Truth Tellers Gregory Porter's Popular Voices


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# Boy, you hear me calling your name The bridge is your time

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# Your engine rolls hot

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# If the bridges fall down

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# Don't lose your head of steam... #

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The voice. It's the one instrument we're all born with.

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We all love to sing.

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# Oh, young man... #

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Singing is my life. It's what I do and who I am.

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# I didn't make it too far

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# But, baby, you are... #

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I'm going to take you on a 100-year celebration of the mystery,

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joy and pain that lies behind the soul's instrument.

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# Boy, you hear me calling your name

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# The bridge is your time... #

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I'm Gregory Porter and these are my Popular Voices.

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# Young man

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# I'm counting on you

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# And whoa... #

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Hey, you. Yes, you.

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Come here. I'm talking to you.

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I want to tell you a story about a century of street jive -

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how the blues' original growlers

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gave us the rhyme and flow of hip-hop,

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how the truth became a quest of rock and roll's greatest poets,

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and how great voices don't have to be technically perfect to be truly

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great. This is the story of talking voices.

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# Right, shake it over I heard a humming... #

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# Everything you touch is gold

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# I'm in love with your soul

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# Everything that you're sayin' is all

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# I love you. #

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CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

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Everybody loves a magnificent voice.

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But not all popular singing is about virtuosity.

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Sometimes, the message takes centre stage.

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And for 100 years, great singers have shouted, moaned, groaned,

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and even just talked, in an attempt to tell us the truth.

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So this time, I'm on the hunt for singers with something to say.

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It's all about telling it like it is and keeping it real.

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# Judge, Your Honour

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# Hear my plea

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# Before you open up your... #

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And my search begins with the Empress of the Blues.

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Born in Chattanooga in 1894,

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Bessie Smith was one of the first stars of the recording era,

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whose life was laid bare in her guttural growl.

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Aiding me is an actor and a singer

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who has devoted her professional life to playing Bessie -

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Miche Braden.

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-Hi.

-Glad to be with you.

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-Thank you.

-Who was Bessie Smith and why was she so important?

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Bessie Smith was the baddest woman

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that you would ever want to hear, or see.

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# No, no

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# I wouldn't pay 25 cents to go in nowhere

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# Cos listen here

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# Up in Harlem every Saturday night... #

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You may as well say she was a shouter. Blues shouter.

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Because they didn't have the microphones and things we have now.

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-Yeah.

-So she had to be powerful.

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And she's doing tent shows for 1,500 people.

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She was just one of those kinds.

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She just, bam, it was there! Bam!

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I don't need to be doing a woman's job!

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There was a lot of things she talked about, as far as being abused,

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actually. Because a lot of women were dealing with that.

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-Yeah.

-And then the men in general, you know,

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they were the players and that.

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So she was singing about their lives.

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So when they recognised themselves...

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-Mm-hm.

-..they were at home.

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-Yeah.

-They were at home.

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And it was too wonderful.

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# I don't care

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# I feel just like I wanna clown

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# Give the piano player a drink because he's bringing me down

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# He's gotta rhythm, yeah, when he stomps his feet. #

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Bessie's truth-telling approach to singing

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made her both a star of record and screen.

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# My man's got a heart

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# That's a rock

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# Cast in the sea... #

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In 1929, she made a film appearance -

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a two-reeler shot in Queens, St Louis Blues.

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# Cast in the sea. #

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This is a really rare piece of footage.

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This is the only time I've ever seen Bessie Smith moving.

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And I'm really struck by

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really the sound and the quality of her voice as well.

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# Feelin' tomorrow like I feel today

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# Feelin' like I did today... #

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When I think of Bessie Smith,

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I think of just this powerful and commanding presence...

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Yes, she was.

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..that says, "This is how it is and this is what I think."

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As I listened to music, I needed to believe what I was hearing.

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I needed to know that maybe some kind of way,

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their life had something to do with the song they're singing.

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Now, Billie Holiday used to say, if she hadn't lived the song,

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she couldn't sing it.

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And I totally understand that.

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And you can definitely tell that Bessie Smith lived these songs.

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Like a modern-day MC,

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Bessie Smith spoke to the lives of the audience

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that bought her records,

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100 years before hip-hop.

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She died in a car crash in 1937, at the age of 43.

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# The man I love

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# He would not gone nowhere

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# Gone nowhere... #

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Even though it's a Hollywood,

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er, concoction, if you will, it still is great to see her sing.

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And quite frankly, it's actually beautiful to see

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these talented black people from a film in 1929.

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And nice suits too!

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# St Louis woman with her diamond rings

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# Oooh, yeah

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# Pulls that man round

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by her apron strings

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SHE VOCALISES

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# If it wasn't for powder

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# And her store-bought hair

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# The man, the man

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# He wouldn't go nowhere

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-# Nowhere

-Yeah. #

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Yeah, cool.

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The blues was all about frank truth-telling,

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and it gave rise to a form of speech-singing -

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the talking blues.

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And we can actually pinpoint the very first time

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the talking voice was immortalised in wax.

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# Standing in the corner by the mantelpiece

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# Up in the corner by a bucket of grease

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# I greased my feet with a little axle grease

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# Went slippin' up and down that mantelpiece. #

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Christopher Bouchillon was a white country blues musician from Carolina,

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who was billed as the "Talking Comedian of the South."

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In 1926, he recorded the song Talking Blues.

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It's rumoured he talked on the recording

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simply because he couldn't sing.

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Could this guy really be the godfather of hip-hop?

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Conversational singing was a major influence on my next truth-teller...

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# When the moon's kinda dreamy... #

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..Billie Holiday.

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# Starry-eyed and dreamy

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# And nights are luscious and long

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# If you're kinda lonely

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# And nobody only

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# Then nothing but blues are brewin'... #

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Jazz diva Annie Ross was a very close friend of Billie Holiday.

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Lady...

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..was extraordinary.

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She was very down-home.

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She was very definite in her opinion.

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Once you heard Lady,

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you could never forget that voice.

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It was...

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..as if a higher being had spoken.

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# ..nothing but the blues are brewin'

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# The blues are brewin'... #

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Billie possessed a vocal style that hovered effortlessly between speech

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and jazz singing. She pulled the listener into her world with her

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conversational phrasing.

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# You only got a gleam in your eye... #

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I would just say Billie was like, you know, a great saxophonist.

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She reminds me of Lester Young, who I know she recorded with a lot.

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She's not always singing on the beat, it doesn't feel like.

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It feels like she's just kind of there, moving slowly through it,

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at her own pace. The music has to follow her,

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she's not following the music.

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It feels like she's always teetering on, er,

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not just being in the pocket, vocally.

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But it's there. Because there's a cry, there's an emotion,

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there's a sadness, a melancholy, that's just so powerful.

