0:00:02 > 0:00:04# Strummin' my pain with his fingers
0:00:04 > 0:00:07# Singin' my life with his words
0:00:07 > 0:00:11# Killing me softly with his song...#
0:00:11 > 0:00:16In 1973, Roberta Flack's brand of soft soul made her
0:00:16 > 0:00:19one of the biggest selling female pop stars in the world...
0:00:22 > 0:00:28The first thing I think about when I hear Roberta record a classic
0:00:28 > 0:00:32is that I can't wait to sing it, you know?
0:00:32 > 0:00:34# Where is the love
0:00:34 > 0:00:36# Where is the love...#
0:00:36 > 0:00:39..and the kids of Middle America loved her.
0:00:43 > 0:00:46But 20 years earlier, the parents of those white kids
0:00:46 > 0:00:49wouldn't have allowed Roberta to sit next to them on the bus.
0:00:52 > 0:00:54We were living in a very radical time.
0:00:54 > 0:00:57It was madness going on throughout the South.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02But this isn't just a familiar rags-to-riches story
0:01:02 > 0:01:04of triumph over adversity.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07She raises this spectre of class.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11She is a quintessential product of the black middle class.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14Right down to where she's educated.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18Nor did Roberta Flack set out to be a pop star.
0:01:19 > 0:01:23In her voice you can hear both impact of her classical training
0:01:23 > 0:01:26and, the, you know, the kind of fineness of her ear.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28# Killing me softly...#
0:01:30 > 0:01:33But the lure of the pop stage proved irresistible.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35# Softly... #
0:01:35 > 0:01:40When you start to perform and you go through all of the physical motions -
0:01:40 > 0:01:42"Ladies and Gentlemen - Roberta Flack"
0:01:42 > 0:01:45and you come to where that spot.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48There's a moment that you reach for
0:01:48 > 0:01:53that that can only be described as blissful.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05# This is my prayer
0:02:05 > 0:02:06# This is my prayer#
0:02:06 > 0:02:11Aretha Franklin is everybody's idea of what a soul singer is.
0:02:11 > 0:02:14# For ever, ever...
0:02:14 > 0:02:16# Stay in my heart
0:02:16 > 0:02:17# Ever... Yeah #
0:02:17 > 0:02:20Passionate, loud and driven by the power of gospel.
0:02:22 > 0:02:23# Oh! Lovers together
0:02:24 > 0:02:26# We're together
0:02:26 > 0:02:28# To live without you... #
0:02:28 > 0:02:31For Clint Eastwood, an invitation to terror.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35WOMAN SCREAMS
0:02:35 > 0:02:40But when Eastwood featured Roberta Flack's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
0:02:40 > 0:02:42in the film Play Misty For Me
0:02:42 > 0:02:44and propelled it to the top of the charts -
0:02:44 > 0:02:48a new kind of soul voice introduced itself on to the world stage
0:02:49 > 0:02:51# The first time...
0:02:51 > 0:02:55APPLAUSE
0:02:55 > 0:02:58# ..ever I saw your face
0:03:02 > 0:03:06# I thought the sun
0:03:06 > 0:03:12# ..rose in your eyes...#
0:03:14 > 0:03:17It was the first time that I'd ever heard a song
0:03:17 > 0:03:20recorded at that tempo.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25It was not the normal ballad.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28It was more, almost a testimony.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34# And the first time
0:03:35 > 0:03:41# ..ever I kissed your mouth... #
0:03:41 > 0:03:44She makes us redefine this whole notion
0:03:44 > 0:03:48of what black female soul music is as a sound.
0:03:50 > 0:03:52# I felt the earth... #
0:03:52 > 0:03:56You're getting as close inside of her head
0:03:56 > 0:03:58as her sound is going to allow you to get.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03# Like the trembling heart... #
0:04:03 > 0:04:05When I did, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08sometimes when I first started to sign the song
0:04:08 > 0:04:10I'd be in tears, I mean...
0:04:10 > 0:04:12MIMICS CRYING
0:04:12 > 0:04:16# To the dark...#
0:04:16 > 0:04:21I didn't know that people could feel what I felt.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23You know, this deep, deep, deep thing.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26But they could get it. I'd look up and they'd be crying, too.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30And I would say, "Wonder why they're crying. What did I do?" You know?
0:04:30 > 0:04:31"Did I do something wrong?"
0:04:31 > 0:04:34And then I realised later that it wasn't that,
0:04:34 > 0:04:38I realised later that it's... It's the communication.
0:04:38 > 0:04:44# Till the end of time, my love...#
0:04:45 > 0:04:50Roberta is more lyrical in her approach,
0:04:50 > 0:04:52and her vocal prowess.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57She has a very, very clear haunting and soothing voice.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Aretha will make you sweat,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and Roberta makes you think.
0:05:04 > 0:05:07# The first time...#
0:05:08 > 0:05:11When I first heard it
0:05:11 > 0:05:14I almost wasn't sure, it was a black voice.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19# ..your face #
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Cos there is an enigma at the heart of it, you know.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26It's a kind of different soul voice.
0:05:26 > 0:05:29And it's obviously from a different tradition.
0:05:38 > 0:05:41So where did Roberta Flack's brand of soul come from?
0:05:41 > 0:05:45Despite being born in the segregated South in 1937,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49its roots were more in aspiration than they were in desperation.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56At any early age, Roberta's family migrated from North Carolina
0:05:56 > 0:05:58to Arlington,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01a then segregated suburb of Washington DC.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05When we talk about the segregated South,
0:06:05 > 0:06:08and, really, Arlington is still the South in this period,
0:06:08 > 0:06:11You're still talking about a community that is...
0:06:11 > 0:06:13constrained by Jim Crow.
0:06:16 > 0:06:19The so-called Negro movement is part of the attempted takeover
0:06:19 > 0:06:22of our country by the lazy, the indolent,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25the beatniks, the ignorant and by some misguided...
0:06:32 > 0:06:36On the other hand the benefits of those types of communities
0:06:36 > 0:06:40were that, um, you had your rich, robust lives
0:06:40 > 0:06:42where you have the entire class spectrum.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46There's a kind of shared sense of purpose
0:06:46 > 0:06:48and a kind of self-government because,
0:06:48 > 0:06:54if you imagine you know, an entire social order that presumes
0:06:54 > 0:06:55your inferiority,
0:06:55 > 0:06:59there has to be another set of ethics and norms and values
0:06:59 > 0:07:03that are established that can accommodate all the talents
0:07:03 > 0:07:07and all the gifts of members of the community.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10It was in this kind of self-contained segregated community
0:07:10 > 0:07:13that Roberta Flack was raised in the late 1940s.
0:07:15 > 0:07:19At that time Arlington was a relatively comfortable,
0:07:19 > 0:07:20black, middle-class suburb.
