Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 260 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
On the third Sunday in June, we celebrate Father’s Day, and as we pointed out for Mother’s Day back in May, good “fathering” doesn’t always come from a biological dad. It includes loving uncles, step-dads, grandads, godfathers, and mentors.
I often think of the days when I danced with my dad, which always evokes sadness because I miss him, and joy for having had him in my life. I play the title song from Luther Vandross’ last album, “Dance With My Father,” on those days.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture, has his biography:
Born in New York City to Luther Vandross Sr. and his wife Mary Ida, Luther Ronzoni Vandross grew up surrounded by the city’s rich culture. Raised in Harlem and later the Bronx by parents with backgrounds as vocalists with gospel and big band ensembles, Vandross developed a strong ear at a young age. He learned to play piano by ear by following along with records and honed his vocal stylings by listening to various vocalists. As a high school student, he organized vocal harmony groups, which became a significant training ground where Vandross developed his velvety-textured tenor voice. Over his teenage years, Vandross developed his balladeer showmanship by watching top-tier performers on stage at the Apollo Theater and performing on the venue’s stage himself during Amateur nights. He briefly attended Western Michigan University before transitioning into a full-time music career that saw him quietly take over mainstream American music and culture, infusing it with his elegant “camp” aesthetic.
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His body of work, specifically his love songs, was integral to the American soundscape of the late twentieth century. His songs were definitive examples of Quiet Storm music’s smooth, jazz-influenced romantic ballads that dominated late-night urban radio programs. Throughout his career, he kept a busy schedule releasing music and touring. His last studio album, Dance with My Father, released in 2003, featured Vandross’s powerful musical homage to his father. The autobiographical title track song commemorates Vandross’s happy childhood memories of dancing at home with his mother and father in a way that resonated with audiences. The song earned Vandross several awards, including a Grammy Award for Song of the Year. This final musical chapter in the fifty-two-year-old’s career featured him working alongside jazz musicians like Nat Adderley, Jr. and young rising music icons including Beyoncé Knowles.
Speaking of Beyoncé, she created a major stir when she performed “Daddy’s Lessons” with the Dixie Chicks at the 2016 Country Music Awards:
Beyoncé And The Dixie Chicks Completely Shut Down The CMAs and Fans Lost Their Minds
As rumored, Beyoncé took the stage at the 50th Annual Country Music Awards, but the queen wasn’t alone. For her Lemonade country hit “Daddy Lessons,” she enlisted the help of country group sensation The Dixie Chicks.While it was confirmed that Beyoncé would perform on country’s biggest night, no one was sure when the iconic singer would actually appear on stage and which song she would sing. “Daddy Lessons” was the obvious choice, but you can never be too sure with Bey.
Rumors also hinted that the singer would take the stage with the Dixie Chicks, who’d covered “Daddy Lessons” earlier this year. Just as all of Black Twitter was about to give up on the show, Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks took the stage and fans went into full chaos mode. Undoubtedly, it was a stellar performance that will go down as one of 2016’s biggest moment. Well done, Beyoncé and the Dixie Chicks, you all truly slayed
Here’s the CMA performance:
Beyoncé initially recorded “Daddy Lessons” on her epic award-winning “Lemonade” album and film, released in 2016.
Professor Francesca T. Royster, author of “Black Country Music: Listening for Revolutions” (University of Texas Press, 2022), takes a deep dive into the video track in “How to Be an Outlaw: Beyoncé’s Daddy Lessons”:
The daddy in “Daddy Lessons” teaches his daughter to fight. In encouraging her to “be tough,” learning how to shoot his rifle, riding motorcycles duded up in classic vinyl and leather, the father encourages his daughter to both defend herself and to take care of her mother and sister—that is, to take the place as the head of the family, a place usually reserved for sons.
When Beyoncé’s and the Chicks’ voices meld in harmony with those lines about the father, gun and head held high, there is glory and dignity in this image, and I picture someone who might be immortalized on a statue in a small-town square or, well, in a country music song. Except, of course, this is a Black daddy. And armed Black men are not usually the subjects of patriotic statues or most country songs. We are reminded of this daddy’s Blackness both sonically and visually in the Lemonade visual album. At the opening of the visual, as the rhythms bring us into the song, we hear a chorus of male hoots and snaps and yeahs and gruff “go go gos!”—sort of a downhome version of the Black male voices on Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On.” (In the version of “Daddy Lessons” performed with the Dixie Chicks, the background “yeehaws” have a different resonance, with a heightened female vocal presence.) As the trumpet solo begins, we watch a circle of young Black men, hanging out together, dancing, joking, and laughing in front of a corner store. We see a closeup shot of a young Black girl on a stoop, watching, thinking, and listening. The video then cuts to Beyoncé in a puffy-sleeved country-style dress cut in West African fabric. She sings and dances next to a seated Black man in a cowboy hat, a snappily dressed elder playing a red electric guitar. This sonic and visual fabric of male support bolsters Beyoncé’s storytelling and figures Black men as collaborators as well as listeners.
Beyoncé’s song recollects “Daddy” with affectionate nostalgia but also a questioning eye, one that acknowledges his human failings, his whiskey in his tea. When she sings:
Daddy made me fight
It wasn’t always right
But he said, “Girl, it’s your Second Amendment”In that “but” is the sense of struggle, of weighing two different versions of morality, one supported by Daddy and the Constitution, the other, her own.