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# He wears high-draped pants

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# Stripes are really yellow... #

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You hear every bad thing that ever happened to her in her voice.

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# He wears high-draped pants

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# Stripes are really yellow

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# But when he starts in to love me... #

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Like Bessie Smith before her,

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Billie's voice had a lived-in feel to it.

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As she grew older, a world-weariness chipped away

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at the range and tone of her instrument.

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You can hear it in the speech-song confessional of her final album,

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recorded in 1958.

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-Lady In Satin.

-Yeah.

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# I'm a fool to want you

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# I'm a fool to want you... #

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She made every word count.

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The expression

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of agony,

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of hurt, of love,

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of being,

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came through in her voice.

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And she reached me and she touched me.

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And it was...

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It was kind of inexplicable, but you would listen to her

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and once she was finished,

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you would say, "Oh, wow!"

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# ..not mine alone... #

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I love the way the orchestra waits for her.

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-Yeah.

-Those moments, er...

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There's moments where there's nothing but her.

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"Fool. Fool."

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-Just...

-Her phrasing...

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-These moments. "Time."

-"Time."

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-Yeah.

-It's like...

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..it's screaming without screaming.

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-Inside.

-Yeah. Yeah.

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# Time and time again... #

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When you hear Billie's voice when it was, like, in its worst -

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in the later '50s - erm, that's what we're hearing, in my opinion.

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-Yeah.

-It's her soul singing.

-Yeah.

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Because she sounded like she had been chewing rocks

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and swallowing fire.

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-Yeah!

-Because her voice was so raspy.

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But you could feel the emotion in it.

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You know?

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# My tender love

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# Without you. #

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That's real.

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You just said it, that's real.

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That's real.

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-Billie Holiday.

-Yeah.

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And now a tune written specially for me, Strange Fruit.

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In February 1959, with just three months left to live,

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a weakening Billie performed her bestselling record

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for an ITV variety show.

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Her performance was a masterclass of unflinching understatement.

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# Southern trees

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bear strange fruit

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# Blood on the leaves and blood at the root

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# Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze

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# Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees... #

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Strange Fruit - it's...

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..they're hanging the body of a... of a black man...

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er...

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..for some unnecessary reason.

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# The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

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# Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh... #

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Nobody's face, or eyes, could so...

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..dryly tell the story

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of such a painful thing.

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# Here is fruit

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# For the crows to pluck... #

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This is the point at which jazz becomes this

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thing of

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social and political import.

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# For the sun to rot

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# For the trees to drop... #

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I feel like Billie Holiday was put on Earth for this song.

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# ..and bitter crop. #

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It almost feels uncomfortable clapping after Strange Fruit.

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Singing in a colloquial style,

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in an effort to reveal a deeper truth about the world around you,

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wasn't just limited to African-American jazz and blues.

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This is Bakersfield, California, where I'm from.

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It's an oil town and there are nodding donkeys everywhere.

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People came here originally as part of the Gold Rush but, in 1899,

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oil was discovered by migrants from Texas and Oklahoma.

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Okies came here looking for work and cheap land.

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It was a time of economic depression for America,

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and its great artists chronicled the times.

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Photographer Dorothea Lange took pictures of economic refugee camps

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around Bakersfield.

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And the great folk singer Woody Guthrie

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travelled with the dispossessed, going West.

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# Well, the Captain said to John Henry

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# I'm gonna bring my steam drill around

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# I'm gonna bring my steam drill out on the job

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# Gonna whup that steel on down... #

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Guthrie's style of three chords and the truth

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set the template for folk music.

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His best-known song, This Land Is Your Land,

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was a response to Irving Berlin's God Bless America.

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# As I was walking that ribbon of highway

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# I saw above me that endless skyway

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# I saw below me that golden valley

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# This land was made for you and me... #

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We listened to this song when I was in second, third grade.

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We learned it. We sang it.

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In a way, it felt very...

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..Bakersfield. Erm, very hometown for me.

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It was like a farmer singing in the open plain.

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# ..her diamond deserts

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# And all around me a voice was sounding... #

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An alternative national anthem of the heart, in a way.

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Guthrie would inspire legions of folkies, including one future poet,

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who would start his career as a Woody Guthrie disciple.

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Bob Dylan was from Minnesota,

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but that didn't stop him

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from adopting Guthrie's talking-blues twang.

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# Well, I got up and walked around

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# Up and down the lonesome town

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# Just a-wondering which way to go

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# I lit a cigarette on a parking meter and walked on down the road

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# It was a normal day

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# Well, I rung me a fallout shelter bell

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# And I leaned my head and gave a big yell... #

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It's great. I love how Bob Dylan is conversational in his delivery

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of the lyrics, which are...

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..which seem to be just something that he's doing.

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He's throwing out some, in a way, very serious,

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very cutting things.

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# Down at the corner by a hot-dog stand

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# I seen a man I said, howdy, friend, I guess there's just us two

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# He screamed and down the road he flew

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# Thought I was a Communist... #

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You have something to say,

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but you just throw it out there and keep moving.

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It's a very profound thing that he just said,

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but he's moved on to the next thing.

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And it's up to you to rewind the tape to listen to what he said

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over and over again.

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# I got into the driver's seat

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# And I drove down 42nd Street

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# In my Cadillac

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# Good car to drive after a war... #

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You're not intrigued by the flutter of his melisma, in a way.

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You're intrigued by the unfurling flower of his lyrics.

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In a way, he almost sounds like he's from Oklahoma in his delivery.

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It's very American.

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And it's, er... It's precious, in a way.

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It's precious to me.

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When I was in my teens and listening to a lot of Bob Dylan,

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I tried to write a poem about how he made me feel.

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And I said his voice reminded me of bark, of sand and corduroy.

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And all of those are, like, rough things.

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-Yeah.

-And then there's the beauty of the way it all sounds, you know.

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The flow of the language and the alliteration,

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and the rhythms that he...

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..that he taps into.

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-Yeah.

-So it's not just about, like, an image,

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but it's the way you tell the story as well.

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In his shape-shifting career,

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Dylan brought the art of poetry to the talking voice.

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As much as he was concerned with truth,

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he could also be equally enigmatic.

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# Early one mornin' the sun was shinin'

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# She was lyin' in bed

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# Wondering if she'd changed at all

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# If her hair was still red

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# Her folks, they sit their lives together... #

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So, if you think about Billie Holiday

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and the way that she hits pitch and swoops on one note,

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you notice it in Dylan a lot.

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He'll take something and he'll go, "Aaah!" on it. "Aaah!"

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And that swoo-oop thing there - that you find in Billie Holiday.

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# Tangled up in blue... #

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I think Tangled Up In Blue is a really good example of it.