0:07:31 > 0:07:32One of four children,
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Roberta Flack's father had a government job in Washington
0:07:35 > 0:07:37and her mother was a music teacher.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41People who were Roberta Flack's age who come out of the South,
0:07:41 > 0:07:46I mean, you know, these are people for whom the opportunity
0:07:46 > 0:07:49to become middle class, where it is, where the money is a little better
0:07:49 > 0:07:51than it was for the generation before them.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55Where the housing opportunities are a little better, as well.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58And it's a product of a lot of hard work and sacrifice
0:07:58 > 0:08:01that your community and your parents put in.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05At the centre of these communities were the churches -
0:08:05 > 0:08:07and at the centre of the churches was the music.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15In Arlington, the biggest was the Macedonia Baptist Church
0:08:15 > 0:08:16and the music was gospel.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19# ..trying to get home
0:08:20 > 0:08:24# I'm climbing higher mountains
0:08:24 > 0:08:27# Trying to get home... #
0:08:27 > 0:08:29I could walk in any Baptist church
0:08:29 > 0:08:33and hear what we know of as traditional gospel
0:08:33 > 0:08:36with folks like Aretha Franklin and Sam Cook, Mahalia Jackson...
0:08:38 > 0:08:41# That is why I can shout
0:08:41 > 0:08:44# Because I know what it's
0:08:44 > 0:08:47# All about...#
0:08:52 > 0:08:55The people who so many years later
0:08:55 > 0:08:57got packaged into soul and turned into soul
0:08:57 > 0:09:00would have come out of your Baptist churches.
0:09:00 > 0:09:03The roots of Roberta Flack's brand of soul -
0:09:03 > 0:09:07also came from church, but of a different kind.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11She attended the more sedate Lomax AMA Methodist Church
0:09:11 > 0:09:14where her mother was both pianist and choir mistress.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20CONGREGATION SINGS HYMN
0:09:23 > 0:09:26I'd like to think of Roberta,
0:09:26 > 0:09:28as I always think of myself,
0:09:28 > 0:09:29as being a good girl.
0:09:29 > 0:09:32We are good girls, OK?
0:09:32 > 0:09:37Um, and her background, coming from a Methodist environment,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40Methodist church environment, mirrors mine.
0:09:40 > 0:09:46The choir sang hymns, and hymns are very, very straight-laced
0:09:46 > 0:09:49and to the point, and wonderful harmony.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54# Glory be to the Father...#
0:09:56 > 0:09:58When you think of, say, an Aretha Franklin,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01or even an Al Green or a James Brown...
0:10:01 > 0:10:05who have that kind of fiery, gritty kind of sweaty voices,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Roberta Flack is not really known for that,
0:10:08 > 0:10:11her voice has more to do with the kind of quiet hymnals, right?
0:10:11 > 0:10:15And being able to just sing a song, straight,
0:10:15 > 0:10:17not alter and switch off the melody too much.
0:10:17 > 0:10:19She's very good at that,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21so I think a lot of that is definitively rooted in the church.
0:10:26 > 0:10:38# Come ye disconsolate
0:10:40 > 0:10:49# Where 'ere ye lie. #
0:10:55 > 0:10:58I had a lot of experience,
0:10:58 > 0:10:59or opportunity,
0:10:59 > 0:11:04to play the organ for church services at Lomax.
0:11:04 > 0:11:09When there were some incredible musicians in charge of the choir.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21I can remember a lady
0:11:21 > 0:11:26at my church, Mrs Lillian Thompson - God rest her soul -
0:11:26 > 0:11:28said to me one day,
0:11:28 > 0:11:32"Roberta, I hope that you never stop playing the piano and organ
0:11:32 > 0:11:34like you are doing now."
0:11:34 > 0:11:36And I said to her "Why would I do that?"
0:11:41 > 0:11:43Roberta's musical education in the church -
0:11:43 > 0:11:46was supplemented at her local high school,
0:11:46 > 0:11:49where she excelled in both classical piano and voice.
0:11:52 > 0:11:54In the segregated early 50s,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57Hoffman Boston was an entirely black school
0:11:57 > 0:11:59both in intake and in staff.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05All over black America if you were a high school principal
0:12:05 > 0:12:09you were probably that black person who had an advanced degree,
0:12:09 > 0:12:11from either one of the top black schools,
0:12:11 > 0:12:13or in some cases the Ivy League schools.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18But black educators couldn't work in those Ivy League schools -
0:12:18 > 0:12:23so you had a world that was separate
0:12:23 > 0:12:26and, in some ways, less than equal,
0:12:26 > 0:12:30some ways more than equal in terms of the quality of education.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38Those people were completely committed to providing
0:12:38 > 0:12:42first rate education, for people like a Roberta Flack.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51There was a term that was commonly used "to lift as we climb",
0:12:51 > 0:12:55meaning educational aspirations were not just for individuals
0:12:55 > 0:12:57but for the entire community.
0:12:58 > 0:13:04So segregated schools were these beautiful sites for self-creation
0:13:04 > 0:13:05and community formation.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13Roberta's blossoming musical talent was recognised
0:13:13 > 0:13:15and nurtured in Hoffman Boston.
0:13:15 > 0:13:22Roberta was just like we are, just a everyday young student.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26But when it came time to being serious about what she supposed to
0:13:26 > 0:13:31- she was very, very serious. - Very focused.- Yes. Yes.
0:13:31 > 0:13:33And she'd go to music lessons.
0:13:33 > 0:13:36You know, when her mother would send her to music higher...
0:13:36 > 0:13:38She didn't have time for us and that's good.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41A good thing she didn't because look where she is today!
0:13:43 > 0:13:47When Roberta Flack left high school in 1953,
0:13:47 > 0:13:49her church marked her out as somebody
0:13:49 > 0:13:52who could lift as she climbed.
0:13:52 > 0:13:55They granted her a scholarship at the age of just 15,
0:13:55 > 0:13:57to study classical music
0:13:57 > 0:14:00at the most prestigious African American college -
0:14:00 > 0:14:02Howard University.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06Howard University is one of a small group of really
0:14:06 > 0:14:09premier historically black college and universities
0:14:09 > 0:14:14and so, you get the best and the brightest in every possible arena.
0:14:14 > 0:14:18So it is the site where there's so much
0:14:18 > 0:14:22intellectual activity, politically relevant activity,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24the place where the litigation strategy
0:14:24 > 0:14:28for Brown v Board of Education was developed.
0:14:28 > 0:14:33Brown Versus Board of Education was the landmark case in 1954,
0:14:33 > 0:14:37which banned segregation in American Schools.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40It was a triumph for the university in Roberta's first year.
0:14:42 > 0:14:45But outside the cloistered walls
0:14:45 > 0:14:48the Southern states had no intention of going quietly.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55The following year, a young preacher emerged in the South
0:14:55 > 0:14:57to kick start the civil rights movement.
0:15:00 > 0:15:03"At present we are in the midst of a protest.
