1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (2021) s01e07 Episode Script
Respect
I don't have any plans.
My plans are Ike's plans.
His plans is that the studio is
successful, which I think it will be.
One, two, three, do it.
Do it. Do it.
Handful of gimme
Mouthful of much obliged
Like any Black artist in America
that do any tune,
it has to go, like,
top ten on the R&B charts
before a top artist station
will touch it.
Handful of gimme
Mouthful of much obliged
"Much obliged."
- Much obliged
- Right on.
We were having problems
with record companies
and trying to fight branding our records
as being Black.
It weren't that we were trying
to be white,
but we were trying to get our records
accepted by both races.
All the races, so to speak.
When we were with the Rolling Stones,
and Ike walked out and he looked
at that place, and all those people,
like, so many people there
that the floor,
the concrete floor was, like,
moving, you know?
He says, "I want Ike and Tina
to fill this place. Just Ike and Tina."
We do thank you.
And right now, I think you might like
to hear something from us.
Nice and easy.
Well, I'd like to do that for you.
But there's just one thing, you see.
- I left a good job down in the city
- We never ever do nothing
nice and easy.
My first time
that I actually ad-libbed onstage.
"Proud Mary."
It's my song. It was always my song.
And we're gonna do it easy.
But then we're gonna do the finish
- Big wheel keep on turning
- rough.
This is the way we do "Proud Mary."
Proud Mary keep on burning
And we're rolling
A friend of ours told us that
Ike and Tina were an amazing band,
and we had to go see them.
And so, I went to see 'em,
and I remember Tina and Ike
just being an amazing show.
Tina being the sexiest person
I'd ever seen onstage.
Two, three, four.
I saw her and Ike.
I got a seat down front.
And there's just nothing like that.
I left a good job in the city
Working for the man
Every night and day
And I never lost one minute sleep
Worrying 'bout the way
Things might've been
How a person and a group can have energy
like that just makes life special.
Rolling
Rolling, rolling on the river
Rolling
All people gravitate towards that sound.
It was just the power of soul.
Just the beat itself would get you.
I didn't realize that my energy
told people to get up and go.
I had a message that went
with that energy and that work.
I pumped a lot of 'tane
Down in New Orleans
We were taught as young Black girls,
you don't open your legs,
you don't throw your hair around,
you don't do things like that.
There wasn't anybody who was like her.
- Rolling
- Rolling
- Rolling
- Rolling
Rolling on the river
Rolling
We African American women,
we were ready to break out of our boxes.
She broke it all open.
1971 was definitely a turning point.
We were beginning
to hold a mirror to ourselves.
Songwriters actually started to be
more in control.
People started to come out
and make their own sound.
The culture was a reflection
of that period.
And it was about telling our story
from our perspective.
- I am somebody.
- I am somebody.
I must be respected.
"I may be from the ghetto,
but the ghetto is not in me.
I am somebody."
The dream's over.
- In 1971
- Music said something.
The world was changing.
We were creating the
21st century in 1971.
The Dick Cavett Show.
I'm sure you still meet the remark that,
"What are the Negroes
Why aren't they optimistic?"
And I, again, I apologize
and preface this by the phrase
"the Negroes,"
because it lumps together
an awful lot of people.
But for want of a better phrase,
if you'll allow me.
They say,
"But it's getting so much better."
There are Negro mayors,
there's Negroes in all of sports,
there are Negroes in politics,
they're even accorded
the ultimate accolade
of being in
television commercials now, and
I'm glad you're smiling.
Is it at once getting much better
and still hopeless?
Well, I don't think there's much hope
for it, you know, to tell you the truth.
No. As long as people
are using this peculiar language.
Racism was overt in America,
and permeated just about everything
in our culture.
It was hard for us to have
the self-esteem we should've had.
We couldn't get our music played
on white program stations.
We were producers and entrepreneurs
'cause we had to be.
The music business in the early '70s
was very difficult.
Stax became the forefront of the fight.
We are one of the few completely
Black companies in America today.
85% to 90% of our artists are Black.
We're researching Black, because
that's where our product is directed,
and we are supported Black.
Now, this is not to say that that product
does not feed over into the white market.
We realized there was
a tremendous pent-up demand
for Black music in the marketplace.
Music that all of
America needed to hear,
because that which was healing to us
was also healing for America.
Today there are many political,
social and economical discriminations.
And because they're so much a part
of the Black experience,
they're reflected in a music of a people
who look for a better day.
In 1971, attending the funeral
of my third brother,
all of a sudden, I heard the words.
I know a place
Ain't nobody cryin'
No, ain't nobody worried, no
Ain't no smiling faces
No, no
Lyin' to the races
No, no, no, no
Help me, come on, come on
Somebody help me now
- I'll take you there
- Yeah, yeah, yeah
- Help me, y'all
- I'll take you there
"I'll Take You There."
That just came into my head
and out of my mouth.
And after giving it to Mavis Staples,
she took death and brought death to life.
Let me take you there
There is something hopeful in that song.
- Let me take you there
- I'll take you there
Most of the music that we recorded,
even though it reflected what was going
on in the African American culture,
it hit all of America
right in the heart.
All right
What ya doin'?
Talking about
I, I
- I know a place
- I'll take you there
- Ain't nobody cryin', no
- I'll take you there
- Ain't nobody worried
- I'll take you there
- Ain't no smiling faces
- I'll take you there
- Programs! Programs!
- He's Black and he's proud.
He brings out the good in me.
Hey, James Brown program!
I feel that I have a challenge.
Mr. Brown is the number one soul brother
in the United States.
I got something to get up
every morning for and fight.
You know. My challenge is
to show that the small man
can do it
regardless of race, creed or color.
And he can become as big as big can be.
The opportunities are there, and
I'm not Black or white, I'm a taxpayer.
And I can get it, if it's there.
I got it, yeah
James Brown, he came from zero
and he made millions.
He was trying to build an empire,
but he knew that if he could do it,
he could bring other Black people
into it too.
He inspired so many people.
We are finding out
that Black capitalism can work.
James Brown is financing all of his own
businesses himself personally,
which is really true Black capitalism,
because it's all his own money.
