Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up

We are a winner, never let anyone say boy, you can't make it because a weak mind is in your way, no more tears we cry and finally we have wiped our eyes and

move

on,

move

on. Lord have mercy we move on, we move on Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions were lyrical prophets of our time play chis Mayfield alongside mosart and bethoven classic is forever today yesterday and tomorrow the music would just pass through your body and when Curtis hit that microphone, everyone just stood still, you do a lot to watch The Impressions in those days, what you hear on Curtis you can feel on the Impressions the spiritual power of Martin Luther King, all we were doing was telling it like it was. and it fit with what was happening as far as the movement, plus it was almost like it was a soundtrack to our everyday lives.

I don't think Curtis really understood how much he was loved. Curtis Mayfield gave people the audacity to have hope and strength in the blizzard of chaos they will go down in history as one of the greatest R&B groups to ever sing Curtis Mayfield has left an impression on our souls so simply how that. I always said, let's follow the yellow brick road, you know, um. I played guitar but my guitar was tuned to the black keys of the piano, which was somewhat unorthodox. I never went to school for that. From a very young age I found myself gifted with music and everything was in my head to be able to perform.

Although I couldn't read it, which was a completely new thing for the industry, it wasn't rock and roll, it wasn't gospel, it wasn't quite contemporary, but it was Curtis in the early '57s, we were headed to Chicago and this. We had enough money in the car to get us there and some friends of ours, some friends of ours, made a big sandwich box of Balon sandwiches and things that were going to take us from Chattanooga to Chicago, so we arrived. We went to Chicago and met Jerry Butler, he was a short-term cook, so after going out at night, which was about 12:00 midnight, we were rehearsing in the little apartment we had rented and we were getting pretty well and then Jerry said we need someone who can play an instrument, maybe a guitar or something, you know, so we can learn to sing with music and he said he knew a young man who sings with another group and we told him let's bring him , so he brought Curtis mayi by Jerry Butler was at his grandmother's church in 1957 they were forming a singing group, so Jerry went.

Jerry Butler went and asked Curtis if he would join the group. Curtis told Jerry Butler that he had his own group of his and that he was gone. I'm not joining them. Jerry turned around and said to Curtis: Well, Curtis, the difference in your group is that you're all kids. We ask you to join us. We are men. Then he said that the next day Curtis left the next day when Come Here, Come Curtis with his guitar and joined Jerry Butler and The Impressions. They had a talent show at a high school there, so we were singing a song called "Uh, You Send Me" by Sam Cook, and man, we just trashed the place and as we were leaving, this guy stopped us and He said, I would like to be your manager.

His name was Eddie Thomas, so he introduced us to a lady called VI Musinski and she had to go to Chess Record, that's where. she could go and have artists come and make records, so while she was preparing that, Jerry and the other two guys wrote the song and they wrote for your precious love. I was too young to go to Chicago when with and uh my mother wouldn't let me go, you know, so uh, I just stayed back and about 6 months later, when Jerry got ready to leave the group, they came back through Chattanooga and I was sitting on the front porch and I saw this 58 uh, the Mercury truck came up the hill and uh, I said, man, that looks like it could be the guys you know and they pulled up in front of my house and they got out and one of the guys had a great old one. roll of money, you know, I mean a lot of money, you know, and they stopped and asked me, you know, if I would like to join the group and my mother agreed to let me go and I left and went back to Chicago with them. at that particular point, you know, and we had talked on the way there, oh man, we're going to buy you a new car, you know, they're going to do this and that, and I'm happy to have it.

In one fit, I was, hey man, I know I'm getting ready to buy a new car, you know, and the next day, you know, we went to VJ Records because I was raw at the time, that For Your Precious Love record was just a great record, you know, so these guys are asking me to pay them all this money and they're going to buy me a car, you know, so we were all sitting there at the meeting and AD would come out and always say, Hey babies, how are you? He would call everyone. You know you're going to make a lot of money, so I sit down.

Oh, now I'm getting very happy. Then he opened the books and they knew they were having a little talk. V Zinski, she sitting there. the chair with its legs crossed started to lower the books uh vinski got 10,000 vinski got 5,000 vinski got 15,000 vinski got another 10,000 and when they finished there was no money left they couldn't buy me a children's book car of pills that we left there, man, I was very hurt and they were too because they knew they were going to get a lot of money and I missed out on that new car and that bothered me too but that's what happened. during that period and after that it was all downhill because they were really into Jerry, at that point they left him alone and he had a great record, you know, and man, we started having difficulties, so Curtis came out.

