rcooper@npr.org
Tue, 28 Dec 1999 07:16:10 -0800 (PST)
-----------------------------------------------
This Excite News Article (http://news.excite.com/news/ap/991227/02/news-obit-mayfield)
has been sent to you from rcooper@npr.org
-----------------------------------------------
Message from sender:
Take out time today to give all respect due to Curtis Mayfield. I saw this as soon as I came to work. This may not normally be allowed but in this case I felt it neccesary. :(..
peace & understanding
Ralph C.
News Article: Singer Curtis Mayfield Dies at 57
<SMALL><I>By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer</I></SMALL>
ATLANTA (AP) - Curtis Mayfield urged black Americans to "Keep
On Pushing" at the height of the civil rights movement, with songs
that preached pride and perseverance.
His life imitated his art when an onstage accident in 1990 left
him a paraplegic, but failed to stop his music. He continued to
record new songs by singing flat on his back.
The gentle voice that sounded more like a pensive philosopher
than a raging revolutionary was silenced on Sunday when Mayfield
died at age 57.
With classics such as "People Get Ready," "We're a Winner"
and "Freddie's Dead" in the 1960s and '70s, Mayfield put civil
rights at the forefront of soul music when black radio was
dominated by love songs and dance tunes.
"You don't have to break anything over anybody's head, no
matter what you're trying to say. It doesn't have to be preached,"
Mayfield told The Associated Press in a 1996 interview. "What's
important for me is that it's said in a manner where it gives food
for thought."
Music critic Nelson George dubbed Mayfield "black music's most
unflagging civil rights champion." Rolling Stone magazine declared
in 1997 that "black music as we hear it today simply wouldn't
exist without him."
Mayfield's socially conscious lyrics paved the way for rappers
more interested in gritty urban landscapes than heavenly romance.
The funk grooves on his album "Superfly" proved irresistible to
hip-hop samplers.
Longtime manager and business partner Marv Heiman said Mayfield
"wanted people to think about themselves and the world around
them, making this a better place for everyone to live."
Mayfield was paralyzed when he was struck by a lighting rig that
toppled while he was on stage performing in Brooklyn. The accident
caused his health to deteriorate in recent years, and doctors
amputated his right leg last year because of diabetes brought on by
the injury.
Born June 3, 1942, in Chicago, Mayfield started singing gospel
as a boy and taught himself to play guitar by tuning it to the
black keys of the piano.
In 1956, he joined church choir member Jerry Butler, brothers
Arthur and Richard Brooks, and Sam Gooden in a group called The
Roosters. They changed their name to The Impressions two years
later, and had a No. 11 hit with "For Your Precious Love."
The group went on to record a string of hits, including "Gypsy
Woman," "It's All Right" and "I'm So Proud."
It was 1964's "Keep On Pushing" that marked a turning point
for Mayfield, and broadened the parameters of black music. Widely
regarded as the first rhythm and blues song to rally blacks behind
the civil rights movement, "Keep On Pushing" became a Top 10 R&B
and pop hit.
Mayfield continued putting black pride and social issues at the
forefront in Impressions hits such as "We're a Winner," "This is
My Country" and "Choice of Colors," which asked: "How long have
you hated your white teacher?/ Who told you to love your black
preacher?"
"Being a young black man, observing and sensing the need for
race equality and women's rights," he said, "I wrote about what
was important to me."
Other black songwriters soon followed Mayfield's lead. Sam Cooke
recorded "A Change Is Gonna Come" shortly before he was shot to
death in December 1964. James Brown had a hit four years later with
the strident "Say It Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud." And Marvin
Gaye joined Mayfield on the cutting edge of thinking man's soul in
1971 with "What's Going On."
After his accident, Mayfield found he could still sing by lying
down, letting gravity put pressure on his chest and lungs. With
vocals sometimes recorded lines at a time, Mayfield released his
final album, "New World Order," in 1996.
Mayfield was a two-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame - as a member of The Impressions, and as a solo artist. Though
his songs often invoked bleak surroundings, they never lost sight
of hope.
"Like a true nonviolent civil-rights activist, Mayfield looked
for the best in antagonists as well as friends, gently prodding for
change and rarely pointing an accusatory finger in anger," critic
George wrote in his 1988 book, "The Death of Rhythm & Blues."
"There was dignity in his approach, a feeling that his ideals were
for the elevation of his listeners."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Tue Dec 28 1999 - 16:34:27 MET