A Soul Christmas (Part 1)

It's the holidays people! It's in the frost-bitten air! So we're going to take a breather from calling out assholes to do some holiday programming. The following is an article written by my brother from another mother, Marshall. Enjoy your education on a Soul Christmas!

We’ve once again reached the time of year when our thoughts turn to The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa. Umoja, Kujichagulia…

What’s that, Dear Reader? You consider yourself to be an enlightened and informed Liberal, or at least someone sensitive to other cultures, that you don’t know the first damned thing about how Black people spend or celebrate Christmas?

Allow me to inform you, as best I can. This may come in handy.

The first thing to understand is that, while we listen to the classics, African-American parents do have a misgiving about letting their children listen to ‘White Christmas’ as sung by Bing Crosby. You may also not have known that scores of Black artists not named Nat King Cole performed covers of classics, and composed original and enduring Christmas songs.

Hooray, I'm white folks approved!

I can’t speak for the experiences of African-Americans everywhere, mind you. I can only speak to mine, growing up in 5^th Ward Houston, TX with two parents who made sure I had everything I needed, and some of what I wanted.

We lived in a small shotgun house warmed by a network of space heaters. The kitchen door was always covered with a sheet to keep the draft out. Only on Christmas eve did we leave the tree lit all night. One by one, throughout the night, we kind of each have our moment staring at it alone. Marveling at how we can marvel at so simple, yet common a thing.

The Temptations cover of silent night was the soundtrack to that moment every year. As it begins, its executed as your standard R&B song. Once the preamble ceases, these guys take it back to church. With a vocal harmony unmatched by pretenders, The Temptations, and particularly, Dennis Edwards and Otis Williams, bring an almost ethereal feel to it. For a song we’ve all heard before, this exemplifies just what a great artist can do with a perennial classic, some production, and some soul.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvll9QoAm58

Most Christmas songs by well known Black musicians are covers of standards and classics with a little soul in them. However, when your lead is a composer and songwriter as well as having had your first two LPs become hits, you can throw in a little originality. Donny Hathaway began his career as a songwriter, session musician and producer for Twinight Records. 1970 saw the release of one of his most popular and enduring songs – This Christmas. Full of tiding and general good cheer to all, it’s the sort of song to put you in the mood for dealing with your extended family.

You’ve heard This Christmas probably in many other mediums and forms. It can be found on any R&B station in almost any city. It’s been featured in motion pictures, and is as much a holiday staple in Black households as White Christmas as sung by Bing Crosby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0SwaSv76_w

As aforementioned, most popular African-American Christmas songs are covers. Alexander O’Neal, like Donny Hathaway, eschewed that.

Drug-addled Christmas Joy

The only difference is that Alexander O’Neal (under circumstances that may have involved –ahem-heavily controlled substances) also eschewed good taste for a manic, late 80s R&B romp.

Sleigh Ride, from O’Neal’s 1988 album, ‘My Gift To You’ feels less like a delightful, snowy ride, and more like an insane drive in a red corvette with its top down in mid-December, driven by a drug addict, and bound to careen off the side of the bridge into frigid waters, just as you hear the semi-psychotic “sound of jingle bells.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM7L8nOfTTU

The contrast to that is a nice, late 80s slow-jam, the title track My Gift To You. In this, O’Neal draws parallels to other 80s R&B kings such as Luther Vandross and Freddie Jackson, while also offering decent production values. A simple, yet well put together song, is just as good as an equally simple gift.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzb5ASDn1WU

In 1968, James Brown was officially, categorically, Soul Brother #1. Living in our post-‘Living in America’ world, that may not seem like much. There was a time when James Brown was one of the few, if not the only, major artist who had songs that mentioned, referenced, or specifically spoke of life in the ghetto’s and inner cities of America.

He knows the ghetto needs Santa more than anybody

I remember one year being afraid Santa wouldn't come because I realized that we didn't have a fireplace. My parents assured me he could get in through the window, and hell no they weren't going to leave one open in the ghetto in Dec.

The song that made me think of it, years after its release in ’68, was Brown’s gloriously named, ‘Santa Claus Go Straight To the Ghetto.’ The title alone is enough to make you want to listen. Of course, you may think that you’re in for a lecturing diatribe on domestic racial and socio-economic politics.

What you get is a song that’s all about the happiness of a child seeing Santa, asking him for presents, and hoping with all of the hope in the world, which can be boundless for a child, that it actually comes. There’s a light in the eyes, an energy, a joy that can’t be quantified by the plastic and wires they’re actually getting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcEXEyrJIR8

This is just part 1 of 2!

YES, That’s right – there are more Christmas songs than you’re used to!

Part two incorporates more of the 80s and 90s, including everyone’s favorite Boyz, and a cover of a classic that couldn’t be covered.

Happy Holidays!

- Marshall Hopkins