Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 295 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
While President Donald Trump managed to figure out a way to diss the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther Jr. on his holiday by removing free entrance to national parks, many of us who celebrate this national day will be playing music in his honor.
Lest we forget, the battle to achieve that day was a long and hard-fought struggle the National Museum of African American History and Culture retells:
On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law, designating the third Monday in January a federal holiday in observance of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The legislation to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first introduced just four days after his assassination on April 4, 1968. Still, it would take 15 years of persistence by civil rights activists for the holiday to be approved by the federal government and an additional 17 years for it to be recognized in all 50 states. Today, it is the only federal holiday designated as a national day of service to encourage all Americans to volunteer and improve their communities.
It is both a day of uplift and one of sadness. I’ve selected a few of my musical favorites in King’s honor, and hope you will join me in the comments section below and post yours.
My first selection is Nina Simone’s “Why (The King of Love is Dead).” Paul Zollo wrote for Songwriter:
Nina Simone performed it only three days past the assassination on April 7, 1968, at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island in New York. In an impassioned, epic performance of almost fifteen minutes, delivered in a voice weakened by rage and sorrow, she spoke, she sang, she sermonized, and prayed for the hatred to end. Her words are a tragic reminder that in more than fifty years since that night, systemic racism in this country persists.
Duke Ellington’s tribute to King was part three of his “Three Black Kings” masterpiece, which he wrote in 1974 before his death.
Robert Kirzinger the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s director of program publications wrote:
“Three Black Kings,” Ellington’s last work, celebrates two Biblical kings and one then recently departed, Martin Luther King, Jr. By placing King alongside the Bible’s King Balthazar (the African king of the Three Magi) and King Solomon, Ellington makes clear the esteem he had for and historical importance he attributed to the slain Black civil rights leader. In the first movement, “King of the Magi,” the percussion-heavy sound-world and occasional breaks into sinuous melody evoke Balthazar’s origin, luxuriating in Ellington’s passion for assimilating elements of African and Eastern musical styles. “King Solomon” is dance-hall jazz, swinging and good-natured. In the finale, “Martin Luther King,” a slow, bittersweet opening gives way to a powerfully exuberant and hopeful Gospel song.
Completed by Mercer Ellington, “Three Black Kings” was orchestrated by Luther Henderson and was premiered in Buffalo, NY, for a Duke Ellington tribute concert. Alvin Ailey created a ballet based on the work in 1976.
Here’s “Martin Luther King,” the third movement of "Three Black Kings:"
I don’t know how many of you readers are old enough to remember the boom box era but I have strong, fond memories of walking through Harlem and this house music song was blaring from multiple boom boxes as well as from loudspeakers from stores.
Aaron Brophy at Samaritan Magazine spotlighted Moodswings’ “Spiritual High Part III”:
The third section in an uplifting house music suite by the U.K. duo Moodswings features King's "free at last" speech. The "Spiritual High" suite would also feature vocals from The Pretenders Chrissie Hynde and is based on the Jon & Vangelis song "State Of Independence."
In a similar vein, the famed Chicago deep house music man Larry Heard, known as Mr. Fingers, produced “Can You Feel It (Martin Luther King Jr. Mix) using speeches by King:
Internationally, Irish rockers U2 recorded “Pride (In the Name of Love)” and there is some interesting history surrounding it detailed recently by Callum MacHattie for Far Out magazine:
Bono went about paying tribute to the civil rights activist, with rather sweeping lyrics of his pride being everlasting. But to his detriment, he used one line to be specific about the shooting of King, which took place on a Memphis motel balcony on April 4th, 1968. Bono sings, “Early morning, April 4 / A shot rings out in the Memphis sky” despite King actually being shot at 6:01pm local time.
The U2 frontman has since acknowledged the mistake and has changed the lyrics during live performances of the song. Now, in a more considered tone, he sings “Early morning, April 4” removing any distractions for the listener and redirecting their focus to the all important storyline.
The song then featured on the band’s 1984 record The Unforgettable Fire, which came out three years before their iconic record Joshua Tree. But on the tour for that record, they began in Tempe, Arizona, where the governor was opposed to Martin Luther King Day being made a US federal holiday. Things escalated to a point where the band received multiple death threats, with one even outlining how he would shoot the singer upon arriving on stage.
I opened with the struggle to get a tribute day for King, and will close with Stevie Wonder’s musical campaign to make it happen. Brian Boone at Grunge wrote:
A lot needs to happen to create a federal holiday. The drive to honor assassinated civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in that manner began in 1968, with Rep. John Conyers presenting a bill to Congress four days after King was killed. A vote wasn't held until 1979, and the bill failed, just five votes shy. It was around that time that Wonder got involved with the movement. He wrote and recorded "Happy Birthday," which became the central focus and literal rallying cry of a push that would end with the establishment of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday of every January.
In January 1979 — on what would've been Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s 50th birthday — Stevie Wonder performed at an event at the Georgia state capitol building, calling for the day to be made a holiday. Wonder told the audience to start taking the day off of work and to contact their congressional representative to ask them to make King's birthday an official observance.
"Happy Birthday" came to Stevie Wonder — who'd met King in the 1960s, when he was a teenager — in his unconscious mind. Remembering enough to compose the song, he then called King's widow and keeper of his legacy, Coretta Scott King, to tell her of the song's creation and intent. "I said to her, you know, 'I had a dream about this song. And I imagined in this dream I was doing this song. We were marching, too, with petition signs to make for Dr. King's birthday to become a national holiday,'" Wonder told CNN in 2011.
After trekking across the country on a four-month concert tour that was really a King birthday holiday awareness campaign, Wonder went into the studio to record "Hotter Than July." It included "Happy Birthday," along with an image of Dr. King and a note imploring listeners to write their representatives to help get the holiday created.
Here is “Hotter Than July” which includes ”Happy Birthday”:
There will be lots more music honoring Dr. King in the comments section below where I hope you’ll join me.
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