Killing Me Softly: The Roberta Flack Story


Killing Me Softly: The Roberta Flack Story

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# Strummin' my pain with his fingers

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# Singin' my life with his words

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# Killing me softly with his song...#

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In 1973, Roberta Flack's brand of soft soul made her

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one of the biggest selling female pop stars in the world...

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The first thing I think about when I hear Roberta record a classic

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is that I can't wait to sing it, you know?

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# Where is the love

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# Where is the love...#

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..and the kids of Middle America loved her.

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But 20 years earlier, the parents of those white kids

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wouldn't have allowed Roberta to sit next to them on the bus.

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We were living in a very radical time.

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It was madness going on throughout the South.

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But this isn't just a familiar rags-to-riches story

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of triumph over adversity.

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She raises this spectre of class.

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She is a quintessential product of the black middle class.

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Right down to where she's educated.

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Nor did Roberta Flack set out to be a pop star.

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In her voice you can hear both impact of her classical training

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and, the, you know, the kind of fineness of her ear.

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# Killing me softly...#

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But the lure of the pop stage proved irresistible.

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# Softly... #

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When you start to perform and you go through all of the physical motions -

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"Ladies and Gentlemen - Roberta Flack"

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and you come to where that spot.

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There's a moment that you reach for

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that that can only be described as blissful.

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# This is my prayer

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# This is my prayer#

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Aretha Franklin is everybody's idea of what a soul singer is.

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# For ever, ever...

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# Stay in my heart

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# Ever... Yeah #

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Passionate, loud and driven by the power of gospel.

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# Oh! Lovers together

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# We're together

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# To live without you... #

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For Clint Eastwood, an invitation to terror.

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WOMAN SCREAMS

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But when Eastwood featured Roberta Flack's The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

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in the film Play Misty For Me

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and propelled it to the top of the charts -

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a new kind of soul voice introduced itself on to the world stage

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# The first time...

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APPLAUSE

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# ..ever I saw your face

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# I thought the sun

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# ..rose in your eyes...#

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It was the first time that I'd ever heard a song

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recorded at that tempo.

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It was not the normal ballad.

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It was more, almost a testimony.

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# And the first time

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# ..ever I kissed your mouth... #

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She makes us redefine this whole notion

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of what black female soul music is as a sound.

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# I felt the earth... #

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You're getting as close inside of her head

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as her sound is going to allow you to get.

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# Like the trembling heart... #

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When I did, First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,

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sometimes when I first started to sign the song

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I'd be in tears, I mean...

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MIMICS CRYING

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# To the dark...#

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I didn't know that people could feel what I felt.

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You know, this deep, deep, deep thing.

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But they could get it. I'd look up and they'd be crying, too.

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And I would say, "Wonder why they're crying. What did I do?" You know?

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"Did I do something wrong?"

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And then I realised later that it wasn't that,

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I realised later that it's... It's the communication.

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# Till the end of time, my love...#

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Roberta is more lyrical in her approach,

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and her vocal prowess.

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She has a very, very clear haunting and soothing voice.

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Aretha will make you sweat,

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and Roberta makes you think.

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# The first time...#

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When I first heard it

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I almost wasn't sure, it was a black voice.

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# ..your face #

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Cos there is an enigma at the heart of it, you know.

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It's a kind of different soul voice.

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And it's obviously from a different tradition.

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So where did Roberta Flack's brand of soul come from?

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Despite being born in the segregated South in 1937,

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its roots were more in aspiration than they were in desperation.

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At any early age, Roberta's family migrated from North Carolina

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to Arlington,

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a then segregated suburb of Washington DC.

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When we talk about the segregated South,

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and, really, Arlington is still the South in this period,

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You're still talking about a community that is...

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constrained by Jim Crow.

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The so-called Negro movement is part of the attempted takeover

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of our country by the lazy, the indolent,

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the beatniks, the ignorant and by some misguided...

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On the other hand the benefits of those types of communities

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were that, um, you had your rich, robust lives

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where you have the entire class spectrum.

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There's a kind of shared sense of purpose

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and a kind of self-government because,

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if you imagine you know, an entire social order that presumes

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your inferiority,

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there has to be another set of ethics and norms and values

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that are established that can accommodate all the talents

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and all the gifts of members of the community.

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It was in this kind of self-contained segregated community

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that Roberta Flack was raised in the late 1940s.

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At that time Arlington was a relatively comfortable,

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black, middle-class suburb.

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One of four children,

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Roberta Flack's father had a government job in Washington

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and her mother was a music teacher.

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People who were Roberta Flack's age who come out of the South,

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I mean, you know, these are people for whom the opportunity

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to become middle class, where it is, where the money is a little better

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than it was for the generation before them.

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Where the housing opportunities are a little better, as well.

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And it's a product of a lot of hard work and sacrifice

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that your community and your parents put in.

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At the centre of these communities were the churches -

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and at the centre of the churches was the music.

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In Arlington, the biggest was the Macedonia Baptist Church

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and the music was gospel.

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# ..trying to get home

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# I'm climbing higher mountains

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# Trying to get home... #

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I could walk in any Baptist church

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and hear what we know of as traditional gospel

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with folks like Aretha Franklin and Sam Cook, Mahalia Jackson...

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# That is why I can shout

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# Because I know what it's

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# All about...#

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The people who so many years later

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got packaged into soul and turned into soul

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would have come out of your Baptist churches.

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The roots of Roberta Flack's brand of soul -

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also came from church, but of a different kind.

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She attended the more sedate Lomax AMA Methodist Church

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where her mother was both pianist and choir mistress.

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CONGREGATION SINGS HYMN

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I'd like to think of Roberta,

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as I always think of myself,

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as being a good girl.

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We are good girls, OK?

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Um, and her background, coming from a Methodist environment,

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Methodist church environment, mirrors mine.

