The song I’m starting off with in this episode is Sinnerman. I had this song on my A Sample, A Cover playlist well before the FedUp Risings began in the US in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. It’s a fitting song for the times and speaks to the idea that black people are inherently dangerous and deserving of severe punishment. That being born black is a sin punishable by death.
LINKS:
A Sample, A Cover playlist
Facebook
Email: spacetimemusicpodcast@gmail.com
The SpaceTimeMusic theme music is a sample of the Ana-Tole x Jonah Christian Remix of Ready or Not by the Fugees.
SONG CREDITS:
Sinner Man (traditional spiritual)
Revelations
Adapted and arranged by Howard A. Roberts for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Vocals by Leon Bibb
1969
Dancing Revelations: Alvin Ailey's Embodiment of African American Culture
Sinnerman
Pastel Blues
Nina Simone
1965
Sinnerman- Felix da Housecat’s Heavenly House Mix
Verve Remixed 2
2003
Get By
Quality
Talib Kweli
Produced by Kanye West
2003
Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Abd Al Malik
2006
LYRICS:
Sinnerman (Traditional)
Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to?
Sinnerman where you gonna run to?
Where you gonna run to?
All on that day
We got to run to the rock
Please hide me, I run to the rock
Please hide me, run to the rock
Please hide here
All on that day
But the rock cried out
I can't hide you, the rock cried out
I can't hide you, the rock cried out
I ain't gonna hide you there
All on that day
I said rock
What's the matter with you rock?
Don't you see I need you, rock?
Good Lord, Lord
All on that day
So I run to the river
It was bleedin', I run to the sea
It was bleedin', I run to the sea
It was bleedin', all on that day
So I run to the river
It was boilin', I run to the sea
It was boilin', I run to the sea
It was boilin', all on that day
So I run to the Lord
Please hide me, Lord
Don't you see me prayin'?
Don't you see me down here prayin'?
But the Lord said
Go to the Devil, the Lord said
Go to the Devil
He said go to the Devil
All on that day
So I ran to the Devil
He was waitin', I ran to the Devil
He was waitin', ran to the Devil
He was waitin', all on that day
Get By (Nina, Talib, Kanye)
Yeah...my Lord...yeah
We sell, crack to our own out the back of our homes
We smell the musk at the dusk in the crack of the dawn
We go through "Epidodes II, " like "Attack of the Clones"
Work 'til we break our back and you hear the crack of the bone
To get by...just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
We commute to computers
Spirits stay mute while you eagles spread rumors
We survivalists, turned to consumers
To get by...just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
Ask Him why some people got to live in a trailer, cuss like a sailor
I paint a picture with the pen like Norman Mailer
Me and Willa raised three daughters all by herself, with no help
I think about a struggle and I find the strength in myself
These words, melt in my mouth
They hot, like the jail cell in the South
Before my nigga Core bailed me out
To get by.. just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
We do or die like Bed-Stuy through the red sky
with the window of the red eye
Let the lead fly, some G. Rap shit, "Livin' to Let Die"
This morning, I woke up
Feeling brand new and I jumped up
Feeling my highs, and my lows
In my soul, and my goals
Just to stop smokin', and stop drinkin'
And I've been thinkin' - I've got my reasons
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
Just to get (by), just to get (by)
We keeping it gangster say "fo shizzle", "fo sheezy" and "stayincrunk"
It’s easy to pull a breezy, smoke trees, and we stay drunk
Yo, I activism - attackin' the system, the blacks and latins in prison
Numbers of prison they victim black in the vision
Shit and all they got is rappin' to listen to
I let them know we missin' you, the love is unconditional
Even when the condition is critical, when the livin is miserable
Your position is pivotal, I ain't bullshittin' you
Now, why would I lie? Just to get by?
Just to get by, we get fly
The TV got us reachin' for stars
Not the ones between Venus and Mars, the ones that be readin' for parts
Some people get breast enhancements and penis enlargers
Saturday sinners Sunday morning at the feet of the Father
They need somethin' to rely on, we get high on all types of drug
When, all you really need is love
To get by...just to get by
Just to get by, just to get by
Our parents sing like John Lennon, "Imagine all the people watch"
We rock like Paul McCartney from now until the last Beatles drop
Some people cry, and some people try
Just to get by, for a piece of the pie
You love to eat and get high
We deceive when we lie, and we keepin' it fly
When, the people decide, to keep a disguise
Can't see they eyes, see the evil inside
But there's people you find
Strong or feeble in mind, I stay readin' the signs
Hey y’all, I’m Lyd the Small Black Woman and you’re listening to SpaceTimeMusic, a podcast exploring the roots, shoots and branches of some of my favorite songs through samples and covers.
On today’s episode:
Get By Sinnerman
The song I’m starting off with in this episode is Sinnerman. I had this song on my A Sample, A Cover playlist well before the FedUp Risings began in the US in response to the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. It’s a fitting song for the times and speaks to the idea that black people are inherently dangerous and deserving of severe punishment. That being born black is a sin punishable by death.