0:15:05 > 0:15:09"Just the other day one of the fine citizens of our community
0:15:09 > 0:15:14"Mrs Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her seat
0:15:14 > 0:15:16"for a white passenger.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23The movement was led by the African American educated middle class,
0:15:23 > 0:15:27of which Roberta Flack was now comfortably part of,
0:15:27 > 0:15:30back in the classical music department at Howard University.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33CLASSICAL SINGING
0:15:47 > 0:15:50At Howard Roberta Flack distinguished herself
0:15:50 > 0:15:53in a distinguished music programme.
0:15:53 > 0:15:55She studied both music and voice.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57She really was a musical prodigy.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Really extraordinarily brilliant.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07When she directed Aida, at the school,
0:16:07 > 0:16:11the entire faculty stood and gave her a standing ovation.
0:16:11 > 0:16:17# All through the night
0:16:17 > 0:16:22# I'm gonna to let it shine... #
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Being a student at Howard served me well.
0:16:28 > 0:16:31I had a good time in school,
0:16:31 > 0:16:37I was very successful as a piano accompanist to, erm... anybody.
0:16:37 > 0:16:40Anybody wanted to sing they could find me.
0:16:40 > 0:16:44- < Any style? - Any style! Find me.
0:16:44 > 0:16:45And I can play it.
0:16:45 > 0:16:50If I didn't know it I'd...pull it together some kind of way, you know.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52To make it sound like I did.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55Because I had a strong desire to please, too.
0:16:55 > 0:16:58And that was my - means of doing that.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02I think that Roberta Flack is absolutely a product
0:17:02 > 0:17:07of African Americans' long affiliation with classical music.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12Whilst listeners may not think of classical first when they hear her,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16her life is evidence and her music is evidence
0:17:16 > 0:17:19of that training and that awareness which came to her
0:17:19 > 0:17:20at different kinds of ways -
0:17:20 > 0:17:23from the church, from Howard, from her community
0:17:23 > 0:17:25and so she could not help but manifest that
0:17:25 > 0:17:27in her playing and in her singing.
0:17:29 > 0:17:37# I never dreamed you'd leave in summer... #
0:17:39 > 0:17:41She knew where to hit the keys
0:17:41 > 0:17:44so that the words would not be disturbed by the keyboard.
0:17:45 > 0:17:49That's really critical for someone who accompanies themselves.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52She knows how to maintain the body technique
0:17:52 > 0:17:57so that nothing is lost in the voice in that process.
0:17:57 > 0:18:04# And I thought the cold would leave by summer
0:18:08 > 0:18:17# But my quiet nights will be spent alone... #
0:18:19 > 0:18:23At Howard, Roberta had her heart set on a classical career,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27but the realities of a segregated America dulled those dreams.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31When Roberta Flack is at Howard there's not a lot of black people
0:18:31 > 0:18:35with those kind of skills in composition, arranging, conducting,
0:18:35 > 0:18:38you know, who are going to be in line,
0:18:38 > 0:18:42to take over the New York Philharmonic
0:18:42 > 0:18:43or the National Symphony Orchestra.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52I had a dean that advised me that as a Piano major,
0:18:52 > 0:18:56the doors would not be as open to me when I finished that course of study,
0:18:56 > 0:18:59and that I should take Education.
0:19:02 > 0:19:07I walked away from a potential career as a classical concert pianist.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Let's try this right from the beginning.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15OK, let's do the doo-doo doo-doo part at the beginning,
0:19:15 > 0:19:18then we'll get into... We'll do that twice # Doo-doo doo-doo doo -
0:19:18 > 0:19:21and then right into the song. Here we go.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23# Doo-doo-doo-doo doo...#
0:19:26 > 0:19:30With her ambition thwarted, Roberta began teaching music
0:19:30 > 0:19:34in the public school system in Washington DC.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36So not only do you have to enunciate the words clearly,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39but you also have to put a little stress, a little emphasis
0:19:39 > 0:19:43on certain words - make the words almost picturesque.
0:19:43 > 0:19:46But as the '60s dawned there was a sense that things
0:19:46 > 0:19:48were about to change.
0:19:48 > 0:19:50# People get ready
0:19:50 > 0:19:54# There's a train a-coming
0:19:54 > 0:19:56# You don't need to no baggage
0:19:56 > 0:19:59# You just get on board... #
0:20:01 > 0:20:05The civil rights movement had gathered an unstoppable momentum
0:20:05 > 0:20:09with Martin Luther King's triumphant march, on Washington in 1963.
0:20:11 > 0:20:13The following year,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17a decade after Brown versus Board of Education
0:20:17 > 0:20:21the government were forced to bring an end to a century of segregation.
0:20:22 > 0:20:27# So people get ready for the train to Jordan
0:20:28 > 0:20:31# Picking up passengers
0:20:31 > 0:20:35# Coast to coast
0:20:35 > 0:20:40Throughout this momentous decade, Roberta continued to teach,
0:20:40 > 0:20:42but she hadn't given up on her own dream.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46I would teach school five days a week.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51I was trying to develop my skill to read music,
0:20:51 > 0:20:54interpret it, rearrange it - do whatever I needed to do with it.
0:20:54 > 0:20:56I thought I could do everything.
0:20:58 > 0:21:03And I felt comfortable enough to know that if I had a chance I could,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07I could show anybody that I could.
0:21:09 > 0:21:14It wasn't until 1968 that a 31-year-old Roberta Flack
0:21:14 > 0:21:17got her chance to shine.
0:21:17 > 0:21:19Mr Henry's was a late-night joint
0:21:19 > 0:21:22that catered to a fashionably mixed crowd.
0:21:22 > 0:21:26# Ain't no valley low enough
0:21:26 > 0:21:30# Ain't no river wide enough
0:21:30 > 0:21:32# Keep me from gettin' to you
0:21:32 > 0:21:34# Hold on, baby
0:21:34 > 0:21:37# Ain't no mountain high
0:21:37 > 0:21:41# No valley low, yeah... #
0:21:41 > 0:21:43You know, I was so excited.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45So excited.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48I'm teaching school, I was still teaching school five days a week
0:21:48 > 0:21:52and playing, um...
0:21:52 > 0:21:55at Mr Henry's.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57Five days a week, too!
0:21:57 > 0:21:59I was supposed to do two shows,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02I would wind up doing five in a night,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05cos I just couldn't get up - from the piano.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11# Come on, people... #
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Anybody that had come into town to do a concert,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18as she got more popular, more well-known,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20would come and...and listen to her.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22Liberace came once to hear her.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26I think somebody actually stole one the candelabras
0:22:26 > 0:22:29off of his limousine when it was parked out front.
0:22:32 > 0:22:34# Take that dream of her two young brothers
0:22:34 > 0:22:36# Gonna take that dream...#
0:22:36 > 0:22:38The thing that I remembered
0:22:38 > 0:22:42other than being captivated by her at the first hearing,
0:22:42 > 0:22:47we had a couple of guys with us that were, erm...