I walked with Jerry to make some money playing guitar, you know, and uh, while I was on the road, Curtis wrote that you'll be heartbroken for Jerry and that courtship was what really sent him there, you know? And once Curtis raised enough money, he came back and brought Sam and me and we started rehearsing. We were in Nashville, Tennessee. Sitting outside between sets at this club, we were playing Fred and Sam and, as always, I was dreaming and talking to the guys about big plans. and hopefully things will come for us because I had written several songs for other people and they were over like Jerry Butler broke your heart, maor Lance and the Monkey Time and The Impressions, we were still fighting and hoping to get ours, you know, and as he was talking Fred was just saying well, okay, okay, okay, okay, and before I knew it, I was putting this song together, okay, and we started harmonizing it right in the car.

By the time we walked into the dressing room getting ready for the final show, we had actually gotten into that song. We totally completed it and we had performed it just as a finale on stage that night, you know, as something inspiring because we were so ready when we recorded that song I discovered what it meant to make the magic I thanked my God it's okay say it's okay it's okay okay say okay okay okay have a good time because okay wo okay we're gonna move it slow when the lights are long when you move it slow it sounds like a month and it's okay, it's okay now listen to the feet like a pat you got and everyone knows it's okay, it's okay when you wake up early in the morning feeling sad like many of us I'm a little soul make life work and surely something has to come to you and tell you it's okay to say it's Well it's okay to have a good time because it's okay, everything is okay now, everyone clap, give it a chance, you have a soul and everyone knows it's okay, it's okay, so maybe I'll find someone who loves me and treats me very Well then my I have to go and my love will know it from morning, noon and night and she has to say it's okay mhm say it's okay, it's okay, have a good time because it's okay, it's okay, everyone, Clare, Now hand over your hands.

By chance, the first session I did with Impressions was "It's Okay," when Curtis brought me the tape of the song. He impressed me a lot, yeah, well, we were very excited about it. "Okay" We knew we had a hit so Curtis lived in Markham Illinois Sam and I lived in Chicago and we got in the car and drove to Margam Illinois just so we could sit there and listen to that song because Curtis had the only copy he had. You know, so we went out and sat and listened. Then I came back to Chicago when I started working with Curtis.

In fact, when I started working with any of the Rhythm and Blues groups, I was a jazz musician. We jazz musicians looked down on these guys and said, ah, these guys, what are they? doing here they came up with a song that consists of two chords, but it was a lot of fun after I started working with Curtis. I don't know what it was, but something hit me one day, it was like someone turned on a light and I came out. Here is a guy who is doing the only thing he knows how to do and he does it with his heart.

I said who am I to express what this guy really feels. One of my favorite of all his songs was that women had soul when I first played it for myself and thought, oh boy, I'm going to have fun with this. A woman has a soul. She gave me a push to really stretch myself with some of my jazz skills. That's one of the best things I did for Curtis on The Impressions. She may not be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen nor the charms of high society ladies, but the woman got where she was going and it all belongs to the woman I am now with.

I'm just a normal fall. I don't need much. I don't need a CAC car or diamonds, but the woman I hold must have a soul and then I reach for her. Just see the woman. Well, I don't need a woman who has a lot of class because classifying a woman doesn't mean she's going to last. I need a type of woman that when I hug her she feels so good, yeah, oh, and you were, you tried to kiss me, I give up without then I know. The woman got to work and then I if you listen closely to a lot of the stuff I did from The Impressions, you'll always find that I never tried to cover up what Kurtis was doing because Curtis was the artist. he was the star and the print was the star.

I was just in the background, just trying to add something that could contribute to what they were doing. You know, what makes Johnny P's arrangement so great is that it changed our entire flow mat. He took brass we had never had brass in our singing and he started putting brass in and then he put funky rhythm and the drum tracks and stuff like that on our track and he would bring out the vocals and the VOC, he would just make you sing, you sit down. there and you hear the arrangement that he had, uh, he put it hard and you could feel, feel the music, yeah, and that wasn't a sound like Johnny P's, that sound of his, you know, once you heard that sound on the radio, you knew right away, those are the impressions on Johnny P, one of the big favorites that made the impression was a song called I've Been Trying and this was really a hit for them and in the end I've been trying the cluster. went into some high F setto harmonic stuff that was really unheard of, no one had really done that and after Curtis and the guys did that we all changed the way it came out, a few sessions later Curtis came up with a the melody is called I need you, so on the I need you recording we got to the end of the melody and I think we all came up with it at the same time, hey, let's go into that alto falletto thing again and once again we go in in her and this.

