because the song is based on “Pon de Floor” (2009) by Major Lazer, who had lent their musical talents to M.I.A. In fact, this is now the fourth song by Diplo, he of Major Lazer, to appear in this space.
The video features the besneakered dance group Tofo Tofo of Mozambique and the fashion stylings of Alexander McQueen, Givenchy, Brian Lichtenberg, Norma Kamali, Jean Paul Gaultier, Gareth Pugh, and Emilio Pucci. Count the costume changes!
It was this song that made me realize that Beyonce is not so much a lone artist, like Van Gogh or even Taylor Swift, but something more like a brand. (Well, Swift is presumably a brand too – I just know less about her.)
Girls, we run this mother (Yeah!)
Girls, we run this mother (Yeah!)
Girls, we run this mother (Yeah!)
Girls, we run this mother girls
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Some of them men think they freak this
Like we do, but no they don’t
Make your check, come at their neck
Disrespect us, no they won’t
Boy, don’t even try to touch this (Touch this)
Boy, this beat is crazy (Crazy)
This is how they made me (Made me)
Houston, Texas, baby
This goes out to all my girls
That’s in the club rocking the latest
Who will buy it for themselves and get more money later
I think I need a barber
None of these niggas can fade me
I’m so good with this, I remind you, I’m so hood with this
Boy, I’m just playing, come here, baby
Hope you still like me, F-U, pay me
My persuasion can build a nation
Endless power, with our love we can devour
You’ll do anything for me
Who run the world? Girls! Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls! Girls!
It’s hot up in here
DJ don’t be scared to run this, run this back
I’m repping for the girls who taking over the world
Help me raise a glass for the college grads
41′ Rollie to let you know what time it is, check
You can’t hold me (You can’t hold me)
I work my nine to five and I cut my check
This goes out to all the women getting it in
Get on your grind
To the other men that respect what I do
Please accept my shine
Boy, you know you love it
How we’re smart enough to make these millions
Strong enough to bear the children (Children)
Then get back to business
See, you better not play me (Me)
Oh, come here, baby
Hope you still like me
F-U, pay me
My persuasion can build a nation
Endless power, with our love we can devour
You’ll do anything for me
Who run the world? Girls! Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run this mother? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who run the world? Girls!
Who are we? What we run? The world
(Who run this mother? Yeah!)
Who are we? What we run? The world
(Who run this mother? Yeah!)
Who are we? What do we run? We run the world
(Who run this mother? Yeah!)
Who are we? What we run? We run the world
Who run the world? Girls! Girls!
Palestinian traders coming to Egypt circa 1900 BC. The trickle of Palestinians turned into a flood by 1700 BC.
Note: This is so far back in time that dates can be off by up to 50 years or so. I follow the dates in “The Princeton Dictionary of Ancient Egypt” (2008) by Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson.
Location: north-eastern Africa, the last 1,000 km or so of the Nile, from the First Cataract (near modern Aswan) to the Mediterranean Sea.
Population: 1.0 million.
Major cities: north to south: Avaris, Heliopolis, Memphis, Crocodilopolis, Abydos, Thebes, Elephantine.
capital: Thebes and Avaris as rival capitals.
Language: Middle Egyptian – the classic form of the language, thanks to the literature still being produced in this period.
Religion: idol worship of many gods, especially Seth (god of chaos) based in Avaris in the north, and Osiris (god of the undeworld) based in Abydos in the middle of Egypt, a centre of pilgrimage.
Government: split between the 13th and 14th Dynasty, both dynasties of minor kings.
13th Dynasty (after -1795): some 70 kings in 150 years.
14th Dynasty (after -1750, in the north, based in Avaris): minor kings.
Sobekneferu, who ruled from about -1799 to -1795, becomes the first honest-to-the-gods queen. There were probably unofficial queens before, ruling in the name of a young son, but Sobekneferu ruled in her own right and makes the standard king lists. She wears a male kilt over her dress.
Egyptian literature is at the end of its classic period.
The Labyrinth that Herodotus saw in the -400s is completed.
Pyramids: few new ones are being built. Often kings are buried in older pyramids from the -1800s.
