"Inner City Blues” (Makes Me Wanna Holler) - Why I Covered It
Songs play an integral part of celebrations & remembrances and can often serve as reminders of significant moments like first dates, marriages, birthdays & anniversaries. Songs can even be used to make demands for justice and equality as Aretha Franklin did with "Respect". 50 years ago, Marvin Gaye and James Nyx penned the song, "Inner City Blues" as a way of chronicling the social unrest of that time. The song indicted America as a place replete with poverty, police brutality and an overtaxed citizenry. The lyrics resonated with listeners and the song became a #1 radio single on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles Chart.
After I decided to do a social justice album, I began studying Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" project. It's an incredibly thoughtful body of work with quite a few popular songs, but the one that spoke to me the most was "Inner City Blues". As I listened to the lyrics it dawned on me that every issue raised 50 years ago was still unresolved today. In addition, to loving Marvin's artistic approach I appreciated the bold nature of the lyrics. One of the most poignant being "bills pile up sky high, send that boy off to die". As I thought deeply about how many young people who love their country but are also living in poverty, enlist in the U.S. military as a way to earn a living but also serve their country, I was reminded of Dr. Martin Luther King's critique of American militarism. Dr. King was critical of how America expended resources to fight in Vietnam, while many Americans languished in economic despair. I found myself harboring that same outrage decades later as America began pulling out of the 20 year war in Afghanistan that has cost nearly 2,500 military persons their lives and cost tax payers $2 trillion.
As I began to write songs for my social justice album, I thought "Inner City Blues" was a perfect foundational piece to build on. I wanted to re-imagine the production, but not stray away from the structure and feel of the original. After I recorded the song, I felt it was missing some of the intensity, angst & anger I felt as I immersed myself in the spirit of the lyrics. That's when I decided to ask "Stout" to guest on the song. I knew she was an incredible artist, but also a Black woman who's lived experiences would be incorporated in the vocals she delivered. The updated production, background vocal approach and Stout's ad-libs birthed the present day version of "Inner City Blues" the way I imagined it.
I hope this song speaks to a new generation and encourages them to continue fighting for the justice & equity every person deserves. I hope this song motivates us to aggressively push back against policies that endanger citizens. I hope this song rallies more marginalized folks to register and vote. I hope this song reverberates so loudly that the uproar it embodies cannot be ignored. I hope this song shines the light on the situations that make a segment of the American populous want to holler, until the change being demanded is realized.