Now I got to move
Good God
Watch me
I got it
I got something
That makes me wanna shout
I've got soul
All right
And I'm super bad
I've got soul
All right
And I'm super bad
We created a sound.
That's what we called funk.
It's the kind of music that goes
straight to your body.
You've got to shake something,
whether you like it or not.
That's what made it so powerful.
And I'm super bad
I got soul
All right
And I'm super bad
Up and down
James Brown was the narrative of Black
urban life. He just told the story.
It's the now influence,
what's going on now.
People wanna do their thing
and they believe in me.
I got the move
I've had 35 million sellers.
Never had a television show.
Because
I am Black.
Super bad
But I don't hold it against the man.
I pity him,
because as long as a fella keeps me
from doing something,
I believe I'm better than he is.
And that's the thing
that keeps me going.
I think it was a powerful time,
where, as we say,
all the planets aligned
and it's a perfect storm for music
and politics and culture.
The level of Black consciousness
in this country was at a high.
And I just felt good to be real
with the people.
I knew that we needed to hear,
as African Americans,
music addressing those social,
cultural and political situations.
- I am Black!
- I am Black!
- Beautiful!
- Beautiful!
- Proud!
- Proud!
- I am!
- I am!
- Somebody!
- Somebody!
- Hey, hey, hey. Yeah.
- Hey, hey, hey.
That was damn good.
As I was sitting there, it was profound.
When he hit that litany,
"I Am Somebody," I said, "Oh, my God.
This needs to be heard across America.
African Americans need to hear this.
They need that thought process implanted
and integrated into their brains."
So I went in and recorded him.
And we could get that
"I Am Somebody" out there
and popularize that album
and popularize Reverend Jackson.
And it worked.
- I may be small.
- I may be small.
- But I am.
- But I am.
- Somebody.
- Somebody.
Give yourselves a big hand.
I'm optimistic,
but my optimism does not grow out of
white people getting better.
It grows out of Black people
becoming wiser.
Because our change will come
in proportion to our power,
not in proportion to our goodness.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
the fantastic Staple Singers.
If you disrespect
Anybody that you run into
How in the world do you think
Anybody's s'posed to respect you?
One of my writers, Mack Rice, said,
"I've got a song that I think
will work for the Staple Singers
that I think our people need to hear."
And when I took it to Pops Staples
and the Staple Singers,
they thought it was awesome.
If you're walking 'round think'n
That the world owes you something
'Cause you're here
You goin' out the world backwards
Like you did when you first come here
You hear in the Staples message music.
It made them a modern popular cult
beyond the church.
They became the sound of the streets.
Oh, you cuss around women
And you don't even know their names
No
Then you're dumb enough to think
That'll make you a big ol' man
Yeah, yeah
Respect yourself
Respect yourself
If you don't respect yourself
Ain't nobody gonna give a good cahoot
Respect yourself
I had seen them play
when I was a kid.
They were right there at the beginning.
And these feelings
had some deep implications
in the battle that was going on
for civil rights.
So their song,
no one could've been more right for it.
I knew that we needed to hear
because we needed
to have more respect for ourselves.
And in the process
of respecting ourselves more,
we would attract more
respect from others.
Respect yourself, yeah
Respect yourself
When I was growing up,
I was taught in American history books
that Africa had no history
and neither did I.
That I was a savage
about whom the less said,
the better
who had been saved by Europe
and brought to America.
And of course I believed it.
I didn't have much choice.
Those were the only books there were.
Everyone else seemed to agree.
And you gotta somehow begin
to break out of all of that
and try to become yourself.
It's hard for anybody, but it's very hard
if you're born Black in a white society.
African Americans had this tremendous
ambivalence toward Africa.
One of the most powerful things
of Black Power
was first to embrace the color black
and to embrace the notion
of one's African descent.
First of all, let me tell you
a little bit about Ghana.
This was the first country in Africa
that became independent
after World War II.
In 1960, they broke away
from the British Commonwealth
and became an independent republic.
I was thinking
as we was coming on the plane,
the name of the show, Soul to Soul,
that's something.
Soul coming to soul.
It's a soul show and
we're bringing soul right into soul.
This is where it all came from
Where the rhythm will turn you on
Back in our native homeland
We'll miss the music
Make it double strong
Strong, strong
Soul to soul
Yeah
What was important about Ghana to me,
it was reaching out
to African American artists,
bringing them into Ghana
to perform
on this 14th anniversary celebration.
I thought that phenomenal,
because that was like
our mother country, Africa,
saying to our great artists,
"Welcome home."
Never say minaj
Soul to soul
Soul to soul
I remember thinking, "Boy,
if something happened to this airplane,"
I said, "Rhythm and blues
would be in trouble,"
because everybody that was anybody
was on that airplane.
Every Black person's dream,
and I'm no exception.
I'm really excited
about the whole thing,
because everybody dreams about going
to the motherland at least once.
I'm looking forward to
all the pretty materials, 'cause I sew.
And I wanna take whole batches
back with me to make dashikis
and different things like that there.
Think you're gonna hear
some good music?
Yeah. Everybody's here, right?
No, I don't mean
what you're bringing there,
I mean what you're gonna hear there.
Yeah, everybody's still here.
See all the good people here?
No, I mean in Africa.
Do you think they have good music?
No.
Coming from Harlem
and being African American,
I had not a bit of understanding
of what Africa had to offer,
none other than what was shown on TV
in the Tarzan movies.
We were not taught that mankind as we
know it began on the continent of Africa.
We didn't get taught none of that.
We were taught that Africa
was a place of savages,
people walking around with bones
in their nose, swinging from trees.
We were not taught any of that.
When I got off that plane,
and someone walked up to me and said,
"My sister, welcome home,"
I will never in my life forget that.
That was what I came there for,
because in my mind I was going home.
I was a young Black boy.
I have not seen a white face yet.
I'm looking at nothing but Black faces
and Black women with great dignity,
and it did give me a great sense of
pride in understanding who I was.
From the time we got to the hotel
and the time we left that hotel,
I pretty much was not out of the
presence of Tina Turner and Ike Turner.
I was somewhat adopted by them
as their son.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we'd like to present our VIP.
Delivering to you, Miss Tina Turner!
I was with them in their hotel room
prior to their performance.
