Volume 5 Issue 38…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…September 27, 2002

Born September 9, 1941 in Dawson, Georgia, Otis Redding was raised in nearby Macon. He sang in the church choir. Son of a Baptist minister, he grew up listening to Sam Cooke and Little Richard. For financial reasons, he dropped out of school. Eventually joining Little Richard's former band, the Upsetters, he competed in local talent shows for $5 in prize money. After 15 consecutive wins, he was barred from the competition.

In 1960, Redding joined Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers. The group drove to Memphis, Tennessee in October 1962 for a recording session at Stax Records. When the group session did not go well, Redding recorded some solo material. Impressed, Stax executives signed him as a solo artist. His 1963 debut single "These Arms of Mine" was the first of 15 hits that Redding put on the R&B charts. The song crossed over to the pop charts; he followed it with "I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)," which hit number 21 on the pop charts in 1965, "Respect" and "Try a Little Tenderness." With Carla Thomas, daughter of Memphis soul singer Rufus Thomas, Redding recorded "Tramp" and "Knock on Wood." His soulful, horn-driven rhythm and blues created the style that became know as the "Memphis Sound." Redding's success helped to make Stax/Volt a force in the 1960's music industry. Other Stax/Volt artists included Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Wilson Pickett and the duo Sam & Dave.

Redding performed in venues throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the Caribbean. His tours were among the biggest box office successes of his era. Composed, written, and arranged by Redding, his songs are still being recorded by artists in various fields of music, including pop, jazz and country.

Redding's publishing firm, Redwal Music Co., Inc., copyrighted over 200 commercially successful songs and published many more that have sold in excess of one million copies each. Central to his personal philosophy and reflected in his everyday life, Redding saw music as a universal force to bring together different races and cultures. While it was not his prime motivation, blacks saw Redding as a positive role model. He got paid and paid well without the usual horror stories of being ripped off by record company executives, promoters, agents and managers that were so commonplace among soul artists of the '60s.

When Aretha Franklin recorded Otis' "Respect" on the Atlantic label, it went to number one on the pop charts in the spring of 1967. Red-hot that year, Otis Redding appeared at the Monterey Pop Festival. His performance resulted in an album Otis Redding/Jimi Hendrix Experience. Redding went to Sausalito to relax, there he wrote (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay, which he recorded on December 7. Days later, on December 10, 1967, Redding and his back-up group, the Bar-Kays, who had earlier come up with their hit "Soul Finger," were flying to a scheduled performance when his private airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin. While some of those aboard survived, Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays died.

Early in 1968, (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay reached number one on the pop and R&B charts. In 1989, Redding was inducted into the Rock-and-Roll Hall Of Fame. (Sources: www.tsimon.com/redding.htm, www.rollingstone.com/ and www.otisredding.com)

The Dark Knight-Batman/White Ninja/Zorro is in a snit over the loss of certain privileges and the demand that he spends more of his free time reading, which is necessary for gathering and processing information. Showing his obvious displeasure with this required change in his daily routine, the Dark One/Ninja/Zorro exclaimed, "Without television, life is boring!" Bat Cave

Hand-in-glove with the civil rights movement, a new sound exploded across America in 1955. Pounding like a heartbeat, black artists fought segregation and discrimination to break into the market with new music. Today, internationally known as "rock n' roll," artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, LaVern Baker, Hank Ballard, Ruth Brown and Jackie Wilson performed an up tempo blues that overnight changed teenage buying habits. Contagiously popular, rock n' roll had teens "do-woping" on street corners and jumping at parties from Beale Street to American Bandstand, as 45 RPM record sells skyrocketed.

Easily produced, like burning CDs today, young black entrepreneurs invaded radio stations with hot new 45's. Discrimination locked blacks off national top ten charts and most TV shows. Fighting for space in the marketplace, black promoters created a performance venue composed of black theaters, nightclubs and juke joints East of the Mississippi River called "the chitterling circuit." Tremendously successful for struggling artists, the "chitterling circuit" was "where it was at" by 1962.

Crowning Elvis Presley King by late 1966, white promoters bought black artists and their music for chump change. Like hogs on the killing floor," blacks were being booked in Vegas, Los Angeles and New York City's upscale clubs. Who needed a "chitterling circuit?" Abandoned, the "chitterling circuit" withered. Black performers were on the outside again watching white people sop the gravy made from their sweat on the "chitterling circuit." Dependent on white acceptance and approval, black artists got crumbs during an economic boom fueled by their musical genius.

Sam Cook's "A Change is Going to Come" sounded an alarm, but Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968 lit a powder keg. The "pied piper" of soul, Otis Redding let out a soulful moan and Curtis Mayfield echoed with "People Get Ready." Blazing like a comet across the horizon, Otis, The Bar-Kays, Carla Thomas and The Mad Lads went on the old "chitterling circuit." Drawn like moths to flames, Otis joined black power. Cutting his process or "do," he went Afro.