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It's almost like singing conversation. So, suddenly,

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you find the place to put your pitch and say what you want to say.

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# But I used a little too much force

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# They drove that car as far as they could

0:22:200:22:22

# Abandoned it out west... #

0:22:220:22:24

These things are statements that are important,

0:22:240:22:27

because it makes them seem so, because you're talk-singing them.

0:22:270:22:31

The things all sit together.

0:22:310:22:32

They all kind of bind together in a cluster.

0:22:320:22:35

And they reinforce the message that, what I speak is the truth.

0:22:350:22:39

What I speak is the truth because I'm not dressing it,

0:22:390:22:42

I'm not refining it, I'm not putting some beautiful wig and Mozart on it.

0:22:420:22:46

I'm just giving it to you from my heart, my naked heart,

0:22:460:22:49

and that's it.

0:22:490:22:51

Monsieur Cohen? Onze heures.

0:22:510:22:53

Temps de vous lever.

0:22:530:22:55

Merci.

0:22:550:22:56

A lady journalist in Winnipeg once described him as having

0:22:590:23:02

"the stoop of an aged crop picker

0:23:020:23:04

"and the face of a curious little boy".

0:23:040:23:07

# Suzanne takes you down to her place near the river

0:23:070:23:13

# You can hear the boats go by, you can spend the night beside her

0:23:130:23:20

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

0:23:200:23:23

Leonard Cohen began as a poet.

0:23:230:23:26

I think music was an afterthought with him.

0:23:260:23:29

I first came to his music from his novel Beautiful Losers.

0:23:290:23:34

And, in fact, Lou Reed once told me that it was one of his favourite

0:23:340:23:38

books, so there is a kind of continuum there.

0:23:380:23:42

As a singer, he's very simple.

0:23:450:23:47

And actually, as a lyricist, his imagery is pretty simple.

0:23:470:23:51

He's not, er...

0:23:510:23:53

as abstruse a poet perhaps as some.

0:23:530:23:57

He's very of the common mind, of the common touch.

0:23:570:24:01

Dylan came to poetry via the world of folk music, but for Cohen,

0:24:050:24:11

it was the other way around.

0:24:110:24:12

At the age of 32, he moved to New York,

0:24:120:24:15

to pursue a career on the folk scene.

0:24:150:24:17

There, he would have an epiphany.

0:24:170:24:20

I remember saying to my lawyer...

0:24:200:24:23

In a state of panic, I said,

0:24:230:24:26

"I don't know what I'm doing here, I can't sing."

0:24:260:24:29

And he said, "None of you guys can sing.

0:24:290:24:32

"When I wanna hear singers, I go to the Metropolitan Opera."

0:24:320:24:36

And I think that's more or less the position I had anyways.

0:24:360:24:40

I never thought we were singers.

0:24:400:24:41

I certainly never had any...

0:24:430:24:45

..musical standard to, er...

0:24:460:24:50

..tyrannise me.

0:24:520:24:53

I thought that it was something to do with the truth.

0:24:530:24:57

That if you told your story, that's what, er...

0:24:570:25:01

That's what...the song was about.

0:25:030:25:06

# It's true that all the men you knew

0:25:060:25:09

# Were dealers who said they were through with dealing

0:25:090:25:14

# Every time you gave them shelter

0:25:140:25:17

# I know that kind of man

0:25:180:25:20

# It's hard to hold the hand of anyone

0:25:200:25:23

# Who is reaching for the sky just to surrender... #

0:25:230:25:27

Leonard Cohen, a singer of song.

0:25:270:25:30

The most important thing here

0:25:300:25:33

is the words. The poetry.

0:25:330:25:35

# And then sweeping up the jokers that he left behind

0:25:350:25:39

# You'll find he did not leave you very much

0:25:390:25:43

# Not even laughter... #

0:25:430:25:44

It makes me lean in and listen.

0:25:440:25:47

# Like any dealer he was watching

0:25:470:25:49

# For the card that is so high and wild

0:25:490:25:52

# He'll never need to deal another

0:25:520:25:55

# He was just some Joseph looking for a manger

0:25:570:26:01

# He was just some Joseph looking for a manger... #

0:26:030:26:07

You always heard every word.

0:26:070:26:10

There was never any kind of breath issues, you know.

0:26:100:26:13

Or, you know, he never over-extended himself.

0:26:130:26:16

-Yeah.

-He always managed to kind of present this sort of...

0:26:160:26:21

I'm not going to say it's a mask, but it's kind of a...

0:26:210:26:24

..a mist before him that obscured his true self.

0:26:240:26:30

# I told you when I came I was a stranger... #

0:26:300:26:36

In terms of this mystery and in terms of this construct,

0:26:360:26:40

-it's a cathedral. You know?

-Mm-hm.

0:26:400:26:42

And the voice is whoever did, you know, the gargoyles!

0:26:420:26:46

# I said to Hank Williams

0:26:480:26:51

# How lonely does it get?

0:26:510:26:54

# Hank Williams hasn't answered yet

0:26:540:26:57

# But I hear him coughing all night long

0:26:570:27:01

# A hundred floors above me

0:27:070:27:10

# In the Tower of Song... #

0:27:100:27:14

When Leonard Cohen sings his own songs,

0:27:160:27:18

you get this beautiful sense of intimacy, of, er...

0:27:180:27:23

It's very sensual.

0:27:230:27:25

It's very, again, very plain-spoken.

0:27:250:27:27

And there's a lovely, again, sense of flow, er...

0:27:270:27:31

It's not that hard-driving way that Bob Dylan does.

0:27:310:27:35

-Mm-hm.

-It's a little more melancholy.

0:27:350:27:37

-Yes. Mm-hm.

-Yeah, and there's a little more sense of finesse.

0:27:370:27:40

# I was born like this, I had no choice

0:27:400:27:44

# I was born with the gift of a golden voice

0:27:440:27:49

# And 27 angels from the Great Beyond... #

0:27:490:27:54

I just fell in love with him, with his whole world,

0:27:540:27:57

with the world that he sang about, with the sound of his guitar,

0:27:570:28:00

the sound of his voice.

0:28:000:28:01

And, of course, those angels that he always had.

0:28:010:28:03

The female singers singing behind him.

0:28:030:28:05

THEY HARMONISE

0:28:050:28:08

Some people say, "Oh, he couldn't really sing," or,

0:28:100:28:12

"He kind of had," you know, "a mediocre voice,"

0:28:120:28:17

in the sense that he just didn't have this huge range or whatever.

0:28:170:28:20

-Mm-hm.

-But I do feel like the tone that he started with, and certainly,

0:28:200:28:24

the one that he ended up with at the end,

0:28:240:28:27

which was one of the great basso profundos...

0:28:270:28:29

-Mm-hm.

-..of our era, was just...astounding.