0:22:47 > 0:22:49out for fun!
0:22:49 > 0:22:55A couple of drinks, and one of them said "Sing one for Jesus!"
0:22:57 > 0:22:58And I buried my head and...
0:23:02 > 0:23:04# Save the little children... #
0:23:04 > 0:23:09So the next song she sang was # I Told Jesus
0:23:09 > 0:23:13# Be alright if he called my name #
0:23:13 > 0:23:19I said this woman is going to just have the most wonderful career,
0:23:19 > 0:23:23because nothing, nothing bothers her.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25# If you see me walking down the street
0:23:25 > 0:23:27# And I start to cry
0:23:27 > 0:23:30# Each time we meet
0:23:30 > 0:23:34# Walk on by
0:23:36 > 0:23:38# Walk on by. #
0:23:38 > 0:23:40And I was performing in Washington, DC
0:23:40 > 0:23:42and my guys, my rhythm section,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45said they were going to go to this little club,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48and there was a young lady there playing piano and singing and...
0:23:48 > 0:23:50would I like to go?
0:23:50 > 0:23:53I said, "Yeah, sure" and that was...
0:23:53 > 0:23:55The young lady was Roberta Flack.
0:23:55 > 0:23:58And, boy, she blew me away.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00REALLY blew me away.
0:24:01 > 0:24:06# Sister Jones was taken away
0:24:06 > 0:24:11# She didn't live another day
0:24:16 > 0:24:21# Sister Jones was taken away
0:24:21 > 0:24:26# She didn't live
0:24:26 > 0:24:30# Another day
0:24:32 > 0:24:37# Sister Jones was taken away
0:24:39 > 0:24:41# She didn't live
0:24:44 > 0:24:46# She said Lord, Lord, Lord
0:24:46 > 0:24:49# If you take him away...#
0:24:49 > 0:24:52If you close your eyes and sing and...
0:24:52 > 0:24:54feel and emote,
0:24:54 > 0:24:58and not see anybody in the audience,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01not think about anybody that you might see,
0:25:01 > 0:25:03or who might see you - just be there -
0:25:03 > 0:25:05it's a very interesting place to be.
0:25:05 > 0:25:10And when you, once you get there it's...it's a...
0:25:10 > 0:25:14It's very hard to leave.
0:25:14 > 0:25:19# Yeah, yeah, yeah...
0:25:19 > 0:25:25# She said Lord...
0:25:25 > 0:25:28# Lord, Lord, Lord
0:25:28 > 0:25:31# If you take him away
0:25:31 > 0:25:35# I don't wanna live another day
0:25:35 > 0:25:37# Yeah, yeah...
0:25:37 > 0:25:45# Sister Jones was taken away
0:25:47 > 0:25:49# You know, she didn't live
0:25:51 > 0:25:55# She didn't live
0:25:55 > 0:26:05# She didn't live another day...#
0:26:05 > 0:26:11WHOOPS AND APPLAUSE
0:26:16 > 0:26:18It was my moment. I was on stage.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21I was right dead centre, where I needed to be.
0:26:21 > 0:26:23And I had everybody's attention.
0:26:23 > 0:26:27And I could take them where I wanted them to go.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30Well, I can't describe her voice.
0:26:30 > 0:26:35I can say that when I heard her sing... How it made me feel.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39Tears to my eyes, a lot of deep feeling.
0:26:40 > 0:26:45So I picked up recording equipment to record her and take the rec...
0:26:45 > 0:26:46the recording to Atlantic
0:26:46 > 0:26:52and once they heard the tapes, that was... It began.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57After ten years, her teaching days were over,
0:26:57 > 0:27:01Roberta transferred the songs she'd been performing at Mr Henry's
0:27:01 > 0:27:03onto vinyl.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06# I loved you in the morning
0:27:06 > 0:27:09# Our kisses deep and warm...#
0:27:09 > 0:27:12Released in 1969, First Take
0:27:12 > 0:27:17was an eclectic mix of folk, jazz and show tune,
0:27:17 > 0:27:20but this was also an album of its time.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22I think it's a very, very fascinating record,
0:27:22 > 0:27:25because there's romantic ballads,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29there's covers of Leonard Cohen songs on there...
0:27:29 > 0:27:32It's a very hybrid fusion record,
0:27:32 > 0:27:36but it's one that is deeply rooted in black politics of the late 1960s
0:27:36 > 0:27:41and I think part of the reason Roberta Flack doesn't get fully credited
0:27:41 > 0:27:43for being a part of that political tradition
0:27:43 > 0:27:45is because she's a woman.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48Story goes African American popular music -
0:27:48 > 0:27:51became explicitly political and socially critical
0:27:51 > 0:27:54with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On in 1971.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57# Mother, Mother
0:27:57 > 0:27:59# There's too many of you crying...#
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Roberta Flack's album comes out two years before.
0:28:03 > 0:28:05Right? So really it's much earlier.
0:28:05 > 0:28:07GUNSHOT
0:28:07 > 0:28:11We have to recognise who our major enemy is!
0:28:16 > 0:28:19In 1969, while black America was erupting after
0:28:19 > 0:28:22the assassination of Martin Luther King,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25and while the non-violence of civil rights was drowned out
0:28:25 > 0:28:28by the rage of Black Power.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31The major enemy is the honky and his institutions of racism -
0:28:31 > 0:28:33that's the major enemy.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36Marvin Gaye was too Busy Thinking About His Baby.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38# Oh, yeah
0:28:38 > 0:28:41# And I ain't got time for nothing else
0:28:44 > 0:28:48But Roberta Flack was trying to make it real.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50# Said I love the lie...#
0:28:50 > 0:28:52ROBERTA SINGS
0:29:25 > 0:29:26How bold is that?
0:29:26 > 0:29:27This is your first album
0:29:27 > 0:29:30and you decide this is the first song on the album -
0:29:30 > 0:29:34Compared To What - where you're basically calling out everything.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36You're just coming out of the black saying,
0:29:36 > 0:29:40"You got to be real," You know? Compared To What, you know?
0:29:40 > 0:29:42All of these sort of swirling around its like people were
0:29:42 > 0:29:43trying to find centre.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11It's a kind of wail against authenticity.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14It's like make it real Compared To What?
0:30:14 > 0:30:17Why am I not OK by myself?
0:30:19 > 0:30:22I know this is what you say we are,
0:30:22 > 0:30:25I know this is even what we say we are, but, you know,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28let me just...take a minute here and see whether
0:30:28 > 0:30:30I can offer you a version.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33# Tryin' to make it real, yeah
0:30:34 > 0:30:37# Compared to what...#
0:30:37 > 0:30:42In that sense she's also, I think, part of a long tradition
0:30:42 > 0:30:46of African American intellectuals and creatives
0:30:46 > 0:30:50who've tried really hard to forge this space,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53in which they can be individuals.
