"Optimistic" by The Sounds of Blackness: The New Black National Anthem?

Episode Transcript

*DISCLAIMER: Transcripts are created using AI, and may not accurately represent the content exactly as presented. Transcripts are provided as a courtesy to our listeners who require them.

[00:00:00] How To Support Queue Points
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[00:00:50] Sponsored Ad: What's Poppin' Penny? Juneteenth Special
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[00:02:08] Intro Theme (Music by Danya Vodovoz)
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[00:02:39] Welcome to Queue Points Podcast
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DJ Sir Daniel: Greetings and welcome to another episode of Queue Points podcast. I am DJ Sir Daniel.

Jay Ray: And my name is Jay Ray, sometimes known by my government as Johnnie Ray Kornegay III. What's happening y'all?

DJ Sir Daniel: Queue Points podcast is the dope podcast dropping the needle on black music history and this episode, just like the ones before are like no other. So strapping and. Get ready for this, this episode, Jerry, I'm super excited about, and literally I need this episode today of all days. I really need this episode.

And I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to need it as well because you're prepared to be uplifted by what you're about to hear. But before we get into all that Jerry, let's take care of some business and tell the good people about how they can support Queue Points.

Jay Ray: Listen, thank you all so much for joining us. If you are joining us live, wherever you are, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, definitely let us know in the chat where you're tuning in from. We're excited to have all of you here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And to that point, you are doing the most important thing.

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[00:04:31] Shoutout to Podcast Cousins
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Jay Ray: And speaking of gear, Sir Daniel, we are wearing shirts from our podcast cousins.

DJ Sir Daniel: Listen, we twinning on this episode. We are twinning. Thanks to the, they reminisce over you podcast, our Canadian cousins. Thank you so much for the gear. We got it. We threw it on immediately. Uh, it was like, I got picked up the mail and was like, Oh, This is what I'm wearing on the show, um, for this episode.

So that took care of that. Thank you so much to our friends. Um, the, the crew over at, they reminisce over you. You've heard them on our, our show. You heard them advertise on this show. So if you haven't checked them out yet, I don't know what's up with you.

Jay Ray: for? Go over there and do it. And if you want this shirt and more, visit their store. Their store is T E E T H A N G. So that's tthang. com. Their store is called nothing but a tthang and it's that they reminisce over you. T shirt store, merch store. So they have a whole bunch of stuff over there.

Y'all should go shopping and make sure that y'all subscribe to their podcast, please. And let them know Queue Points sent you.

DJ Sir Daniel: I know that's right. Um, so. 

[00:05:43] Introduction to the Episode Topic
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DJ Sir Daniel: As I was saying, this episode is going to have you feeling uplifted. I'm hoping that your mood has shifted by the time you get to the end of this episode, Jerry, because we are talking about a song that came out in 1991 that has had us, I don't want to use the term choke hold because choke hold sounds negative.

This song has cradled us.

Jay Ray: Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: This song has cradled us for the past 34, 33 years, right? That's math. Did I do it

Jay Ray: You did it. You did it right. Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: none other than the classic sounds of blackness, tune. Optimistic Jerry. It's 33 years old. It's still holds up to this day.

Jay Ray: Oh yeah.

[00:06:40] History of Sounds of Blackness
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DJ Sir Daniel: just, let's just talk about getting to the history of the sounds of blackness a whole period about that, that movement and them as a unit.

Let's talk about them first.

Jay Ray: Yeah. So, um, the sounds of blackness, um, were actually founded. Uh, so in, uh, St. Paul, Minnesota. So, you know, Twin Cities, St. Paul, Minneapolis. Um, it was founded, uh, the group was founded in 1969 by a man by the name of Russell Knighton. And he founded it at the Malachest, the Mal, the Macalester College. I cannot say that word.

I've been struggling with that all day, getting ready for this show. So, uh, at Macalester College, Um, Russell Knight and founded this group and they were called the Macalester College Black Voices. Now what was, what's interesting about that is by 1971. Gary Hines took over as the leadership of the Sounds of Blackness.

He is still the director of it. We all know Gary Hines cause you've seen him in all the videos, right? But he took over and the group was renamed the Sounds of Blackness. So Sir Daniel, I know that we're going to talk about, you know, Optimistic, which was of course included on their, the Evolution of Gospel album, which is called Their debut album, but that's not true.

