Ray Stevens – “Everything Is Beautiful”

Photo Credit: Bing.com

I have always been a person who absolutely loves music. I grew up listening to a wide variety of music because I grew up with so many diverse groups of friends, whom I love and still keep in contact with and get together with to this day. Ray Stevens could not have written this song any better. This song has to be one of the most beautifully written songs of all time! It has always been dear to my heart and once I was able to read the song lyrics, it only made me love it even more. Ray Stevens always had a way with words in his songs which I still enjoy listening to as I sing and laugh. This particular song is a shows a more serious side of Stevens and allows his softer, gentler and more serious side to shine through. I love his soulful voice and high notes. He doesn’t miss a beat! I truly love this song and think it’s a timeless masterpiece that will never grow old!

A very popular and family-friendly entertainer throughout the ’60s, Ray Stevens was given his own TV variety show in 1970 called The Ray Stevens Show, which lasted just one season as a summer replacement. He wrote the uplifting “Everything Is Beautiful” as the theme for the show. Stevens explained to mybestyears.com, “I needed a very special song for the program. I went down in my basement for about three days. I had crumpled paper all over the place. And suddenly the idea for the song came to me. I wrote it in maybe 45 minutes. It was a very special song and one that a lot of people still remember and sing along when I do it in shows.”

This is a rare hit for Stevens that was not a novelty recording. He was better known for comedy songs like “The Streak,” “Ahab, The Arab,” and “Harry The Hairy Ape.”

This won Stevens his first Grammy. It won for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male.

Released in 1970 on the album titled: Everything is Beautiful. The song peaked at #6 in the UK and # 1 in the USA.

Stevens was backed on this track by his two daughters and a second-grade class from Oak Hill Elementary School in Nashville, Tennessee. The song opens with the children’s chorus singing the first two lines of a popular bible school hymn, “Jesus Loves The Little Children.”

“Everything Is Beautiful” – Song Lyrics
Jesus loves the little children, all the little children of the world
Red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world

Everything is beautiful in its’ own way
Like a starry summer night or a snow covered winter’s day
Everybody’s beautiful in their own way
Under God’s heaven, the world’s gonna find a way

There is none so blind as he who will not see
We must not close our minds, we must let our thought be free
For every hour that passes by, you know the world gets a little bit older
It’s time to realize that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder

Everything is beautiful in its’ own way
Like a starry summer night or a snow covered winter’s day
Ah, sing it children
Everybody’s beautiful in their own way
Under God’s heaven, the world’s gonna find a way

We shouldn’t care about the length of his hair or the color of his skin
Don’t worry about what shows from without but the love that lives within
We’re gonna get it all together now and everything gonna work out fine
Just take a little time to look on the good side my friend
And straighten it out in your mind

Everything is beautiful in its’ own way
Like a starry summer night or a snow covered winter’s day
Everybody’s beautiful in their own way
Under God’s heaven, the world’s gonna find a way

Writer/s: Ray Stevens
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Video credit: YouTube.com

Curtis Mayfield – “Super Fly”

Curtis Mayfield was one of the smoothest singers of our time. He had such charisma and confidence in the songs he wrote, because they had significant meanings. Superfly was a FLY hit that was released in the Summer of July 1972, it was HOT, the band were on fire, and  burning up the charts. Curtis Mayfield is a prolific writer with a smooth soft voice that makes the listener feel as though they just stepped into a movie screen. This has always been ONE of my many favorite Curtis Mayfield songs! He titled this song Super Fly, but just didn’t have any idea how Super and Fly he was! “Trying to get over, trying to get over, trying to get over! WOW!

“Super Fly,” is the third studio album by American soul musician Curtis Mayfield, released on Curtom Records. It was released as the soundtrack for the Blaxploitation film of the same name. Widely considered a classic of 1970s soul and funk music, Super Fly was a nearly immediate hit. Its sales were bolstered by two million-selling singles, “Freddie’s Dead” (number 2 R&B charts, number 4 Pop charts) and the title track (number 5 R&B, number 8 Pop). Super Fly is one of the few soundtracks to out-gross the film it accompanied.

Super Fly, along with Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On (1971), was one of the pioneering soul concept albums, with its then-unique socially aware lyrics about poverty and drug abuse making the album stand out. The film and the soundtrack may be perceived as dissonant, since the film holds rather ambiguous views on drug dealers, whereas Curtis Mayfield’s position is far more critical. Like What’s Going On, the album was a surprise hit that record executives felt had little chance at significant sales. Due to its success, Mayfield was tapped for several film soundtracks over the course of the decade.

Release –

Super Fly was originally released in 1972 on Curtom Records in both LP and eight-track formats. It also featured distribution in countries outside of the United States, including Italy, Germany, France, Canada, and the United Kingdom On November 11, 1997, Rhino Records released a 25th Anniversary collection of the album with a bonus disc of demo versions of songs, radio spots, and interviews. In 1999, Rhino Records reissued the album with two bonus tracks. On December 11, 2001, the British record label Charly Records re-released the album with several bonus tracks.