In that hotel room,
Ike Turner was sniffing more cocaine
than they probably could've produced.
He was extremely, as we would say
in the streets, "skied up."
Lord knows I've tried
I've tried to do what's right
Five whole long years I stayed home
Both day and night
And I smell
A whole lot of trouble
Lord, I smell trouble ahead of me
He belittled her.
He talked about her
like she was nonexistent.
Like she was a dog.
He constantly verbally abused her.
And all she was doing
was preparing herself to now deliver.
She was the front person.
She was the show.
No person should have ever been able
to deliver the performance
that she delivered.
People talk about me
Oh, I know they talk about me
Both night and day
But I say Lord please forgive them
And go the other way
'Cause I said I smell trouble
Smell trouble way out yonder
Ahead of me
I asked her in the hotel,
"What are you thinking
when you're on that stage
and you're singing to the people?"
And she says,
"I am not thinking, I'm reacting.
I am simply expressing to the people
what I'm living."
So when you see that piece
where her and Ike are communicating,
her talking
and he's coming back with the guitar,
you are hearing the safest place for her
to actually tell this man
what she thinks about him without being
physically abused in private.
And from now on
Said from now on
I will not run and hide
I'm gonna go out there
And face trouble with a smile
And hope they pass me by
I think the earlier stages
was much more fun
than when it became
Ike and Tina Turner,
because I became the mistress wife
and the slave girl.
All of that stardom meant nothing,
because standing onstage,
I was depressed about the offstage life.
And then there was the pressure of having
to make sure I was singing as Ike wanted.
So nothing meant anything to me onstage.
Everyone knew,
but no one spoke out in the open
how Tina was treated.
But it wasn't quite to the point that
people could say that was reproachable.
It just wasn't there yet.
Not only was she a force
in terms of being an entertainer,
she was so much more than that.
Because what you got was so mighty,
and what she had to go through,
and what she had been through
right before she went onstage,
just made her all the more mighty.
- Lord, I say that they just won't
- Yeah.
- I said, I say that they just won't
- You tell 'em.
They just won't let me be
Soul Train!
Sixty nonstop minutes
across the tracks of your mind
into the exciting world of soul.
Soul Train allowed us
to get more exposure.
It showed the artist
as being a part of our culture.
And this was a part of our culture
that we were proud of.
There were not a lot
of African Americans on television.
You never saw the Black experience
on television. It was a big deal.
I watched Soul Train every weekend.
The audience was almost
completely Black,
and they were dancing, and you
had all of the most popular music.
Prior to his first recording session,
our first guest was told to just do his
own thing, but to be sure and do it good.
Let's join him now as he does his thing
the only way he knows how to do it.
Bill Withers.
Summer night in Harlem
Man, it's really hot
Well, it's too hot to sleep
And I'm too cold to eat
I don't care if I die or not
Winter night in Harlem
Radiator won't get hot
The mean old landlord
He don't care if I
Freeze to death or not
I wanted to sing, but the only songs
that anybody laid on me
had all the clichés in 'em like,
"I love you so, I'll never let you go.
You are my one desire,
you set my heart on fire," you know.
So I thought, like, I thought,
"Wow, you know.
I would like to say something that
hasn't been said so much," you know.
I had a guy actually say to me,
"Black people can't write."
You gonna tell me the history
of the blues?
I am the goddamn blues, shit.
I'm from West Virginia, man.
I'm the first man in my family
not to work in the coal mine.
My mother scrubbed floors
on her knees for a living.
And you gonna tell me about
the goddamn blues?
Kiss my ass.
Our crooked delegation
Wants a donation
To send the preacher
To the Holy Land
Hey, hey, Lord
Honey, don't give your money
To that lying
Cheating man
Harlem
I got into the record business
with my own money.
I recorded myself first
and laid it around Hollywood.
And most of the major record companies
called me up.
But they didn't want me
to do anything quiet.
They had this rhythm and blues syndrome
in their mind,
with the horns and the three chicks
and the gold lamé suit.
And I wasn't really into that.
I had a job, you know.
So I thought, "Well, if they won't
let me do it like I wanna do it,
I got this good job making these
toilets. I don't need you cats."
"Making these toilets."
- What kind of toilets were you making?
- Yeah. For aircraft.
Yeah, 747 aircraft.
I installed cameras in those toilets.
So if you've ever been to the bathroom
on a 747, I know you very well.
You understand?
You also made a comment once,
that that was a greater revolutionary
act than your singing music,
and I disagree with that.
Well, you know, I think values are
sometimes upside down, you know?
A guy that picks up garbage,
for instance,
is needed more than a guy
that plays baseball.
- He doesn't receive as much notoriety.
- That's true.
But I would rather see my garbage gone
than to see some cat
hit a ball 500 feet, you know?
And I would much rather
not sing for a month
than not go to the bathroom
for a month, you see?
Bill Withers? He was wonderful.
But he didn't get along too well
with record companies.
It was hard for him
to get that break that he needed.
Al Bell and his friend Clarence Avant
found this guy in Inglewood
and wanted me to hear him.
Bill showed up in overalls, and he
had a big, thick notebook full of songs.
I hadn't heard anything like it.
Something so topical, or so even racial.
It touched me.
Mmm, grandma's hands
Clapped in church on Sunday morning
Grandma's hands
Played a tambourine so well
Grandma's hands
Used to issue out a warning
She'd say
"Billy don't you run so fast
Might fall on a piece of glass
Might be snakes there in that grass"
Grandma's hands
I remember when I was recording
my first song I was working on.
Graham Nash came in
and sat down in front of me.
I'd taken a break from recording
and I walk to another studio.
And there's this guy
with his foot on a box.
I said, "Wow, man, that's a great song."
He said "Maybe.
I don't give a shit. I can't make it."
I said, "Wait a second. No, no, no, no."
He kept saying,
"You don't know how good you are."
That you really love that man
Producing Bill Withers
felt very natural,
'cause I recorded him
just as if I would have at Stax.
You know, with Al, the kind of
minimalist, soulful approach.
Grandma's hands
Used to hand me piece of candy
Grandma's hands
Picked me up each time I fell
Oh, grandma's hands
Boy, they really came in handy
She'd say
"Mattie, don't you whip that boy
What you want to spank him for?