So the sounds of blackness actually recorded some indie albums in the 1970s. And, and we know this recording indie in the 1970s was just not an easy thing to do. But.

Brother Hines, uh, along with other folks had written songs. Uh, there's some of them are available on YouTube. We'll include a link in the description for the, for those of you to go back. But Gary Hines was really visionary in the focus of the group as the sounds of a blackness, not any other, um, way to say it.

He was very clear about what it would be. And in fact, I have a quote, there's a LA times article for when the album, the evolution of gospel actually came out. And, um, there's a quote from him that says. They had been offered deals, but labels wanted them to change their name to, uh, this is from, uh, uh, uh, Jimmy Jam.

Uh, they had been offered deals, but labels wanted them to change their name to the sounds of the music or the sounds of, right, the sounds of music. Ha ha ha!

DJ Sir Daniel: terrible,

Jay Ray: That is awful. Um, and or the sounds of harmony. Anything but the sounds of blackness. Right?

DJ Sir Daniel: I wonder why.

Jay Ray: Wonder why. So the sounds of blackness were performing around, uh, Minneapolis at the time.

So here's how the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis connection happened. Because we've talked about on this show, black music, it crosses over, right? All the genres like blend into each other. So the sounds of blackness were performing around Minneapolis and on occasion, flight time. Which ultimately became The Time, was one of the groups that would be their backing band.

So, they were performing around Minneapolis and it says back in the early 80s when The Time, later famous, later a famous funk group in Princess Stable, was called Flight Time and they worked local engagements with The Sounds of Blackness. So, when Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis started Perspective, The sounds of blackness became the first, the first artists out on the label, which is crazy when you think about it, because I don't know that there would have been any indication in 1991 that a gospel act.

Should be like the first thing you spend your time on, right? Cause it was such a niche sort of thing. Now this opened the doors for other things to happen. And we can certainly talk about that, but. Ultimately, The Sounds of Blackness became the first artist out the gate, followed very soon by Mint Condition, but the first artist out the, out the gate for Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis's Perspective Records.

And we ended up with the single Optimistic, which ultimately led into the album, The Evolution of Gospel. Mm

DJ Sir Daniel: you know what? 

[00:11:36] The Impact of 'Optimistic'
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DJ Sir Daniel: When I think back to 1991, I'm not surprised at the impact of the song optimistic, um, the country as a whole. And then when you delve deeper into the black community, we've been through some things, right? We were witnessing a lot of stuff. We witnessed You know, um, Rodney King being beaten on television and well, not necessarily real time, but we witnessed him being beaten on television.

We witnessed the verdict. We, you know, we witnessed LA on fire. I mean, countless things that kind of led up to this continued feeling of disenfranchised, of being disenfranchised in this country. You know, it comes up every so often. in cycles. We're feeling it again today. And a song like Optimistic was truly a godsend.

And that's why I just feel like some certain things are ordained. Certain things are ordained and Optimistic was ordained from the first note, just from the, from the, uh, that whisper that you hear in the beginning of the song, keep on, you know, keep on.

Jay Ray: hmm. Mm

DJ Sir Daniel: At the very beginning,

Jay Ray: Yeah.

It just, it automatically, it's like a signal to us

Yes.

DJ Sir Daniel: as a community that they see that we see each other, they saw us, and so we started to feel heard.

And that I believe is why I feel. Well, I'll get that, we'll get to that later. But I'm not surprised that the impact that this song had straight out the gate. Mm-Hmm.

Jay Ray: Yeah. And I want to, I want to pick up there because that, I think what's also interesting is if we think about the rollout for Optimistic, the video itself was very interesting because it was a long form video. Um, the way that, uh, optimistic and the pressure were both, uh, introduced was using their intros.

So the intro that exists on the album, which is called chains, um, intro this, and it's the, um, and you saw these black folks in chains, this choir singing this song, right? And so you get that as you like get into the song and I'm gonna speak for me personally. I grew up with gospel all around me. My grandfather was a minister.

My mom enjoyed gospel music. So whenever it was funny, whenever I would get into my grandfather's car, I would probably hear like Shirley Caesar or James Cleveland on the cassette. He had a cassette player in his Lincoln town car and we hit

DJ Sir Daniel: a smooth ride

Jay Ray: It was a smooth ride. That car was big. That car was about as long as this house.