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The choir sang hymns, and hymns are very, very straight-laced

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and to the point, and wonderful harmony.

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# Glory be to the Father...#

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When you think of, say, an Aretha Franklin,

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or even an Al Green or a James Brown...

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who have that kind of fiery, gritty kind of sweaty voices,

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Roberta Flack is not really known for that,

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her voice has more to do with the kind of quiet hymnals, right?

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And being able to just sing a song, straight,

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not alter and switch off the melody too much.

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She's very good at that,

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so I think a lot of that is definitively rooted in the church.

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# Come ye disconsolate

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# Where 'ere ye lie. #

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I had a lot of experience,

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or opportunity,

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to play the organ for church services at Lomax.

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When there were some incredible musicians in charge of the choir.

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I can remember a lady

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at my church, Mrs Lillian Thompson - God rest her soul -

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said to me one day,

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"Roberta, I hope that you never stop playing the piano and organ

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like you are doing now."

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And I said to her "Why would I do that?"

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Roberta's musical education in the church -

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was supplemented at her local high school,

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where she excelled in both classical piano and voice.

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In the segregated early 50s,

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Hoffman Boston was an entirely black school

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both in intake and in staff.

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All over black America if you were a high school principal

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you were probably that black person who had an advanced degree,

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from either one of the top black schools,

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or in some cases the Ivy League schools.

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But black educators couldn't work in those Ivy League schools -

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so you had a world that was separate

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and, in some ways, less than equal,

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some ways more than equal in terms of the quality of education.

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Those people were completely committed to providing

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first rate education, for people like a Roberta Flack.

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There was a term that was commonly used "to lift as we climb",

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meaning educational aspirations were not just for individuals

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but for the entire community.

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So segregated schools were these beautiful sites for self-creation

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and community formation.

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Roberta's blossoming musical talent was recognised

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and nurtured in Hoffman Boston.

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Roberta was just like we are, just a everyday young student.

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But when it came time to being serious about what she supposed to

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-she was very, very serious.

-Very focused.

-Yes. Yes.

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And she'd go to music lessons.

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You know, when her mother would send her to music higher...

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She didn't have time for us and that's good.

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A good thing she didn't because look where she is today!

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When Roberta Flack left high school in 1953,

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her church marked her out as somebody

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who could lift as she climbed.

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They granted her a scholarship at the age of just 15,

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to study classical music

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at the most prestigious African American college -

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Howard University.

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Howard University is one of a small group of really

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premier historically black college and universities

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and so, you get the best and the brightest in every possible arena.

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So it is the site where there's so much

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intellectual activity, politically relevant activity,

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the place where the litigation strategy

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for Brown v Board of Education was developed.

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Brown Versus Board of Education was the landmark case in 1954,

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which banned segregation in American Schools.

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It was a triumph for the university in Roberta's first year.

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But outside the cloistered walls

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the Southern states had no intention of going quietly.

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The following year, a young preacher emerged in the South

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to kick start the civil rights movement.

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"At present we are in the midst of a protest.

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"Just the other day one of the fine citizens of our community

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"Mrs Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her seat

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"for a white passenger.

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The movement was led by the African American educated middle class,

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of which Roberta Flack was now comfortably part of,

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back in the classical music department at Howard University.

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CLASSICAL SINGING

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At Howard Roberta Flack distinguished herself

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in a distinguished music programme.

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She studied both music and voice.

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She really was a musical prodigy.

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Really extraordinarily brilliant.

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When she directed Aida, at the school,

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the entire faculty stood and gave her a standing ovation.

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# All through the night

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# I'm gonna to let it shine... #

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Being a student at Howard served me well.

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I had a good time in school,

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I was very successful as a piano accompanist to, erm... anybody.

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Anybody wanted to sing they could find me.

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-< Any style?

-Any style! Find me.

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And I can play it.

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If I didn't know it I'd...pull it together some kind of way, you know.

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To make it sound like I did.

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Because I had a strong desire to please, too.

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And that was my - means of doing that.

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I think that Roberta Flack is absolutely a product

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of African Americans' long affiliation with classical music.

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Whilst listeners may not think of classical first when they hear her,

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her life is evidence and her music is evidence

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of that training and that awareness which came to her

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at different kinds of ways -

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from the church, from Howard, from her community

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and so she could not help but manifest that

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in her playing and in her singing.

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# I never dreamed you'd leave in summer... #

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She knew where to hit the keys

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so that the words would not be disturbed by the keyboard.

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That's really critical for someone who accompanies themselves.

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She knows how to maintain the body technique

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so that nothing is lost in the voice in that process.

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# And I thought the cold would leave by summer

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# But my quiet nights will be spent alone... #

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At Howard, Roberta had her heart set on a classical career,

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but the realities of a segregated America dulled those dreams.

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When Roberta Flack is at Howard there's not a lot of black people

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with those kind of skills in composition, arranging, conducting,

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you know, who are going to be in line,

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to take over the New York Philharmonic

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or the National Symphony Orchestra.

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I had a dean that advised me that as a Piano major,

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the doors would not be as open to me when I finished that course of study,

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and that I should take Education.

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I walked away from a potential career as a classical concert pianist.

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Let's try this right from the beginning.

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OK, let's do the doo-doo doo-doo part at the beginning,

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then we'll get into... We'll do that twice # Doo-doo doo-doo doo -

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and then right into the song. Here we go.

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# Doo-doo-doo-doo doo...#

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With her ambition thwarted, Roberta began teaching music

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in the public school system in Washington DC.

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So not only do you have to enunciate the words clearly,

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but you also have to put a little stress, a little emphasis

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on certain words - make the words almost picturesque.

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But as the '60s dawned there was a sense that things

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were about to change.