0:28:290:28:34

Cohen's last album was released in October 2016,

0:28:340:28:39

three weeks before he died.

0:28:390:28:40

If you listen to him in his early years

0:28:420:28:44

and then you come to You Want It Darker, what happens is this,

0:28:440:28:48

this trajectory of down is going on.

0:28:480:28:50

And when you get to the end,

0:28:500:28:52

it's like a dark preacher riding into town.

0:28:520:28:55

And it's, erm... Somebody said, what did they call him?

0:28:550:28:58

The Velour Fog.

0:28:580:29:00

# If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game

0:29:040:29:08

# If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame

0:29:080:29:12

# If thine is the glory then mine must be the shame

0:29:120:29:18

# You want it darker

0:29:180:29:20

# We kill the flame. #

0:29:200:29:22

It's almost speech-singing at the end.

0:29:220:29:24

It's almost...

0:29:240:29:25

It's almost Brechtian.

0:29:250:29:27

But it's got all this quality of the cantor in it as well.

0:29:270:29:31

Then, of course, he's talking about candles, and redemption.

0:29:310:29:35

They bind together again in this whole of

0:29:370:29:41

Leonard "man who knows everything".

0:29:410:29:44

You know, the confessor that you can come to,

0:29:440:29:47

the person who knows your soul,

0:29:470:29:49

because his soul is right there for you to see,

0:29:490:29:51

right there in the voice.

0:29:510:29:53

# I'm ready, my Lord. #

0:29:550:29:57

In the late '60s, as Dylan and Cohen were taking off,

0:30:080:30:11

a new style of rock and roll street jive was also growing in New York.

0:30:110:30:16

Lou began as a poet.

0:30:200:30:22

He took education from Delmore Schwartz when he was up in Syracuse.

0:30:220:30:28

He always loved the printed word.

0:30:280:30:31

In a sense, his music sometimes is really simple.

0:30:330:30:36

He would always say that if it has more than two chords,

0:30:360:30:39

it's getting complicated.

0:30:390:30:40

# I don't know

0:30:430:30:46

# Just where I'm going... #

0:30:490:30:52

What spoke to me about Lou Reed was his bluntness.

0:30:590:31:02

He's not a guy who really used a lot of metaphor.

0:31:020:31:05

But the other people I was listening to, like, I would say Leonard Cohen,

0:31:050:31:09

for example, very metaphoric, beautiful imagery, mysterious.

0:31:090:31:14

-Yes.

-Lou was not like that.

0:31:140:31:16

Very frontal. He always let you know exactly where he stood.

0:31:160:31:20

Some of it was his style, but some of it was that he was

0:31:200:31:24

writing about violent things that happened in New York City.

0:31:240:31:27

Real things that happened in the street,

0:31:290:31:31

-and also writing of his time.

-Yeah.

0:31:310:31:33

# Paralysed by hatred and a piss-ugly soul

0:31:330:31:37

# If he murdered his father he thought he'd become whole... #

0:31:390:31:44

So, when I listened to Woody Guthrie and I was daydreaming

0:31:440:31:47

and fantasising about being on a freight train, like,

0:31:470:31:49

getting out of New York, it was a fantasy I had.

0:31:490:31:52

So that was kind of what I would listen to to fuel those fantasies.

0:31:520:31:56

But Lou Reed was about reality.

0:31:560:31:57

# In the gay bars in the back of the bar

0:31:590:32:02

# He consummated hatred on a cold sawdust floor

0:32:060:32:10

# While the jukebox played backbeats, he sniffed coke off a jar

0:32:110:32:16

# While they danced to a rock minuet... #

0:32:180:32:22

And as his music progressed toward the end of his life,

0:32:220:32:26

it was pretty much like chords, and he would be talking his music.

0:32:260:32:31

# It must be nice

0:32:310:32:33

# To disappear

0:32:330:32:36

# To have a vanishing act

0:32:360:32:40

# To always be looking forward

0:32:400:32:45

# And never looking back... #

0:32:480:32:53

Lou Reed's voice was so distinctive.

0:32:530:32:55

It was so cool and so dry.

0:32:560:32:59

That made his presentation even stronger, because he never shouted.

0:32:590:33:04

He was edgy but he never yelled.

0:33:040:33:06

He wasn't like some of these other punk rockers who were always, like,

0:33:060:33:09

screaming into the microphone

0:33:090:33:10

or using distortion to get their point across.

0:33:100:33:13

Lou was always understated, dry, cool, and straight.

0:33:130:33:18

He had no vibrato in his voice.

0:33:180:33:20

Sometimes he wasn't even really singing.

0:33:200:33:22

He wasn't projecting.

0:33:220:33:25

It was just a straight, cool, dry voice.

0:33:250:33:27

# How nice it is to disappear

0:33:270:33:33

# Float into a mist

0:33:340:33:39

# With a young lady on your arm

0:33:400:33:45

# Looking for a kiss. #

0:33:470:33:51

New York is the thing that seduced me

0:33:510:33:53

New York is the thing that formed me

0:33:530:33:56

New York is the thing that deformed me

0:33:560:33:58

New York is the thing that perverted me

0:33:580:34:00

New York is the thing that converted me

0:34:000:34:02

And New York's the thing I love, too.

0:34:040:34:06

The first time I played with Patti was at a poetry reading,

0:34:090:34:12

over at St Marks on East Tenth Street,

0:34:120:34:16

46 amazing years ago.

0:34:160:34:19

All I did as a guitar player,

0:34:210:34:23

and in those days I was a pretty simplistic guitar player,

0:34:230:34:27

I haven't moved further from that,

0:34:270:34:29

I would just kind of listen to her breathe.

0:34:290:34:32

To follow when her delivery would slow, and then it would speed up,

0:34:340:34:39

and it would rise in intensity.

0:34:390:34:41

# He drove it in, he drove it home, he drove it deep in Johnny

0:34:410:34:44

# The boy disappeared, Johnny fell on his knees

0:34:440:34:48

# Started crashing his head against the locker... #

0:34:480:34:52

So we became more into our improvisations.

0:34:520:34:56

It became a way to negotiate a song.

0:34:560:35:00

# When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by

0:35:000:35:06

# Horses, horses, horses, horses

0:35:060:35:10

# Coming in in all directions

0:35:100:35:11

# White shining, silver studs with their nose... #

0:35:110:35:15

And as it turned out,

0:35:150:35:16

what we would do would be to segue into a song

0:35:160:35:20

as the poetry reached its emotional peak.

0:35:200:35:24

# Do you know how to pony like Bony Maroney?

0:35:240:35:30

# Do you know how to twist? Well, it goes like this

0:35:300:35:35

# It goes like this

0:35:350:35:37

# Baby, mash potato, do the alligator, do the alligator... #

0:35:370:35:43

There's a tradition of the talking singer.