Okay. And he would put in and he would be humming along to his whatever he was listening to. And so I, in my young kid mind saw gospel music as that, right? Even when I would spend time in church, I would be moved by the music in church, but it wasn't like something I listened, I listened to. So I was never a gospel kid.

I didn't have that perspective. However, I could not escape The beauty of optimistic when I first heard it because I think it was the first time that I remember liking a gospel song for me Yeah,

[00:15:24] Gospel Music Evolution
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DJ Sir Daniel: this whole, first of all, you had a lot of the gospel musicians. Um. Changing up their sound like Teddy Riley work with the whinings. So you had gospel musicians tapping into the new Jack swing, John P. Key tapped into new Jack swing swing. And then like the men of commission, they had a young look.

They were fresh and fly. They had the high top fades. So young people were starting to see these changing images of gospel music. And the music started, had like a real, a true R and B flavor to it, which I'm sure a lot of them, it was jamming. And I'm sure a lot of them got some flack for it because it wasn't traditional anymore.

But do you remember like BB and CC had, um, Uh, uh,

Jay Ray: you there

DJ Sir Daniel: to

Jay Ray: addicted love addicted love came out

DJ Sir Daniel: people thought was that that was a love song,

Jay Ray: Addicted Love by B. B. and C. C. So they're in the same camp, right? So, when the floodgates opened with Optimistic, you went right where I, where I went next was B. B. and C. C. 's album came out. Addictive Love was on that album. That was the most You want to talk about a singing song you say it's taking my show me Right

DJ Sir Daniel: And I mean, but, but we say all that to say gospel music was, was shifting, definitely has shifted and was catching up to the, to the young people. And so, like you said, the album. Literally was an evolution of gospel.

It's a, it had to, like you said, um, we were talking off air. It was half traditional, but then you got into optimistic and then you got into some, some gospel house. They started the gospel house revolute. Well, not started, but got involved with the gospel house

Jay Ray: yeah

DJ Sir Daniel: And right then they, The sounds of blackness truly cemented themselves as a different kind of movement and optimistic.

I remember hearing optimistic on morning shows, morning drive shows everywhere, you know, here in Atlanta. And, you know, this is the Bible belt. They love a good gospel song. Um, optimistic was sung at, I don't know how many graduations, you know, and then, you know, you're, you have impact and you're part of the culture when the name of your group.

and the name of the song is a punchline. I'm trying to think the one punchline that comes to mind is for me is Bahamadea. I'm optimistic like the sounds of blackness avoids wackness and wet spots on the mattress. You know what I'm saying? So, so it, it, it, it was in there. And, and we're talking about what I noticed the most is across the board, whether you were a, Where you were a church girl or, you know, a b boy or whatever.

Everybody knew that song and it made them feel good.

Jay Ray: man. You wanna talk about something that matters, um, between the soaring vocals, between just the lyrics? Like the lyrics there is. When in the, when in the midst of sorrow, you know, just that opening. And then by the time we get to the hook, as long as you keep your head to the sky, you can win. My God, you can win.

DJ Sir Daniel: but it's a sentiment that can literally can change your life. Depending on the time that you hear it can cause you to, to move differently, to make a different decision, you know, and to, I'm sure for some people, that song was the reason why they could get out of bed and make it, you know, and we can't, we can't take those things lightly.

And it, you know, And I've spoken about this on the show. It's like those types of songs. We don't have as many of them Because like I said, this song came out 33 years ago But I can't I can't really think of anything else that matches that same energy Today, I you know We need it now more than ever. And you can throw this song on, and I'm talking about, it's a cross generational song.

People are singing along with it, and they're singing from the bottom of their feet. like they mean that. Mm-Hmm.

Jay Ray: You know, I think I agree with you. There is nothing. We need a song like this today. Um, I want to, I want to send some love out by the way, as we talk about this song. Cause of course we of course talk about miss Ann Nesby. So Ann Nesby joined the sounds of blackness, like in the late eighties, apparently.

Um, and she became, you know, the lead singer. Uh, of the, of the voice we know is Miss Anne Nesby. Shout out to Miss Anne. Um, but there are other voices on this song and I wanted to bring those voices in because we don't talk about these names. But Carrie Harrington, uh, Coray Cotton, Patricia Lacey, and Jamicia Bennett.