He didn't drop no apple core"
But I don't have Grandma anymore
If I get to Heaven I'll look for
Grandma's hands
This is the Del Shields Show
coming to you in New York
over WLIB FM at 107,5.
The Black experience in sound,
we've got Brother Jack McDuff
Black identity was pretty much
beginning to be really mainstream.
Soul music rose to its zenith
in terms of what it could do,
economically and culturally, all at once.
Think the Black man
is making a tremendous stride,
not only in America
but throughout the world, you know,
to be recognized as a man
other than just Black, period.
Just being recognized
as a man, you know.
Because we're brothers regardless
of our race, creed or color, you know.
If we're not brothers,
then then we're not humans.
A lot of artists didn't get
the opportunity to be on TV.
You got a chance to be heard
and millions of people, you know.
You were a hit.
I think we were becoming more empowered.
People were making better deals.
In 1971 James Brown signed
with Polydor Records,
and it was a great contract for him.
Gave us the freedom to be experimental.
We had a great time selling records
all over the world.
We had a lot of hits.
He is the man who invented
the rhythmic language of "Sex Machine."
My friends, for the first
time on Italian television,
James Brown!
I wanna know that everybody in the house
feel like you got enough soul up there.
- What we need
- Soul power
- What we want
- Soul power
- What we need
- Soul power
- Got to have it
- Soul power
- What we want
- Soul power
- What we need
- Soul power
- We need it
- Soul power
Soul power is the ability
to make happen
what you need to happen in a Black way
and get it accepted
by the white power structure.
Black people had been
downtrodden and second class.
But the power of soul
gave them an identity.
They were proud of it.
It gives people the confidence
to do whatever it is
they have the aspiration to do.
I think soul music is a uniting force
in the whole world, you know.
You've got to get down
Down, down, down, down
All right
- Soul power
- Soul power
Hey, I'm Black and I'm proud,
but if you step on my toes
then I got to defend myself as a man.
Same thing you would have to do.
- Soul power
- Soul power
- Soul power
- Soul power
- Soul power
- Soul power
Soul power is Richard Roundtree
walking around as Shaft.
There were certain pivotal movies
that just changed life as we knew it.
No one had ever seen a dark-skinned
Black man who was a superhero.
Shaft was a winner. He won all the time.
Black people were making money,
serious money.
Things were changing.
Things were changing for most musicians.
Because we were learning more,
and we're getting involved in more,
and it was telling the real truth.
This award, for the first time
in the history of the Academy,
a Black musician has been honored
receiving an Oscar.
I shall go out and try to spread
the good word
through the universal language of music.
I thank you.
When Isaac won the Oscar,
everything was just wonderful.
All the doors were open, and we thought
we were on top of the world.
Gee, Ike and Tina Turner.
I can't believe it.
Well, I can't believe it.
I've been watching you for a long time,
and I said,
"I wonder why we never did his show."
- Did you really?
- Yeah.
By 1971, she'd crossed over.
And Ike probably felt it
and knew that she had.
Ike knew who they came to see.
He saw what was going on.
Tina did not need him anymore.
Who settles an argument if you
Well, now, you see.
Things are not always the way
they look, you know.
- No.
- Now, I always do the talking
- I just noticed that Ike's kind of quiet.
- Yeah, he's
Ike is very bashful
when the lights are on.
Ike's the one that does
all the ruling around, the talking,
the whole thing, he's the whole thing.
But in public he's like this.
Yeah, 'cause he can't get it together.
Takes him
It takes him a long time
to get really wound up,
but once you get him stirred up,
you can't stop him.
He just goes on and on and on,
you can't get a word in.
Being on the Dick Cavett Show,
she was influencing a lot of women,
Black and white.
That is soul power.
One, two, three.
I've always wanted to do
a little bit more.
I really need to find myself in writing.
I'd like to write happy things, you know.
Just songs with not very much meaning
but that can just put you
in sort of a happy mood.
I don't wanna dwell on pain and the
army, 'cause that's been done too much.
But I wanna dwell on pain and tears,
love and tears, happiness and tears.
- Happiness and tears.
- Love and tears, pain and tears.
Pain and tears.
I got my good side on
I left my bad side home
All of the tunes since 'Nuff Said,
- I wrote them all. All about everything.
- Amazing.
He knows every trick in the book
And he use them to get me hooked
- He turned my good side on
- Feel good
- He turned my bad side off
- Feel good
Tina was writing her own songs now
because it was her freedom.
She'd stayed totally rooted
into a Black sound.
There's two sides to everybody
But they expanded it.
A good side and a bad
A side to make you happy
And a side to make you mad
When everything is so dark
you have to find some way
to make the light.
I had a dream.
I was always thinking ahead.
Always dreaming.
Feel good
Music has come a long way.
But so have I.
I don't mean just me and my career,
I mean me as a Black person.
- Turned my good side on
- Feel good
- And I left my bad side home
- Feel good
Feel good, good, good
Back in '71,
there were no records being made
that didn't have a social message.
And it was that we were not gonna be
victims any longer.
That we are somebody.
That you were empowered.
And it came out in our music.
Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
We do what we're licensed to do.
The fact is, we were born into
the situations we were born into.
One day you are.
By me being a songwriter,
I do the best I can with that.
Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
We have survived the roughest game
in the history of the world.
- Yeah.
- No, we really have.
No matter what we say
against ourselves,
no matter what our limits
and hang-ups are
I think you
we have come through something.
You know.
And if we can get this far,
we can get further.
You know, and we got this far
by means which no one understands,
including you and me.
And we have,
out of a terrifying suffering
Yeah.
a certain sense of life,
which everybody needs.
You know, and that's morality for me.
Anyway, it's a very mysterious
endeavor, isn't it, you know.
'Cause the key is love.
You just call on me, brother
When you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might
The interesting thing about David
is that he did have the ability
to play roles.
It just seemed to be interesting
at that time
to try and devise something
radically different.
What do I wanna see on a stage
that would make me excited?
We are another,
more industrial generation.
This is a very different sonic
experiment to what I'm used to.
Reggae music
is a dangerous music.
Christ, we've just killed the '60s.
My plans are Ike's plans.