At that moment the guys really went through the roof, The highfall They settled there and the incredible part, everything is tuned in Perfect Harmony, tuned and when you sing those high parts like that it's not easy, especially that faletto, but this also started to be. something characteristic of the impression that I don't want to be happy with another person when I know in my mind that I will be wasting my time, there is no need to follow me and if you don't love me, why worry about life? I life I why do you introduce me to someone else when you meet someone else I don't need I need you I need you I need you good I guess I'm just a bit of a stubborn fool like but how do I love someone else? when I need you when I need you well I guess these things don't matter and I apologize there's no kind of love between us I can see in the looks in your eyes and now you're with someone else and you say I should join the weather and I guess it could be happy if it were another man, but I, you, I need you, I, you, and I guess I'm just a stubborn fool, a little stubborn like you, but how do I love someone else when I need?

You, when I sing those high notes like that, you know, it was very comfortable because I controlled myself. You know, we had trouble singing low notes, you know, but when you sing high notes, the higher you go, the better you know that song. Hey man, it's just me, me and I didn't play it and I love that song in particular because the unises were really tight and what we really tried to do was ride each other's voices, uh, I'd make it sound like it was an echo, it was almost like a single voice. Singing Curtis usually brought me the material on a cassette tape and when he brought me his songs, the songs we were going to record were nothing more than guitar and voice, in general, Curtis had no idea what the arrangement was going to be. .

It seems that until we got to the session we never had thethese things in my lyrics. Everything loves appreciation and anything else starts with respect first, if I can establish some identity so that you respect me as a human being. and then accept me as an entertainer so let's do that we have to have peace to keep the world alive and one of there we have to have joy Che in our hearts with strength we cannot destroy the people he we the people he through our voice the the world He knows that there is no choice but to save the children, the little ones who simply do not understand, give their young ones a chance to breathe and help purify the earth.

People listen to us through our voice. The world knows there is no choice. And the people of the neighborhood. If only they could shake the other hand, work together, do good for the land, the man, give us all the same opportunity, if it could be such a sweet romance, and for the soldiers who are dead and missing, if so We could only bring War You back. to say that we have to have peace to keep the world alive and the seas water we have to have joy Jo in our hearts with strength we cannot destroy the people here through our voice the world knows there is no choice and the people in our neighborhood , what if Sh and I could work together for the good of the land, give us all a chance, if it could be so sweet, and the soldiers that are gone, if only we could bring one back, said we arrived to PE? we have to have peace, that's the world I said peace peace peace we have to have peace people listen to us he through our voice the world knows that there is no choice save the children save the children save the children and the people of the neighborhood would do it if only me and shake each other's hand work together for the good of the land give us all a chance anal it could be such a sweet Ro and the soldiers who are dead and missing if we could only bring that let's listen to people say peace peace, peace, peace, we can have peace, peace, peace, we have to have peace, be it with you, all the people who are darker and bluer.

I myself took it as a person who seemed to be very, very, very angry. because some of the words there said: would you let this happen to you? Know? Will you let what this person says come true? or you're going to do something about it and it's almost like you're angry. Well look, I took a different view of that with people who are dark and blue, are you going to sit in this city and let what others say come true? Now my interpretation of what he was talking about was to get up and go out and do something you know, just don't stand there, you know, that was my opinion, you know, but you know, listen to him, you know, but the only thing I got out of it, you know , that, uh, that was all, are you going to let them do this?

You, yes, who is going to let who do it to you? Do you know if? Well, at that time I think he was talking about white people. That's exactly where I'm going. Hey, will you sit in this city and let what others say come true? Who is he talking about? He's not talking about black people, you know, so he's talking about white people. Get up, get out, do something for yourself, you know? And that's what I took from that meaning, since he felt death much, much stronger than most people because of the environment where he came from what he once told me and I asked him why Curtis told me that when he was a child the kids used to call him obscene and he didn't like that, he just didn't do it.