I hope I'm saying your name right, uh, Miss Bennett. But this song, once again, Testament to Gary Hines, um, when I went back and I found some of the songs from the first release, 1974, I think is when that was done. I hear some of the same tenants in that, in this. And so Mr. Gary, of course. master lyric writer writing these lyrics.

And he says something really specific in this LA Times article too, that I want to bring in. Um, he said, people see 30 or 40 black people singing together and singing some spiritual oriented music. They right away think gospel, quote, unquote, that's limited thinking. We don't think that way. Gospel is just a fraction of what this group does.

And I think it's just that whole idea of that's why the song translates. Because it's like, yes, we get the spirituality, but we get all of these other things. And I wholeheartedly agree. I have a question now. I wholeheartedly agree that we need more of it. Sir Daniel. Why do you think are people able to make songs like this today?

Like, can they, do they have the ability? Do they, can they even do it based on the way society is laid out? Right. Can they even connect in that way? I'm curious.

[00:22:43] The Need for Healing Music Today
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DJ Sir Daniel: I'm curious as well, because I, you know, I don't wanna speak for people and you know, I don't know. I don't know what people's, you know, people's minds. I know that what we are. What we have noticed is, uh, the pattern that we do see is that the, the music that is created is to fill a certain quota, is to, is to fulfill a, um, a pattern that they, um, is to fulfill programming.

Um, it's to serve a specific purpose that is put above everything else right now. Um, our culture, our society does not care about healing. Like I was thinking last night I was, I saw a clip on Twitter and it was of these girls fight fighting in Walmart. And I was just thinking to myself, man, is there, is there like a subculture of fighting that I don't know about?

And it's a lot of girls and you can, you know, typically when you see them, you know, the, Oh, that's it. That's a fighter. That's a brawler right there. They're wearing pajama bottoms. They're wearing bonnets. Shout out, shout out to Monique. They're wearing bonnets. They, you know, they like to scrap. They, and so that just got me to thinking like, damn, we're not interested in healing.

We're interested in brawling. Then you've got, then you've got these networks, like. I'm not even going to name them, but you know what

Jay Ray: you mean, absolutely.

DJ Sir Daniel: that are coming up, including the new one by, um, Brandy's brother, you know, are coming up.

Jay Ray: got to talk about that. I ain't

DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah, he has a, he has a network and what is it featuring?

It's featuring conflict. It's featuring fighting people fighting. So, and why? Because that's what people are tuning in for. We're not interested in healing right now. I don't think we're not. And I, even if we're, it's proposed to us and maybe packaged and given to us, I don't know, will we accept it? Will we turn our nose up at it?

I know we, what we are ingesting and taking in more of is the, the, the, the fighting, the brawling. So I don't think we're interested in healing right now. We're interested in getting the last word. We're interested in getting our lick back. That's what we're interested in. We're interested in. Um, yeah, in, in standing on business, that's what we're interested in.

I don't think we're interested in healing at all. And so that's why I think it's kind of hard for, or is difficult for people that may even have a song in their heart that they want to share with, with the world to, to give, to put out some good energy. They're probably scared to share that now because nobody's going to support it.

Mm hmm.

Jay Ray: Yeah. No, I wholeheartedly agree. I do think and there are artists out there that are. you know, making music, I think a Cleo soul out of the UK who, um, her last, like two or three joints have been, um, really kind of spiritual leaning.

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

Jay Ray: hesitate to say gospel. And I remember listening to the last album, like last two albums, cause they came out as a duo, like, Oh snap.

Like, is there room like in the culture for this? Like, we need this.

DJ Sir Daniel: not, let's not forget about our friends like St. Smith and Rob Milton. You know, it's not straight up gospel, but those are church kids. So you know, there's that energy in the music. So it's there and you know. But are we going to support it? Like I said, are we going to, you know, eat, how are we going to eat from the, the, the salad bar and the vegan menu?

Are we going straight for the buffet, the, you know what I'm saying? The buffet and the fry exactly. And for that, that. that terrible pizza that they make at the buffets. You know, it's not good, but it's never good. But, um, just to, on a happier note, I guess, just to shift a little bit. So you were talking about Ann Nesby earlier and Ann Nesby, somebody I heard is now referred to as the patron saint of Juneteenth and Juneteenth is coming up.

Jay Ray: That's why we here.

DJ Sir Daniel: That's why we're here. 