His plans is that the studio is
successful, which I think it will be.
One, two, three, do it.
Do it. Do it.
Handful of gimme
Mouthful of much obliged
Like any Black artist in America
that do any tune,
it has to go, like,
top ten on the R&B charts
before a top artist station
will touch it.
Handful of gimme
Mouthful of much obliged
"Much obliged."
- Much obliged
- Right on.
We were having problems
with record companies
and trying to fight branding our records
as being Black.
It weren't that we were trying
to be white,
but we were trying to get our records
accepted by both races.
All the races, so to speak.
When we were with the Rolling Stones,
and Ike walked out and he looked
at that place, and all those people,
like, so many people there
that the floor,
the concrete floor was, like,
moving, you know?
He says, "I want Ike and Tina
to fill this place. Just Ike and Tina."
We do thank you.
And right now, I think you might like
to hear something from us.
Nice and easy.
Well, I'd like to do that for you.
But there's just one thing, you see.
- I left a good job down in the city
- We never ever do nothing
nice and easy.
My first time
that I actually ad-libbed onstage.
"Proud Mary."
It's my song. It was always my song.
And we're gonna do it easy.
But then we're gonna do the finish
- Big wheel keep on turning
- rough.
This is the way we do "Proud Mary."
Proud Mary keep on burning
And we're rolling
A friend of ours told us that
Ike and Tina were an amazing band,
and we had to go see them.
And so, I went to see 'em,
and I remember Tina and Ike
just being an amazing show.
Tina being the sexiest person
I'd ever seen onstage.
Two, three, four.
I saw her and Ike.
I got a seat down front.
And there's just nothing like that.
I left a good job in the city
Working for the man
Every night and day
And I never lost one minute sleep
Worrying 'bout the way
Things might've been
How a person and a group can have energy
like that just makes life special.
Rolling
Rolling, rolling on the river
Rolling
All people gravitate towards that sound.
It was just the power of soul.
Just the beat itself would get you.
I didn't realize that my energy
told people to get up and go.
I had a message that went
with that energy and that work.
I pumped a lot of 'tane
Down in New Orleans
We were taught as young Black girls,
you don't open your legs,
you don't throw your hair around,
you don't do things like that.
There wasn't anybody who was like her.
- Rolling
- Rolling
- Rolling
- Rolling
Rolling on the river
Rolling
We African American women,
we were ready to break out of our boxes.
She broke it all open.
1971 was definitely a turning point.
We were beginning
to hold a mirror to ourselves.
Songwriters actually started to be
more in control.
People started to come out
and make their own sound.
The culture was a reflection
of that period.
And it was about telling our story
from our perspective.
- I am somebody.
- I am somebody.
I must be respected.
"I may be from the ghetto,
but the ghetto is not in me.
I am somebody."
The dream's over.
- In 1971
- Music said something.
The world was changing.
We were creating the
21st century in 1971.
The Dick Cavett Show.
I'm sure you still meet the remark that,
"What are the Negroes
Why aren't they optimistic?"
And I, again, I apologize
and preface this by the phrase
"the Negroes,"
because it lumps together
an awful lot of people.
But for want of a better phrase,
if you'll allow me.
They say,
"But it's getting so much better."
There are Negro mayors,
there's Negroes in all of sports,
there are Negroes in politics,
they're even accorded
the ultimate accolade
of being in
television commercials now, and
I'm glad you're smiling.
Is it at once getting much better
and still hopeless?
Well, I don't think there's much hope
for it, you know, to tell you the truth.
No. As long as people
are using this peculiar language.
Racism was overt in America,
and permeated just about everything
in our culture.
It was hard for us to have
the self-esteem we should've had.
We couldn't get our music played
on white program stations.
We were producers and entrepreneurs
'cause we had to be.
The music business in the early '70s
was very difficult.
Stax became the forefront of the fight.
We are one of the few completely
Black companies in America today.
85% to 90% of our artists are Black.
We're researching Black, because
that's where our product is directed,
and we are supported Black.
Now, this is not to say that that product
does not feed over into the white market.
We realized there was
a tremendous pent-up demand
for Black music in the marketplace.
Music that all of
America needed to hear,
because that which was healing to us
was also healing for America.
Today there are many political,
social and economical discriminations.
And because they're so much a part
of the Black experience,
they're reflected in a music of a people
who look for a better day.
In 1971, attending the funeral
of my third brother,
all of a sudden, I heard the words.
I know a place
Ain't nobody cryin'
No, ain't nobody worried, no
Ain't no smiling faces
No, no
Lyin' to the races
No, no, no, no
Help me, come on, come on
Somebody help me now
- I'll take you there
- Yeah, yeah, yeah
- Help me, y'all
- I'll take you there
"I'll Take You There."
That just came into my head
and out of my mouth.
And after giving it to Mavis Staples,
she took death and brought death to life.
Let me take you there
There is something hopeful in that song.
- Let me take you there
- I'll take you there
Most of the music that we recorded,
even though it reflected what was going
on in the African American culture,
it hit all of America
right in the heart.
All right
What ya doin'?
Talking about
I, I
- I know a place
- I'll take you there
- Ain't nobody cryin', no
- I'll take you there
- Ain't nobody worried
- I'll take you there
- Ain't no smiling faces
- I'll take you there
- Programs! Programs!
- He's Black and he's proud.
He brings out the good in me.
Hey, James Brown program!
I feel that I have a challenge.
Mr. Brown is the number one soul brother
in the United States.
I got something to get up
every morning for and fight.
You know. My challenge is
to show that the small man
can do it
regardless of race, creed or color.
And he can become as big as big can be.
The opportunities are there, and
I'm not Black or white, I'm a taxpayer.
And I can get it, if it's there.
I got it, yeah
James Brown, he came from zero
and he made millions.
He was trying to build an empire,
but he knew that if he could do it,
he could bring other Black people
into it too.
He inspired so many people.
We are finding out
that Black capitalism can work.
James Brown is financing all of his own
businesses himself personally,
which is really true Black capitalism,
because it's all his own money.
Now I got to move
Good God
Watch me
I got it
I got something
That makes me wanna shout
I've got soul
All right
And I'm super bad
I've got soul
All right
And I'm super bad
We created a sound.