The 13th Dynasty abandons its forts in Nubia and the north-eastern Delta, losing control of those regions:
The Kingdom of Kush rises to power in Nubia (fka Ethiopia) as Egypt weakens. Based at Kerma near the Third Cataract, it takes over Lower Nubia from Egypt.
Palestinians, which were arriving in a trickle in the -1800s, are now a flood. At least some of them become Egyptianized and rise through the ranks, three of them becoming kings of the 13th Dynasty. Jacob and his sons in the Bible settling in Goshen (in the north-eastern Delta) and Joseph’s success are an example of this. According to traditional Bible chronology, they arrived in the -1800s, though arguably it was as late as the -1600s (with the Hyksos). Native Egyptians see them as being yellow-skinned (pictured above), not copper-coloured like themselves, but their prejudices are more cultural than racial. Culture, not skin colour, makes one Egyptian.
14th Dynasty: Palestinians become a majority in the eastern Delta and in about -1750 they break away from the rest of Egypt as the 14th Dynasty. The 14th carries on the government administration, but it no longer answers to the kings of the 13th Dynasty. Culturally, the 14th becomes less Egyptian and more Palestinian (Semitic). We can tell from their burials. All of this was before the Hyksos invasion of the -1600s.
Meanwhile in Britain, Stonehenge is 100 years from completion.
This came out in 1985 and was a #1 hit song on pop charts throughout the Anglosphere and most of western Europe. In the US it went to #1 on the pop, R&B, and dance charts but only made it to #76 on the country chart and #27 on the rock chart. It sold over 20 million copies, the money going to famine relief in Africa.
Harry Belafonte pushed for and organized it. Once he got Quincy Jones on board, he knew it was going to happen and going to be great. Quincy Jones is the conductor in the video. You can see Belafonte in the back row of the chorus.
Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson wrote the song.
Only the hottest artists of the time got solos – almost a who’s who of US pop stars of the time. Belafonte got them all together in one place at the same time by recording the song right after the American Music Awards at Herb Alpert’s studio in Los Angeles.
Belafonte:
“If someone sang in a way that seemed slightly off, Michael [Jackson] would go over to that singer on the next break and gently but firmly suggest a change in tone or breath. The stars listened because this was, after all, the song Michael had co-written. But also because he was Michael.”
Solos (in order of appearance): Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Kenny Rogers, James Ingram, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Al Jarreau, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Steve Perry, Daryl Hall, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes, Bob Dylan, Ray Charles.
No Whitney Houston. She was still unknown: her first album did not come out till 17 days after this song was recorded.
[Verse 1: Lionel Richie & Paul Simon]
There comes a time when we heed a certain call
When the world must come together as one
There are people dying
Oh, when it’s time to lend a hand to life
The greatest gift of
[Verse 2]
We can’t go on pretending day by day
That someone, somewhere will soon make a change
We are all a part of God’s great big family
And the truth, you know
Love is all we need
[Chorus: Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Both]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
[Verse 3]
Well, send them your heart so they’ll know that someone cares
And their lives will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by turning stone to bread
And so we all must lend a helping hand
[Chorus]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
Oh, there’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
[Bridge: Michael Jackson, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes]
When you’re down and out, and there seems no hope at all
But if you just believe, there’s no way we can fall
Well, well, well
Let us realize, oh, that a change can only come
When we stand together as one
[Chorus: Choir]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
[Chorus: Choir, Bob Dylan]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
[Chorus: Choir, Bob Dylan, & Ray Charles]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
Alright, let me hear you
[Chorus: Choir, Ray Charles]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving (Let’s starts giving)
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a brighter day
Just you and me
Come on y’all let me hear you
[Chorus: Stevie Wonder & Bruce Springsteen]
We are the world, we are the children (We are the world, we are the children)
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me, yeah, yeah
[Chorus: Stevie Wonder & Bruce Springsteen]
We are the world, we are the children (We are the world, we are the children)
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
[Chorus: Choir]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
[Chorus: Choir]
We are the world, we are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day
So let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true, we’ll make a better day
Just you and me
A puberty blocker (1971- ), aka hormone blocker, is a medicine which blocks the hormones in the body that turn girls into women and boys into men. They greatly slow down, but do not completely stop, changes like girls growing breasts and wider hips or boys getting deeper voices and a more manly face.