[00:27:12] Is 'Optimistic' the New Black National Anthem?
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DJ Sir Daniel: And I feel that, I feel that Ann Nesbitt, her voice has become the patron saint of Juneteenth, which makes me think of the fact that is optimistic our, our new black national anthem. Is it for those of you in the chat? I see y'all Mark Kyriakos. I see you. Thank you for tuning in as always.

And everybody out there on Twitter and on Facebook and YouTube or I'm watching and listening. Thank you for joining us live. And if you're out there, just drop us a comment. Letting us know is optimistic, our new black national anthem. Put it in the chat. Let us know. What do you think? Jerry? Is it our new national black anthem?

Jay Ray: Um,

DJ Sir Daniel: not new, but our, but it's our black national anthem.

Jay Ray: you know what? I accept that. If, if, if, if, if the black delegation, if we got together and said, listen, we love lift every voice and sing. That's a, that's a jam. We like that too. Shout out, you know, but If we said, okay, so we're gonna, we're gonna take it up a notch and optimistic by the sounds of blackness is the new black national anthem.

So when you sing it at the, at the, at the basketball game, then in the right, you do the thing, I would be like, fine, this is fine. Right.

DJ Sir Daniel: fine.

Jay Ray: I do think that. From the perspective of unifying us as black folks, Optimistic is definitely one of those songs that is a very, very high ranking. Um, so could Optimistic be our song?

This is like, it's like before I let go before I let go and optimistic. If there's two songs that black folks, we could argue, listen, we can argue all day. They could both be it. I think these, that song, these two songs together are the songs that unify all of us across generations, across, uh, uh, um, economic backgrounds.

So to answer your question, Maybe, maybe, maybe.

DJ Sir Daniel: We do have a reaction in the chat. Uh, Kyriakos, um, did, I mean, and he's not a hundred percent wrong here. He just said, threw it in and said, Hey, I thought back that ass up. the National Black Anthem. And there are some people that I'm quite certain would argue us down and say, yes, that is the National Black Anthem.

And I guess that, I guess that depends on what's. What kind of, you know, event you're going for, like, sure. Uh, you know, at Essence Fest and, you know, at the, at the kickback, yes, back that ass up. Definitely. We're holding hands in and raising them in unity. And before we grab our knees and grab some and grab the wall and and throw some ass but um If we're at the barbecue and and nana is there and all the aunties and uncles and you know We just finished saying grace over the food over the the grilled chicken that uncle noop noop Just finished and we about to eat.

Oh, we're going to throw on sounds of blackness because we're going to have that, that Tyler Perry moment and bust the electric slide out in, in this, in this family, and this time we are going to go with, um, the sounds of blackness and optimist

Jay Ray: Yeah. Um,

DJ Sir Daniel: this land. That's

Jay Ray: on, on this land. And I think that's important. Um, it's, we need this song, we, and we need, go ahead.

DJ Sir Daniel: to Brandy and Robert Glasper. I almost forgot about their version and it's

Jay Ray: I like their cover. Like, so I, I just don't know many other songs in particular from this era. We're talking about 1991.

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

Jay Ray: Now I will say this era birthed. Ultimately, what we ended up getting, like we said, BB& CC, uh, Kirk Franklin was birthed in this era.

DJ Sir Daniel: For sure.

Jay Ray: So there were so many artists and then of course later on we get what Trinity, uh, Trinity and, and, and, uh, Mary Mary and all of them folks that

DJ Sir Daniel: Mm hmm.

Jay Ray: right? Yeah, so it, but it was looking at the success of the Sounds of Blackness and what Optimistic did and not just Optimistic, all three singles from that record were bops.

Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: Turn.

Jay Ray: You had the pressure number one dance record is the pressure the people and miss Anne Had us on that dance floor the pressure the pressures of the listen

DJ Sir Daniel: testifying and shouting on the dance floor.

Jay Ray: Speaking of the third single testify, you know what I'm saying? We the three singles from that record so and the way the record was split up as sir Daniel mentioned earlier First side, uh, those singles were produced, uh, in combination, Mr.

Gary, as well as Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. And then the second side is just straight gospel. So that's like Mr. Gary and the rest of the team doing those songs. 

[00:33:02] Hip Hop Influence on Gospel Music
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Jay Ray: And those are traditional gospel songs. So

DJ Sir Daniel: Shout out to Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis for like, having the, the, the, Sensibility, the musicality and sensibility to know that hip hop was definitely heavily influencing everything. And to know that, no, this really can't really incorporate hip hop, but we're going to throw impeach the president under, I believe, and, and give you something to bop your head.