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Fatherhood has long been a sore point in the Black community, where the history of rape and the breeding and selling of slaves made family structures difficult to sustain. But we have also always had other versions of family in the Black community, models that have been devalued and criminalized by white culture, or that just go under the radar: daddys who don’t live with their “baby mamas” but who are deeply involved in their children’s lives; daddys and mamas who live together but aren’t married; women-led households, multigenerational households, queer families. Maybe all of these could be considered queer, especially in the eyes of the law.
Here’s the full visual video which Royster analyzes:
Beyoncé also recorded a song simply titled “Daddy” on her debut studio album, 2003’s “Dangerously in Love.”
I remember when you used to take me on a bike ride everyday on the bayou
(You remember that? We were inseparable)
And I remember when you could do no wrong
You’d come home from work and I jumped in your arms when I saw you
I was so happy to see you (I was so excited, so happy to see you)
Because you loved me, I overcome, yeah
And I’m so proud of what you’ve become
You’ve given me such security
No matter what mistakes I know you’re there for me
You cure my disappointments and you heal my pain
You understood my fears and you protected me
Treasure every irreplaceable memory and that’s why
I want my unborn son to be like my daddy
I want my husband to be like my daddy
There is no one else like my daddy
And I thank you for loving me
Daddy, daddy, daddy
“Beyoncé – Daddy”
In 1980, Grover Washington Jr. recorded a romance song written by Bill Withers, William Salter, and Ralph MacDonald called “Just the Two of Us,” which also featured Withers on vocals. It inspired actor and rapper Will Smith to shift the romance to love between a father and son.
From the first time the doctor placed you in my arms
I knew I’d meet death before I’d let you meet harm
Although questions arose in my mind, would I be man enough?
Against wrong, choose right and be standin up
From the hospital that first night Took a hour just ta get the carseat in right
People drivin all fast, got me kinda upset
Got you home safe, placed you in your basinette
That night I don’t think one wink I slept
As I slipped out my bed, to your crib I crept
Touched your head gently, felt my heart melt
Cause I know I loved you more than life itself
Then to my knees, and I begged the Lord please
Let me be a good daddy, all he needs
Love, knowledge, discipline too
I pledge my life to you
In 2020, Panama Jackson wrote for The Root an article titled “30 Days of Iconic Music Video Blackness With VSB, Day 21: Will Smith, ‘Just the Two of Us’”:
Having spent considerable time searching for both songs and videos displaying positivity in the name of fathers, I gained a newfound appreciation for this song’s existence. The message is important. There’s been this longstanding myth that black men are allergic to fatherhood. And I realize that everybody doesn’t have a great relationship with their father; some have no relationship at all. My own family isn’t immune from this. I was fortunate enough to grow up with my father who managed to be a role model for me, and I’m also surrounded by a slew of friends who are active present and happy fathers so Father’s Day, for me is usually celebratory.
Will’s video features his son and shows pictures and scenes of other men, with the majority being black men, being fathers with their kids and I can appreciate that. So on this Father’s Day, Will’s video that demonstrates a version of black life where the fathers are present and accounted for, with purpose and intention, is the pick. That’s what fatherhood looks like for me and is what I want my kids to see and what I will show them as long as God allows. I’m not sure Will knew in 1998 that by 2020 he’d still have one of the few music videos celebrating fathers and fatherhood, but here we are. And that makes it iconic.
As a side note, in 2001, Smith and award-winning author, artist, and illustrator Kadir Nelson published a children’s book, “Just the Two of Us.”
Here’s an audio version:
Last, but not least, is a tribute to a stepfather, “Color Him Father,” which was released by The Winstons in 1969. They were an interracial R&B band from Washington, D.C.:
The song became one of the biggest R&B hits of the 1960’s, selling a million copies and reaching number 1 on the R&B chart and number 7 on the national charts in 1969.
It also went gold, an achievement awarded by the Recording Industry Association of America on the 24th July 1969.
“Color Him Father”:
Group member Richard Spencer’s death in 2020 was reported by WFAE, a public radio station based in North Carolina:
NC Musician Richard Spencer, Known For The Winstons And Much-Sampled ‘Amen Break,’ Dies At 78
A native of Wadesboro, Spencer played tenor saxophone with Otis Redding and Curtis Mayfield. But it was with the funk and soul band The Winstons that landed him on the charts with the song “Color Him Father.”
Spencer wrote and sang that song, and he won a Grammy for it in 1969 for R&B Song Of The Year.
On the backside of the “Color Him Father” record was the song “Amen Brother,” which has a heavily sampled drumbeat known as the “Amen Break.” Although used widely in hip-hop, The Winstons were never paid for the sample.
“I had nothing after the record. I had a high school education and a Grammy, which had no value,” Spencer told WFAE back in 2017.
The Winstons was made up of both Black and white musicians, and Spencer’s brother Rodney said record promoters wouldn’t put their picture on any promotional items.
“They would not promote his record showing an integrated group – Black and white,” he said.
There are lots more songs to play today, many of which I’ve posted here in the past. Hope you’ll join me in the comments section below for more, and please post your favorites!