0:35:430:35:47

Do you... Do you consider yourself one of those?

0:35:470:35:51

I do.

0:35:530:35:54

# If you want me

0:35:540:35:56

# You can find me

0:35:560:35:57

# Left of centre

0:35:570:35:59

# Off of the strip... #

0:35:590:36:01

In the '80s, Suzanne Vega emerged from Greenwich Village

0:36:010:36:05

with a cool take on the poetic voice.

0:36:050:36:07

# If you want me

0:36:070:36:09

# You can find me

0:36:090:36:11

# Left of centre

0:36:110:36:12

# Off of the strip

0:36:120:36:14

# In the outskirts

0:36:140:36:16

# In the fringes

0:36:160:36:17

# In the corner

0:36:170:36:19

# Out of the grip... #

0:36:190:36:21

There's a kind of history of the talking singer.

0:36:210:36:24

And you can hear it in some of the work of, like, Bertolt Brecht,

0:36:240:36:27

who had the great Lotte Lenya singing.

0:36:270:36:30

I happen to know for a fact that Lou Reed was influenced by

0:36:300:36:33

Bertolt Brecht and Lotte Lenya,

0:36:330:36:35

and she had one of those crazy voices.

0:36:350:36:38

High and weird.

0:36:380:36:40

And, again, very plain-spoken.

0:36:400:36:42

# Show us the way to the next whisky bar

0:36:420:36:46

# Oh, don't ask why

0:36:460:36:49

# Oh, don't ask why

0:36:490:36:52

# We must find the next pretty boy for you

0:36:520:36:56

# If we don't find a nice, pretty boy

0:36:560:36:59

# I tell you we must die

0:36:590:37:01

# I tell you we must die

0:37:010:37:03

# I tell you I tell you

0:37:030:37:06

# I tell you we must die. #

0:37:060:37:08

One of the first songs I wrote back in the '80s

0:37:080:37:12

that became really popular was a song called Tom's Diner.

0:37:120:37:16

And I used to sing it a cappella.

0:37:160:37:19

An a cappella song for me is...

0:37:190:37:21

One imagines it could be kind of tricky

0:37:230:37:25

because I have this small voice.

0:37:250:37:27

But it always worked.

0:37:270:37:28

So I used to begin my shows with it.

0:37:280:37:31

Singing...

0:37:310:37:32

# I am sitting in the morning at the diner on the corner...

0:37:320:37:37

# I am waiting at the counter for the man to pour the coffee

0:37:370:37:42

# And he fills it only halfway

0:37:420:37:44

# And before I even argue

0:37:440:37:46

# He is looking out the window at somebody coming in. #

0:37:460:37:51

And people would stop drinking and stop talking

0:37:510:37:53

and they would turn around and they would watch the show.

0:37:530:37:56

Suzanne Vega, especially,

0:37:560:37:58

when I worked with her on her first couple of records,

0:37:580:38:03

it was very interesting to see her cadences.

0:38:030:38:06

How words flow.

0:38:060:38:09

How they can become poetic images.

0:38:090:38:12

And become...music that talks.

0:38:120:38:17

MUSIC: Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega

0:38:170:38:21

On the trail of my final New York street poet,

0:38:210:38:23

I'm off to a neighbourhood that is very close to my heart -

0:38:230:38:26

Harlem.

0:38:260:38:28

We are now at St Nick's Pub.

0:38:330:38:36

This is where I got my feet, in a way, in terms of singing.

0:38:360:38:42

And St Nick's pub was instrumental for me because

0:38:420:38:46

the neighbourhood people come here, and pay 3.50 for a beer.

0:38:460:38:52

-"Where's the CD at, man?"

-Oh! It's coming, soon, soon, brother.

0:38:520:38:56

# I found out on my way to Harlem

0:38:560:39:00

# Ellington, you don't live 'round here

0:39:000:39:05

# He moved away one day so they say

0:39:050:39:09

# Away from Harlem. #

0:39:090:39:14

Yeah.

0:39:140:39:16

One, two, three, four...

0:39:160:39:19

MUSIC: I'm New Here by Gil Scott-Heron

0:39:190:39:24

# I did not become someone different

0:39:270:39:30

# That I did not want to be... #

0:39:320:39:34

Gil Scott-Heron combined a political voice with a poet's skill.

0:39:340:39:38

His spoken word was on the money for the times,

0:39:380:39:41

like a CNN for the streets of Harlem.

0:39:410:39:44

# No matter how far you've gone

0:39:440:39:47

# You can always turn around... #

0:39:510:39:54

He had a special gift,

0:39:540:39:55

his voice managed to reach back to the blues and forward to hip-hop.

0:39:550:40:00

The revolution will not be televised.

0:40:000:40:03

This is the original recording

0:40:060:40:08

of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.

0:40:080:40:10

Gil Scott-Heron, just a voice and a couple of congas.

0:40:100:40:14

# You will not be able to stay home, brother

0:40:140:40:17

# You will not be able to plug in, turn on, and cop out

0:40:170:40:21

# You will not be able to lose yourself on scag

0:40:210:40:24

# And skip out for beer during commercials

0:40:240:40:26

# Because the revolution will not be televised

0:40:260:40:29

# The revolution will not be televised

0:40:290:40:31

# The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox

0:40:310:40:33

# In four parts without... #

0:40:330:40:35

Gil Scott-Heron was at the cutting edge of

0:40:350:40:37

an African-American revolutionary consciousness

0:40:370:40:40

that took a hold over poetry, art, music,

0:40:400:40:43

and Black Power politics in the late 1960s.

0:40:430:40:46

Is that Gregory Porter?

0:40:510:40:52

Yeah, brother Brian Jackson.

0:40:520:40:55

-How are you, brother?

-I'm great, man.

0:40:550:40:56

-Good to see you.

-All right, yeah.

0:40:560:41:00

Thanks for having me.

0:41:000:41:01

For Gil Scott-Heron and his long-term musical partner,

0:41:010:41:04

Brian Jackson, Harlem was where it was at.

0:41:040:41:08

Harlem was the repository of African-American knowledge.

0:41:080:41:14

Gil saw himself as someone who could verbalise those traditions.

0:41:160:41:21

And that was called the griot.

0:41:210:41:24

A griot is someone who can take those cultural perspectives

0:41:240:41:30

and relate them to what is going on now.

0:41:300:41:34

# Looking for a way... #

0:41:340:41:39

Can you tell me about the timbre and tone of Gil Scott's voice?

0:41:390:41:46

One of the things that I think was...

0:41:460:41:49

..was so hypnotic, or compelling about Gil's tone,

0:41:490:41:56

his rich baritone, was that it was kind of soothing, you know?

