FOR THE BROTHAS: AN INTRODUCTION

It must have been about 20 years ago when I first began thinking about creating a "Cultural Salon" as a reaction to the mundane social circles In Washington D.C. The richness of intellectual and artistic interchange had died, college friends had moved, the internet had not yet become the phenomenon it now is... I romanticised about the Salons of the mid to late 1800's in Paris, London and Berlin and the cultural dynamo of the Harlem Rennaisance. I was fortunate enough to meet a gentleman, an artist who lived and traveled with James Baldwin... Jimmy he affectionately called him, and he spoke often of their small cottage in southern France and of the many Artists, Poets and Luminaries that dropped in to chat and relax. Well, the impressionists, cubists, modernists, etc. all hung out together famously in those days and shared their ideas with one another creating a creative greenhouse in a world that was rapidly changing. I longed to have lived in those times, to have met Cassat, Rodin, Ellington, Fitzgerald, Baker, Balwin, well I did finally meet Baldwin and others purely for the joy of intellection upon the arts. This was in the late 1980's and by the mid 2000's I happened to run into a friend of mine from Hampton University who had been living in New York since he graduated in the early 90s. Well, I was surprised to hear him comment that in all of the wonder that is New York he never met anyone who ever really had anything interesting to say about art, literature, architecture, science, fashion or anything... I was so surprised to hear this since it had also been my experience. Well here I am in 2011 attempting the Virtual Salon...

Saturday, September 15, 2012

FORGETT'N YO NAME: FOLK VERSION

THIS SONG I HAVE WRITTEN IN TRIBUTE TO THE CRAFTSMANSHIP OF ALL OF THE GREAT BLUESMEN OF AMERICAN HISTORY... THROUGH THEIR STORYTELLING THE CONDITION OF THE BLACK AMERICAN MAN HAS BEEN DOCUMENTED.  WELL BEFORE BLACK MEN COULD HOPE TO AUTHOR A  BOOK THEY TOUCHED THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS THROUGH THE GENTLENESS AND SHARPNESS OF THEIR MUSIC...


 

So you is taking numbuh’s baby?

Better dust off my bad book,

I cain’t keep you from cheat’n

you cain’t keep me from get’n a look,

But I stayed beside you

All the time you wuz sick and out of work,

 

If dhey’s one truth n’ dis life

Dhat’d be awl things will change,

They’s one truth that I do know

Everything surely do change,

Even love th’a  once was  strong

One day dhat love may go away,

 
I marked it down baby, huuh!

Put d’hat one notch on our bed,

Baby I ain’t yo clown, yeah! yeah!

I see’s only one color,  n’ dha’ts red,

dhat’s him lay’n on my pil-low

Yes it should have been my head,

 

I understand dhat you a man

O’ I know whut dhat mean,

Gotta get it whiyle you can, brotha

Dhat don’t got nutt’n t’uh do with me,

Naw you can blame it on what yo drink’n

N’ dha’t def-nly af-fect whut y’awl see,

 

How many men d’uh you need…  Oooh!

T’uh make you feel like a man?  (caint say I really want to know)

Guess I got to take a numbuh

T’uh get into yo bizzie plan,

So since we’z tak’ n numbuhs

I know dhat you will understand,

 

I gave you a taste of d’uh city

N’spite o’ yo cun-try ways,

But you ain’t got enough money

To play this game,

So im gown leave you wheyeh I found ya,

An ima fowgit yo name…..

 

FIN
 


Written by BigdaddyBlues/AKA David Vollin

2 comments:

  1. ok Dave :) i wrote some blues songs along w a small variety of other songs when i studied music yrs ago... the song sounds cute but have u ever performed either alone or 4 small group? that was a requirement n class i tell i was sooo nervous gettin up there n front of my classmates but no one booed me... some of them were too embarrassed to sing, but not embarrassed to act a fool n class..??

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  2. ACTUALLY I HAVE... I USED TO PERFORM YEARS AGO SINGING SOUL SONGS BUT I SING EACH SONG WHILE I WRITE IT.. I AM ACTUALLY GOING TO POST SOME OF MY SINGING FOR EACH SONG WHEN I RECOVER FROM THIS COLD...

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