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# People get ready

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# There's a train a-coming

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# You don't need to no baggage

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# You just get on board... #

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The civil rights movement had gathered an unstoppable momentum

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with Martin Luther King's triumphant march, on Washington in 1963.

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The following year,

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a decade after Brown versus Board of Education

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the government were forced to bring an end to a century of segregation.

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# So people get ready for the train to Jordan

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# Picking up passengers

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# Coast to coast

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Throughout this momentous decade, Roberta continued to teach,

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but she hadn't given up on her own dream.

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I would teach school five days a week.

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I was trying to develop my skill to read music,

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interpret it, rearrange it - do whatever I needed to do with it.

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I thought I could do everything.

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And I felt comfortable enough to know that if I had a chance I could,

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I could show anybody that I could.

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It wasn't until 1968 that a 31-year-old Roberta Flack

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got her chance to shine.

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Mr Henry's was a late-night joint

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that catered to a fashionably mixed crowd.

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# Ain't no valley low enough

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# Ain't no river wide enough

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# Keep me from gettin' to you

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# Hold on, baby

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# Ain't no mountain high

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# No valley low, yeah... #

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You know, I was so excited.

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So excited.

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I'm teaching school, I was still teaching school five days a week

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and playing, um...

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at Mr Henry's.

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Five days a week, too!

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I was supposed to do two shows,

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I would wind up doing five in a night,

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cos I just couldn't get up - from the piano.

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# Come on, people... #

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Anybody that had come into town to do a concert,

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as she got more popular, more well-known,

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would come and...and listen to her.

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Liberace came once to hear her.

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I think somebody actually stole one the candelabras

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off of his limousine when it was parked out front.

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# Take that dream of her two young brothers

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# Gonna take that dream...#

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The thing that I remembered

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other than being captivated by her at the first hearing,

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we had a couple of guys with us that were, erm...

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out for fun!

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A couple of drinks, and one of them said "Sing one for Jesus!"

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And I buried my head and...

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# Save the little children... #

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So the next song she sang was # I Told Jesus

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# Be alright if he called my name #

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I said this woman is going to just have the most wonderful career,

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because nothing, nothing bothers her.

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# If you see me walking down the street

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# And I start to cry

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# Each time we meet

0:23:270:23:30

# Walk on by

0:23:300:23:34

# Walk on by. #

0:23:360:23:38

And I was performing in Washington, DC

0:23:380:23:40

and my guys, my rhythm section,

0:23:400:23:42

said they were going to go to this little club,

0:23:420:23:45

and there was a young lady there playing piano and singing and...

0:23:450:23:48

would I like to go?

0:23:480:23:50

I said, "Yeah, sure" and that was...

0:23:500:23:53

The young lady was Roberta Flack.

0:23:530:23:55

And, boy, she blew me away.

0:23:550:23:58

REALLY blew me away.

0:23:580:24:00

# Sister Jones was taken away

0:24:010:24:06

# She didn't live another day

0:24:060:24:11

# Sister Jones was taken away

0:24:160:24:21

# She didn't live

0:24:210:24:26

# Another day

0:24:260:24:30

# Sister Jones was taken away

0:24:320:24:37

# She didn't live

0:24:390:24:41

# She said Lord, Lord, Lord

0:24:440:24:46

# If you take him away...#

0:24:460:24:49

If you close your eyes and sing and...

0:24:490:24:52

feel and emote,

0:24:520:24:54

and not see anybody in the audience,

0:24:540:24:58

not think about anybody that you might see,

0:24:580:25:01

or who might see you - just be there -

0:25:010:25:03

it's a very interesting place to be.

0:25:030:25:05

And when you, once you get there it's...it's a...

0:25:050:25:10

It's very hard to leave.

0:25:100:25:14

# Yeah, yeah, yeah...

0:25:140:25:19

# She said Lord...

0:25:190:25:25

# Lord, Lord, Lord

0:25:250:25:28

# If you take him away

0:25:280:25:31

# I don't wanna live another day

0:25:310:25:35

# Yeah, yeah...

0:25:350:25:37

# Sister Jones was taken away

0:25:370:25:45

# You know, she didn't live

0:25:470:25:49

# She didn't live

0:25:510:25:55

# She didn't live another day...#

0:25:550:26:05

WHOOPS AND APPLAUSE

0:26:050:26:11

It was my moment. I was on stage.

0:26:160:26:18

I was right dead centre, where I needed to be.

0:26:180:26:21

And I had everybody's attention.

0:26:210:26:23

And I could take them where I wanted them to go.

0:26:230:26:27

Well, I can't describe her voice.

0:26:270:26:30

I can say that when I heard her sing... How it made me feel.

0:26:300:26:35

Tears to my eyes, a lot of deep feeling.

0:26:360:26:39

So I picked up recording equipment to record her and take the rec...

0:26:400:26:45

the recording to Atlantic

0:26:450:26:46

and once they heard the tapes, that was... It began.

0:26:460:26:52

After ten years, her teaching days were over,

0:26:540:26:57

Roberta transferred the songs she'd been performing at Mr Henry's

0:26:570:27:01

onto vinyl.

0:27:010:27:03

# I loved you in the morning

0:27:030:27:06

# Our kisses deep and warm...#

0:27:060:27:09

Released in 1969, First Take

0:27:090:27:12

was an eclectic mix of folk, jazz and show tune,

0:27:120:27:17

but this was also an album of its time.

0:27:170:27:20

I think it's a very, very fascinating record,

0:27:200:27:22

because there's romantic ballads,

0:27:220:27:25

there's covers of Leonard Cohen songs on there...

0:27:250:27:29

It's a very hybrid fusion record,

0:27:290:27:32

but it's one that is deeply rooted in black politics of the late 1960s

0:27:320:27:36

and I think part of the reason Roberta Flack doesn't get fully credited

0:27:360:27:41

for being a part of that political tradition

0:27:410:27:43

is because she's a woman.