0:41:560:42:01

Which was really important to someone who might be giving you

0:42:010:42:06

some news that might be a little hard to swallow.

0:42:060:42:09

Gil Scott-Heron was raised by his grandmother in Kentucky.

0:42:120:42:16

And grew up hearing a lot of blues music in the house.

0:42:160:42:20

It really set the bar for him

0:42:200:42:22

in terms of truth telling in conversation.

0:42:220:42:25

# See that black boy over there, runnin' scared

0:42:250:42:27

# His ol' man's in a bottle

0:42:270:42:30

# He done quit his 9 to 5

0:42:320:42:34

# He drink full time

0:42:340:42:36

# So now he's livin' in the bottle... #

0:42:360:42:38

There's something unique to the way black Americans put trauma

0:42:400:42:46

into their popular music.

0:42:460:42:49

This is the sound of people who've experienced a great deal of loss,

0:42:490:42:54

a great deal of pain, a great deal of violence,

0:42:540:42:57

and it keeps occurring through Gil Scott-Heron

0:42:570:43:01

all the way through to Kendrick Lamar.

0:43:010:43:03

Originally, Winter In America was an album that we wanted to do

0:43:060:43:09

as a musical novel.

0:43:090:43:13

And it was about

0:43:130:43:15

a vet who had come back from the war.

0:43:150:43:17

And some of the trials and tribulations

0:43:170:43:19

that he had experienced. But it was songs about us, really -

0:43:190:43:22

it was songs about our own lives and what we experienced

0:43:220:43:25

as young 20-something black men in America.

0:43:250:43:29

And what we saw happening to the country,

0:43:290:43:31

how it was falling down around our ears.

0:43:310:43:34

# They never had a chance to go

0:43:340:43:38

# Cos somebody won't know

0:43:380:43:41

# Tell them it's winter... #

0:43:410:43:44

You kind of saw the handwriting on the wall.

0:43:440:43:46

# Nothing goes in the winter in America... #

0:43:460:43:52

Gil Scott-Heron, first of all, his music hit us before he did.

0:43:520:43:56

Obviously the song The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,

0:43:560:43:59

a couple of other songs, as well, those were like

0:43:590:44:02

what we would call hood favourites.

0:44:020:44:04

# ..something wrong

0:44:040:44:06

# Hate in your heart, it's winter

0:44:060:44:08

# I can see you like winter in America... #

0:44:100:44:15

It was beyond anything that we were getting as young people.

0:44:150:44:20

This was early rap, you could even say.

0:44:200:44:25

People on the street corner spitting poetry

0:44:250:44:28

about their socio-political condition at the time.

0:44:280:44:32

# When it come to making music and, sure enough, making news

0:44:320:44:36

# People who just don't make sense and people making do

0:44:360:44:40

# Seems a mass of contradictions, pulling different ways

0:44:400:44:45

# Between the folks who come and go, and ones who've got to stay

0:44:450:44:50

# It's a massive irony for all the world to see

0:44:500:44:54

# It's the nation's capital, it's Washington DC. #

0:44:540:44:59

Heron became known as the godfather of hip-hop.

0:44:590:45:02

But the man himself was ambivalent.

0:45:020:45:05

"I don't know if I can take the blame for rap music," he quipped.

0:45:050:45:09

MUSIC: The Message by Grandmaster Flash

0:45:090:45:12

Hip-hop began as a home-brew party culture, based around DJing,

0:45:150:45:20

break dancing, graffiti writing, and MCing.

0:45:200:45:23

Rap was new technique of talk singing, based on wordplay,

0:45:260:45:30

candour, and flow.

0:45:300:45:33

# It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder

0:45:330:45:35

# How I keep from going under... #

0:45:350:45:37

The first cut of political records are Hard Times by Run DMC.

0:45:370:45:42

And then, you know, The Message.

0:45:420:45:44

Most of the time until The Message it was, like, an album cut.

0:45:440:45:48

Melle Mel put out a record called The Message.

0:45:480:45:52

"Broken glass everywhere, people pissing on the stage."

0:45:520:45:55

# No, they just don't care

0:45:550:45:57

# I can't take the smell, can't take the noise

0:45:570:45:59

# Got no money to move out

0:45:590:46:00

# I guess I got no choice

0:46:000:46:02

# Rats in the front room, roaches in the back

0:46:020:46:04

# Junkies in the alley with the baseball bat

0:46:040:46:06

# I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far

0:46:060:46:08

# Cos a man with a tow-truck repossessed my car

0:46:080:46:11

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

0:46:110:46:15

# I'm trying not to lose my head, ah huh-huh-huh... #

0:46:150:46:20

That hit us like a bolt of lightning.

0:46:200:46:23

It energised us.

0:46:230:46:25

Because that was the first time we really heard, in our language,

0:46:250:46:30

somebody describing our socio-political condition.

0:46:300:46:35

The Message was released in 1982,

0:46:380:46:40

but it wouldn't be until the late '80s that rap's protest voice

0:46:400:46:44

would be truly crystallised.

0:46:440:46:46

# 1989

0:46:470:46:48

-# The number, another summer

-Get down

0:46:480:46:50

# Sound of the funky drummer

0:46:500:46:52

# Music hittin' your heart, cos I know you got soul

0:46:520:46:55

# Brothers and sisters

0:46:550:46:56

# Listen if you're missin' y'all

0:46:560:46:58

-# Swingin' while I'm singin'

-Hey!

0:46:580:47:00

# Givin' whatcha gettin'

0:47:000:47:01

# Knowin' what I know and

0:47:010:47:03

# While the black bands sweatin'

0:47:030:47:04

-# And the rhythm rhymes

-Rollin'

0:47:040:47:06

# Got to give us what we want... #

0:47:060:47:07

Public Enemy came along

0:47:070:47:09

and they really made it their entire reason for being.

0:47:090:47:13

# We've got to fight the powers that be

0:47:130:47:15

# Fight the power... #

0:47:150:47:17

I guess it's Chuck who drew that incredible logo.

0:47:180:47:21

The combination of the logo and then the lyrics.

0:47:220:47:26

There was a visual component to it that said, you know,

0:47:260:47:28

"This is what we're about philosophically."

0:47:280:47:30

The entire visual spectacle that they presented

0:47:300:47:33

was war about politics,

0:47:330:47:35

war about social commentary, war about battling white supremacy,

0:47:350:47:39

war about a kind of black nationalism.

0:47:390:47:41

It was a number of stances.

0:47:410:47:43

It wasn't just making a record.

0:47:430:47:45

# Woop-woop

0:47:450:47:46

# That's the sound of da police

0:47:460:47:48

# Woop-woop

0:47:480:47:49

# That's the sound of da beast

0:47:490:47:50

# Woop-woop

0:47:500:47:51

# That's the sound of da police

0:47:510:47:53

# Woop-woop

0:47:530:47:54

# That's the sound of da beast... #

0:47:540:47:57

This is the trick to MCing -

0:47:570:47:59

believability, it's everything.