Sinnerman is a song from the musical tradition formerly known as Negro spirituals. Spirituals emerged out of the culture of enslaved Africans in the American antebellum south and included many elements of Judeo/Christian ideology. For those interested, you can google the ways in which Christianity and the bible were used as tools of white supremacy including the creation of slave bibles with certain portions of the bible omitted and others highlighted so as to reinforce to enslaved people the myth that the enslavement was the right and just order of the world.
So while you’re looking that up, I’ll carry on talking about Sinnerman. I want to start off by playing a more traditional rendition of it just to give you an idea of the lyrics and feeling of the song before going into the lyrics and context of the other versions which I’ll play a little later on. So here is Sinnerman as performed by folk singer Leon Bibb as part of Alvin Ailey’s dance suite, Revelations.
So that’s the bare bones, fairly traditional version of the song. It’s very old testament, very God the Father, so to speak, in its punitive tone. Sinner man runs to natural elements, to the rock, to the sea, and then to the devil, to hide him “on that day,” that day being judgement day. And the Lord responds with, “Where were you? When you oughta have been prayin'” and then goes on to tell sinner man “You oughta been praying, you oughta been prayin’” which sounds an awful lot like racist apologists of police brutality saying, “Well, they shouldn’t have been breaking the law,” when another black person is attacked or murdered by the police. White supremacy, yet again, using God as a disguise. Jeez, it sneaks in everywhere doesn’t it? Damn.
The version of Sinnerman people may be most familiar with was recorded by Nina Simone. Nina, being the piano virtuoso that she was, created this very dynamic, 10 minute long saga using the full range of her abilities and the abilities of those playing with her to explore Sinner Man’s struggle and torment, leaving everyone breathless by the end of it. I’ll play a bit from closer to the end of the song so you can hear the section that connects to another song I’m going to play.
Nina Simone, Sinnerman
She basically falls into speaking in tongues. A practice that will be familiar with Pentacostal church services. Up until this point in the song, she’s been the narrator of Sinnerman’s story but by speaking in tongues, she seems to be, perhaps, interceding on Sinnerman’s behalf. Any seminary students out there have thoughts on this? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
Back in 2002, Verve, the preeminent jazz record label began producing remix albums of their catalogue of music. I imagine they did this to get the kids interested in jazz. The albums are called Verve Remixed and on Verve Remixed 2, Felix da Housecat, a house music DJ and producer gave us his Heavenly House Mix. I would need someone like Questlove to come in at this point and explain what it is that makes jazz in general and Nina Simone’s arrangement in particular that make them so well suited to be transformed into house remixes because I don’t know what it is. I’m sure it’s something about the way she plays certain refrains, so it sounds like the chugging of a train, the running of feet, the Sinner Man trying to outrun judgement on that day? Maybe?
Here’s the Felix da Housecat remix.
Do you see what I mean? There’s something about classical music, jazz, house, hip-hop and heavy metal that makes them fit together really well. If there are any musicologists out there with knowledge, drop it in the comments on Facebook or iTunes.
Nina Simone’s Sinnerman vocals and piano in Get By is probably one of my favorite samples. For me, it brings Sinnerman full circle. Right off the bat it’s the bass, Nina’s vocals pleading to the Lord and Talib responding, taking up the lyrical and spiritual baton. The traditional Sinner Man, the pre-21st century sinnerman is one dimensional, only seen through the lens of his mistakes and is on the verge of burning in eternal hellfire for it. But Talib’s sinnerman is a reflection of himself and his contemporaries. People who’ve made mistakes but have also been over policed, over imprisoned and forced to do back breaking and sometimes illegal work just to get by. But he also offers a message of hope, love and redemption for the Sinnerman. The Lord in this version is most certainly a God the Son, power to the people, fuck the Pharisees type.
Talib Kweli, Get By
Abd al Malik is a French rapper, his people are from Congo. And he samples Sinnerman in his song Gibraltar from the 2006 album of the same name. The song is in French but from what I’ve pieced together using Google translate, it’s about a young black man struggling to find himself. So it’s in line with the other iterations of Sinnerman we’ve listened to and I love the symmetry of this song being made by a black Frenchman and Nina Simone finding solace in living in France after being chewed up and spit out by the United States. Nina had her mental health struggles but I’m sure being born a black girl in 1933, in North Carolina and wanting to be her free and fully actualized self in the face of rampant white supremacy in the US didn’t help her mental well-being.
As always, the songs mentioned in this podcast are listed in the show notes. Nina Simone has an amazing, amazing catalogue of music that each and everyone of you should check out if you have not already. She speaks truth to power and with deep insight into the human condition. Of course, Talib, Felix and Abd Al Malik are also worth listening to. I know I'm putting Abd Al Malik on my list of artists to investigate further.
A link to my A Sample, A Cover playlist, is also in the show notes and has almost all of the songs I talk about on this podcast. SpaceTimeMusic is on Facebook so check that out for more content, mini-blogs and links to good music and such.
This has been SpaceTimeMusic with Lyd the SBW. Bye y’all.