It's not like that but that's part of we blacker than blue that song reminds me of his quotes about how he hated that name and how he felt when he was a child, he didn't like being called obscenity or feeling so dark. that this is what you had, this is what the kids who are very Cru nicknamed him, so I guess he was able to express it at some point and he did it through the Curtis Mayfield song that came out in the '50s in Chicago, you know, children are cruel. and children are bad and if you put a society on top of them, that is even more bad in the images in the way of life and then you have people or older people who tell you that they can't go that far outside the city of Chicago because this is what is going to happen to them and therefore they don't have to take a bus or train ride beyond the outskirts, which might be just 10 minutes or 15 minutes away, believe me, the effect on kids are going to be like ten times more, you know, some black kids are going to look at the darker black kid or something with their mouth or hair or clothes that they wear especially back then and really tighten the screws on that person, we, the people who are darker than blue, right?

Let's stay in this city and let others let what others say come true. We are simply of no use. Everyone imagines a youthful adult, a lazy person. No, it's yes, but he, we, the people who are darker than blue, are going to remain standing. around this city and let what others say come true, we are just no good at all, everyone imagines that a Bo grew up without a boat, now we can't stand that or is it really where we said that we, the people who are dogs with blue, this is it. There is no time to segregate.

I'm also talking about brown and yellow. Like yellow girl? Can't you say you're just the surface of our deep, dark well? If your man could really see, you know your color just like I do, forgive me brother. While you're in your glory, I know you won't if I tell the whole story, give me a love, give me a love, give me your love, give me your love, give me your love, I look at you and you grow big. what a thing I really feel as good as true you are a god you make my love breathe in the air through I really love you I'm not a child how much I care Give me love when you give me your love give me your love give me your love give me your love give me a love get ready for tomorrow do what you have to do I share the path whatever it brings you don't worry about any attitude just be yourself live with yourself in loneliness and need no more you I left Chicago in the late 60's and I moved to New York City and while I was living there I got a call about a movie that Curtis had been approached to do the music for and the movie was called Superfly Curtis says I need you to come do it with me, I came back to Chicago and it was all recorded at RCA Victor studios in Chicago.

I think we did all of these recordings in about 2 days and then the music was taken and included in the film. wherever the director or the producer or whoever decided it should go, but of course everyone who knows anything about black exploitation films, Superfly was one of the biggest ones of that era, bring back some highlights, something which I'm sure everyone would like to hear. starting with superl with that, there are strong things that are happening, the man has great power, he has been here for a long time, oh, but if you lose, don't ask any questions, you know you understand, but what a man, this cat of the S had a was but a weakness was shown CU his hustle was wrong his mind was a but the man lived alone oh super you can't do your but if you lose don't ask questions why the only game you know is the game play, play to Staying busy in the times and streets of the ghetto trying to get old, that's what you're trying to do.

It takes them a long time for him to take cing with f eyes trying to get over it all. TR Ito super wants to move a dream. what does it mean he wouldn't know he can't be like the rest it's the most he will confess but time is running out and there is no happiness super FL you are going to make your man come back but if you lose don't do it don't ask questions swag don't look at me you know what It's super flat super flat super fly super fly try it try it all try to get over it try to do it all try to get try to get try to get over try to get over try to get over I, Freddy's Dead, I was stimulated by the character Freddy, you know, and how I read it.

He basically seemed like a good guy, but among the wrong kind of friends of his wife, he got the worst of it. I know and as a result I ended up being exploited by all of them and he of course died in the movie so my heart failed for him so the only way I could come back was to give him some kind of example of what he was like. The results can be if you are of that misfortune when Freddy's Dead came out, it was an ad for people who saw it incorrectly because the story could become proon or neutral for a lot of people who didn't have many of those experiences. from um maybe he was going to fight for the country and suddenly he got the feeling that they were neglected or you know for some reason uh they had lost in this belief that Americans take care of them they looked at Freddy's dead like one of these things he says, "Okay, this is a drug thing, but they tried, they tried to kick this method habit that was going on at the time and I remember the methanone clinics were lining up because so many cats were." with heroin and then they were trying to kick it with methanol and then they were on methanol, so I remember very clearly that it wasn't a happy time in Harlem or a happy time in Queens Brooklyn or a happy time in Long Isen, so a lot of people watched the movie. and I was like, "Well, this is this, this can get me out of this hole or this rut ​​that I'm in after watching Superfly." Curtis kept saying over and over again that it's nothing more than a commercial, it's a commercial to distort people and with his skill he tried to turn that commercial around to turn it into something good that would stay in the heads of some of these people. little kids years later, you would sit and watch Superfly appear on TV. and he was almost shaking his head at the way they filmed it, the way they filmed it and you have a whole segment here where you're sitting there watching people cut dope, everyone thought it was cute and there's nothing cute about dope, not at all, no. the reality of it and he did a good job of expressing that by telling you that you know you live by the gun, you're going to die by the gun and that's the part that people have to understand.