That's what we called funk.
It's the kind of music that goes
straight to your body.
You've got to shake something,
whether you like it or not.
That's what made it so powerful.
And I'm super bad
I got soul
All right
And I'm super bad
Up and down
James Brown was the narrative of Black
urban life. He just told the story.
It's the now influence,
what's going on now.
People wanna do their thing
and they believe in me.
I got the move
I've had 35 million sellers.
Never had a television show.
Because
I am Black.
Super bad
But I don't hold it against the man.
I pity him,
because as long as a fella keeps me
from doing something,
I believe I'm better than he is.
And that's the thing
that keeps me going.
I think it was a powerful time,
where, as we say,
all the planets aligned
and it's a perfect storm for music
and politics and culture.
The level of Black consciousness
in this country was at a high.
And I just felt good to be real
with the people.
I knew that we needed to hear,
as African Americans,
music addressing those social,
cultural and political situations.
- I am Black!
- I am Black!
- Beautiful!
- Beautiful!
- Proud!
- Proud!
- I am!
- I am!
- Somebody!
- Somebody!
- Hey, hey, hey. Yeah.
- Hey, hey, hey.
That was damn good.
As I was sitting there, it was profound.
When he hit that litany,
"I Am Somebody," I said, "Oh, my God.
This needs to be heard across America.
African Americans need to hear this.
They need that thought process implanted
and integrated into their brains."
So I went in and recorded him.
And we could get that
"I Am Somebody" out there
and popularize that album
and popularize Reverend Jackson.
And it worked.
- I may be small.
- I may be small.
- But I am.
- But I am.
- Somebody.
- Somebody.
Give yourselves a big hand.
I'm optimistic,
but my optimism does not grow out of
white people getting better.
It grows out of Black people
becoming wiser.
Because our change will come
in proportion to our power,
not in proportion to our goodness.
And now, ladies and gentlemen,
the fantastic Staple Singers.
If you disrespect
Anybody that you run into
How in the world do you think
Anybody's s'posed to respect you?
One of my writers, Mack Rice, said,
"I've got a song that I think
will work for the Staple Singers
that I think our people need to hear."
And when I took it to Pops Staples
and the Staple Singers,
they thought it was awesome.
If you're walking 'round think'n
That the world owes you something
'Cause you're here
You goin' out the world backwards
Like you did when you first come here
You hear in the Staples message music.
It made them a modern popular cult
beyond the church.
They became the sound of the streets.
Oh, you cuss around women
And you don't even know their names
No
Then you're dumb enough to think
That'll make you a big ol' man
Yeah, yeah
Respect yourself
Respect yourself
If you don't respect yourself
Ain't nobody gonna give a good cahoot
Respect yourself
I had seen them play
when I was a kid.
They were right there at the beginning.
And these feelings
had some deep implications
in the battle that was going on
for civil rights.
So their song,
no one could've been more right for it.
I knew that we needed to hear
because we needed
to have more respect for ourselves.
And in the process
of respecting ourselves more,
we would attract more
respect from others.
Respect yourself, yeah
Respect yourself
When I was growing up,
I was taught in American history books
that Africa had no history
and neither did I.
That I was a savage
about whom the less said,
the better
who had been saved by Europe
and brought to America.
And of course I believed it.
I didn't have much choice.
Those were the only books there were.
Everyone else seemed to agree.
And you gotta somehow begin
to break out of all of that
and try to become yourself.
It's hard for anybody, but it's very hard
if you're born Black in a white society.
African Americans had this tremendous
ambivalence toward Africa.
One of the most powerful things
of Black Power
was first to embrace the color black
and to embrace the notion
of one's African descent.
First of all, let me tell you
a little bit about Ghana.
This was the first country in Africa
that became independent
after World War II.
In 1960, they broke away
from the British Commonwealth
and became an independent republic.
I was thinking
as we was coming on the plane,
the name of the show, Soul to Soul,
that's something.
Soul coming to soul.
It's a soul show and
we're bringing soul right into soul.
This is where it all came from
Where the rhythm will turn you on
Back in our native homeland
We'll miss the music
Make it double strong
Strong, strong
Soul to soul
Yeah
What was important about Ghana to me,
it was reaching out
to African American artists,
bringing them into Ghana
to perform
on this 14th anniversary celebration.
I thought that phenomenal,
because that was like
our mother country, Africa,
saying to our great artists,
"Welcome home."
Never say minaj
Soul to soul
Soul to soul
I remember thinking, "Boy,
if something happened to this airplane,"
I said, "Rhythm and blues
would be in trouble,"
because everybody that was anybody
was on that airplane.
Every Black person's dream,
and I'm no exception.
I'm really excited
about the whole thing,
because everybody dreams about going
to the motherland at least once.
I'm looking forward to
all the pretty materials, 'cause I sew.
And I wanna take whole batches
back with me to make dashikis
and different things like that there.
Think you're gonna hear
some good music?
Yeah. Everybody's here, right?
No, I don't mean
what you're bringing there,
I mean what you're gonna hear there.
Yeah, everybody's still here.
See all the good people here?
No, I mean in Africa.
Do you think they have good music?
No.
Coming from Harlem
and being African American,
I had not a bit of understanding
of what Africa had to offer,
none other than what was shown on TV
in the Tarzan movies.
We were not taught that mankind as we
know it began on the continent of Africa.
We didn't get taught none of that.
We were taught that Africa
was a place of savages,
people walking around with bones
in their nose, swinging from trees.
We were not taught any of that.
When I got off that plane,
and someone walked up to me and said,
"My sister, welcome home,"
I will never in my life forget that.
That was what I came there for,
because in my mind I was going home.
I was a young Black boy.
I have not seen a white face yet.
I'm looking at nothing but Black faces
and Black women with great dignity,
and it did give me a great sense of
pride in understanding who I was.
From the time we got to the hotel
and the time we left that hotel,
I pretty much was not out of the
presence of Tina Turner and Ike Turner.
I was somewhat adopted by them
as their son.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we'd like to present our VIP.
Delivering to you, Miss Tina Turner!
I was with them in their hotel room
prior to their performance.
In that hotel room,
Ike Turner was sniffing more cocaine
than they probably could've produced.
