2003 OCTOBER 2 #275
Sounding something like a combination of Malcolm X and a newsreader, Jim Ingram is most certainly NOT the singer James Ingram. I first heard this single on the late, lamented website, Raremusic (for people who like their music rare) run by Steve Alberts and Dan Cook. I was quite pleased to find this at a record show, on it's original Detroit label "Drumbeat", which was the title of the (only?) album by Ingram.
Work like this stands side by side with other proto-rap material such as the Last Poets and while I have no issues with the sentiments of self-worth and pride, both Ingram and the Last Poets, when speaking of women, seem to let their hormones get in the way. Ingram makes quite clear his pride and love of Black women and then goes on to mention butts, slightly before he gets around to beauty. It should be stressed that the flipside, "America the Bootyful" is about money and greed. He also stresses that a woman is nothing without a man, which is one of the issue that many women had regarding the various revolutions of the 60s.
The pseudo-sermon continues, with the occasional shout from the (all-male) congregation, with it's odd metaphors and references. So I say to all you, to your face or to your knees, what rhymes with "spectrum"?
- Brian Phillips
TT-4:00 / 3.7MB / 128kbps 44.1khz
45rpm single, Drumbeat Records (1974)
(Image courtesy of Brian Phillips)
Tom writes:
Jim Ingram was, indeed, a newsman on WJLB, Detroit's
legendary soul/blues/r&b station. The "Perks
Music" on the 45 label is a publishing company managed
by JLB's then morning deejay, the late Al Perkins.
