MUSIC-USA: Curtis Mayfield’s Miraculous Comeback

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Nov 12 1996 (IPS) - One of the most influential soul singers of the 1950s and 1960s has made a musical comeback that is nothing short of a wonder.

In the fickle world of pop music, simply making records over five different decades is an achievement in itself. But for Curtis Mayfield, who has been a paraplegic for the past six years, it is also the product of a long struggle to keep producing music despite adversity.

Mayfield has always been one of the top soul stars, from his days with the trio The Impressions, beginning in 1958 with the hit ‘Gypsy Woman’, to his movie soundtracks for such 1970s films about African-American themes as ‘Superfly’ and ‘Sparkle’.

He has in fact been around so long that his songs have been performed by Rod Stewart and Aretha Franklin, and have been covered by everyone from then-ska star Bob Marley in the 1960s to rapper Ice-T in the 1990s.

But Mayfield was never expected to sing or write a new album again following a tragedy in 1990. The singer was left paralysed from the neck down when a sound tower collapsed on him during a concert in Brooklyn in stormy weather.

Since then, Curtis Mayfield has been confined to a wheelchair, unable to move his arms to play the guitar in his trademark, gentle manner. But he has composed music from his bedside, and the result is an inspirational new album, ‘New World Order’ (on Warner).

Mayfield’s typical falsetto singing, soothing ballads and quirky, gospel-tinged melodies are back, abetted by guest singers like Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples and producers like the hip- hop group Organized Noize. Even better, Mayfield — one of the most pre-eminent writers of political pop music over the past several decades — is back to singing about the state of Black America.

British writer Caryl Phillips, in a recent documentary, compared Mayfield with the great civil rights leaders of his era, and in many ways that is an apt comparison. At the same time that the Rev Martin Luther King Jr was leading marches for black empowerment, Mayfield’s Impressions were providing an upbeat, yet pensive, soundtrack with songs like ‘We’re a Winner’ and ‘This Is My Country’.

In a reminder of how his vision also encompassed a view of the darker side of U.S. life, the new album includes a remake of his 1970s hit ‘We People Who Are Darker than Blue’, a lament about segregation which includes caustic comments about the divisions between light-skinned and dark-skinned African Americans. “High yellow girl, can’t you tell/ You’re just the surface of our dark, deep well?” Mayfield croons with deceptive sweetness.

The album begins with ‘New World Order,’ a song that brings Mayfield’s social concerns to 1996, and the post-Million Man March era: “We just marched a million plus the other day/ Look, we all witnessed the sweat rolling down Ms Liberty’s head/ She knows the sleeping giant is no longer sleeping dead.”

Other songs deal with welfare, crime, the break-up of black families, drug addiction: in short, all the topics Mayfield has been singing about since the 1960s. But, even in describing the bleak conditions of U.S. ghetto life, the singer remains optimistic in a way that belies his own recent struggle: “Let’s get on back to living again,” he sings jauntily on one song.

If the album is a testament to Mayfield’s victory to do just that, it also shows how challenging that effort is. Since his injury, Mayfield sang only briefly on one song before this album, a remake of his hit ‘Let’s Do It Again’ by the Repercussions. On ‘New World Order’, the strain in his voice is audible at times, as he runs out of breath at the end of a verse.

Nor is the album a perfect one: like many modern soul albums, it includes too many producers, who pile on several differing styles often at odds with Mayfield’s plain-spoken, uncluttered compositions. There are a few too many bland ballads, and a few silly bits, like the aptly-named ‘Got Dang Song’, a weak stab at reggae.

Still, it is remarkable how good the album is, given the duress that its composer faced simply to produce a dozen new songs. For now, the major achievement is that Curtis Mayfield is back, singing about today’s woes — and, just as he did in the past, making even the darkest times sound bright with hope.