I guess many of you are wondering as things go down in very, very funny ways and what have you, we would like to talk about a brother, about another child who somehow had a simultaneous life, like many brothers and sisters of people whose name you may know it was Freddy. in a lot of bad things, I had a lot of glamorous moments, but if you can remember, if you can remember the story, remember Freddy's Dead, yeah, yeah, Lord, Lord, that's what I say, look at me, remember PL, it's in it , hope. but this Hope was a rope and he should have known that it is difficult to understand that this was love and sadness.

I'm sure everyone would agree that this misery was his wife and things now Fred is dead, that's what I'm saying, everyone has abused him, torn him apart. abused him, another drug addict plan, pushed the man, a terrible blow, but that's how things go. A friend is in the center, if you want to be a trash, remember smart, St. We are all strengthened by progress, but sometimes I must confess that we can. deal with rockets and dreams, but reality, what does it mean?, it's nothing, said CU Fred is the day yes, yes, yes, yes, ah, ready, is it there?

All I want is a little peace of mind with a little love. I'm trying to find what this could be. such a beautiful world with a wonderful girl, oh I need a woman, a girl, I don't want to be like everyone has abused him, torn him down and abused him, another rubbish plan that pushes, don't do it for the man. R is in the corner now if you want. Be a wild Jun, remember the day, yes, yes, yes, yes, if you don't try, you're going to die, why can't we brothers protect each other? No one is serious and that makes me furious, make no mistake, just a good friend, everyone has abused him. destroyed him and abused him another June plane pushing the door for the man A friend is in the corner now if you want to be a trash and W day that's the day love love yes, yes it's the day Fred is the day Love day peace be upon all You, Superfly, actually allowed me the opportunity to deal with a bigger Ranger to open me up to a new era of the music business that was delving into a topic that a lot of people saw as a drug, you know, and of course not.

I don't want to get involved in that, so he let me delve into it and warn him, you know, talking about the man pushing him explicitly, since you can see him on the streets, but also to talk about in Superfly, the priest was his name. in the film as a young man who had intellect and knew how to overcome it, but was negative. You just know, thank God, he didn't have to die to prove it. You know, the black community has had a strange love affair with our bullies. Drug dealers and prostitution and drug-induced death and dependency was and is a terrible part of life but it was being glorified by some of the media and there were some of us who really felt that the introduction of drugs into the black community, which was timed quite interestingly, along with the riots, there was a deliberate attempt to space people out and make it easier to control the cats, which really separated from, you know, 6970 71, those who came from Vietnam trying to understand. elements of war, but there was also a huge dose of heroin on the streets for some reason after King, so I remember the guys were definitely like wow, in the68 they could find marijuana and marijuana was something they hid and smoked.

Small Corners somewhere else in the late 60's, 69's and 70's, yes we were possibly a gateway to this surplus of narcotics that is in the neighborhood, so there were people who came back from the war and got high on something and then He was also trying to leave, you know. trying to go somewhere else with your mind because what you had at 73 and 74 was just Devastation, it was crazy. I hated going to Harlem at the time, half my family was wiped out by drugs. The drug influx from '71 to '75 was a bad time and yeah, I guess Curtis Mayfield looks at it from a national point of view, since you know, wow, I scored this movie, so maybe I could say don't do this, it's a of the things that changed to the other side.

I'm your mom. I'm your dad. I'm that black in the I'm your doctor with a need I want a little cold I got some of us you know me I'm your friend your that's your push p super cool super bad trying right for the super black man Here I am keep it a secret St every bre what's in your push man in your push a man of circumstances a victim of me and I leave you CH for a while unsure of the past I know I care about the last thing I have to be I have to be I have to be M I push you make all the men make money all the time and only me for all the rubbish to see get PR is my thing doing how I swing on your pushing me pushing two bags please a joy, I make you want what you want it to be.

