Saturday, December 11, 2010

Message From A Black Man-The Spinners-1970


This blog is very much about how old has influenced new. How one genre has influenced another. How politics influences music. How music influences politics. How one musician influences another and how one specific region, country, or continent of the world influences another through music. This is a quintessential example of this sort of multi-influential piece of music. The Spinners had no idea they were setting in motion a multi-genre, multi-national, multi-era influence with the release of "Message From A Blackman" in 1970. It was obviously influenced by politics in America at the time (civil rights struggle, assassinations of black leaders, Cointelpro and the recent 1967 Detroit Riots ((Spinners were from Detroit)) to name some major happenings). The song went on to be covered/sampled by at least 5 other soul and funk bands, at least 4 reggae bands and the beat (and lyrics) has been used by at least 5 hip hop artists to date. I will post multiple examples of the influence this single track has had on the history of music.

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