Pause button: Puberty blockers allow those confused about their gender identity to put their puberty on pause, generally for six months to a year, while they make up their mind about whether they are transgender and want to transition to the opposite gender. Those who decide that they are not transgender simply stop taking puberty blockers and their puberty will resume where it left off.
Blockers have been in use since the late 1980s and are regarded as being pretty safe. They are mainly used not on transgender people but to prevent an early puberty, as early as age five in girls. They are also used to treat prostate and breast cancer and endometriosis. They are even used on dogs and horses. Only when used on transgender people do they suddenly cause a moral panic:
State bans on proper health care for transgender youth in the US as of April 16th 2023.
Moral panic: They are suddenly in the news in the US after more than 30 years of use because Republicans are spreading fear and disinformation about transgender people, their latest boogeyman. Already 13 states have outlawed doctors from using them on transgender patients under age 18 – you know, those with an actual puberty to block. That despite the medical consensus, despite what the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society say, despite what doctors themselves say.
Side effects: All medicines have possible side effects. The main one for puberty blockers is lower bone density. But even that is unclear: as it turns out, transgender people have lower bone density even when they do not take puberty blockers! Doctors weigh this risk against the high rates of suicide that untreated transgender people experience. Half of transgender people ages 13 to 24 have seriously considered suicide in the past year. Rates of self-harm and thoughts of suicide can be reduced by 73% with proper medical care. (Family support also makes a huge difference.)
Gateway drug? Some argue that puberty blockers are a gateway drug to the hard stuff: cross-sex hormones. These are what they give you if you decide to transition. Nearly all transgender people who go on puberty blockers do decide to transition, with very few regretting it. Presumably because doctors, in the main, are giving puberty blockers to the right people. If it were the puberty blockers themselves that make people transgender, then you would see those who take them to prevent an early puberty also becoming transgender at high rates. But you do not.
In truth puberty blockers work all too well. If you take puberty blockers early enough, most people will never be able to tell you were ever anything else after you transition. Just ask Janet Mock (pictured below) who went on puberty blockers in the 1990s. That turns traditional ideas about gender upside-down. And that is what scares people.
Coretta Scott King and Harry Belafonte at the funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr, 1968.
Harry Belafonte (1927-2023) was a Black American singer, actor, and civil rights activist. He was the first Black American to win an Emmy Award (for US television) and the first solo artist of any race to sell over a million copies of a music album – his album “Calypso” (1956) was the first gold LP ever. It has his best known song, “The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)”. He would go on to use his fame and fortune to fight for equal rights for Blacks, becoming part of Martin Luther King’s inner circle, not just as friend and advisor, but also as donor and fundraiser.
He was born in Harlem. His mother was from Jamaica, his father from Martinique. He spent part of his childhood in Jamaica, where he was brought up by his White grandmother. During the Second World War he dropped out of high school to join the Navy. He was never sent overseas, but he read plenty of Du Bois, in particular “Dusk of Dawn” (1940).
After the war he joined the American Negro Theatre in Harlem. Its aim was to put on plays “by, for, about, and near” Black people. He worked as a stage hand and became fast friends with a janitor named Sidney Poitier. They would go on to become actors at the theatre in the late 1940s, and Hollywood stars in the 1950s. Both were US-born with West Indian roots. Belafonte was lighter skinned, could sing, and was less neutered by Hollywood, both racially and sexually.
Paul Robeson showed up one day at the theatre. Belafonte remembers:
“My mother had told me to wake up every morning and know how I’d wage the fight against injustice. That night, Paul Robeson gave me my epiphany: It would guide me for the rest of my life.”
Robeson showed him that he could combine art and activism. Art – whether music, theatre, or film – could be used to fight against stereotypes, to inform people of their true history, to expose injustice, to open their eyes and put hope in their hearts.
On being a Black artist:
“There were two choices that one could make. Maybe there were more than two, but there were certainly two very clear ones.