I have a woman that I love desperately I want to give something better than me I have been told that I can't be anything else I'm just a scammer despite myself I know I can break it in this life I just don't have it be M I have to be meel I have to be I'm pushing I'm your mom I'm your dad I'm that one I'm your doctor with a need I want some Coca-Cola, have some grass, you know me, I'm your your man more than I'm your pusher, thank you in the album Superfly, um, I did all the arrangements and the orchestrations, and my favorite there would be To be Eddie, you should know better because the pusher Superfly Freddy's Dead, if you listen closely enough, Curtis was almost finishing these things, most of them, very few central changes, very few melody lines, but then when you get to Eddie you should know better. we have chord structure, we have beautiful chord changes plus a great melody and you should know better bro, you know you're wrong, think about the tears and fears you bring to your parents at home, they would tell where it went wrong.

My God, we planned and worked hard from the same star, we tried to do better than everyone else, but brother proved to be much less. Ed is everyone's friend, but sometimes you wonder from time to time what the only time he CHS is when there is something to do. losing through his personal loss and the friend pays the cost all the time must be something that is frozen in his mind that has left him so blind in the greek and I don't think he's going to make it this time, well probably Superfly was the right one. one of the biggest commercial successes of my career, the truth of such a low-budget film during that time, it's phenomenal, I mean, when you look back and see where you are today, it almost gave you real prophecies about what was to come.

What is your seeing your mother standing in the sun father and being the world here was the way we came to something we raised the Stu when we understand that this is a world for everyone a sh sh sh sh sh see Dan Super Dan Super Fly and see, you don't know where we come from when we understand this, I the CH, all to f sh sh sh, it's high and the street is me, any wonder for those who have nothing to eat, we got the St from when we are the la possibility that everyone can feel is an independent brother who was always locked into the people, what happened to leave the people was who was actually playing the music for the people, the radio stations changed, they took the DNA of what was happening and reduce it to a point where almost anyone can do it, so I think Curtis Mayfield fit the bill, but he was too independent a man to stay in the background and have someone else drive his car for him, um.

A lot of the independent black men, in terms of strength and spirit, started filtering out of the music business at that time, so C Mayfield was right, it's just that those times weren't right. I think he tried to do some things on Disco Disc. It wasn't Curtis I think Curtis was a little tired too he wanted to rest he wanted to take a little time off we were starting to have little kids this was a new life for him being able to sit and watch his son now crawl throw I sat on a couch and that It gave him a little time to stop, think about resting, doing something different during the '70s.

I had so many roles. I was a producer on three or four movie soundtracks for other people. I was making my own albums. In between, I was trying to run a business and of course I had a family and kids. Life is not just music. The need of a human being for many things in life. It just allowed me to calm down. You're not getting hits. You may not get any more successes. You've been doing this for 20 years. Go with your family. Raise your children. Discover what you are besides music. I guess the accident itself happened.

Very fast and very unexpected for me. everyone else I have never asked why I have never cried about it of course one has a tear in one's eye from time to time simply because all people hopefully come into this world and can leave this world it is totally totally healthy people um, that at least in life should be guaranteed for the majority, but when it doesn't happen or when something fails from that perspective, you still have to continue and it's not about dying, uh, it's about living again, coming back to live, he had. this excitement for life and that excitement for life he wanted to live it his mind was constantly going, you would have to tell him slower, okay, slower, we have time, let's do it, but his mind went to clicking and clicking and I didn't say he ran that house, one of the kids said daddy couldn't move, but if daddy said do something we all jumped, he runs the house, that's exactly what he did, the man is a fighter. no matter how it happened you could always see him fighting for life, the enjoyment of life having his family around him, he fought and fought until the end, talking about Curtis Mayfield to me, it brings a smile to my face and I.

I feel honored to have visited Mr. Mayfield's home more than once and been a guest and talked to him as you know, talked face to face with anyone and of course asked a million questions, like when he told me that My biggest regret was not being able to play the guitar, something that stuck with me for years because he says, "Don't take any of your gifts for granted," and he told me that that special moment in my life was sitting in Mr. .Curtis Mayfield, you know, looking at the chat. of the Hooie River in his backyard and talking about music and talking about Spirit Soul and, um, things that we shouldn't take for granted after he was injured, he started from his first recording and had someone put each song in order based on how they were done. recorded and he always told me listen if you listen you will see my life you will see how my life has changed from the moment I started until the end it was all there in his music Curtis meew uh he is brilliant at the instrument uh like Rosa Parks like Martin Luther King , a motivator who used the medium of resonance vibration of sound and especially lyrics to ignite a movement, the black movement in America, in my heart, listening to the music of Curtis Mayew, ranged from the romantic to the immediate.

