Summer of Soul (...or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Soundtrack Review

Once again, existing in spite of it all is an act of rebellion.

featuring performances (in order of appearance) by the Chambers Brothers, BB King, The 5th Dimension, David Ruffin, the Staple Singers, the Operation Bread Basket Orchestra & Choir, featuring Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mongo Santamaria, Ray Barretto, Herbie Mann, Sly and the Family Stone, Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln, and Nina Simone

This is part 2 of a 2-part review of the Summer of Soul film and soundtrack. To read part 1, click here.

Going in: I had no idea about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, or Summer of Soul, until one of my YouTubeviewers intervened. One of them sent the soundtrack to my PO Box. As soon as I Googled the film and saw the “Black Woodstock” tagline attached to it, as a ’60s enthusiast I said “Okay. I HAVE to know more about this!”

So I guess in a sense the “Black Woodstock” name worked? To get this out of the way now: no, I don’t think the Harlem Cultural Festival was the “Black Woodstock.” The Harlem Cultural Festival took place across six weeks, while Woodstock was just four days. One was on a farm, the other in a city park. Woodstock efforts produced something to the tune of 175 hours of footage. They did not put down the cameras until Pete Townsend told them to! The Harlem Cultural Festivalproduced just 40 hours; indicative of its original concept as a series of TV specials. It was a clean and concise effort. The Harlem Cultural Festival was better organized than Woodstock, better staged, it was cleaner, it was safer. The only things Woodstock and the Cultural Festival have in common are Sly and the Family Stone, and the fact that no reported cases of interpersonal violence occurred. At an event in the middle of Harlem, infamous to outsiders for supposedly being this violent place, there were no assaults. No rapes. No murders.

Like the film, the Summer of Soul soundtrack has an angle. Unless it’s straight-up field recordings there’s no such thing as pure documentary, on film or on disc. Woodstock’s soundtrack condenses the experience so a home listener who couldn’t haul out to Yasgur’s farm and can’t rewatch the film endlessly got a taste of the experience. But that soundtrack was an overembellished mess.

Summer of Soul director and producer, Roots bandleader, author, NYU professor, DJ, who-even-knows-what-else Questlove condensed his film experience too. There’s the obligatory live-album crowd crowd noises, Tony Lawrence welcoming us to “the heart of Harlem, Soulsville USA.” But Questlove did something really fucking cool; something that might not have worked had he not produced this album. He weaves every song together like they were performed back-to-back! There’s only a few crowd announcements after Tony, no rain chants. Just 80 minutes of the Summer of Soul. We’re off to the races.

While most of side two admittedly goes over my head (I didn’t grow up in the church,) side one starts off with a bang. After Tony welcomes us to the festival, the Chambers Brothers welcome us to the groove and shake of Harlem with an energetic rendition of Uptown. Only the other day did I learn this song was written by Betty Davis! Les sings of the landmarks, the people, and the food; black-eyed peas, ribs, and collared greens. Since the festival was practically in their backyard, concertgoers could just bring food from home. Musa Jackson called it “the ultimate Black barbecue.” I’m not sure how I haven’t talked about the Chambers Brothers more on Vinyl Monday, but the rhythm section of George Chambers and Brian Keenan is nuts. If you’re at the Harlem Cultural Festival, you’d better deliver a good drum solo. Brian’s is the perfect length;punchy and varied. If I’m not mistaken, “Uptown” is only one of two honest-to-goodness guitar solos on the soundtrack. It reflects this just not being a rock festival!

As I emphasized in part one of this review, one of Summer of Soul’s greatest strengths is how it tells Black history through music. Why I Sing The Blues was the perfect song choice to represent BB King on this compilation. This version is unusually short for BB: his studio recordings of “Why I Sing The Blues” are typically between five and eight minutes long.

"Why I Sing The Blues," as recorded in 1969.

I like how the live-show energy altered his playing. When I think of him, I don’t think of flashy energy. I think slow, methodical mastery; like the song about his gittar named Luucile. BB’s stage presence was incredible. You hear it on the record. With the way he bellows, he makes you believe he’s been around since the 1800s.

