Song about the 1967 riots

[RickBeall]

Hi All,

It's time for a musical interlude. Every once in a while I write a song about some Detroit related theme. I have written about the Garwood Mansion hippies and other things.

I just finished a song about this guy who was sitting on his front porch, playing back in 1967.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12024249

Kickin' back .... Tell me what you think.

[DetroitPlanner]

Here is another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gPjGuC6CFQ

[Detroitnerd]

And here I thought the end-all was "Motor City's Burning" and "Black Day in July."

[RickBeall]

Here is a link to "Motor City's Burning" by John Lee Hooker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBhaiJ5YNiM

I read in the ""Boogie Man: The Adventures of John Lee Hooker ..." that Hooker was home the weekend the riot started. I was reading the book back in 2000 when John Lee Hooker died. I visited the site where his house used to be. Here is a picture

http://www.paradisevalleyblues.com/tour/hook0050.html

I talked to the lady next door who used to baby sit his kids. She said that when he came home from tour, he would sit on his front porch and play the guitar. This would attract all the neighborhood kids and they would dance, act silly, and have a great time.

That image always stuck in my heard, so, I wrote the song from the perspective of someone sitting on their porch, playing their guitar.

[rb336]

Here is another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gPjGuC6CFQ

Let It Be was about the '67 riots?

Here's Gordy's song:


He was visiting Detroit [[he mentioned staying at Joni Mitchell's previously in the interview, then said he was visiting there during the riots. not sure if he meant Detroit or specifically at Joni's)

[RickBeall]

Wow, that is an amazing tidbit of information that Gordon Lightfoot happened to be in Detroit when the riots occurs ... maybe visiting Joni Mitchell.


The "Let it Be" clip is from the "Across the Universe" movie If you love the Beatles, and have not seen the movie, you are in for a real treat. In the movie, various Beatle songs are re-interpreted and hung into a story line. In the movie, "Let It Be" is about the Detroit riots. I thought the movie was phenominal.

Wikipedia says "Across the Universe" is amusical romantic drama film released in 2007 and directed by Julie Taymor, who directed the stage musical, The Lion King.

[RickBeall]

Here's a BBC special I had not seen before, about Detroit music called "Motor City Burning"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...o4lIkkAbU&NR=1

[Ray1936]

I'm sorry. July 23, 1967, was the day Detroit died. I have no desire to sing about it. Then or since.

[Gistok]

I'm sorry. July 23, 1967, was the day Detroit died. I have no desire to sing about it. Then or since.

Aw C'mon Ray... remember "The Producers"... don't tell me you didn't like "Springtime for Hitler.... and Germany"....

[canuck]

And this one from Sam Roberts, a fellow Montrealer, actually from the selfsame suburb I live in;

Detroit '67

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6xep5mLdA8

[southofbloor]

And this one from Sam Roberts, a fellow Montrealer, actually from the selfsame suburb I live in;

Detroit '67

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6xep5mLdA8

Nice - love it!

[southofbloor]

& MC5

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW59FXjwzVs

[southofbloor]

& John Lee Hooker

Ain't no thing that I can do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBhaiJ5YNiM

[marshamusic]

Rick - actually your new song draws you in, as you keep listening. That image of the smoke over the trees, I remember that.

Mr Hooker used to sing up and down Hastings street, and would flop down on the old couch in the back of my father's record shop and sleep there for days.

btw. Joni Mitchell used to live on.....maybe Farnsworth, or Kirby, one of those streets just north of the DIA, when it was a hippie haven, back in the day.

[southofbloor]

btw. Joni Mitchell used to live on.....maybe Farnsworth, or Kirby, one of those streets just north of the DIA, when it was a hippie haven, back in the day.

She did - Ferry St, in the Verona - grey painted brick apartment building about 5 stories tall.

[RickBeall]

Hi Marsha,
Thank you for the kind words about the new song. I'm glad it drew you in a bit. As I imagined it, it was just a nice Sunday morning when suddenly stuff started happening. Not everyone knew about it right away. The vocals are probably a little too laid back. Need a better singer!

[RickBeall]

Ray1936, you sing about both the high and the low points of your life. Sometimes it's just a way of exorcising the ghosts.

[canuck]

Ray1936, you sing about both the high and the low points of your life. Sometimes it's just a way of exorcising the ghosts.

Great now Ghosts need to exercise too?


Well done Rick!

[Wheels]

I'm sorry. July 23, 1967, was the day Detroit died. I have no desire to sing about it. Then or since.

It's a blues song Ray so it needs that heavy content to validate it. The good news is if you play it backward all the bad voodoo goes away.

[jcole]

I'm sorry. July 23, 1967, was the day Detroit died. I have no desire to sing about it. Then or since.

I agree with you Ray, it's not something I feel like singing about. I think it may be because we were both involved, in related ways. You were in it and so was my dad. I really don't like remember the fear of him not coming home and the things he saw.

[Detroit_uke]

I'm with Ray...not something to sing about....you want to sing - get the name of the pregnant woman that was shot at the dime store on Warren Ave the day the riots started....sing about how all our neighbors were digging bullets out of the roofs weeks after...

[CassTechGrad]

I’m working on an old song about the 1967 riots which I heard my parents and all of the families in my old Detroit neighborhood sing years ago. I’ve decided to call the song “Mama, pack your bags ‘cause we’re selling the house and moving to Warren!” The original song had no name but was sung to the tune of “Old McDonald had a farm” by the over one million people who have left the city as they crossed 8 Mile Road into the suburbs and never returned since that terrible summer.

[rb336]

Wow, that is an amazing tidbit of information that Gordon Lightfoot happened to be in Detroit when the riots occurs ... maybe visiting Joni Mitchell.

GL has often said that Detroit has a special place in his heart. he once called it his third hometown [[after Toronto and Orillia) at a concert I went to

Thanks for the info about "let it be"

[RickBeall]

Hi Detroit_Uke,

All of those would be great details for a future song or short story. If you do not in some way remember the pain, then future generations will never know what happened. Art helps people remember, just like a history book would. Should the jews forget Auschwitz because it was painful, or not be allowed to write a symphony about it?

The Detroit riots were just one piece. There were also race riots in Cleveland and Newark, New Jersey in 1967. Are all these events and the conditions that spawned them unfit raw materials for art? Or maybe their jaggedness and sharpness make them perfect for art? For remembering, re-experienceing, processing and moving forward?

[Ray1936]

Ray1936, you sing about both the high and the low points of your life. Sometimes it's just a way of exorcising the ghosts.

Yeah, on reflection, Rick, I suppose you're quite right.