Well, that was happening in the '60s between this quality of African-American men and the racism of white people, so he basically put wings in people's hearts and made you proud and gave you courage and courage. black man I don't think Curtis really understood how much he was loved, you know how much impact his music really had on people, to him it was just his life, everything that comes from the heart is forever, classical music is not just for The whites. from Europe man classical music is Billy Holiday and Curtis mafew and lysis Armstrong classical is always good today yesterday and tomorrow play it play Billy Holiday play Chris Mayfield with Mosart and Beethoven do it that is clear the music of Curtis Mayfield his words and his passion It has also left an impression on our souls as people as human beings.

What I learned from Curtis Mayfield is that culture and music at their best unite us as a human race through our similarities and put aside our differences. Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions were um. lyrical prophets of our time and we may not have appreciated how powerful and profound they were when we sang their songs, but when you look back and when historians look back, they will see that it was a very, very important story part of one of the periods of more positive change in the world. The interesting thing about this period of change is that we've been through so much with so little violence that we didn't kill anyone, we didn't get angry at anyone, uh, us.

We didn't used to say that our job is to love our enemies very much and it was a way to free them. Well, you can do better by singing than by preaching. Oh, we were quite proud of how we influenced or how. We felt or saw ourselves in the eyes of the public because even though we weren't the temps or we weren't some of the biggest acts, they made us feel very, very good about what we had to contribute. and um, it didn't matter if we appeared in front or as a closing act, everything was tolerated by the consumer and by the audience that this was something special and it allowed us to sing our hearts out, we have uh we entertained thousands and thousands of people and such Once we get to be part of their family, in fact, you know where we are in their homes with some songs that we sing to them and we share aches and pains and we share a good time with everyone. the people we've sung to and this gives you a lot of inspiration to continue doing exactly what we're doing now and here it is, 50 years later, yes, Sam and I are still singing these exact songs.

Sam Keys, yeah, 'cause I think about the foundation that we laid back then, these songs hold up today and we still sing them and say Fred, don't smoke, Fred, don't drink, I don't drink, I don't smoke, we always get our break when we leave our show we go back to the hotel we sleep well at night we get up the next morning we're ready to start again and we don't look pretty I always wanted to be an artist, it's a pain you know, however, I realized I didn't want to be famous 500 years after my death, however, through my music I would like to think that maybe in one way or another there will be a lyric or there will be a piece of music 500 Years from now, it may still have Curtis Mayfield's signature and a little honeysuckle and sugar soil, a great expression of happiness, boy you couldn't lose with a dozen roses that would surround you, the joy of children laughing around you, these are the ingredients. of you it is true, your ingredients are the right path to follow, one would know or believe it if I told you, so you are in second place, the Love of all humanity should reflect some sign of these words that I have tried to recite, They are close, but not nearly impossible to do, reciting your ingredients, the right path to follow, a little one would know or believe if I told him, so you are the second to know that the Love of all humanity should reflect some sign of these words.

I tried to recite they're close but no Qui it's almost impossible to recite your ingredients I don't think we'll ever be fully there uh life is uh constant motion we learn in physics that the only thing that is certain is change and that the entire universe is in motion, so we never you can relax and give up, you have to keep pushing when everyone said oh, everyone got the civil rights bill and now they can quit and retire, no, we had to do it. Go ahead and get the voting rights bill and now we have to go ahead and stop a war in Vietnam or Iraq or we have to find a way to help hunger and AIDS and famine around the world.

You have to keep pushing. Go on. keep pushing, keep pushing, gotta keep pushing, can't stop now, go up a little higher somehow or some way 'cause I've got my Str and there's no point in not keeping pushing, hallelujah, hallelujah, keep going. in P now I may one day reach that higher goal. I know I can do it with just a little Soul because I have my strength and there's no point in not keeping pushing now look, look, look, look. a look, what's that, I see a big W Stone standing there in front of me, but I got my bre and I move it all to the side and hold B, push, hallelujah, hallelujah, hold, hold, some I love you, remember.