Sugar cane crops.
In observance of Black American History Month, Land of Books and Honey has found this album, Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America, by Voices Incorporated on Freegal. This album sounds like an audio and theatrical exhibition of Black American music. This album is an informational and educational recording for a non-Black audience. I recommend you find Freegal through your library, set up a Freegal account, and listen to each of the tracks on the album, Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America. A few YouTube links to some of the songs are provided at the very end of this music review.
The album contains eleven tracks. Most of the recordings have narration and multiple short songs within a single track. Many of the tracks’ titles have multiple song titles together on one track. Many of the songs are unintelligible. The words are unclear. Sometimes, the words are sung too fast. Without sheet music to the lyrics of this album, it is difficult to hear the lyrics and interpret their meanings. Many of the songs mentioned the Lord, Jesus, god, or some other biblical reference from the Christian religion.
Narrations educate the audience about the origins, context, and transformations of Black American music over time. The narrator mentioned slaves’ tribal chants, work songs, and spirituals. Later, he mentioned blues, jazz, and gospel. He mentioned rhythm and blues but did not spend a lot of time on it. The final song, “Thinkin’,” sounds like Motown music or something The Supremes or some other Black female group would have sung during the 1960s.
This album’s purpose is not to preserve Black American heritage for the posterity of Black Americans. This album’s purpose is to mediate on the behalves of Black Americans to a non-Black audience. Based upon the things that narrator has said, it is clear that educating a non-Black audience was the primary goal. In the third recording for song, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” the narrator tells a story of slaves lining up to board a slave ship, taken away from land, language, and culture, to “accept the lash” from a man, who has no claim over them, but the man was the highest bidder. The narrator said the “for twenty chained African slaves, the sun withered, the laughter stopped” as if being taken as slaves was an ordinary day where laughter would be expressed at all as they waited to be taken away from their land. I am skeptical about whether any historical research was done at all in the production of this album. That part made it seem as though Africans understood their place as automatic subordinates under white slave traders. It is unbelievable to me that any slave would be joking around, laughing, while they imagined their deaths at the hands of foreigners, kidnapping them and taking them away from Africa.
The narration of the Black American experience is illogical and mythological. It is unbelievable that most people in 1965 would not know that most Black Americans were forced to migrate and work in North America. The narrator assumes that his listeners don’t know about Black American enslavement. In the fourth track for song, “Ain’t That Good News,” the narrator said, “Slaves took their masters’ Christian religion” as if they had a choice or free will. The narrator removes the responsibility of forcibly Christianizing Black American slaves from the people, who enslaved them, and communicated the process as though slaves had the free will and choice not to become Christian. The point of slavery is to control the minds and bodies of other human beings. Black American slaves had no choice in becoming Christian. For example, when kidnapped victims identify with the beliefs and practices of their kidnappers, we would interpret that behavior as Stockholm’s Syndrome or some other psychological disorder. We would say that the kidnapped victim was brainwashed and had no choice except to adopt to the kidnaper’s world view in order to survive. Therefore, Black American slaves did not “take” or “choose” Christianity by choice or free will. Slave masters beat and brainwashed Black Americans into adopting that religion against their will. The interpretation of the Black American experience in this album is skewed to remove responsibility from the criminals, who committed human rights crimes against Black Americans. This album was made to appease and please non-Blacks for their human rights violations against Black Americans. The narrations place the blame for how Black Americans culturally adapted to inhumane conditions on the Black American victims of human rights crimes. Therefore, I am skeptical of the authenticity of the music on this album. The motives of this album are detrimental to Black Americans, not beneficial, regardless to how many Black voices this album contains. The singers and narrator on this album probably did not care about the cultural and political ramifications of this album for posterity; they likely only cared about getting paid by Columbia Records or by whatever name the company went by at the time this album was produce.
The narrator of this album speaks of the desire for death among Black Americans as if it were a virtue rather than evidence of intergenerational psychological trauma and brainwashing that results from being kidnapped, enslaved, assaulted, battered, tortured, raped, terrorized, and murdered by criminals. In the fifth track, there are approximately three songs within that one track with narration: “I Been in the Storm So Long,” “I Want To Die Easy,” and “No More Weeping and Wailing.” Black American slaves equated death with freedom. This is a testament to the irreparable psychological damage majority groups have caused Black Americans to suffer to the present day. Death is an escape from ongoing oppression and enslavement. However, the narrator said they desired “death without fear” as if this makes Black Americans brave or spiritual. One would think Black Americans do not want to live. One could potentially justify murdering Black Americans as an act of mercy or a community service since, after all, the narrator on this album says Blacks desired and prayed for “death without fear.” This album proves how unreliable and untrustworthy the Black bourgeoisie is as mediators between non-Blacks and Black Americans. The expression “death without fear” makes the suicidal and self-destructive patterns of thought and behavior among Black Americans appear to be virtuous characteristics when they are not. Instead, those suicidal desires represent irreparable psychological harm majority groups have caused for Black Americans. For example, if an individual says one wants to kill oneself, our typical response would be that person is sick and needs to be healed by a medical practitioner.
This album implies the desire to die as a virtuous aspect of Black American music, culture, and psychology. Then, that desire to die is shared and exhibited by most Black American slaves and their descendants. Well, if a majority of a slave population is singing about desiring death, then that is not a virtue. That is a symptom of mental illness suffered by a majority of the individuals in that slave population. That means they need to be diagnosed, treated, and healed for a psychological disorder imposed upon them by non-Blacks, who oppress them. The narrator’s equation of suicide with bravery or spirituality proves again that this album is detrimental, not beneficial, for Black Americans.