0:30:53 > 0:30:54# Hang it up...#
0:30:54 > 0:30:57When you see Roberta Flack in that tradition
0:30:57 > 0:30:59she suddenly makes more sense.
0:30:59 > 0:31:03I thought was a clever song it was Gene McDaniels,
0:31:03 > 0:31:07it gave me an opportunity to express a point,
0:31:07 > 0:31:11without hitting somebody over the head, you know.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14# Callin' the name. #
0:31:14 > 0:31:17Eugene McDaniels was one of a number of black songwriters
0:31:17 > 0:31:21that Roberta Flack gathered round her for the making of the album.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28# Making the...last time
0:31:30 > 0:31:33# Like the first time
0:31:35 > 0:31:39# Merging as one
0:31:43 > 0:31:46# Fusing into the vast...#
0:31:46 > 0:31:51Eugene McDaniels in terms of his aspirations,
0:31:51 > 0:31:55is probably as close to a Bob Dylan
0:31:55 > 0:31:58as black American music produced in that particular moment,
0:31:58 > 0:32:01in the sense that this was somebody
0:32:01 > 0:32:05that really wanted to make the lyrics the thing.
0:32:05 > 0:32:08You told me... You called me and told me you had a song for me.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11That's right, and you are the only person that I write exclusives for.
0:32:11 > 0:32:13But why you playing my song for him.
0:32:13 > 0:32:17He asked to hear it. He just asked to hear it. He can't have it.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20Can't have it. It's yours.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22- Is that a promise. - Yes, ma'am.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Cos you know how I feel about your songs.
0:32:28 > 0:32:30Sure feels great to have folks fighting over your music.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33- It's really a trip, man! - I'm not fighting.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36Black songwriters felt comfortable being really intellectual.
0:32:36 > 0:32:40People didn't have this anxiety of education.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43People were actually proud to be able to express
0:32:43 > 0:32:47really complicated thought about the world inside of popular music.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50They felt that space had been opened up for them.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53# Just pick up your papers
0:32:53 > 0:32:56# Turn on your TV
0:32:57 > 0:33:02# See a lot of demonstrations
0:33:02 > 0:33:05# For equality
0:33:05 > 0:33:08# Folks wouldn't have to suffer
0:33:11 > 0:33:15# If there was more love, more love, more love
0:33:15 > 0:33:16# These are trying times...#
0:33:18 > 0:33:22Trying Times was written by an old friend from Howard university
0:33:22 > 0:33:24- Donny Hathaway -
0:33:24 > 0:33:27but it wasn't her political songs
0:33:27 > 0:33:30that thrust Roberta Flack into the mainstream.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38In 1972, Clint Eastwood choose one of her love songs
0:33:38 > 0:33:43to feature in his directorial debut Play Misty for Me.
0:33:43 > 0:33:47I was living in Alexandra, Virginia, with my mom and she said "Roberta",
0:33:47 > 0:33:51I said "Yes", she said, "Somebody name Clint Eastwood is on the phone."
0:33:51 > 0:33:53And I had, I thought she was either putting me on -
0:33:53 > 0:33:55or was somebody playing a joke on me.
0:33:55 > 0:33:57It was the real guy.
0:33:58 > 0:34:00# The first time... #
0:34:02 > 0:34:05I was very confused about him liking it, though I said to him
0:34:05 > 0:34:08"Don't you want me to shorten it? Isn't' it too long?"
0:34:08 > 0:34:13"No, I want it just like it is, all 5 minutes and 16 seconds."
0:34:13 > 0:34:15Clint Eastwood needed the song
0:34:15 > 0:34:19for an unusually long and wordless love scene.
0:34:20 > 0:34:22His brave decision in this clip
0:34:22 > 0:34:26to play The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face in its entirety
0:34:26 > 0:34:29changed Robert Flack's life.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Mainstream white America fell in love with the song.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36It became the biggest selling single of the year,
0:34:36 > 0:34:39and the woman who wanted to be a concert pianist,
0:34:39 > 0:34:43now found herself as one of the most successful pop singers in the world.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51# Doo-doo doo-doo doo...#
0:34:51 > 0:34:55I think I've done The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 5,000 times,
0:34:55 > 0:34:56and it is a beautiful song,
0:34:56 > 0:34:59but there are other songs out there,
0:34:59 > 0:35:00so to stay ahead of the game,
0:35:00 > 0:35:02and keep things interesting for you,
0:35:02 > 0:35:07you have to work with that, and I'm constantly concerned about that.
0:35:07 > 0:35:10Now the search was on for the crucial follow up hit.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16# I felt all flushed with fever
0:35:16 > 0:35:20# Embarrassed by the crowd. #
0:35:20 > 0:35:25I was on a plane coming from California to New York -
0:35:25 > 0:35:28all I could hear was this song.
0:35:28 > 0:35:29I was so just smitten.
0:35:29 > 0:35:32I couldn't sleep the whole time for the flight.
0:35:32 > 0:35:35I called Quincy as soon as I got to the airport,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39and I got the music and recorded it.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41# Strumming my pain with his fingers
0:35:41 > 0:35:43# Singing my life... #
0:35:43 > 0:35:47The song Roberta heard was Killing Me Softly by Lori Lieberman,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50a white folky West Coast singer.
0:35:51 > 0:35:54I was listening to Lori Lieberman's version of it,
0:35:54 > 0:35:57which, of course, came first, was very, very lovely,
0:35:57 > 0:36:00and I was, like, well, OK, so what happens between Lori Lieberman
0:36:00 > 0:36:02and Roberta Flack?
0:36:02 > 0:36:05And one thing she does, she gives it a stronger pulse.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08# I heard he sang a good song
0:36:08 > 0:36:12# I heard he had a style
0:36:12 > 0:36:15# And so I came to see him
0:36:15 > 0:36:19# To listen for a while...#
0:36:19 > 0:36:21And so that frees her up
0:36:21 > 0:36:23to be even more open with her vocals
0:36:23 > 0:36:27because you have this thing that sort of propelling the song
0:36:27 > 0:36:28and pushing it along.
0:36:28 > 0:36:33Also she asked that ingenious, erm, "Oh" part...
0:36:33 > 0:36:36# Ohhhh....
0:36:36 > 0:36:41# Oh-ohhh... Oh-ohhh oh-ohhh oh-ohhh
0:36:41 > 0:36:44# La la la la la la
0:36:44 > 0:36:46# Oh-ohhh oh-ohhh oh-ohhh...#
0:36:46 > 0:36:50..where she really just kind of airs out
0:36:50 > 0:36:52and lets it stretch and lets it soar
0:36:52 > 0:36:55and become this beautiful, beautiful moment.
0:36:58 > 0:37:01Killing Me Softly was another massive hit,
0:37:01 > 0:37:05winning three Grammy awards in 1974.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08But despite this success, or maybe because of it,
0:37:08 > 0:37:11Roberta Flack was not without her detractors.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15In the 1970s, a lot of critics didn't really consider
0:37:15 > 0:37:17Roberta Flack to be soul.