He was extremely, as we would say
in the streets, "skied up."
Lord knows I've tried
I've tried to do what's right
Five whole long years I stayed home
Both day and night
And I smell
A whole lot of trouble
Lord, I smell trouble ahead of me
He belittled her.
He talked about her
like she was nonexistent.
Like she was a dog.
He constantly verbally abused her.
And all she was doing
was preparing herself to now deliver.
She was the front person.
She was the show.
No person should have ever been able
to deliver the performance
that she delivered.
People talk about me
Oh, I know they talk about me
Both night and day
But I say Lord please forgive them
And go the other way
'Cause I said I smell trouble
Smell trouble way out yonder
Ahead of me
I asked her in the hotel,
"What are you thinking
when you're on that stage
and you're singing to the people?"
And she says,
"I am not thinking, I'm reacting.
I am simply expressing to the people
what I'm living."
So when you see that piece
where her and Ike are communicating,
her talking
and he's coming back with the guitar,
you are hearing the safest place for her
to actually tell this man
what she thinks about him without being
physically abused in private.
And from now on
Said from now on
I will not run and hide
I'm gonna go out there
And face trouble with a smile
And hope they pass me by
I think the earlier stages
was much more fun
than when it became
Ike and Tina Turner,
because I became the mistress wife
and the slave girl.
All of that stardom meant nothing,
because standing onstage,
I was depressed about the offstage life.
And then there was the pressure of having
to make sure I was singing as Ike wanted.
So nothing meant anything to me onstage.
Everyone knew,
but no one spoke out in the open
how Tina was treated.
But it wasn't quite to the point that
people could say that was reproachable.
It just wasn't there yet.
Not only was she a force
in terms of being an entertainer,
she was so much more than that.
Because what you got was so mighty,
and what she had to go through,
and what she had been through
right before she went onstage,
just made her all the more mighty.
- Lord, I say that they just won't
- Yeah.
- I said, I say that they just won't
- You tell 'em.
They just won't let me be
Soul Train!
Sixty nonstop minutes
across the tracks of your mind
into the exciting world of soul.
Soul Train allowed us
to get more exposure.
It showed the artist
as being a part of our culture.
And this was a part of our culture
that we were proud of.
There were not a lot
of African Americans on television.
You never saw the Black experience
on television. It was a big deal.
I watched Soul Train every weekend.
The audience was almost
completely Black,
and they were dancing, and you
had all of the most popular music.
Prior to his first recording session,
our first guest was told to just do his
own thing, but to be sure and do it good.
Let's join him now as he does his thing
the only way he knows how to do it.
Bill Withers.
Summer night in Harlem
Man, it's really hot
Well, it's too hot to sleep
And I'm too cold to eat
I don't care if I die or not
Winter night in Harlem
Radiator won't get hot
The mean old landlord
He don't care if I
Freeze to death or not
I wanted to sing, but the only songs
that anybody laid on me
had all the clichés in 'em like,
"I love you so, I'll never let you go.
You are my one desire,
you set my heart on fire," you know.
So I thought, like, I thought,
"Wow, you know.
I would like to say something that
hasn't been said so much," you know.
I had a guy actually say to me,
"Black people can't write."
You gonna tell me the history
of the blues?
I am the goddamn blues, shit.
I'm from West Virginia, man.
I'm the first man in my family
not to work in the coal mine.
My mother scrubbed floors
on her knees for a living.
And you gonna tell me about
the goddamn blues?
Kiss my ass.
Our crooked delegation
Wants a donation
To send the preacher
To the Holy Land
Hey, hey, Lord
Honey, don't give your money
To that lying
Cheating man
Harlem
I got into the record business
with my own money.
I recorded myself first
and laid it around Hollywood.
And most of the major record companies
called me up.
But they didn't want me
to do anything quiet.
They had this rhythm and blues syndrome
in their mind,
with the horns and the three chicks
and the gold lamé suit.
And I wasn't really into that.
I had a job, you know.
So I thought, "Well, if they won't
let me do it like I wanna do it,
I got this good job making these
toilets. I don't need you cats."
"Making these toilets."
- What kind of toilets were you making?
- Yeah. For aircraft.
Yeah, 747 aircraft.
I installed cameras in those toilets.
So if you've ever been to the bathroom
on a 747, I know you very well.
You understand?
You also made a comment once,
that that was a greater revolutionary
act than your singing music,
and I disagree with that.
Well, you know, I think values are
sometimes upside down, you know?
A guy that picks up garbage,
for instance,
is needed more than a guy
that plays baseball.
- He doesn't receive as much notoriety.
- That's true.
But I would rather see my garbage gone
than to see some cat
hit a ball 500 feet, you know?
And I would much rather
not sing for a month
than not go to the bathroom
for a month, you see?
Bill Withers? He was wonderful.
But he didn't get along too well
with record companies.
It was hard for him
to get that break that he needed.
Al Bell and his friend Clarence Avant
found this guy in Inglewood
and wanted me to hear him.
Bill showed up in overalls, and he
had a big, thick notebook full of songs.
I hadn't heard anything like it.
Something so topical, or so even racial.
It touched me.
Mmm, grandma's hands
Clapped in church on Sunday morning
Grandma's hands
Played a tambourine so well
Grandma's hands
Used to issue out a warning
She'd say
"Billy don't you run so fast
Might fall on a piece of glass
Might be snakes there in that grass"
Grandma's hands
I remember when I was recording
my first song I was working on.
Graham Nash came in
and sat down in front of me.
I'd taken a break from recording
and I walk to another studio.
And there's this guy
with his foot on a box.
I said, "Wow, man, that's a great song."
He said "Maybe.
I don't give a shit. I can't make it."
I said, "Wait a second. No, no, no, no."
He kept saying,
"You don't know how good you are."
That you really love that man
Producing Bill Withers
felt very natural,
'cause I recorded him
just as if I would have at Stax.
You know, with Al, the kind of
minimalist, soulful approach.
Grandma's hands
Used to hand me piece of candy
Grandma's hands
Picked me up each time I fell
Oh, grandma's hands
Boy, they really came in handy
She'd say
"Mattie, don't you whip that boy
What you want to spank him for?