There is one song that I know has passed to many Black Americans, “Hambone, Hambone, Have You Heard.” However, if you were to look for that song on YouTube, you will find several videos by whites, who sing that song. I even ran across one YouTube video where two white males painted their faces black and mocked Black Americans. The Hambone song was one of three sung in the seventh track on this album, “Street Cries/Children’s Rhythm Gams.” The Hambone song uses thigh slapping or hand clapping. If you have watched an episode of The Jeffersons many years ago, you may recall a Black man, Willie Tyler, with a dummy, Lester, singing the Hambone song. I was unable to find a clip of this performance on YouTube. The lyrics in the Hambone song on this album and the Hambone song on The Jeffersons may be slightly different, but the beat and the hook remains the same. This song may have been forgotten and reimagined with different lyrics over time across the United States.
From beginning to end, the music on this album, Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America, sounds more like theatrical singing and performances than authentic folk music. Some of the songs sound as though a church might sing them. However, I am skeptical that slave music can sound the way that some of the songs were sung on this album. You would have to hear it for yourselves and make your own assessments. On the fifth track in the song, “No More Weeping and Wailing,” there is a part in that song where the singers sound as though they say, “Soon we will be done with the troubles of the world.” That part of the song is sung very fast in a manner reminiscent of a very fast portion of part two of “Chichester Psalms” by Leonard Bernstein. For those of you, who are unfamiliar with “Chichestor Psalms”, a YouTube link has been provided below so you can hear the fast part sung by men in part two of the chorus. It makes me wonder whether this album was produced by Leonard Bernstein and theatrical performers. This music on this album does not sound authentic; it sounds “staged” and “fake” as if the music was on museum exhibit for those unfamiliar with Black American music to sample and learn about Black American music in a manner in which they would understand and appreciate.
I would only recommend this album to a trained music scholar or a college student. I am skeptical of the authenticity of the music, so this album has to be analyzed by persons with the musical and specialized academic skills to vet the authenticity of the music. In addition, the company, the writers, and performers, who produced this music needs to be investigated in order to assess the authenticity of the music. Columbia Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, owns the copyrights to this album, Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America. But, what about the individuals involved in the making of this album? If we, the listeners, can identify individuals and their roles in the creation of this album, we can accurately assess the authenticity of the music. Whose idea was this album? Besides the corporation, who profited the most if there was a profit? Who narrated the album? Who wrote the narrations? Who sang on this album? Did the performers ever perform this album at a theater from beginning to end as though it were a dramatic, musical performance with acting, props, backdrops, and costumes for various historical time periods, matching the emergence of each musical style?
On the internet, I really can’t find any background information on Voices incorporated, but there are a few YouTube videos as if Voices Incorporated may be a corporate chorus where the members can change depending on the project. Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America was released in 1965. Some of the links to performances by Voices Incorporated on YouTube are dated very recently such as 2017. On one YouTube video, Voices Incorporated had an all-male chorus and for another YouTube video, the chorus was mostly female. I could not find any live recording of the performers singing and narrating for the album, Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America. Voices Incorporated appears to be a corporate group where a diversity of projects and musical styles can be performed and the performers are, possibly, used and disposed of. If Voices Incorporated is a corporate entity with replacement writers, conductors, and singers, it can exist as a corporate entity indefinitely. It is no wonder this album, Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America, felt so staged and theatrical. The Roots album attempts to translate Black American music for non-Blacks.
As I recommend this album for expert musical and historical evaluation, I do not recommend it for cultural enrichment or popular consumption. This album should only motivate Black American street artists to preserve their folk arts, music, and dance on their own independently of any outside influence. Voices Incorporated has interpreted Black American music and history in a way that is detrimental, not beneficial, to Black Americans. This album, Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America, is not trying to preserve folk arts for posterity. This album is not a credit to Black Americans at all.
I only hope that my review of this album, Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America, inspires Black American street artists to preserve and interpret their own folk arts, music, and dance for posterity. Also, I hope that my review inspires bibliophiles and independent researchers to study folk arts, music, dance, and literature at our local libraries. Most Americans do not listen to folk music. The most famous American folk singers, many of us can recall, are Simon and Garfunkel, even if we are not fans of their music. The field of folk music for popular consumption has very few competitors. For Black American street performers and musicians, it may be easier to carve a niche for themselves as Black American folk singers than to compete with the most famous pop singers, frequently played on the radio. I found a series of performances and lectures on YouTube about folk music in concert hall music by Leonard Bernstein. I have added those links to those YouTube videos for educational purposes, because most of us do not think of the folk origins of the popular music we listen to on the radio. It is an interesting field of study in the culture of any group of people. If anyone wanted to study today’s Black American music, one should start with slaves’ folk music, preserve it, analyze it, define it, and track its changes over time. If we are not using the library to study folk music, arts, and dance, librarians will not buy it for their collections. Furthermore, if we don’t use the folk materials already in libraries and ask for librarians to buy more, we will not have access to it in the future.
Reference
Voices Incorporated. Roots: An Anthology of Negro Music in America. 1965. Columbia/Legacy. E-music. Web. Freegal. 26 February 2018.
Links:
YouTube video: Performance, Leonard Bernstein-Chichester Psalms, parts one through three
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