0:47:590:48:02

We're probably one of the only art forms

0:48:020:48:05

that you have to actually be believed.

0:48:050:48:08

Like, it's not about your rhyme, it's not about your talent.

0:48:080:48:12

First, are you real? That's the first thing people want...

0:48:120:48:14

Are you real?

0:48:140:48:16

# Stand clear!

0:48:160:48:17

# Don man a-talk

0:48:170:48:18

# You can't stand where I stand, you can't walk where I walk

0:48:180:48:21

# Watch out!

0:48:210:48:22

# We run New York

0:48:220:48:23

# Policeman come, we bust him out the park

0:48:230:48:26

# I know this for a fact, you don't like how I act

0:48:260:48:28

# You claim I'm sellin' crack, but you be doin' that

0:48:280:48:30

# I'd rather say, see ya

0:48:300:48:32

# Cos I would never be ya

0:48:320:48:33

# Be a officer? You WICKED overseer!

0:48:330:48:35

# Ya hotshot, wanna get props and be a saviour

0:48:350:48:38

# First show a little respect, change your behaviour

0:48:380:48:40

# Change your attitude, change your plan

0:48:400:48:43

# There could never really be justice on stolen land

0:48:430:48:45

# Are you really for peace and equality?

0:48:450:48:48

# Or when my car is hooked up, you know you wanna follow me... #

0:48:480:48:51

You may go down as a legendary artist,

0:48:510:48:54

but the real truth of it is that you yourself know,

0:48:540:48:58

to yourself when you go to bed at night, "I sang for freedom.

0:48:580:49:03

"I sang for justice."

0:49:030:49:05

# Woop-woop

0:49:060:49:07

# That's the sound of da police

0:49:070:49:09

# Woop-woop

0:49:090:49:10

# That's the sound of da beast... #

0:49:100:49:11

Anybody can say anything they want to say about me,

0:49:110:49:13

about my music, they can rate me, they cannot buy my music,

0:49:130:49:16

but I go to bed at night knowing

0:49:160:49:19

that I'm the force for change and good.

0:49:190:49:22

Good change. I'm the force for revolutionary thought.

0:49:220:49:27

And that puts you to bed at night.

0:49:270:49:29

That's... And I'm quite sure Bob Dylan sleeps well.

0:49:290:49:33

MUSIC: Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

0:49:330:49:39

The idea of keeping it real in the 1990s

0:49:390:49:43

wasn't purely just a hip-hop notion.

0:49:430:49:46

One rock band emerged whose entire ethos was based

0:49:460:49:50

on frontman Kurt Cobain's ability to mirror the inner lives and feelings

0:49:500:49:55

of his audience.

0:49:550:49:56

-How are you?

-I'm great, man, thanks.

0:49:590:50:01

-Good to see you.

-I'm glad to be with you.

0:50:010:50:03

-Thank you.

-I always felt like

0:50:030:50:06

Nirvana was, like, Generation X blues, man.

0:50:060:50:12

The punk rock scene that we all grew up in

0:50:120:50:16

was sort of like our generation's folk music.

0:50:160:50:21

The songs that we were writing and playing when we were teenagers,

0:50:210:50:26

they were really emotional and direct, and political.

0:50:260:50:29

There was this honesty and integrity to everything

0:50:290:50:32

that we just wanted to be real.

0:50:320:50:34

# ..hello, hello

0:50:340:50:35

# With the lights out it's less dangerous

0:50:350:50:39

# Here we are now, entertain us

0:50:390:50:43

# I feel stupid... #

0:50:430:50:44

Kurt is one of my favourite singers of all time,

0:50:440:50:47

because he had such a beautiful tone in his voice.

0:50:470:50:54

It's kind of stuck in his throat, in a way.

0:50:540:50:56

# ..my libido

0:50:560:50:59

# Yeah... #

0:50:590:51:00

When we would record,

0:51:020:51:04

you know, he was singing so hard because he felt it,

0:51:040:51:09

that you'd get a couple of takes out of him and then you have to

0:51:090:51:12

take a break. I think that's one of the reasons why, to this day,

0:51:120:51:15

you listen to those records and it still has that same feeling,

0:51:150:51:18

because it was for real, you know?

0:51:180:51:20

# He's the one

0:51:200:51:22

# Who likes all our pretty songs

0:51:220:51:26

# And he likes to sing along

0:51:260:51:29

# And he likes to shoot his gun

0:51:290:51:32

# But he don't know what it means... #

0:51:320:51:35

I'm pretty sure that he never had any formal training in singing.

0:51:350:51:41

But I don't think he needed it.

0:51:410:51:43

-He just had it.

-You don't need it if you ARE at it.

0:51:430:51:46

Actually, it's funny, when we were making the record Nevermind,

0:51:460:51:50

he started blowing out his voice, so he went to see this vocal coach.

0:51:500:51:55

And he comes back from this vocal coach and we said, "How did it go?"

0:51:550:52:00

And he said, "Check this out."

0:52:000:52:02

And he put this cassette in the cassette player

0:52:020:52:05

of the warm-ups this guy was wanting him to do.

0:52:050:52:08

And it was, like...

0:52:090:52:11

# Mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi, mi

0:52:110:52:13

# Boy, boy, boy, boy, boy. #

0:52:130:52:15

And we sat and we laughed like hell as we listened to it.

0:52:150:52:18

And then threw the cassette away.

0:52:180:52:20

-Because it was, like, you know...

-I can just see Kurt Cobain doing that.

0:52:200:52:23

It didn't really, no. Yeah, no.

0:52:230:52:24

In November 1993, Nirvana appeared on MTV Unplugged.

0:52:260:52:31

Cobain chose to include songs by artists that had influenced him,

0:52:310:52:35

including the blues number Where Did You Sleep Last Night?

0:52:350:52:38

The Leadbelly song, that song is, it's a beautiful song, that's dark,

0:52:410:52:48

you know? It's about heartbreak and death.

0:52:480:52:51

# My girl, my girl

0:52:510:52:54

# Where will you go... #

0:52:540:52:58

So, when we did the song that night, we'd rehearsed it before,

0:52:580:53:03

I don't know if we'd done it live before,

0:53:030:53:06

but you could feel it in the room when we were doing it.

0:53:060:53:08

# Where the sun don't ever shine... #

0:53:080:53:11

And you could hear a pin drop.

0:53:110:53:12

So, you could hear every last bubble in Kurt's throat

0:53:120:53:16

as we were doing it.