I believe in the, and if you don't know what impeach the president is, that's that boom,

Jay Ray: hmm. You, you know, the

DJ Sir Daniel: That you hear, you know, you know it when you hear it. And so that, that was my favorite. 

[00:33:44] Favorite Tracks from the Album
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DJ Sir Daniel: I mean, optimistic and I believe are like neck and neck as my favorites from the album.

Jay Ray: And so to that point, um, I agree. Uh, although the pressure, I think, Ooh, am I, am I about to say this out loud? I think the pressure, I think the pressure is my favorite song from that record. And then optimistic

DJ Sir Daniel: and say

Jay Ray: and say it. I think the pressure is my favorite song. I'm a house head. The thresher I think is my favorite song.

And then optimistic is like right there, but I don't want to discount. The power of their second record either their second record on perspective Because that also has just a bunch of bops on it. Um, actually I think I believe is on the second album Yes, i'm pretty sure of that. I believe it's on the second album um but that's what makes it that's what the beauty of it is, but before we Just go too far though.

We have to mention soul holidays from the christmas album

DJ Sir Daniel: Listen, that's, that's one of my favorite modern Christmas songs is soul holiday by, um, and talk about another, um, another wonderful use of a sample. They use the, the big payback, if I'm not mistaken in that one.

Jay Ray: so.

DJ Sir Daniel: Yeah, they used to be payback by James Brown. It's a great use of the sample, but it's always, it makes me, it makes you feel good as well.

And it's a, it's a holiday classic now. So they are definitely, I don't know, I, the sounds of blackness and Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, and that flight time production was really just a marriage, you know, none, no pun intended, but marriage made in heaven. And, um, speaking. 

[00:35:29] The Power of Choir Culture
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DJ Sir Daniel: Of marriage made in heaven, like living here in Atlanta, you know, what's really popular J Ray.

Well, I don't mean to say in like it's a fad or anything, but of course, choir culture is very popular here. I'm talking about in Atlanta on any given weekend, what the church kids will do is somebody is recording a live album. That's an event. That's something to go out to, that's something to go to get ready and to sit and witness and don't let it be, um, be recorded for video because everybody's looking fresh so they can say I'm in the audience for this live recording.

And I think, I think we've, I think it's coming back. Matter of fact, one of my great, one of my dear friends went to recently to a party where this person throws these parties and it's not a party per se, but it's called choir practice. I don't know the name. I don't know the person's name, the organizer's name, but it's called choir practice.

And literally what they will do is he will rent out a hotel room, uh, Ballroom

Jay Ray: a ballroom.

DJ Sir Daniel: and they will go in there, they'll have the musicians and they will have choir practice because I think we've all participated or I'll speak for myself at some point. Jerry, we participated in some form. Of choir

Jay Ray: Mm.

DJ Sir Daniel: and choir is choir was one of those things that it was another fraternity sorority.

It was another, you know, a group, um, activity that, you know, your parents were going to approve of because why not? It's a church. There were, your peers were going to be there. Um, Even if you didn't have the best voice, you can still participate in choir and still, you know, go on the choir trips. So what it makes me think of is that.

So when I think about sounds of blackness, I think about what kinds of. Magic. What kind of organization did it take to rally all of those people together to like, when they have these major performances to know exactly how many people are going to be there. Cause when they show up, they show up deep.

Jay Ray: Yeah, you have to know how many from each section. You have to plan all the things. I listen. I ain't gonna pretend like I know what goes into it. 

[00:37:55] Recording Gospel Albums
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Jay Ray: But one of the things that we talked about in preparation for this show is I recorded a lot of gospel albums in my in my time. actually in this era. Uh, so, uh, when I began my work, um, in studio work, um, at the Sound Spa, and it later was called, uh, Planet Entertainment, we, um, was right here in Chester, 15 East 8th Street.

The building is about to fall down. By the way, um, my, my boss, uh, he was the owner of the studio. He recently passed away, uh, about a month ago. But, um, we recorded, uh, a lot of gospel choirs. And, um, we had a huge studio A and we would have to set. So my job as the tech would be to be ready for the choir. So I would literally have to have my, my three boom mics to capture each section set up.