Critical reception –

Music critics lauded Super Fly. Rolling Stone’s Bob Donat was favorable of Mayfield’s anti-drug and self-liberation themes, and called Super Fly “not only a superior, imaginative soundtrack, but fine funky music as well and the best of Curtis Mayfield’s four albums made since he left the Impressions”. In a 2004 review of the album, Rolling Stone gave Super Fly five out of five stars and cited it as Mayfield’s “creative breakthrough”. Rock critic Robert Christgau of The Village Voice gave the album an A- and lauded Mayfield’s songwriting. Christgau also wrote that “these songs speak for (and to) the ghetto’s victims rather than its achievers (cf. ‘The Other Side of Town’, on Curtis), transmitting bleak lyrics through uncompromisingly vivacious music. Message: both candor and rhythm are essential to our survival”. John Bush of AllMusic praised the album’s lyrical substance and sound, calling it a “melange of deep, dark grooves, trademarked wah-wah guitar, and stinging brass”. On its significance, Bush concluded by stating:

Super Fly ignited an entire genre of music, the blaxploitation soundtrack, and influenced everyone from soul singers to television-music composers for decades to come. It stands alongside Saturday Night Fever and Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols as one of the most vivid touchstones of ’70s pop music.

Song Lyrics –

Darkest of night
With the moon shining bright
There’s a set goin’ strong
Lotta things goin’ on
The man of the hour
Has an air of great power
The dudes have envied him for so long

Oh, superfly
You’re gonna make your fortune by and by
But if you lose, don’t ask no questions why
The only game you know is do or die
Ah-ha-ha

Hard to understand
What a hell of a man
This cat of the slum
Had a mind, wasn’t dumb
But a weakness was shown
‘Cause his hustle was wrong
His mind was his own
But the man lived alone

Oh, superfly
You’re gonna make your fortune by and by
But if you lose, don’t ask no questions why
The only game you know is do or die
Ah-ha-ha

The game he plays he plays for keeps
Hustlin’ times and ghetto streets
Tryin’ ta get over
(That’s what he tryin’ to do, y’all)
Taking all that he can take
Gambling with the odds of fate
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Woo, superfly

The aim of his role
Was to move a lot of blow
Ask him his dream
What does it mean?
He woudn’t know
“Can’t be like the rest”
Is the most he’ll confess
But the time’s running out
And there’s no happiness

Oh, superfly
You’re gonna make your fortune by and by
But if you lose, don’t ask no questions why
The only game you know is do or die
Ah-ha-ha
Superfly
Superfly
Superfly
Superfly

Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over
Tryin’ ta get over

Songwriters: CURTIS MAYFIELD

© Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Credit: LyricFind, YouTube & Bing.com/images

Originally posted on  11/29/2019

Marvin Gaye – “Inner City Blues” (Make Me Wanna Holler)

Both Photo’s credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com

When I hear this song, I think of how empowering it must have been for Marvin Gaye to stand up and say, I am going to release this song, even though Berry Gordy wasn’t happy with him for releasing a protest song. During those days and earlier as many of us know, there where protest songs about the war, injustices, wages, etc., and still are to this day! Everyone has their own opinion about the things that are happening in this world and their communities. This song and the entire “What’s Going On” album brought great success to Marvin Gaye’s career!
“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” is often shortened to “Inner City Blues” is a song by Marvin Gaye, released as the third and final single and the climactic song of his 1971 landmark album, “What’s Going On.” Written by Gaye and James Nyx, Jr., the song depicts and focuses on the ghettos and economic situations that plagued inner-city America, and the emotional effects these have on the inhabitants.

The song was recorded in a mellow funk style with Gaye playing the piano. Several of the talented Funk Brothers also contributed, including Eddie “Bongo” Brown, and bassist Bob Babbitt.

Composition and lyrics –

In 1998, co-writer James Nyx Jr. recalled,” Marvin had a good tune, sort of blues-like, but didn’t have any words for it. We started putting some stuff in there about how rough things were around town. We laughed about putting lyrics in about high taxes, ‘cause both of us owed a lot. talked about how the government would send guys to the moon, but not help folks in the ghetto. But we still didn’t have a name, or really a good idea of the song. Then, I was home reading the paper one morning, and saw a headline that said something about the ‘inner city’ of Detroit. And I said, ‘Damn, that’s it. ‘Inner City Blues.’

In its unedited version as it appears on the album, the final minute of the song (and of the LP) is a reprise to the theme of “What’s Going On”, the albums first song, then segues into a dark ending. This final minute was cut off the single version, as well as other sections of the song so the single edit runs under three minutes-this edit appears on subsequent reissues of the LP.

