Digging deep
Chris Robinson
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Digging: The Afro-American Soul of American Classical Music, by Amiri Baraka (University of California Press), 436 pp.
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One of the last Beat writers, Amiri Baraka's Digging is a heavyweight
I keep gulping as I read through passages of Amiri Baraka's collection of music essays. First, the guy can write. One of the last of the Beat writers, Baraka's writing fuses the personal and poetic with slang and smarts to create impassioned, ball-busting passages that are guaranteed to make you weep, swear and gulp. I gulp 'cause, well, Baraka holds nothing back. Throughout Digging, bitter, raging and racist passages litter the pages. Now, I sort of get where Baraka is coming from. He's a civil rights-era activist and has experienced racism firsthand, but what he can't seem to grasp is that there have been major steps taken towards increasing understanding between blacks and whites.
In Black Music as a force for Social Change, Baraka writes:
"Black music is 'covered' (songs redone, the original artists substituted for by white performers).
To keep the music lovers segregated and the people generally, to maintain the status quo.
To oppose the glorification and valorization of Black life.
To keep the economic cycle of distribution that would permit social equity exclusive and segregated, thereby keeping Afro-American people at the bottom of society and superexploited."
Baraka's rants become tiresome and repetitive. At least four to five times he bemoans the fact that Paul Whiteman was deemed the "King of Jazz", Benny Goodman the "King of Swing", Elvis (the King) and the Rolling Stones "The greatest rock and roll band in the world." Baraka feels that they all stole their
music from black artists and acquired celebrity status by presenting watered-down "covers" of black music and sanitizing it for a white audience. Baraka can't understand why Barbra Streisand is more popular than Aretha Franklin or that Linda Ronstadt gets more work than Nina Simone. While I agree with Baraka's taste here, he seems to completely miss the boat that the music business is driven by currency, not colour. Money drives the minds of executives. Most of whom couldn't give a shit if the performer is actually any good.
Baraka's arguments were certainly once valid, but today they read like the outdated rants of someone unable and unwilling to see a world that has made major steps towards racial understanding.
Digging is still a worthy read. When Baraka puts down his race card, he writes scintillatingly passionate texts about musicians and music theory. His knowledge of music history is astonishing, as is his unique insight into the music. Equal parts poignant, stupid, sharp, bitchy, idealistic and damn spot-on, Digging is bound to get you talking.