0:27:430:27:45

Story goes African American popular music -

0:27:450:27:48

became explicitly political and socially critical

0:27:480:27:51

with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On in 1971.

0:27:510:27:54

# Mother, Mother

0:27:540:27:57

# There's too many of you crying...#

0:27:570:27:59

Roberta Flack's album comes out two years before.

0:28:010:28:03

Right? So really it's much earlier.

0:28:030:28:05

GUNSHOT

0:28:050:28:07

We have to recognise who our major enemy is!

0:28:070:28:11

In 1969, while black America was erupting after

0:28:160:28:19

the assassination of Martin Luther King,

0:28:190:28:22

and while the non-violence of civil rights was drowned out

0:28:220:28:25

by the rage of Black Power.

0:28:250:28:28

The major enemy is the honky and his institutions of racism -

0:28:280:28:31

that's the major enemy.

0:28:310:28:33

Marvin Gaye was too Busy Thinking About His Baby.

0:28:330:28:36

# Oh, yeah

0:28:360:28:38

# And I ain't got time for nothing else

0:28:380:28:41

But Roberta Flack was trying to make it real.

0:28:440:28:48

# Said I love the lie...#

0:28:480:28:50

ROBERTA SINGS

0:28:500:28:52

How bold is that?

0:29:250:29:26

This is your first album

0:29:260:29:27

and you decide this is the first song on the album -

0:29:270:29:30

Compared To What - where you're basically calling out everything.

0:29:300:29:34

You're just coming out of the black saying,

0:29:340:29:36

"You got to be real," You know? Compared To What, you know?

0:29:360:29:40

All of these sort of swirling around its like people were

0:29:400:29:42

trying to find centre.

0:29:420:29:43

It's a kind of wail against authenticity.

0:30:070:30:11

It's like make it real Compared To What?

0:30:110:30:14

Why am I not OK by myself?

0:30:140:30:17

I know this is what you say we are,

0:30:190:30:22

I know this is even what we say we are, but, you know,

0:30:220:30:25

let me just...take a minute here and see whether

0:30:250:30:28

I can offer you a version.

0:30:280:30:30

# Tryin' to make it real, yeah

0:30:300:30:33

# Compared to what...#

0:30:340:30:37

In that sense she's also, I think, part of a long tradition

0:30:370:30:42

of African American intellectuals and creatives

0:30:420:30:46

who've tried really hard to forge this space,

0:30:460:30:50

in which they can be individuals.

0:30:500:30:53

# Hang it up...#

0:30:530:30:54

When you see Roberta Flack in that tradition

0:30:540:30:57

she suddenly makes more sense.

0:30:570:30:59

I thought was a clever song it was Gene McDaniels,

0:30:590:31:03

it gave me an opportunity to express a point,

0:31:030:31:07

without hitting somebody over the head, you know.

0:31:070:31:11

# Callin' the name. #

0:31:110:31:14

Eugene McDaniels was one of a number of black songwriters

0:31:140:31:17

that Roberta Flack gathered round her for the making of the album.

0:31:170:31:21

# Making the...last time

0:31:240:31:28

# Like the first time

0:31:300:31:33

# Merging as one

0:31:350:31:39

# Fusing into the vast...#

0:31:430:31:46

Eugene McDaniels in terms of his aspirations,

0:31:460:31:51

is probably as close to a Bob Dylan

0:31:510:31:55

as black American music produced in that particular moment,

0:31:550:31:58

in the sense that this was somebody

0:31:580:32:01

that really wanted to make the lyrics the thing.

0:32:010:32:05

You told me... You called me and told me you had a song for me.

0:32:050:32:08

That's right, and you are the only person that I write exclusives for.

0:32:080:32:11

But why you playing my song for him.

0:32:110:32:13

He asked to hear it. He just asked to hear it. He can't have it.

0:32:130:32:17

Can't have it. It's yours.

0:32:170:32:20

-Is that a promise.

-Yes, ma'am.

0:32:200:32:22

Cos you know how I feel about your songs.

0:32:220:32:25

Sure feels great to have folks fighting over your music.

0:32:280:32:30

-It's really a trip, man!

-I'm not fighting.

0:32:300:32:33

Black songwriters felt comfortable being really intellectual.

0:32:330:32:36

People didn't have this anxiety of education.

0:32:360:32:40

People were actually proud to be able to express

0:32:400:32:43

really complicated thought about the world inside of popular music.

0:32:430:32:47

They felt that space had been opened up for them.

0:32:470:32:50

# Just pick up your papers

0:32:500:32:53

# Turn on your TV

0:32:530:32:56

# See a lot of demonstrations

0:32:570:33:02

# For equality

0:33:020:33:05

# Folks wouldn't have to suffer

0:33:050:33:08

# If there was more love, more love, more love

0:33:110:33:15

# These are trying times...#

0:33:150:33:16

Trying Times was written by an old friend from Howard university

0:33:180:33:22

- Donny Hathaway -

0:33:220:33:24

but it wasn't her political songs

0:33:240:33:27

that thrust Roberta Flack into the mainstream.

0:33:270:33:30

In 1972, Clint Eastwood choose one of her love songs

0:33:340:33:38

to feature in his directorial debut Play Misty for Me.

0:33:380:33:43

I was living in Alexandra, Virginia, with my mom and she said "Roberta",

0:33:430:33:47

I said "Yes", she said, "Somebody name Clint Eastwood is on the phone."

0:33:470:33:51

And I had, I thought she was either putting me on -

0:33:510:33:53

or was somebody playing a joke on me.

0:33:530:33:55

It was the real guy.

0:33:550:33:57

# The first time... #

0:33:580:34:00

I was very confused about him liking it, though I said to him

0:34:020:34:05

"Don't you want me to shorten it? Isn't' it too long?"