0:53:160:53:18

# My girl, my girl

0:53:180:53:21

# Don't lie to me

0:53:210:53:24

# Tell me where did you sleep last night?

0:53:240:53:29

# In the pines, in the pines

0:53:310:53:34

# Where the sun don't ever shine

0:53:340:53:37

# I would shiver the whole night through... #

0:53:370:53:43

And that's when we knew, after we were done with that, we thought,

0:53:430:53:46

"OK, that worked."

0:53:460:53:48

# ..where will you go

0:53:480:53:50

# I'm going where the cold wind blows

0:53:500:53:55

# In the pines, in the pines

0:53:570:53:59

# Where the sun don't ever shine

0:53:590:54:04

# I'd shiver

0:54:050:54:10

# The whole night through. #

0:54:100:54:18

When Kurt Cobain goes to that place,

0:54:210:54:24

it's almost like the screams that you might hear in a horror film.

0:54:240:54:28

Straight out of Central Casting.

0:54:300:54:31

It's like, you know, we need the scream, the scream, you know?

0:54:310:54:35

He almost screams in a chord.

0:54:350:54:37

There's more than one note coming out when he goes to that, you know,

0:54:390:54:44

that place that he goes. And it's...it's...

0:54:440:54:46

It shakes you.

0:54:480:54:50

And yet, it's satisfying.

0:54:500:54:51

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:54:530:54:54

# Up in the morning

0:54:580:55:02

# Out on the job

0:55:020:55:04

# Work like the devil for my pay... #

0:55:050:55:09

Keeping it real, writing about what you know, and where you're from,

0:55:120:55:17

these are the key ingredients of the talking voice,

0:55:170:55:21

but there's one other thing I've learned

0:55:210:55:24

from exploring my favourite truth tellers.

0:55:240:55:27

Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday,

0:55:270:55:33

these are all singers that worked within a set of limitations.

0:55:330:55:39

But that didn't inhibit their ability

0:55:390:55:42

to express extraordinary emotion.

0:55:420:55:45

They proved you don't have to have a perfect voice to be great.

0:55:450:55:50

Welcome, everybody.

0:55:560:55:58

We are here, Legendary Cyphers, Union Square.

0:55:580:56:01

Normally we're here every Friday night from May to November.

0:56:010:56:04

As you can see, this is a special Cypher,

0:56:040:56:06

we have our guests here from the BBC, my main man right here,

0:56:060:56:10

Gregory Porter, you know what I mean?

0:56:100:56:12

So we're going to show him what we do.

0:56:120:56:14

# Party people, are you ready, ready, ready?

0:56:170:56:19

# Party people, are you ready, ready, ready?

0:56:190:56:22

# Party people, are you ready, ready?

0:56:220:56:24

# Say hell yeah!

0:56:240:56:25

# Hell yeah!

0:56:250:56:27

# If you lovin' the Cypher then throw your fist up

0:56:270:56:29

# If you lovin' the Cypher then throw your fist up

0:56:290:56:32

# And if you lovin' the Cypher then throw your fist up

0:56:320:56:34

# And say hell yeah!

0:56:340:56:36

# Hell yeah... #

0:56:360:56:37

To speak in the language of how we speak

0:56:370:56:42

makes something, sometimes, more impressionable

0:56:420:56:47

than the most flowery and imagistic poetry.

0:56:470:56:52

# We do this in the spring, summer and fall

0:56:520:56:54

# But we chillin' on that winter tip

0:56:540:56:56

# We never been with this

0:56:560:56:57

# I'm like a genius but I take it to the Genesis

0:56:570:56:59

# I've been to Geneseo in my jeans again

0:56:590:57:02

# I sound like...

0:57:020:57:04

# I lost my memory like Wolverine and my exile to me is a game

0:57:040:57:07

# You ain't seen no game

0:57:070:57:08

# Stick it to the programme

0:57:080:57:10

# Rip my shirt like I'm Hogan

0:57:100:57:11

# And at the worst, I'm more like the Hulk, man

0:57:110:57:14

# Sipping on that green juice, now, tell me what you mean... #

0:57:140:57:16

I feel like...it's not so much truth telling

0:57:160:57:19

in the sense of some intellectual desire to tell truth,

0:57:190:57:22

it's people really writing about what they know...

0:57:220:57:24

# I'm so official, you woulda thought I worked at Footlocker... #

0:57:240:57:27

..and finding the poetry in that experience.

0:57:270:57:31

# Got to understand, the way to try and defeat me

0:57:320:57:34

# Never that

0:57:340:57:36

# Understand the way this got to be

0:57:360:57:37

# Shout-out to the people

0:57:370:57:38

# Understanding's a starter, it's a slaughter

0:57:380:57:41

# Shout-out to the homie Gregory Porter

0:57:410:57:43

# You gotta understand, man

0:57:430:57:44

# I'm not a sinner

0:57:440:57:45

# And by the way, he's a Grammy award-winner...

0:57:450:57:48

# Tell 'em how you spitting Nina Simone to boot

0:57:480:57:50

# I'm getting tired of seeing my brothers

0:57:500:57:52

# Hanging from them strange fruits... #

0:57:520:57:54

I noticed in a lot of modern music, the words are very...

0:57:540:57:59

..they're very of the moment, and I like that.

0:57:590:58:02

Because it preserves the speech patterns of the time,

0:58:020:58:07

as, in some ways, the speech patterns of Appalachian English

0:58:070:58:12

balladry were transmitted over the seas

0:58:120:58:16

and took root in the mountains of North Carolina.

0:58:160:58:20

# Take it over

0:58:200:58:22

# I hear the humming in the back, he 'bout to take it off...

0:58:220:58:25

# Everything you touch is gold

0:58:250:58:27

# I'm in love with your soul

0:58:270:58:29

# Everything that you're saying is

0:58:290:58:31

# Oh-h

0:58:310:58:33

# I love yo-o-ou

0:58:330:58:36

# Mama always said

0:58:360:58:37

# Money lasts forever so I'm better well-bred

0:58:370:58:40

# I love you

0:58:400:58:42

# So watch, I'll catch the come-up

0:58:420:58:45

# As your chief-in-commander that flies over the desert

0:58:450:58:48

# Lost souls and minds that reflect something deeper... #

0:58:480:58:51

The talking voice,

0:58:510:58:53

that voice that places high value on the lyric,

0:58:530:58:56

on the words that he or she is trying to communicate.

0:58:560:59:02

Make some noise for them.

0:59:020:59:03

THEY CHEER

0:59:030:59:05

# Magnified, sanctified, be thy holy name

0:59:070:59:11

# Vilified, crucified, in the human frame

0:59:110:59:15

# A million candles burning for the love that never came

0:59:160:59:19

You want it darker

0:59:210:59:22

# We kill the flame. #

0:59:240:59:25

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