“I first got the blues, they brought me over on a ship.” The blues tradition began with the transatlantic slave trade; while slaves spoke many different languages, music was the universal language. After slaves were free, the blues continues; Black folks are continually priced out of good neighborhoods and forced into shoddy housing. “I heard the rats tell the bedbugs to give the roaches some!” In the film, we see Harlem experienced this. The city let their infrastructure fall apart, then dared try to knock down a neighborhood to build a municipal building.

A little more Tony and his “Soulsville USA” bit flows right into the Fifth Dimension’s Harlem debut. It’s kind of amazing to hear these guys at their peak. They were promoting Age of Aquarius at this time. The Age of Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In medley would turn out to be the biggest single of 1969. But until they appeared on an album cover, everyone thought they were a white group! Marilyn McCoo is one of a handful of figures in Summer of Soul that took a decidedly colorblind approach to music, saying, “How can you color a sound?” Vocally, this isn’t the Fifth Dimension’s best day. Marilyn and Florence sound unusually thin on the “Aquarius” high notes. But I can’t really fault them. It was hot as hell on that west-facing stage and they were in long sleeves and polyester bellbottoms! I already touched on the emotional gravity of the Hair Medley in part one of this review. It’s one hell of a moment to have so early in the film – and one hell of a moment to round out the first side of a double album! Songs like Dont Cha Hear Me Callin To Ya and “Aquarius” make me wish the Harlem Cultural Festival backing bands got some more love. Aside from Herbie Mann shouting his sidemen out during Hold On I’m Coming, we don’t know who many of these players are. are rocking a kick-ass flutist.

Kicking off side two is then-freshly-solo Motown heartthrob David Ruffin, crooning his old group’s greatest hit My Girl. I can’t help but wonder how the other Temptations felt about that! Of course, David is every bit the Motown man. He does just enough crowd work to hold the inescapable, dull roar of girls screaming. You can hear how badly all the girls in the audience want to be that girl, and he plays to it. I can’t help but chuckle when he says, “I love you too darling!” to no one in particular. David doesn’t give a fuck about the tempo. This is His Song and the lyrics are gonna go on whatever beats he wants them to! There’s an unbelievable swagger radiating off this guy and his band. Though I appreciate the efforts to modernize “My Girl” for 1969 (saxophones and funky drums were added alongside classic horns,) I do prefer the original. David’s giving “that one tenor in the high school theater class” vibes right now. His use of his “money note” is excessive. But it’s worth noting that, due to some Dolls Pod research, I’m not exactly David’s biggest fan right now.

“My Girl” was probably shooshed out here in the soundtrack’s sequencing for the sake of space on the record. His performance isn’t until after Operation Bread Basket’s in the film. This sequencing dilemmabroke up the two Motown acts represented: David and Gladys Knight and the Pips. Gladys was bumped out to the beginning of disc two with the Afro-Carribean and jazz performers, which is all sorts of weird. Of the Motown acts on this soundtrack – Stevie Wonder is conspicuously missing – I prefer this showing by Gladys. This was two years after I Heard It Through The Grapevine was a hit, but it still feels fresh. I love the interaction between her and the Pips on that, “Three of my guys went through this too!” bit. They don’t just feel like her backup singers. They all feel like a unit.

Returning to side two: sister Mahalia Jackson and Mavis Staples’s Precious Lord, Take My Hand is objectively incredible on film. You feel hundreds of years of history invoked by those two powerhouse women. Out of the gospel selections, the Staple Singers’ It’s Been A Change translates the best to record. The Staple Singers were the “odd ones out” of the Harlem Cultural Festival’s gospel day. They were blues rock guitar with gospel lyrics and soul vocals. It might be this genre ambiguity that resonated with me – again, I didn’t grow up in the church. The Staple Singers might’ve had the best young singer on the bill; Mavis’s tone is warm, rich, and resonant. Vocal blend as sisters was bar-none. Family groups will always have a leg up in this respect. Since the sound of your voice is genetic, family’s voices tend to sound similar. See the Beach Boys, the Carpenters, the Jackson Five, etc.