0:37:17 > 0:37:22Partly that was because some critics felt her singing was very white.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27# Suzanne takes you down
0:37:27 > 0:37:30# To a place by the river...#
0:37:30 > 0:37:33She wasn't singing like an Aretha Franklin,
0:37:33 > 0:37:36she didn't have that kind of fiery quality.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39She would stick to the melody - she would sing it straight.
0:37:39 > 0:37:43# And you know that she's half crazy...#
0:37:43 > 0:37:47Part of that comes from her family's background in the church,
0:37:47 > 0:37:49and it's also her classical training.
0:37:49 > 0:37:52# She feeds you tea and oranges...#
0:37:52 > 0:37:56What appears on the surface to be this quietude,
0:37:56 > 0:38:01this meekness, this... is in fact a...a granite persona,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05because you needed to be really tough, right?
0:38:05 > 0:38:07To find this additional energy
0:38:07 > 0:38:11to pull away from this tradition of blackness that says
0:38:11 > 0:38:14"I'm authentic, I come from the church, and we, you know,
0:38:14 > 0:38:17"we grunt and we call and response, etc, etc..."
0:38:17 > 0:38:19None of that's in her music.
0:38:19 > 0:38:21And none of that's in her music
0:38:21 > 0:38:25because she's deliberately decided that it shouldn't be there.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29# I learned the truth at 17
0:38:29 > 0:38:34# That love was meant for beauty queens
0:38:34 > 0:38:38# And high school girls with clear-skin smiles
0:38:38 > 0:38:42# Who married young and then retired...#
0:38:42 > 0:38:45Roberta Flack was often seen in the context of a generation
0:38:45 > 0:38:49of white female singer-songwriters who emerged in the '70s.
0:38:50 > 0:38:53# The Friday night charade of youth...#
0:38:54 > 0:38:57This was the dawn of the women's movement
0:38:57 > 0:38:59when the personal was political.
0:38:59 > 0:39:04# At 17 I learned the truth...#
0:39:04 > 0:39:08But Roberta's brand of feminism was also rooted in her blackness.
0:39:08 > 0:39:13This is a song about a very big, strong, black, sexy
0:39:13 > 0:39:16Southern Baptist minister,
0:39:16 > 0:39:20who thinks that he has his program all together,
0:39:20 > 0:39:23until he runs up against a lady,
0:39:23 > 0:39:27who shows him that he AIN'T got it together.
0:39:27 > 0:39:30First time I heard Reverend Lee it reminded me
0:39:30 > 0:39:34of a lot of these black preacher tales.
0:39:34 > 0:39:40You know, the black preacher presents himself as, God's man,
0:39:40 > 0:39:45but there are all these folk tales about preachers who go wayward.
0:39:45 > 0:39:49# Reverend Lee, she said
0:39:49 > 0:39:53# Said Lord knows I love you child
0:39:53 > 0:40:01# I will not even place God above you...#
0:40:03 > 0:40:07She actually has this interplay between the preacher himself
0:40:07 > 0:40:11and this siren, this woman sent from Satan
0:40:11 > 0:40:13who is luring this man.
0:40:13 > 0:40:17# Oh, she was twistin' and turning
0:40:19 > 0:40:23# She was beggin' and pleadin'...#
0:40:27 > 0:40:32The siren always wins because in the end she's, like,
0:40:32 > 0:40:35I have the power to pull you to a place
0:40:35 > 0:40:38that even your religion can't quite save you.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41# Oh, do it to me
0:40:41 > 0:40:43# Reverend Lee
0:40:43 > 0:40:45# Do it to me
0:40:46 > 0:40:49# Reverend Lee
0:40:49 > 0:40:51# Do it to me
0:40:51 > 0:40:55You know, over the course of... of her career she...
0:40:55 > 0:40:59I think the music that she's chosen to sing, um,
0:40:59 > 0:41:03certainly speaks to her feelings about blackness.
0:41:08 > 0:41:12Feelings about blackness had evolved in the mid-'70s
0:41:12 > 0:41:13as the gaze turned inward.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18Black consciousness was the byword.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20# Yes...
0:41:21 > 0:41:24# This is the ghetto
0:41:24 > 0:41:26# Sure 'nuff now
0:41:31 > 0:41:33# Mm-mm-hmm...#
0:41:40 > 0:41:44At this time, Roberta Flack reignited her collaboration
0:41:44 > 0:41:48with Donny Hathaway, her old friend from Howard University.
0:41:53 > 0:41:58Hathaway had developed a unique politically charged soul sound.
0:42:05 > 0:42:11# The ghetto, the ghetto, the ghetto...#
0:42:11 > 0:42:14By that political moment,
0:42:14 > 0:42:16in the early '70's is the period
0:42:16 > 0:42:20we associate with of black consciousness -
0:42:20 > 0:42:23we've struggled for these many years for inclusion
0:42:23 > 0:42:28at the level of law and rights now we want to be recognised for
0:42:28 > 0:42:32who we are, completely, physically culturally.
0:42:32 > 0:42:37What does it mean to be a black human being in this world?
0:42:37 > 0:42:39How does one embrace that?
0:42:39 > 0:42:44How does one embrace that in the way one treats one's body,
0:42:44 > 0:42:46and the way one talks about one's body,
0:42:46 > 0:42:51and the way one thinks about how you move through the world.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway produced an album of duets
0:43:00 > 0:43:05that perfectly expressed the mood of black America at the time.
0:43:05 > 0:43:10# Your hair, soft and crinkly
0:43:12 > 0:43:18# Your body, strong and stately
0:43:20 > 0:43:25# You don't have to search and roam
0:43:25 > 0:43:30# Cos I got your love at home
0:43:33 > 0:43:37# Be real black for me
0:43:39 > 0:43:42# Be real black for me. #
0:43:45 > 0:43:47That's a love song
0:43:47 > 0:43:51but it's a love song with deep political implications.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56It is about love between black people, right,
0:43:56 > 0:43:59and a kind of disrobing
0:43:59 > 0:44:06a kind of being unfettered by what the world says you are,
0:44:06 > 0:44:09and revelling in what you really are.
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Some people identify blackness as this hard thing
0:44:12 > 0:44:18and this thing that is only pain, that is only defence.
0:44:18 > 0:44:21That song is the opposite of that.
0:44:21 > 0:44:25It's tender and it's...and it's warm and it's inviting
0:44:25 > 0:44:29but it's still talking and dealing with blackness,
0:44:29 > 0:44:33and the acceptance of one's other blackness in another person.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38# Be real black for me
0:44:40 > 0:44:44# Be real black for me #
0:44:54 > 0:44:57While Roberta was signing songs of black consciousness
0:44:57 > 0:45:00her personal life made this complicated.
0:45:01 > 0:45:05Her bass player was her husband and he was Caucasian,
0:45:05 > 0:45:09so imagine living in Washington then and being married...