Soul music, the Memphis Sound came to symbolize the black struggle in the USA. From Motown, superstars like Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye joined Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers as everybody went soul. A reincarnated James Brown became "soul brother number one." The explosion of blackness blew open doors for a new generation of artists, i.e., Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack, Isaac Hayes, the Brothers Unlimited Band and the Jackson Five. Embracing soul, Otis Redding broke with superficial lyrics and bemoaned the reality of black life in "(Sittin' On) The Dock of a Bay."

The Last Poets foreshadowed hip-hop, rap and spoken word. Locked out in the same way as rock n' roll and soul pioneers, young underground, outside-the-box-thinking hip-hoppers identified with their spirit. Fusing spoken word and hip-hop created explosive, up-front-in-your-face conscious experiential lyrics to educate about racism, gangsterism, sexism, violence, pimping and prostitution. They teach peace, cooperation and love. Introducing a new positive image and information currency in the marketplace, spoken word artists are deriving dividends from "chitterling circuit" lessons. Like the name implies, our history has always been surviving off of what nobody else wanted. Other John Burl Smith Essays

News You Use

In slavery's heyday, fall meant slaughtering hogs. The master received the choice cuts of meat; slaves got the pig's guts, ears, tails and feet. Made up of too many things best avoided, some slave diet items have been elevated to the status of delicacies. Consumed from Thanksgiving through New Year's, hog intestines - chitterlings or chitlins - rank among these favorites.

Grown in feedlots, pigs are injected with growth hormones and antibiotics; their guts are filled with virulent bacteria, a source of foodborne illness. Yersinia entercolitica 0:3, bacteria that occur in hog intestines, survive and multiply in cold temperatures. Yersiniosis symptoms include diarrhea, fever and abdominal pain.

Health officials recommend the following: Wrap the bucket of chitterlings in disposal plastic and thaw in the refrigerator. Pre-boil the chitterlings five (5) minutes before cleaning to kill the bacteria. Dispose of the plastic and clean all surfaces touched by raw chitterlings with detergent and water. After cleaning wipe the surface with a clean cloth dipped in a fresh mixture of 1-1/4 teaspoon of household bleach and one-half gallon of lukewarm water. Clean the pre-boiled chitterlings as usual, then cook and season using your traditional recipe. If you must eat hog guts, please be careful!

Ham and Cheese: Linear Secularism is a poem from T.H.I.N.C. (Teaching Humanity In New Consciousness): The Chrysalis of Evolution, a book by Yohannes Sharriff Smith. Metaphorically, Yohannes treats hypocrisy and greed, Western civilization's most enduring values, as culinary morsels. A duplicitous offering sets betrayal before Christians on Sistine tapestry. Basting their morbid mortal coil, Yohannes roasts their idea that ritualistic orthodoxy replicates Christ's teachings and ultimate sacrifice. Their justification for Christian leaders hiding behind codes of silence is charred like melted cheese. An American delicacy, Ham and Cheese sandwiches hypocrisy and greed between power and wealth. A top seller on menus from Enron to WorldCom, CEOs super-size their orders.

A signature piece for Yohannes on the road to the 1997 Poetry Slam Championship, Ham and Cheese does not explode with the fiery bite of some pieces. An obtuse backdoor peek at the daily burlesque of guilt and contrition, Yohannes allegorically points a finger at media and advertising. Dastardly Dans, fattening hogs for slaughter, daily media and advertising executives psychologically ravish children for profits. Humorously laden, Ham and Cheese drips with absurdity. Soaked around the edges with satirical sharpness, avoiding the flavor is not an option.

Learning about the hip-hop generation, while experiencing young artists maturing, Ham and Cheese speaks in a particularly clear idiom that resonates and provokes an intelligent response. Yohannes and other hip-hop artists view their work as educational tools, as well as, the economic engine, which drives their dreams. Ham and Cheese raised expectations for what can be done utilizing spoken word in a hip-hop genre. If you are out of the loop and desire food for thought, where cutting edge spoken word/hip-hop is served hot, check out the Atlanta Vibe at www.thedish.ws. Other Essays by John Burl Smith

Watch the muppets cast an illusion before your eyes.

As comatose couch cushions pin senses to soaps,

Sensors wash commonsense with seductive corruption

Spawning controlled consumer surrender.

We stab our open wounds with currency.

Secretly, pimps pray prostituting will sates the need.

Like infants, the masses suckle the phallic superficial.

Impaled upon the crucifix of debt,

We sacrifice live dreams for dead presidents.

As they strive,

Even children shutter with unearthly pleasure,

Pushing pass pennies from parents put in collection plates,

Panting for the devil's almighty dollar power.

Crucified! Why, for lifeless wooden promises?

The spirit of will dies, while industrialized primates

Feen for better visual highs.

Assimilated lobes open wide like parted thighs

With signs...and penetrating cries

Creaming for the evening news, pushing lies deeper.

Journalism is delivering billions of subliminal

Violent multiple orgasmic editorials.

Pornographic bent reality drips from thin pink lips

Advertised with no life found in empty eyes.