0:34:050:34:08

"No, I want it just like it is, all 5 minutes and 16 seconds."

0:34:080:34:13

Clint Eastwood needed the song

0:34:130:34:15

for an unusually long and wordless love scene.

0:34:150:34:19

His brave decision in this clip

0:34:200:34:22

to play The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face in its entirety

0:34:220:34:26

changed Robert Flack's life.

0:34:260:34:29

Mainstream white America fell in love with the song.

0:34:290:34:33

It became the biggest selling single of the year,

0:34:330:34:36

and the woman who wanted to be a concert pianist,

0:34:360:34:39

now found herself as one of the most successful pop singers in the world.

0:34:390:34:43

# Doo-doo doo-doo doo...#

0:34:480:34:51

I think I've done The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face 5,000 times,

0:34:510:34:55

and it is a beautiful song,

0:34:550:34:56

but there are other songs out there,

0:34:560:34:59

so to stay ahead of the game,

0:34:590:35:00

and keep things interesting for you,

0:35:000:35:02

you have to work with that, and I'm constantly concerned about that.

0:35:020:35:07

Now the search was on for the crucial follow up hit.

0:35:070:35:10

# I felt all flushed with fever

0:35:130:35:16

# Embarrassed by the crowd. #

0:35:160:35:20

I was on a plane coming from California to New York -

0:35:200:35:25

all I could hear was this song.

0:35:250:35:28

I was so just smitten.

0:35:280:35:29

I couldn't sleep the whole time for the flight.

0:35:290:35:32

I called Quincy as soon as I got to the airport,

0:35:320:35:35

and I got the music and recorded it.

0:35:350:35:39

# Strumming my pain with his fingers

0:35:390:35:41

# Singing my life... #

0:35:410:35:43

The song Roberta heard was Killing Me Softly by Lori Lieberman,

0:35:430:35:47

a white folky West Coast singer.

0:35:470:35:50

I was listening to Lori Lieberman's version of it,

0:35:510:35:54

which, of course, came first, was very, very lovely,

0:35:540:35:57

and I was, like, well, OK, so what happens between Lori Lieberman

0:35:570:36:00

and Roberta Flack?

0:36:000:36:02

And one thing she does, she gives it a stronger pulse.

0:36:020:36:05

# I heard he sang a good song

0:36:050:36:08

# I heard he had a style

0:36:080:36:12

# And so I came to see him

0:36:120:36:15

# To listen for a while...#

0:36:150:36:19

And so that frees her up

0:36:190:36:21

to be even more open with her vocals

0:36:210:36:23

because you have this thing that sort of propelling the song

0:36:230:36:27

and pushing it along.

0:36:270:36:28

Also she asked that ingenious, erm, "Oh" part...

0:36:280:36:33

# Ohhhh....

0:36:330:36:36

# Oh-ohhh... Oh-ohhh oh-ohhh oh-ohhh

0:36:360:36:41

# La la la la la la

0:36:410:36:44

# Oh-ohhh oh-ohhh oh-ohhh...#

0:36:440:36:46

..where she really just kind of airs out

0:36:460:36:50

and lets it stretch and lets it soar

0:36:500:36:52

and become this beautiful, beautiful moment.

0:36:520:36:55

Killing Me Softly was another massive hit,

0:36:580:37:01

winning three Grammy awards in 1974.

0:37:010:37:05

But despite this success, or maybe because of it,

0:37:050:37:08

Roberta Flack was not without her detractors.

0:37:080:37:11

In the 1970s, a lot of critics didn't really consider

0:37:110:37:15

Roberta Flack to be soul.

0:37:150:37:17

Partly that was because some critics felt her singing was very white.

0:37:170:37:22

# Suzanne takes you down

0:37:240:37:27

# To a place by the river...#

0:37:270:37:30

She wasn't singing like an Aretha Franklin,

0:37:300:37:33

she didn't have that kind of fiery quality.

0:37:330:37:36

She would stick to the melody - she would sing it straight.

0:37:360:37:39

# And you know that she's half crazy...#

0:37:390:37:43

Part of that comes from her family's background in the church,

0:37:430:37:47

and it's also her classical training.

0:37:470:37:49

# She feeds you tea and oranges...#

0:37:490:37:52

What appears on the surface to be this quietude,

0:37:520:37:56

this meekness, this... is in fact a...a granite persona,

0:37:560:38:01

because you needed to be really tough, right?

0:38:010:38:05

To find this additional energy

0:38:050:38:07

to pull away from this tradition of blackness that says

0:38:070:38:11

"I'm authentic, I come from the church, and we, you know,

0:38:110:38:14

"we grunt and we call and response, etc, etc..."

0:38:140:38:17

None of that's in her music.

0:38:170:38:19

And none of that's in her music

0:38:190:38:21

because she's deliberately decided that it shouldn't be there.

0:38:210:38:25

# I learned the truth at 17

0:38:250:38:29

# That love was meant for beauty queens

0:38:290:38:34

# And high school girls with clear-skin smiles

0:38:340:38:38

# Who married young and then retired...#

0:38:380:38:42

Roberta Flack was often seen in the context of a generation

0:38:420:38:45

of white female singer-songwriters who emerged in the '70s.

0:38:450:38:49

# The Friday night charade of youth...#

0:38:500:38:53

This was the dawn of the women's movement

0:38:540:38:57

when the personal was political.

0:38:570:38:59

# At 17 I learned the truth...#

0:38:590:39:04

But Roberta's brand of feminism was also rooted in her blackness.

0:39:040:39:08

This is a song about a very big, strong, black, sexy

0:39:080:39:13

Southern Baptist minister,

0:39:130:39:16

who thinks that he has his program all together,

0:39:160:39:20

until he runs up against a lady,

0:39:200:39:23

who shows him that he AIN'T got it together.