The song was recorded in the Hitsville USA studio and released in 1971 under the Tamla label and Soul, Funk genre. It peaked at #9 on the US Billboard Hot 100’s and #1 on the US Billboard Hot R&B singles where it stayed for two weeks. Although not certified by the RIAA at that time, all three releases from the What’s Going On album gained Gold status by selling over 1,000,000 copies in the United States.

A music video for the song was not released until 1994, when the Hughes brothers co-directed a video of the song for the reissue of What’s Going On. The video was shot in Harlem over the course of five days, featuring visuals of poverty and inner-city depression. The brothers also filmed firefighters putting out a fire, claiming to police to have been shooting a documentary.

“Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)”

Song Lyrics

Dah, dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah

Rockets, moon shots
Spend it on the have nots
Money, we make it
Fore we see it you take it

Oh, make you want to holler
The way they do my life
Make me want to holler
The way they do my life

This ain’t livin’, This ain’t livin’
No, no baby, this ain’t livin’
No, no, no
Inflation no chance

To increase finance
Bills pile up sky high
Send that boy off to die
Make me want to holler

The way they do my life
Make me want to holler
The way they do my life

Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Hang ups, let downs
Bad breaks, set backs

Natural fact is
I can’t pay my taxes
Oh, make me want to holler
And throw up both my hands

Yea, it makes me want to holler
And throw up both my hands
Crime is increasing
Trigger happy policing

Panic is spreading
God know where we’re heading
Oh, make me want to holler
They don’t understand

Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Dah, dah, dah
Mother, mother

Everybody thinks we’re wrong
Who are they to judge us
Simply cause we wear our hair long

Writer/s: Marvin Gaye, James Nyx

“O Willow Waly” Song From the 1961 Movie Thriller, “The Innocents”

Photo credit: https://images.search.yahoo.com

“O Willow Waly” is one of the most beautifully written songs that I have ever heard. It’s a song that if one closes their eyes, they can almost in vision a couple in love lying beneath a beautiful weeping willow tree and at an instant one of them are no longer there and the other is left alone to lie and weep beside the tree. There was no need in using huge words to describe the lovers, the love lost and the broken heart of the one left behind. This song was a great selection and was a perfect fit for the ‘Henry James’ novel, (“Turn of the Screw”) UK adaptation “The Innocents,” This spooky, smart, sassy, yet suspenseful thriller, filled with mystery, intrigue, love and romance is still a great hit to this day! Isla Cameron sings the song in a soft, sweet yet somewhat innocently comforting voice that will make you bury yourself into your sofa under a blanket and settle in to watch this great movie! After seeing this movie, I wanted a music box with that song, so I called around everywhere trying to find one. I finally spoke with a man in a music store that advised me that if I were able to get that song for a music box, due to copywrite, I would probably end up paying somewhere in the amount of $10K. I immediately realized that I can just listen to it on YouTube.
The Kingston Trio released this song on their album “Something Special” in 1962 under the Folk music genre. I personally prefer the theme song by Isla Cameron over the version by the Kingston Trio. I have added both videos so each of you can listen and enjoy both versions.

“O Willow Waly”

We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow.
But now alone I lie and weep beside the tree.

Singing ‘Oh willow waly’ by the tree that weeps with me.
Singing ‘Oh willow waly’ till my lover return to me.

We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow.
A broken heart have I. Oh willow I die, oh willow I die.

Songwriters: GEORGES AURIC, GEORGES ABEL LOUIS AURIC, PAUL DEHN

Both videos credit: http://www.YouTube.com

Growing Up – A Poem by Emma – Child Poets Who Inspire!

Photo credit: bing.com

This was a fun poem to read. It breaks down from a young girls perspective what will happen as she grows up and her body begins to change from a little girl to a woman. I love reading these children poems because I have young grandchildren who love reading, writing, drawing, music as well as sports.

Please sit back and enjoy this beautiful poem written by Emma from England!

Emma is only 7 years old and only started writing poems five months ago, she loves reading, writing poems and short stories. Emma lives in England.

Growing Up

I am a woman to be, there will be changes in me
I am a woman to be and everyone will see

I am stronger and I’m older, I’m braver and bolder
I am a women to be and everyone will see

I have good days and bad days, I have happy days and sad days
I am a women to be and everyone will see

I will love, I will hate, I will never mess with fate
I am a women to be and everyone will see

I am a women now, So I will take a bow
For I am a women to me and everyone will see

Poem credit:https://www.loriswebs.com/youngpoets/emma.html

 

Depression During The Holidays

The Holidays are upon us and for many, it’s not a happy time.

We all know that the Holidays are very depressing for some, and we know that some people don’t have a family to check on them.

Many have lost loved ones or have family that just won’t make time for them.

Don’t give up hope, there’s always someone you can reach out to.

Please check on your loved ones as well as friends and neighbors!