“One was to do the art of Eurocentric, a choice, the Eurocentric value, the Eurocentric roots which many chose to do, and try to do that art in as perfected a way as you possibly can. There’s one thing that’s gonna always be true about that fact or that choice. And that is that you’ll never touch the soul of who you are, because that’s not what you inner soul is experiencing or where your inner soul lives.”
“The Story of Sinuhe” (c. -1855) was one of the most popular tales of Ancient Egypt. It was copied and recopied for some 750 years, which, if longevity is anything to go by, puts it on a level with Dante, Marco Polo or the Quest for the Holy Grail. Its sort of Egyptian became a model for schoolboys – we know because we have some of their homework copies, like the one pictured above. As far as we know, Sinuhe was never a real person.
Setting: Egypt, Palestine and Syria in the time of Senusret I (-1965 to -1920) – in the time of Jacob according to traditional Bible chronology.
Themes: Order and chaos, Egyptian and foreign, mercy, faith in the king.
Our story: Sinuhe is the servant of Neferu and her children. She is the daughter of Amenemhat I (-1985 to -1955), the commoner who founded the 12th Dynasty. When he dies, Sinuhe flees. We are never sure why. In another story the king is stabbed to death in his sleep by his bodyguards. According to historians there was considerable opposition to his rule. At his death Egypt could easily sink into civil war. Sinuhe runs and runs and runs till he reaches Retjenu (Palestine).
There is never a warrant for Sinuhe’s arrest. Nor does Egypt sink into civil war – Senusret I, Amenemhat’s son and Neferu’s brother and (yes) husband, loses no time in taking power.
In time Sinuhe settles in what is now Syria:
It was a good land, called Rush.
There were figs in it, and grapes: it had more wine than water.
Much was its honey and many its olive-trees, with every kind of fruit on its trees.
There was barley there, and emmer [wheat], with no limit of all kinds of herds.
In exile he has a family and herds and becomes a trusted military commander. And has the first duel recorded in literature.
But he feels out of place:
Who can fasten a papyrus [stalk] to a mountain?
Even worse, he is getting old and is afraid of being buried far from home:
Whichever god fated this flight, may you become content and put me home.
which is one of the earliest examples of a non-royal Egyptian talking directly to the gods.
His prayer is answered: a letter arrives from the king asking him to come back! He is afraid but returns.
When he appears before the king:
I found His Incarnation on the great seat, in a thickness of electrum [of silver and gold].
At that I wound up stretched out on my belly and lost consciousness in his presence.
That god was addressing me in delight, but I was like a man possessed by darkness,
my ba [part of the soul] gone, my limbs feeble.
My heart – not it was in my body, that I might know life from death.
Sinuhe finally says:
Look, I am in your presence, and life is yours: let Your Incarnation do as he likes.
Even the queen fears for his life, begging the king for mercy.
In the UK this outdid even “The Banana Boat Day-O)” (1956). It went to #1 in 1957 and would go on to sell over a million copies. In the US it “only” went to #12.
I am so glad someone is still making music in the style of Marvin Gaye. I doubt this has charted – he does not even have a Wikipedia article. The song came out in February 2023 and, between YouTube and Spotify, raked in more than a million listens in the first two months.
[Verse 1]
Oh, baby, I’ve been thinking ’bout you (Thinkin’ ’bout you)
And all of the things I want to do
Once the day becomes the night
Said I’ve been patient, and I’ve been kind
Oh, but my body is runnin’ out of time
You said your clock on your walls is tickin’
So let me give you what you been missing
[Chorus]
So she said
Take me, oh, take me, baby
Oh, baby
Take me back to your place
Ooh, your place of residence
So she said
Take me, oh, take me, baby
Oh, baby
Take me back to your place
Ooh, your place of residence
[Verse 2]
Oh, I’ve been waiting, baby
Waiting for a long time (Waiting on you)
For your heart to be mine
Oh, before someone else comes to mind
But when you
Oh, when you told me
That I was the one, girl (Oh, baby)
I took every hour and minute, babe
Just to make sure that everything is right
[Chorus]
So she said
Take me, oh, take me, baby
Oh, baby
Take me back to your place (Your place)
Ooh, your place of residence (Oh, your place, baby)
So she said
Take me, oh, take me, baby
Oh, baby
Take me back to your place
Abagond 