If you can't fly, run. If you can't run, walk. If you can't walk, crawl. Any way you can make it baby, you keep on moving it on... - Odetta
The last time I saw Odetta, she shuffled across the floor, gingerly, with a unflappable determination as if an invisible chord was pulling her to a chair waiting at center stage. And then she opened her soul and started to sing with the same booming voice that I'd heard years before in Philadelphia and before that in Boston and before that in London and before that in Madison...it's a voice that comes deep from the belly of mother earth. That chord could well be an umbilical chord reaching back to something primal.
Odetta made harmony of discord. She marched with Martin Luther King in Selma. She performed for Kennedy in 1963 at the peak of her career. She didn't mind that people called her a folksinger, but she was so much more than that. She was the reason Bob Dylan sold his electric guitar and picked up an acoustic. She was a music historian who transcended musical form. She moved me.
Odetta wore a crystal at her third eye and had skin the color of chocolate that stretched, unwrinkled, across high cheekbones. She carried herself like royalty, poised and confident. She would sing and tell stories with an intensity only matched by her audience. Where ever I sat in the concert hall, I always had the feeling that I was sitting at the knee of a someone old and wise enough to speak the truth without fear.
Odetta died yesterday at 77 years of age. She'd been hoping to sing at Obama's inauguration. She will be singing in me forever.
If you can't walk, crawl. If you can't crawl, sing (my addition)...Anyway you can make it baby, you keep on moving it on.
Link to Odetta singing House of the Rising Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aaya8jYZBO8&feature=related
2 comments:
Hmmm...gotta admit I have only 1 1/2 Odetta songs in my vast music collection, on a Woody Guthrie tribute CD....Then, I know a dog whose people probably have some of her CD's, so I'll have to rip 'em next time we're hanging out....
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
Back to the Garden whence we came
Back to the spring of your sweet refrain
"All the way to freedom land...
All the way to freedom land"
Across the skies and back through time
Back to the cradle of humankind
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
She was a force of nature, second to none
Earth, wind and fire rolled into one
Rolling thunder across the sky
Sweet Black Angel from on high
Mighty river crisscrossin' our land
Inviting everyone to stand hand-in-hand
To gather 'round and sing a song
Of hope and redemption--it won¹t be long
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
You can trace her song to the heart of the South
One New Year¹s Eve and the cry from a mouth
Of a big baby girl, strong and sweet
To a tear of joy on a Mama¹s cheek
What¹s in a name? Father Time do tell
So her folks made sure to choose a name well
The name Odetta, once akin to melody,
Foretold a future--a destiny
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
Odetta, she could sing before she could talk
Odetta, she could dance before she could walk
The gift of music flows through her veins
And bursts at the seams like a runaway train
Classically trained right from the start
Along came the music that stole her heart
Music of the people, music of the land
Pure and simple--noble and grand
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
Straight from the "Bam" she moved out to L.A.
Then it was on to the 'Frisco Bay
She joined a theater, and started to sing
Then picked up a guitar and let it ring
Her Fate was sealed when she was still young
A folk musician she would become
To souls of the past she¹d lend her voice
May their spirits arise--and may they rejoice
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
With an Afro like a halo, she could be seen
All decked out like an African Queen
And just about the time she was being discovered
The glory of her people was recovered
People flocked in to catch the new sound
As it traveled by train from town to town
Guided by a spirit that beamed a light
Black Is Beautiful--Right Is Might
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
Arriving in the Village, she was given the keys
And greeted with bows on bended knees
Within weeks she was proclaimed
The Queen of Folk, and to this day she remains
The Mother Hen of folk musicians
The guardian angel of a sacred tradition
Casting her spell both day and night
Bridging the gap between black and white
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
One fine hour back in '63
Odetta sang her famous Freedom Trilogy
By her side stood Martin Luther King
His "I Have A Dream" speech about to take wing
And to the whole world she sang with pride
Of freedom sought and freedom denied
As centuries of trials, troubles and tribulations
Gave rise to the dream of a... United Nation!
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
Oh Odetta, sing for me
Take me across that deep blue sea
Back to the Garden whence we came
Back to the spring of your sweet refrain
"All the way to freedom land...
All the way to freedom land"
Across the skies and back through time
Back to the cradle of Humankind
...Humankind
...Humankind
And before I'll be a slave
I'll be buried in my grave
••••••
Ode To Odetta
Words and music by Stephen Alcorn ©2008
Should you wish to listen to a homespun demo, you may do so via the following links/pages of my website:
LYRICS:
http://www.alcorngallery.com/adesso//media/OdeToOdetta_lyrics.php
MP3 AUDIO DEMO:
http://www.alcorngallery.com/adesso//media/Ode-To-Odetta.mp3
ADESSO page:
http://www.alcorngallery.com/adesso//adesso_mp3_samples.php
And on a purely visual note:
MODERN MUSIC MASTERS cycle of portraits:
http://www.alcorngallery.com/rbp/relief-block-prints.php
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