Realize 'the top story' is woven from the fabric

Of politics and Nielsen's opinion to paint a pessimistic

Picture reflecting society's apathy.

But please, read between the lines to see the true

Signs of how hopeless the media wants you to be

So commercials can program your mentality.

Intuit's Homepage

Disgruntled wants to know: With shorter life spans and lower earnings, blacks receive less than whites from Social Security. A Republican radio announcement called it "reversed reparations." Though it is an accurate description, NAACP chairman Julian Bond said, "To believe that broadcasting these falsehoods in such a racially colored way aimed at African-American voters, obviously thinking they'd buy it hook, line and sinker is insulting." Isn't it far more insulting that the ad accurately depicts the situation and Democrats are silent?

Disgruntled feels: Prophetic! The pinnacle of George Bush's success in using the bully pulpit occurred when he jawboned down the economy to justify a tax cut for the wealthy. Now, he speaks, stocks tank! Former German justice minister Herta Daubler-Gmelin likened him to Hitler in using war to avoid economic issues. Though she got sacked, her analysis was clairvoyance!

Disgruntled says: An objective analysis of global development, particularly in the area of privatization of public utilities, such as water and energy, show poor people are made poorer as prices for these basic necessities increase. Deregulation of California electricity and Georgia natural gas provides excellent examples of what is in store for consumers in nations from Ghana to Venezuela, where the IMF and World Bank are urging privatization of state-run utilities. While privatization might be a big business boom, everyday people will go bust trying to buy basic necessities. More Disgruntled Moments

Email edaniels@jacksonville.com Jacksonville investor John Palumbo recently bought the interests of Myran E. Haley's estate in works and royalty rights of the deceased author Alex Haley. She is the widow and third wife of the author of the book, Roots. The literary rights and royalties of Roots, a Pulitzer Prize-winning book about an African who was brought to America on a slave ship and sold into slavery, was sold for $10,000.

Email: abujaNig@yahoogroups.com Excerpts: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Biodiversity - the fifth thematic area of World Summit on Sustainable Development - is Africa's richest asset. The knowledge its people have developed over centuries on the properties of plants, seeds, algae and other biological resources is now coveted by scientists for medicinal, agricultural and other purposes.

Biopiracy is the theft of biological matter, like plants, seeds and genes. In the absence of laws regulating access to these resources, pharmaceutical, agrochemical and seed multinationals exploit Africa's biological wealth and obtain rights of intellectual ownership to the resources and knowledge of communities. Multinationals make huge profits from African biodiversity but do not share these with the communities who discovered, kept and transmitted the knowledge.

Email valojo@earthlink.net 9-11 lasted less than half a day, and took the lives of some 3000 people, the world is being made not to forget it. Holocaust lasted some six years, and took the lives of some 6 million Jews. Jews are being told again and again, NEVER to forget it. Slavery and Colonialism lasted more than 400 years, devastated an entire continent, and took the lives of 100s of millions of Africans; Africans are being told to forgive and forget, and to continue doing business with Europeans as usual, as if nothing ever happened. We sure do live in a strange world.

Email Eyoooore@aol.com I've read so much and heard so much about reparations lately, there is only one thing I'm sure of: No other racial group has been wronged so completely and consistently without any outcry from the world (in general), without any thought to reparations and without guilt or fear of reprisal. That is why the white world is so upset at the president of Zimbabwe. If blacks around the world take the attitude of Mugabe, imagine what would happen!....Just imagine!

Email Ghanaunion@aol.com Excerpt: California Academy of Sciences...The smokestacks of North American and European factories may have spawned the devastating droughts that killed millions of people in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa's Sahel region. Scientists have been puzzled about the source of the 40-year drought. A global climate model developed by Leon Rotstayn and Ulrike Lohmann show sulfur spewed from factory chimneys tends to form aerosols that are more proficient than natural clouds at reflecting sunlight back into space. The cooling of the land below drives the tropical rain belt farther south, causing droughts in the Sahel. Rain has slowly returned over the past few years, possibly as a result of the cleaner atmosphere from anti-air-pollution laws.

Email nadir@distortedsoul.com A Rick Fulton Exclusive: Jennifer Lopez's work with rap stars P Diddy and Ja Rule helped her sell millions of albums. So, organizers of the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards naturally wanted her on their annual compilation album. One of the biggest stars of the genre, J-Lo scooped an MTV award for best hip-hop video and last year happily accepted two MOBO nominations. But, it seems the fiery diva had other ideas. In a sternly written letter, La Lopez refused to let any of her songs be included on the MOBO 2002 album. Her reason? She doesn't consider her music to be of "black origin."

Email blckchld@hotmail.com When it comes to being relevant and protecting incumbents, the Congressional Black Caucus is obviously impotent. The losses suffered by Earl Hilliard and Cynthia McKinney are the most recent examples of its failures. In McKinney's case, her fellow CBC member in Georgia - John Lewis - did nothing to support her candidacy. Left out to dry, she was even targeted for defeat by Blue Dog Democrats, Republicans in everything but party label, such as Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes and Sen. Zell Miller.

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