0:45:09 > 0:45:11Mixed couple? Oh, my God!
0:45:11 > 0:45:14So they were catching the hell.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19When you hear her sing... you feel it. You feel it.
0:45:20 > 0:45:24The hell she was catching, even came from within the family.
0:45:24 > 0:45:26After seven years of marriage -
0:45:26 > 0:45:29Roberta Flack had never even met her husband's parents.
0:45:29 > 0:45:36Do you think that your mother and father would recognise me
0:45:36 > 0:45:40if they knew they saw me on national television?
0:45:40 > 0:45:42What do you think they'd do if they see me?
0:45:42 > 0:45:46- Do you think they'd know who I am? They'd know I'm your wife?- Sure.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49- They know who you are. - They do know who I am?- Certainly.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52- How do you know? - We told them before we got married.
0:45:52 > 0:45:54- You told them what my name was? - Right.
0:45:55 > 0:45:58But do you think they connect that with you know
0:45:58 > 0:46:02whatever the image is supposed to represent now?
0:46:03 > 0:46:06You don't think that they'd see me on television
0:46:06 > 0:46:10and say that's the daughter... That's the girl that my son married?
0:46:10 > 0:46:14I think they'd say that. And they'd also say that that's...
0:46:14 > 0:46:16You really think they'd know who I am?
0:46:16 > 0:46:18My first husband is Caucasian.
0:46:18 > 0:46:21Young musician. Beautiful musician.
0:46:21 > 0:46:25And I...I used to think a lot of those songs that I was singing...
0:46:25 > 0:46:28"Yes, we're different, we're worlds apart, we're not the same -
0:46:28 > 0:46:32"we laughed and joked, at the start like in a game.
0:46:32 > 0:46:33# Like in a game...#
0:46:33 > 0:46:37"You could have stayed around my heart, but in you came
0:46:37 > 0:46:40"and here you stay until its time for you to go
0:46:40 > 0:46:45PICKS OUT TUNE ON PIANO "Don't ask... Don't ask how of me
0:46:45 > 0:46:47"Don't ask why of me
0:46:50 > 0:46:52"Don't ask...
0:46:54 > 0:46:56"..for ever...
0:46:56 > 0:46:57"..of me...
0:46:59 > 0:47:00"Love me...
0:47:02 > 0:47:03"Love me now"
0:47:14 > 0:47:17There's something else that you have to watch while you're building,
0:47:17 > 0:47:19trying to achieve something in the business,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22and that is to really FEEL like doing it.
0:47:22 > 0:47:24I have to go out and travel two or three days in a row
0:47:24 > 0:47:26with concerts each night
0:47:26 > 0:47:28and at the end of it I'm just whipped.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31"Roberta Flack, Going Down To The River, take one."
0:47:31 > 0:47:33# I'm going down
0:47:36 > 0:47:39# To the river
0:47:43 > 0:47:47# To lay my burden down...#
0:47:48 > 0:47:51She was pretty exacting in the studio
0:47:51 > 0:47:53because this is her reputation.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56I think we started about six in the evening,
0:47:56 > 0:48:01and by about 2 o'clock in the morning she was satisfied.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04Over and over and over and over.
0:48:04 > 0:48:10I'm sure some people would say that she's a really hard sometimes.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13A bit like me because I understand what she wants...
0:48:13 > 0:48:15When you want something, you want something, and...
0:48:15 > 0:48:16when it's right, it's right.
0:48:19 > 0:48:21# For the first time...#
0:48:21 > 0:48:24She's a studied musician, you know,
0:48:24 > 0:48:26and I think that she was very conscious of the fact -
0:48:26 > 0:48:28Well, hey, I'm the one that studied.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32I'm the one that knows the difference between G and G-sharp.
0:48:32 > 0:48:36I think all of that had to do with her exacting nature,
0:48:36 > 0:48:40and the fact that she just wasn't going to let anybody push her around.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43Male or female you kind of have to be that way,
0:48:43 > 0:48:45but especially so, if you are female,
0:48:45 > 0:48:49and a minority female in the music business, at that time especially.
0:48:49 > 0:48:51We're talking the '70s.
0:48:51 > 0:48:55# Somewhere deep in my body
0:48:57 > 0:49:02# I feel that magical glow...#
0:49:03 > 0:49:08When Roberta went into the studio to record her next album in 1974,
0:49:08 > 0:49:10she decided to produce it herself
0:49:10 > 0:49:13under the pseudonym Robina Flake.
0:49:14 > 0:49:17I took so long to a finish Feel Like Making Love,
0:49:17 > 0:49:22by the time I got through playing songs and hearing songs,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25and listening to songs and recording songs,
0:49:25 > 0:49:30and "No, I don't like that" and "Yes, I do" and "No", "Yes", "No", "Yes".
0:49:30 > 0:49:32A year had passed.
0:49:33 > 0:49:34Wow!
0:49:34 > 0:49:37And Feel Like Making Love had been on the charts for a year -
0:49:37 > 0:49:38Thank you, God!
0:49:40 > 0:49:43# Strolling in the park
0:49:43 > 0:49:46# Watching winter turn to spring
0:49:50 > 0:49:53# Walking in the dark
0:49:53 > 0:49:56# Seeing lovers do their thing
0:49:59 > 0:50:00# Ooh-ooh-ooh
0:50:00 > 0:50:02# That's the time
0:50:03 > 0:50:08# I feel like making love to you
0:50:10 > 0:50:11# That's the time
0:50:13 > 0:50:18# I feel like making dreams come true
0:50:19 > 0:50:21# Oh, baby...#
0:50:23 > 0:50:27Feel Like Making Love was another number one hit in 1975.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33Again written by Eugene McDaniels,
0:50:33 > 0:50:36but this time with no sign of any political edge.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39# And my feelings start to show. #
0:50:39 > 0:50:42As the 70's progressed, Roberta Flack's music
0:50:42 > 0:50:46was increasingly appealing to the more comfortably-off sections
0:50:46 > 0:50:48of the African American community.
0:50:51 > 0:50:54That black middle class that had created Roberta Flack,
0:50:54 > 0:50:59Martin Luther King and the dentists who gave birth to Miles Davis
0:50:59 > 0:51:01and the church leaders who gave birth to Aretha Franklin,
0:51:01 > 0:51:05is formed inside the hub of segregation.
0:51:07 > 0:51:13The post-civil rights period is about opening up American society.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19And as the black middle class gets bigger
0:51:19 > 0:51:24it then drives a wedge into the black political tradition.
0:51:25 > 0:51:29There's definitely a difference of interests.