0:39:230:39:27

First time I heard Reverend Lee it reminded me

0:39:270:39:30

of a lot of these black preacher tales.

0:39:300:39:34

You know, the black preacher presents himself as, God's man,

0:39:340:39:40

but there are all these folk tales about preachers who go wayward.

0:39:400:39:45

# Reverend Lee, she said

0:39:450:39:49

# Said Lord knows I love you child

0:39:490:39:53

# I will not even place God above you...#

0:39:530:40:01

She actually has this interplay between the preacher himself

0:40:030:40:07

and this siren, this woman sent from Satan

0:40:070:40:11

who is luring this man.

0:40:110:40:13

# Oh, she was twistin' and turning

0:40:130:40:17

# She was beggin' and pleadin'...#

0:40:190:40:23

The siren always wins because in the end she's, like,

0:40:270:40:32

I have the power to pull you to a place

0:40:320:40:35

that even your religion can't quite save you.

0:40:350:40:38

# Oh, do it to me

0:40:390:40:41

# Reverend Lee

0:40:410:40:43

# Do it to me

0:40:430:40:45

# Reverend Lee

0:40:460:40:49

# Do it to me

0:40:490:40:51

You know, over the course of... of her career she...

0:40:510:40:55

I think the music that she's chosen to sing, um,

0:40:550:40:59

certainly speaks to her feelings about blackness.

0:40:590:41:03

Feelings about blackness had evolved in the mid-'70s

0:41:080:41:12

as the gaze turned inward.

0:41:120:41:13

Black consciousness was the byword.

0:41:150:41:18

# Yes...

0:41:180:41:20

# This is the ghetto

0:41:210:41:24

# Sure 'nuff now

0:41:240:41:26

# Mm-mm-hmm...#

0:41:310:41:33

At this time, Roberta Flack reignited her collaboration

0:41:400:41:44

with Donny Hathaway, her old friend from Howard University.

0:41:440:41:48

Hathaway had developed a unique politically charged soul sound.

0:41:530:41:58

# The ghetto, the ghetto, the ghetto...#

0:42:050:42:11

By that political moment,

0:42:110:42:14

in the early '70's is the period

0:42:140:42:16

we associate with of black consciousness -

0:42:160:42:20

we've struggled for these many years for inclusion

0:42:200:42:23

at the level of law and rights now we want to be recognised for

0:42:230:42:28

who we are, completely, physically culturally.

0:42:280:42:32

What does it mean to be a black human being in this world?

0:42:320:42:37

How does one embrace that?

0:42:370:42:39

How does one embrace that in the way one treats one's body,

0:42:390:42:44

and the way one talks about one's body,

0:42:440:42:46

and the way one thinks about how you move through the world.

0:42:460:42:51

Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway produced an album of duets

0:42:560:43:00

that perfectly expressed the mood of black America at the time.

0:43:000:43:05

# Your hair, soft and crinkly

0:43:050:43:10

# Your body, strong and stately

0:43:120:43:18

# You don't have to search and roam

0:43:200:43:25

# Cos I got your love at home

0:43:250:43:30

# Be real black for me

0:43:330:43:37

# Be real black for me. #

0:43:390:43:42

That's a love song

0:43:450:43:47

but it's a love song with deep political implications.

0:43:470:43:51

It is about love between black people, right,

0:43:510:43:56

and a kind of disrobing

0:43:560:43:59

a kind of being unfettered by what the world says you are,

0:43:590:44:06

and revelling in what you really are.

0:44:060:44:09

Some people identify blackness as this hard thing

0:44:090:44:12

and this thing that is only pain, that is only defence.

0:44:120:44:18

That song is the opposite of that.

0:44:180:44:21

It's tender and it's...and it's warm and it's inviting

0:44:210:44:25

but it's still talking and dealing with blackness,

0:44:250:44:29

and the acceptance of one's other blackness in another person.

0:44:290:44:33

# Be real black for me

0:44:350:44:38

# Be real black for me #

0:44:400:44:44

While Roberta was signing songs of black consciousness

0:44:540:44:57

her personal life made this complicated.

0:44:570:45:00

Her bass player was her husband and he was Caucasian,

0:45:010:45:05

so imagine living in Washington then and being married...

0:45:050:45:09

Mixed couple? Oh, my God!

0:45:090:45:11

So they were catching the hell.

0:45:110:45:14

When you hear her sing... you feel it. You feel it.

0:45:140:45:19

The hell she was catching, even came from within the family.

0:45:200:45:24

After seven years of marriage -

0:45:240:45:26

Roberta Flack had never even met her husband's parents.

0:45:260:45:29

Do you think that your mother and father would recognise me

0:45:290:45:36

if they knew they saw me on national television?

0:45:360:45:40

What do you think they'd do if they see me?

0:45:400:45:42

-Do you think they'd know who I am? They'd know I'm your wife?

-Sure.

0:45:420:45:46

-They know who you are.

-They do know who I am?

-Certainly.

0:45:460:45:49

-How do you know?

-We told them before we got married.

0:45:490:45:52

-You told them what my name was?

-Right.

0:45:520:45:54

But do you think they connect that with you know

0:45:550:45:58

whatever the image is supposed to represent now?

0:45:580:46:02

You don't think that they'd see me on television

0:46:030:46:06

and say that's the daughter... That's the girl that my son married?

0:46:060:46:10

I think they'd say that. And they'd also say that that's...

0:46:100:46:14

You really think they'd know who I am?

0:46:140:46:16

My first husband is Caucasian.

0:46:160:46:18

Young musician. Beautiful musician.

0:46:180:46:21

And I...I used to think a lot of those songs that I was singing...

0:46:210:46:25

"Yes, we're different, we're worlds apart, we're not the same -

0:46:250:46:28

"we laughed and joked, at the start like in a game.