Considering Santana are one of my favorite groups to perform at Woodstock, the Latin and Afro-Carribean-inspired selections were the section I was most excited about! Mongo Santamaria and Ray Barretto’s inclusions were a shout to Spanish Harlem; all the clubs there and the music that came out of them. Mount Morris State Park was right there! With both Mongo and Ray on the 1969 lineup, I wondered about Tito Puente. Sure enough, he played the Harlem Cultural Festival in ’68! I like to think he recommended his side men for this. Mongo and Ray approach their instruments so differently. That comes from different cultures, of course. Mongo was Cuban. Ray was, as Lin Manuel-Miranda described, “New Yorican.”

The charm of Woodstock is how off-the-cuff and messy everything was. With the Harlem Cultural Festival,everyone was on the money. There is not a string out of tune, not a beat missed. Both Mongo and Ray’s ensembles, however, are a cut above the rest. Excellence above excellence. Simply unbelievable chemistry, which this kind of music requires. Mongo’s rendition of Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man is an instrumental; aside from airy, mic-dodging chants. It saunters through, sweeps you up in the rhythm. Ray sings original composition Together. His lyrics urge people not to let physical differences divide them, as we all want the same thing, and we’ve gotta make it happen before it’s too goddamn late. “This is me, Ray Barretto, I know a beautiful truth,” he says. His secret? Though many labels of “otherness” apply to him – Black, Puerto Rican, red – his “otherness” is what links him to everyone in that crowd and holding the Summer of Soulsoundtrack in their hands. “The blood of mankind flows in me/And so in every face, in every face I see/A part of you, and you, and you, and me, together!” It’s another decidedly colorblind moment in a greater body of work so centered around Blackness.

Ray makes sure to sneak in another jab at the moon landing. God, I love this running joke. The charisma on this man should be studied by scientists: “I’m all messed up, but I got soul!”

Not unlike Santana and “Soul Sacrifice,” within the minute, I’m in it. To get both these immersive experiences back-to-back is incredible.

Rounding out side three is Herbie Mann’s “Hold On I’m Coming.” I can’t get over hearing Herbie’s breath as he tears the shit out of his flute. He sounds like he’s alive and trapped in my disc. I love some vibraphone as well, of course Sonny Sharrock kicks ass on his guitar solo. It’s a crime we don’t hear more of him! I really wish this weren’t the only straight jazz cut on side three of a four-side album. Gimme a whole side of a disc for “Hold On” to feel at home on.

Here we are, one of my favorite groups to play Woodstock. Everyone else is just as excited to hear them as I am. As soon as Tony cries, “Sly!” The crowd just ERUPTS. I feel sorry for whoever played before and after these guys, they blow any and everyone out of the fucking water. The scatting on Sing A Simple Song is bubbly and on-the-fly, contrasting Freddie Stone’s gritty guitar tone. Sly’s vocals are on the money, but he’s clipping his mic all over the place on Everyday People. Cynthia Robertson going back and forth between buzzing trumpet and just cranking those vocal parts out on “Simple Song” is astonishing. That woman’s breath control was remarkable. I’m pretty sure the keyboard breaks halfway through the song? This set was a mess, but man is it killer. After three sides of musical perfection, the Family Stone’s sloppiness doesn’t feel unprofessional or shoddy. Quite the opposite. It feels like pure expression; an absolute release of energy that’s been building up and up until it blows. This is followed up with Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln’s showstopping version of John Coltrane’s Africa. With the past few acts, Black history’s been taken to the modern day. Abbey tells the tale of the African diaspora. The narrator never feels at home anywhere, longing to return to the land of their ancestors. Her performance slowly builds, from restrained phrasing to passionate screams.

Finally, the First Lady of Soul: Nina Simone. Had Aretha Franklin not dropped out at the last minute, the penultimate moment of Summer of Soul might have gone to her. I’m glad it went to Nina instead. She’s a little artsier, a little “edgier.” Unapologetically Black.