0:51:29 > 0:51:34If you are a member of the urban black working class -
0:51:34 > 0:51:36the majority of African Americans -
0:51:36 > 0:51:40your sense of what the political future might be
0:51:40 > 0:51:44starts to look very different to the son of a black dentist,
0:51:44 > 0:51:49who's now gone to Harvard and got an MBA and is working at Goldman Sachs.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52And those differences begin to be mirrored,
0:51:52 > 0:51:57not just in the political arena, but also in the musical one.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08As the '70s rolled into the '80s, Roberta Flack's music was
0:52:08 > 0:52:12prominently featured on an American radio format called Quiet Storm.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17Quiet Storm would be night-time radio
0:52:17 > 0:52:22and it was all about, you know, slow the BPM all the way down.
0:52:22 > 0:52:27It was really strong jazz influence R&B.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30That's when you would have your DJ with the deep baritone voice
0:52:30 > 0:52:34announcing, you know, that was Sweet Love by Anita Baker.
0:52:34 > 0:52:38You know that's where R&B really started to leave youth behind.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42# Soft and warm
0:52:42 > 0:52:44# A quiet storm
0:52:44 > 0:52:49# Quiet as when flowers talk at break of dawn
0:52:50 > 0:52:53# Break of dawn...#
0:52:53 > 0:52:55Because of, again, her vocal quality,
0:52:55 > 0:52:58Roberta Flack was able to move into that realm
0:52:58 > 0:53:04and continue to be a part of the conversation throughout the '80s.
0:53:04 > 0:53:07The shift to sort of '80s R&B sound,
0:53:07 > 0:53:10and politics almost entirely disappear.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13The Quiet Storm era, generally.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17I mean that's just a melancholy era. In black life.
0:53:18 > 0:53:22# You short circuit all my nerves
0:53:22 > 0:53:24# Promising electric things
0:53:26 > 0:53:30# You touch me and suddenly there is rainbow rings
0:53:30 > 0:53:32# Quiet storm...#
0:53:32 > 0:53:36All of the regulation that came out in the '60s the Civil Rights Act,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40aren't working how you thought they would, you know.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43De-industrialisation of inner cities and white flight
0:53:43 > 0:53:46are gutting inner cities.
0:53:46 > 0:53:48So it's actually like a really ironic time
0:53:48 > 0:53:50to have music that is so soothing
0:53:50 > 0:53:52when the world is really kind of convulsive.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56# Tonight I celebrate
0:53:56 > 0:54:00# ..my love for you
0:54:00 > 0:54:08# And hope that deep inside you'll feel it, too...#
0:54:08 > 0:54:12In 1983, as the ghettos of black America were crumbling,
0:54:12 > 0:54:15Roberta Flack found a new duet partner
0:54:15 > 0:54:19after the sad death of Donny Hathaway a few years earlier.
0:54:19 > 0:54:20She scored another big hit.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24# When I make love to you...#
0:54:24 > 0:54:27The first time I heard Tonight I Celebrate My Love,
0:54:27 > 0:54:29I did not like the song.
0:54:29 > 0:54:34The only reason I was interested in it was cos Roberta really liked it.
0:54:34 > 0:54:37I knew it was special after the first pass.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42Roberta is a stickler for pitch.
0:54:42 > 0:54:43She's...
0:54:43 > 0:54:46She's not demanding of it,
0:54:46 > 0:54:50but you get the idea after a while that she wants it.
0:54:50 > 0:54:55# Tonight there'll distance between us
0:54:56 > 0:55:00# What I want most to do... #
0:55:00 > 0:55:03Her music starts to feel more estranged
0:55:03 > 0:55:05from the majority of black life.
0:55:05 > 0:55:08But I think there's something to be said for consistency.
0:55:10 > 0:55:14I mean she remained in the area of the heart, of intimacy,
0:55:14 > 0:55:16of sexual relations...
0:55:16 > 0:55:18She doesn't change from that.
0:55:18 > 0:55:23But the priorities of African American life changed.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27It's not entirely coincidence
0:55:27 > 0:55:32that hip hop starts to emerge in the spaces of...urban poverty.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37# Broken glass everywhere...#
0:55:37 > 0:55:38The eruption of hip hop in the '80s
0:55:38 > 0:55:41caused a chasm in African-American music
0:55:41 > 0:55:44that would not be bridged for over a decade.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46# A junkie's in the alley with the baseball bat
0:55:46 > 0:55:51# Don't push me cos I'm close to the edge
0:55:51 > 0:55:55# I'm trying not to lose my head
0:55:55 > 0:55:57Ha-ha ha ha #
0:55:57 > 0:55:59# Fight the power!
0:55:59 > 0:56:01# Fight the power!
0:56:01 > 0:56:04# Fight the power!
0:56:04 > 0:56:05# Fight the power!
0:56:05 > 0:56:09The sonic revolutions of hip hop - playing down in the hood -
0:56:09 > 0:56:11and the slicker R&B sound
0:56:11 > 0:56:15often entertaining a more uptown crowd.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20# You got me feeling emotion...#
0:56:20 > 0:56:22It would take another up town girl -
0:56:22 > 0:56:26rummaging through her parents record collection
0:56:26 > 0:56:32to eventually unite the warring genres and generations in 1996.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35# I heard he sang a good song
0:56:35 > 0:56:40# I heard he had a style
0:56:42 > 0:56:46# And so I came to see him
0:56:46 > 0:56:49# And listened for a while...#
0:56:49 > 0:56:51The great thing about the Lauryn Hill version -
0:56:51 > 0:56:53as wonderful as it is -
0:56:53 > 0:56:56it did not replace the Roberta Flack version.
0:56:56 > 0:56:59We let them live side by side.
0:57:00 > 0:57:02# Killing me softly
0:57:04 > 0:57:07# With his song #
0:57:07 > 0:57:11We want to dedicate this to the hard-core, check it out!
0:57:11 > 0:57:16# Ohhh... Ohh-ohh, ohh-ohh, ohh-ohhhh
0:57:18 > 0:57:22# La la la la la la
0:57:22 > 0:57:24# Ohhh... #
0:57:24 > 0:57:26Most of the time people talk about
0:57:26 > 0:57:30how many Queen Of Souls there've been who follow Aretha Franklin.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36# Before I put on my make-up
0:57:36 > 0:57:37# Make-up
0:57:37 > 0:57:40# I say a little prayer ...#
0:57:40 > 0:57:43# And I knew our joy...#
0:57:45 > 0:57:51One thing you can say, now, is that Roberta Flack had descendants -
0:57:51 > 0:57:53certainly Lauryn Hill, almost certainly Alycia Keyes.
0:57:53 > 0:57:59# And it would last
0:57:59 > 0:58:04# Till the end of time, my love...#
0:58:04 > 0:58:07The moment belongs in equal measure
0:58:07 > 0:58:10to those two traditions - those two women.
0:58:14 > 0:58:19CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:58:19 > 0:58:22I've had some good experiences.
0:58:22 > 0:58:25Some wonderful moments in my life.
0:58:25 > 0:58:27Do-dah, do-dah. SHE CHUCKLES
0:58:27 > 0:58:33ROBERTA SINGS IN SPANISH