0:46:280:46:32

# Like in a game...#

0:46:320:46:33

"You could have stayed around my heart, but in you came

0:46:330:46:37

"and here you stay until its time for you to go

0:46:370:46:40

PICKS OUT TUNE ON PIANO "Don't ask... Don't ask how of me

0:46:400:46:45

"Don't ask why of me

0:46:450:46:47

"Don't ask...

0:46:500:46:52

"..for ever...

0:46:540:46:56

"..of me...

0:46:560:46:57

"Love me...

0:46:590:47:00

"Love me now"

0:47:020:47:03

There's something else that you have to watch while you're building,

0:47:140:47:17

trying to achieve something in the business,

0:47:170:47:19

and that is to really FEEL like doing it.

0:47:190:47:22

I have to go out and travel two or three days in a row

0:47:220:47:24

with concerts each night

0:47:240:47:26

and at the end of it I'm just whipped.

0:47:260:47:28

"Roberta Flack, Going Down To The River, take one."

0:47:280:47:31

# I'm going down

0:47:310:47:33

# To the river

0:47:360:47:39

# To lay my burden down...#

0:47:430:47:47

She was pretty exacting in the studio

0:47:480:47:51

because this is her reputation.

0:47:510:47:53

I think we started about six in the evening,

0:47:530:47:56

and by about 2 o'clock in the morning she was satisfied.

0:47:560:48:01

Over and over and over and over.

0:48:010:48:04

I'm sure some people would say that she's a really hard sometimes.

0:48:040:48:10

A bit like me because I understand what she wants...

0:48:100:48:13

When you want something, you want something, and...

0:48:130:48:15

when it's right, it's right.

0:48:150:48:16

# For the first time...#

0:48:190:48:21

She's a studied musician, you know,

0:48:210:48:24

and I think that she was very conscious of the fact -

0:48:240:48:26

Well, hey, I'm the one that studied.

0:48:260:48:28

I'm the one that knows the difference between G and G-sharp.

0:48:280:48:32

I think all of that had to do with her exacting nature,

0:48:320:48:36

and the fact that she just wasn't going to let anybody push her around.

0:48:360:48:40

Male or female you kind of have to be that way,

0:48:400:48:43

but especially so, if you are female,

0:48:430:48:45

and a minority female in the music business, at that time especially.

0:48:450:48:49

We're talking the '70s.

0:48:490:48:51

# Somewhere deep in my body

0:48:510:48:55

# I feel that magical glow...#

0:48:570:49:02

When Roberta went into the studio to record her next album in 1974,

0:49:030:49:08

she decided to produce it herself

0:49:080:49:10

under the pseudonym Robina Flake.

0:49:100:49:13

I took so long to a finish Feel Like Making Love,

0:49:140:49:17

by the time I got through playing songs and hearing songs,

0:49:170:49:22

and listening to songs and recording songs,

0:49:220:49:25

and "No, I don't like that" and "Yes, I do" and "No", "Yes", "No", "Yes".

0:49:250:49:30

A year had passed.

0:49:300:49:32

Wow!

0:49:330:49:34

And Feel Like Making Love had been on the charts for a year -

0:49:340:49:37

Thank you, God!

0:49:370:49:38

# Strolling in the park

0:49:400:49:43

# Watching winter turn to spring

0:49:430:49:46

# Walking in the dark

0:49:500:49:53

# Seeing lovers do their thing

0:49:530:49:56

# Ooh-ooh-ooh

0:49:590:50:00

# That's the time

0:50:000:50:02

# I feel like making love to you

0:50:030:50:08

# That's the time

0:50:100:50:11

# I feel like making dreams come true

0:50:130:50:18

# Oh, baby...#

0:50:190:50:21

Feel Like Making Love was another number one hit in 1975.

0:50:230:50:27

Again written by Eugene McDaniels,

0:50:300:50:33

but this time with no sign of any political edge.

0:50:330:50:36

# And my feelings start to show. #

0:50:360:50:39

As the 70's progressed, Roberta Flack's music

0:50:390:50:42

was increasingly appealing to the more comfortably-off sections

0:50:420:50:46

of the African American community.

0:50:460:50:48

That black middle class that had created Roberta Flack,

0:50:510:50:54

Martin Luther King and the dentists who gave birth to Miles Davis

0:50:540:50:59

and the church leaders who gave birth to Aretha Franklin,

0:50:590:51:01

is formed inside the hub of segregation.

0:51:010:51:05

The post-civil rights period is about opening up American society.

0:51:070:51:13

And as the black middle class gets bigger

0:51:150:51:19

it then drives a wedge into the black political tradition.

0:51:190:51:24

There's definitely a difference of interests.

0:51:250:51:29

If you are a member of the urban black working class -

0:51:290:51:34

the majority of African Americans -

0:51:340:51:36

your sense of what the political future might be

0:51:360:51:40

starts to look very different to the son of a black dentist,

0:51:400:51:44

who's now gone to Harvard and got an MBA and is working at Goldman Sachs.

0:51:440:51:49

And those differences begin to be mirrored,

0:51:490:51:52

not just in the political arena, but also in the musical one.

0:51:520:51:57

As the '70s rolled into the '80s, Roberta Flack's music was

0:52:040:52:08

prominently featured on an American radio format called Quiet Storm.

0:52:080:52:12

Quiet Storm would be night-time radio

0:52:140:52:17

and it was all about, you know, slow the BPM all the way down.

0:52:170:52:22

It was really strong jazz influence R&B.

0:52:220:52:27

That's when you would have your DJ with the deep baritone voice

0:52:270:52:30

announcing, you know, that was Sweet Love by Anita Baker.

0:52:300:52:34

You know that's where R&B really started to leave youth behind.