Both Langston Hughes’s Backlash Blues and David Nelson’s Are You Ready act as foil to BB King’s “Why I Sing The Blues.” The latter, a historical approach, the former modern. All are a defiant stance against institutionalized racism. “Backlash” plainly states the methods employers, landlords, and the government use to keep Black people in communities like Harlem. “You raise my taxes, freeze my wages, send my only son to Vietnam/You give me second-class schools…” Nevertheless, Nina rises above and coolly dishes it right back. “Sock it to em where they live so they have no place to hide.” I love how precise and pointed she is on the line, “Nina, keep on workin til they open up the door.” A long, weaving, “Ninaaaaa,” the burst above on “Keep on workin!” And almost-staccato “Til they open up the door” creates shapes within a line. She weaves her voice through her piano; banging on the keys at those stop-times, commanding us to listen.

Looking at the social media response to Summer of Soul, I’m shocked more people weren’t up in arms over “Are You Ready.” That is an incendiary poem with a strong message, right to the core of Blackness in 1969. It’s the very opposite end of the colorblind spectrum; the other end of the seesaw occupied by the Fifth Dimension, Ray Barretto, and Sly Stone. Nina says if the system doesn’t serve you, burn it down. “Create out of nothing.” She urges self-love as defiant and revolutionary. Gosh, even the way she speaks is melodic.Notably missing from this soundtrack is her performance of “To Be Young Gifted and Black.” Given how pivotal a moment this is in the film, for the life of me, I cannot think of why it would be excluded. And why the hell isn’t Stevie Wonder here? This soundtrack was a victim of the edit. Summer of Soul could have very easily warranted a triple album. Gimme some more Ray Barretto, some more Mongo to fill a whole side. Some Hugh Masakela. More Herbie Mann. Subsequent Woodstock soundtracks feature Ravi Shankar, why can’t I hear a selection or two by the traditional African musicians at the Harlem Cultural Festival? This is the eternal dilemma of the soundtrack album. Where does it end? It’s been four years since the film’s release, it’s looking even less likely since Sly Lives’s release last weekend, but I still hold out a sliver of hope for a deluxe edition of this soundtrack. Still, given the 40 hours of material Questlove had to work with, I’d say he did a fine job. If you want a condensed version of the Summer of Soul story to take home with you, lovingly put on your turntable, set aside 80 minutes a day to experience and admire, you can’t ask for much more than this.

In order to properly round out this review, I’m going to circle back to the film this album came from. A pretty major moment I conveniently left out.

In interview with the National Museum of American History, Questlove said: “...at the end of the day, it’s about crafting a really good, compelling story that touches all people, not just music buffs or history buffs, but it...gets to the human experience of it all.” No appearance better tapped into the human experience than the last couple minutes of Summer of Soul with Musa Jackson. With tears in his eyes, he rocks back in his chair and says, “I’m not crazy!” After over fifty years, this man’s lived experience was finally validated. Hedidn’t just see history on that screen, he didn’t just relive a memory. He got a piece of his life back.

Summer of Soul isn’t just a story of erasure; though that’s no doubt a reason why its story went untold for so long. It’s a cross-section of Black history as it stood in 1969, one of the most important years in American history. And it’s told in humanity’s universal language: song. Beautiful song, from immensely talented players and performers from all realms of Black music. It’s a story of bright colors. Culture. Real people who just so happened to pass through this cloud of Afrosheen, witnessing history on some random summer Sunday afternoon. While Woodstock was peace, love, and music, “Black Woodstock” was defiance, resilience, love,and joy. With this film and soundtrack, Questlove shows us it deserves to be preserved in not just American history, but human history, just like the Woodstock dream was.

The story of the 3rd annual Harlem Cultural Festival shows us that whatever good we’re fighting for, it may take some time. Months, years, decades. It may seem like the light at the end of the tunnel is getting farther away from you. It may look like it’s gone out. Like all the odds are stacked against you, the powers that be conspire against you and your joy. The voices of Summer of Soul promise us that if we hold onto the dream, in time we can clear even the highest of hurdles. Once again, existing in spite of it all is an act of rebellion.

Personal favorites: BB King – “Why I Sing The Blues,” The 5th Dimension – “Age of Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In,” Ray Barretto – “Together,” Sly and the Family Stone – “Sing A Simple Song,” Max Roach and Abbey Lincoln – “Africa,” Nina Simone – “Backlash Blues”

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