He didn't drop no apple core"
But I don't have Grandma anymore
If I get to Heaven I'll look for
Grandma's hands
This is the Del Shields Show
coming to you in New York
over WLIB FM at 107,5.
The Black experience in sound,
we've got Brother Jack McDuff
Black identity was pretty much
beginning to be really mainstream.
Soul music rose to its zenith
in terms of what it could do,
economically and culturally, all at once.
Think the Black man
is making a tremendous stride,
not only in America
but throughout the world, you know,
to be recognized as a man
other than just Black, period.
Just being recognized
as a man, you know.
Because we're brothers regardless
of our race, creed or color, you know.
If we're not brothers,
then then we're not humans.
A lot of artists didn't get
the opportunity to be on TV.
You got a chance to be heard
and millions of people, you know.
You were a hit.
I think we were becoming more empowered.
People were making better deals.
In 1971 James Brown signed
with Polydor Records,
and it was a great contract for him.
Gave us the freedom to be experimental.
We had a great time selling records
all over the world.
We had a lot of hits.
He is the man who invented
the rhythmic language of "Sex Machine."
My friends, for the first
time on Italian television,
James Brown!
I wanna know that everybody in the house
feel like you got enough soul up there.
- What we need
- Soul power
- What we want
- Soul power
- What we need
- Soul power
- Got to have it
- Soul power
- What we want
- Soul power
- What we need
- Soul power
- We need it
- Soul power
Soul power is the ability
to make happen
what you need to happen in a Black way
and get it accepted
by the white power structure.
Black people had been
downtrodden and second class.
But the power of soul
gave them an identity.
They were proud of it.
It gives people the confidence
to do whatever it is
they have the aspiration to do.
I think soul music is a uniting force
in the whole world, you know.
You've got to get down
Down, down, down, down
All right
- Soul power
- Soul power
Hey, I'm Black and I'm proud,
but if you step on my toes
then I got to defend myself as a man.
Same thing you would have to do.
- Soul power
- Soul power
- Soul power
- Soul power
- Soul power
- Soul power
Soul power is Richard Roundtree
walking around as Shaft.
There were certain pivotal movies
that just changed life as we knew it.
No one had ever seen a dark-skinned
Black man who was a superhero.
Shaft was a winner. He won all the time.
Black people were making money,
serious money.
Things were changing.
Things were changing for most musicians.
Because we were learning more,
and we're getting involved in more,
and it was telling the real truth.
This award, for the first time
in the history of the Academy,
a Black musician has been honored
receiving an Oscar.
I shall go out and try to spread
the good word
through the universal language of music.
I thank you.
When Isaac won the Oscar,
everything was just wonderful.
All the doors were open, and we thought
we were on top of the world.
Gee, Ike and Tina Turner.
I can't believe it.
Well, I can't believe it.
I've been watching you for a long time,
and I said,
"I wonder why we never did his show."
- Did you really?
- Yeah.
By 1971, she'd crossed over.
And Ike probably felt it
and knew that she had.
Ike knew who they came to see.
He saw what was going on.
Tina did not need him anymore.
Who settles an argument if you
Well, now, you see.
Things are not always the way
they look, you know.
- No.
- Now, I always do the talking
- I just noticed that Ike's kind of quiet.
- Yeah, he's
Ike is very bashful
when the lights are on.
Ike's the one that does
all the ruling around, the talking,
the whole thing, he's the whole thing.
But in public he's like this.
Yeah, 'cause he can't get it together.
Takes him
It takes him a long time
to get really wound up,
but once you get him stirred up,
you can't stop him.
He just goes on and on and on,
you can't get a word in.
Being on the Dick Cavett Show,
she was influencing a lot of women,
Black and white.
That is soul power.
One, two, three.
I've always wanted to do
a little bit more.
I really need to find myself in writing.
I'd like to write happy things, you know.
Just songs with not very much meaning
but that can just put you
in sort of a happy mood.
I don't wanna dwell on pain and the
army, 'cause that's been done too much.
But I wanna dwell on pain and tears,
love and tears, happiness and tears.
- Happiness and tears.
- Love and tears, pain and tears.
Pain and tears.
I got my good side on
I left my bad side home
All of the tunes since 'Nuff Said,
- I wrote them all. All about everything.
- Amazing.
He knows every trick in the book
And he use them to get me hooked
- He turned my good side on
- Feel good
- He turned my bad side off
- Feel good
Tina was writing her own songs now
because it was her freedom.
She'd stayed totally rooted
into a Black sound.
There's two sides to everybody
But they expanded it.
A good side and a bad
A side to make you happy
And a side to make you mad
When everything is so dark
you have to find some way
to make the light.
I had a dream.
I was always thinking ahead.
Always dreaming.
Feel good
Music has come a long way.
But so have I.
I don't mean just me and my career,
I mean me as a Black person.
- Turned my good side on
- Feel good
- And I left my bad side home
- Feel good
Feel good, good, good
Back in '71,
there were no records being made
that didn't have a social message.
And it was that we were not gonna be
victims any longer.
That we are somebody.
That you were empowered.
And it came out in our music.
Sometimes in our lives
We all have pain
We all have sorrow
We do what we're licensed to do.
The fact is, we were born into
the situations we were born into.
One day you are.
By me being a songwriter,
I do the best I can with that.
Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
We have survived the roughest game
in the history of the world.
- Yeah.
- No, we really have.
No matter what we say
against ourselves,
no matter what our limits
and hang-ups are
I think you
we have come through something.
You know.
And if we can get this far,
we can get further.
You know, and we got this far
by means which no one understands,
including you and me.
And we have,
out of a terrifying suffering
Yeah.
a certain sense of life,
which everybody needs.
You know, and that's morality for me.
Anyway, it's a very mysterious
endeavor, isn't it, you know.
'Cause the key is love.
You just call on me, brother
When you need a hand
We all need somebody to lean on
I just might
The interesting thing about David
is that he did have the ability
to play roles.
It just seemed to be interesting
at that time
to try and devise something
radically different.
What do I wanna see on a stage
that would make me excited?
We are another,
more industrial generation.
This is a very different sonic
experiment to what I'm used to.
Reggae music
is a dangerous music.
Christ, we've just killed the '60s.