0:52:340:52:38

# Soft and warm

0:52:380:52:42

# A quiet storm

0:52:420:52:44

# Quiet as when flowers talk at break of dawn

0:52:440:52:49

# Break of dawn...#

0:52:500:52:53

Because of, again, her vocal quality,

0:52:530:52:55

Roberta Flack was able to move into that realm

0:52:550:52:58

and continue to be a part of the conversation throughout the '80s.

0:52:580:53:04

The shift to sort of '80s R&B sound,

0:53:040:53:07

and politics almost entirely disappear.

0:53:070:53:10

The Quiet Storm era, generally.

0:53:110:53:13

I mean that's just a melancholy era. In black life.

0:53:130:53:17

# You short circuit all my nerves

0:53:180:53:22

# Promising electric things

0:53:220:53:24

# You touch me and suddenly there is rainbow rings

0:53:260:53:30

# Quiet storm...#

0:53:300:53:32

All of the regulation that came out in the '60s the Civil Rights Act,

0:53:320:53:36

aren't working how you thought they would, you know.

0:53:360:53:40

De-industrialisation of inner cities and white flight

0:53:400:53:43

are gutting inner cities.

0:53:430:53:46

So it's actually like a really ironic time

0:53:460:53:48

to have music that is so soothing

0:53:480:53:50

when the world is really kind of convulsive.

0:53:500:53:52

# Tonight I celebrate

0:53:520:53:56

# ..my love for you

0:53:560:54:00

# And hope that deep inside you'll feel it, too...#

0:54:000:54:08

In 1983, as the ghettos of black America were crumbling,

0:54:080:54:12

Roberta Flack found a new duet partner

0:54:120:54:15

after the sad death of Donny Hathaway a few years earlier.

0:54:150:54:19

She scored another big hit.

0:54:190:54:20

# When I make love to you...#

0:54:220:54:24

The first time I heard Tonight I Celebrate My Love,

0:54:240:54:27

I did not like the song.

0:54:270:54:29

The only reason I was interested in it was cos Roberta really liked it.

0:54:290:54:34

I knew it was special after the first pass.

0:54:340:54:37

Roberta is a stickler for pitch.

0:54:400:54:42

She's...

0:54:420:54:43

She's not demanding of it,

0:54:430:54:46

but you get the idea after a while that she wants it.

0:54:460:54:50

# Tonight there'll distance between us

0:54:500:54:55

# What I want most to do... #

0:54:560:55:00

Her music starts to feel more estranged

0:55:000:55:03

from the majority of black life.

0:55:030:55:05

But I think there's something to be said for consistency.

0:55:050:55:08

I mean she remained in the area of the heart, of intimacy,

0:55:100:55:14

of sexual relations...

0:55:140:55:16

She doesn't change from that.

0:55:160:55:18

But the priorities of African American life changed.

0:55:180:55:23

It's not entirely coincidence

0:55:240:55:27

that hip hop starts to emerge in the spaces of...urban poverty.

0:55:270:55:32

# Broken glass everywhere...#

0:55:330:55:37

The eruption of hip hop in the '80s

0:55:370:55:38

caused a chasm in African-American music

0:55:380:55:41

that would not be bridged for over a decade.

0:55:410:55:44

# A junkie's in the alley with the baseball bat

0:55:440:55:46

# Don't push me cos I'm close to the edge

0:55:460:55:51

# I'm trying not to lose my head

0:55:510:55:55

Ha-ha ha ha #

0:55:550:55:57

# Fight the power!

0:55:570:55:59

# Fight the power!

0:55:590:56:01

# Fight the power!

0:56:010:56:04

# Fight the power!

0:56:040:56:05

The sonic revolutions of hip hop - playing down in the hood -

0:56:050:56:09

and the slicker R&B sound

0:56:090:56:11

often entertaining a more uptown crowd.

0:56:110:56:15

# You got me feeling emotion...#

0:56:170:56:20

It would take another up town girl -

0:56:200:56:22

rummaging through her parents record collection

0:56:220:56:26

to eventually unite the warring genres and generations in 1996.

0:56:260:56:32

# I heard he sang a good song

0:56:320:56:35

# I heard he had a style

0:56:350:56:40

# And so I came to see him

0:56:420:56:46

# And listened for a while...#

0:56:460:56:49

The great thing about the Lauryn Hill version -

0:56:490:56:51

as wonderful as it is -

0:56:510:56:53

it did not replace the Roberta Flack version.

0:56:530:56:56

We let them live side by side.

0:56:560:56:59

# Killing me softly

0:57:000:57:02

# With his song #

0:57:040:57:07

We want to dedicate this to the hard-core, check it out!

0:57:070:57:11

# Ohhh... Ohh-ohh, ohh-ohh, ohh-ohhhh

0:57:110:57:16

# La la la la la la

0:57:180:57:22

# Ohhh... #

0:57:220:57:24

Most of the time people talk about

0:57:240:57:26

how many Queen Of Souls there've been who follow Aretha Franklin.

0:57:260:57:30

# Before I put on my make-up

0:57:330:57:36

# Make-up

0:57:360:57:37

# I say a little prayer ...#

0:57:370:57:40

# And I knew our joy...#

0:57:400:57:43

One thing you can say, now, is that Roberta Flack had descendants -

0:57:450:57:51

certainly Lauryn Hill, almost certainly Alycia Keyes.

0:57:510:57:53

# And it would last

0:57:530:57:59

# Till the end of time, my love...#

0:57:590:58:04

The moment belongs in equal measure

0:58:040:58:07

to those two traditions - those two women.

0:58:070:58:10

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:58:140:58:19

I've had some good experiences.

0:58:190:58:22

Some wonderful moments in my life.

0:58:220:58:25

Do-dah, do-dah. SHE CHUCKLES

0:58:250:58:27

ROBERTA SINGS IN SPANISH

0:58:270:58:33

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