What Do You Know About the Music You Love?

Years ago, I heard an acapella group I adore, SoVoSo, perform a song I fell in love with called Thank You.

For years, I thought it was theirs. Foolish me! I didn’t know it was a cover until sometime in 2019 or definitely — beginning of 2020 when I began to research, study, and learn about my newly understood LOVE: FUNK. I say newly understood because I’ve been listening to funk, disco and R&B all my life. But I really didn’t know what these genres were, until recently.

In 2019, I was the only singer in an ensemble set to perform a full set of Sly and the Family Stone Songs (Thank You wasn’t one of them). I was so grateful and a bit scared to be with a full band (we had three saxophonists AND a keyboardist). We were almost ready to perform in March 2020 when. Sigh. That’s right, what happened next happened for all of us. Performance never happened save for 1 Sly song that I took up virtually with arts friends into this:

I’d never realized who “Sly,” mentioned by SoVoSo’s Sunshine (Garcia) rap mid-song before the key change was. In original Thank You, Sly also raps in the middle- tying together the titles of several of his band’s other tunes. Sly and his deep impact on music from the late ’60s led up to another important year that’s the focus of a multi-part documentary available on Apple TV called: 1971

1971 has some amazing and eye-opening footage about what was happening in music — -across genres just in that one year — from Sly and the Family Stone (waning by ’71) and Jim Morrison (he was also in decline and died on July 2nd) to the craze about T. Rex (who?? What?!!). It dives into powerhouse songwriter Carole King’s impact, and the authenticity Joni Mitchell bestowed. There are amazing stories and footage of the Rolling Stones, how Bowie came on the scene birthing a new counterculture, and the odd transition in U.S. culture shifted from the Flower Child era of the ’60s to the Sexual Revolution and more of the ’70s. I got much of this from living closely with my Mom’s vinyl collection. Here’s her story about the babysitter and the Beatles album.

The truth is, music history is our history and the sounds we hear together create a collective consciousness. Sit in any restaurant and listen to the music they’re playing. What decades are being sourced? It tells you who they think you are, how old you are — and what you want to hear while you eat. You’ll hear covers. You’ll exchange knowing glances and laughter with your 13-year old. You’ll learn what songs your child knows and doesn’t — usually as a result of some movie, internet or streaming ad, or (help us all!) some unpermitted re-use on the TikTok video where your child’s friends showed it to them. “Mom, I know it because it’s on a TikTok video!”

Tik Tok. The ultimate fate of a band’s music. 😝 AND! I must add: the rhythms and sounds the restaurant managers want you to eat to. We were most recently at the Farmer’s Union in San Jose. What were we eating to? This:

The moment it came on, my daughter and I locked eyes and giggles. Only we knew how much Dad wasn’t into this dinner music.

Just wait a few minutes, the music will always change. Much to my dismay, it never rolled into jazz at the Farmer’s Union. It just rolled around among the decades like a log floating in a river.