And these would be a lot of people, um, way more people than you think, but it would probably end up being like 40 people in the studio at a time. And so Fill in the lounge, fill in the thing, and then everybody will come in. And it was always interesting just watching the director at the front, you know, cause he had his headset on.

We had to pump the music through the speakers so that the choir could hear the music itself. And just watching the precision of getting all these people in line, um, to record, to overdub most of them. Because to your point, a lot of the albums were recorded live. So there were, and there probably still are, there were a lot of mobile recording studios at that time.

And there were some real well known ones around here. If you hired this one, you knew that your recording was going to be good. They would go out to the churches. And they would record it live and then it would come into the studio to us and the producers would come and do all the stuff that they needed to do to make this thing an album.

And so I can't even just getting that done. It's like,

DJ Sir Daniel: That sounds like such a feat in and of itself. 

[00:40:09] The Impact of Sounds of Blackness
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DJ Sir Daniel: And you know what else we got to give credit to the sounds of blackness sounds of blackness kind of introduced a lot of people to, to choir culture. And when I say choir culture, yes, the, the live recordings is one aspect, but what you saw. I don't know, it was their own way of entertaining, like church, church kids know a choir, a choir kid when they see one just by the antics and like how they will perform in their videos and their live performances, even, it's not just about singing, there's a.

a choir choreography that comes along. It's like, so when you see, if you're going for a higher note, everybody kind of pushes their hands up and, and you know, the big clap and everybody knows what a church clap is, right? If you don't know what a church clap is, it's just a very wide clap. And everybody's clapping on the one and moving from side to side.

And I just love that. I think, Them and like bobby jones and shout out to

Jay Ray: Shout out to BET.

DJ Sir Daniel: You gotta shout out jray. We have to shout out to bet for being one of the very few platforms for black And i'm talking black gospel. I'm not talking about that arena, you know, um

Jay Ray: uh, praise music. Yeah. Like the,

DJ Sir Daniel: Evangelical, Christian, white, evangelical, praise music.

We worship you. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about bleeding black gospel music where you can either have a quartet up first, and then you can have, um, the sounds of blackness and you can have Mary, Mary, you know, shout out to them for, for doing those types of things and just, you know, I, Remember they used to rock like the um, the African Prince and the, the Kente's.

Jay Ray: of blackness was black like when y'all go and play So first of all go and play the evolution of gospel because you have this mix to that point, right? You have this mix of old Negro spirituals They would the album cover is is the continent of Africa with like stuff that black folks would recognize kind of built into the the outline of the the continent like these folks work like, listen, no, this is who we are.

This is who this music is for. We are here to uplift our people. And that is exactly what they did. And I appreciate that kind of carrying on. And I need people to lean to do more of that. We need that right now.

DJ Sir Daniel: Matter of fact, if, when you have the opportunity, pull up their Showtime at the Apollo performance. I mean, even Eva behaves herself. You know who Eva is, Eva is the, the lady at the showtime of the Apollo. Eva couldn't be touching on the choir members. So she, she behaved herself and she just gave a good old church clap and sang along to the song like everybody else.

They rocked the Apollo. They're not going to boo a gospel group, but they completely rocked the, um, rocked the Apollo and it's definitely, um, their performances are always tight. Like if you. People that came out of choir culture are your best performers. Um, they, they know about the importance of rehearsal.

They know about the importance of timing and moving as a unit and, and listening, listening to musicians and the musicians, listening to them, musicians that, let's talk about church musicians.

Jay Ray: this music, all of our favorites came out of the church. Listen, I have Some of the most beautiful musical experiences I've ever had is watching these ad libs happen with these musicians that are literally ain't no, they ain't been in nobody's training. This baby learned everything that they knew by ear and they are going to wear you out.

Yeah.

DJ Sir Daniel: says a baby. Like if next time you go to a church and you look over and see who's behind the drums, it's probably some 12 year old boy or a 10 year old girl wearing out the sticks, I mean, killing it and, and playing the bass. And so shout out to, to church. Choir, gospel, choir, culture, shout out to the sounds of blackness.

And we are forever. We're grateful. I'm grateful for what they've given to us. And I, you know, and you know, again, like a day like today, you know, I could really, we really need songs like optimistic, 

[00:45:05] Supporting Queue Points and Final Thoughts
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DJ Sir Daniel: but you know, we've come to the end of the show. So remind. Of the listeners, you know, how they can support us and how we can keep sending out these positive vibrations and positive messages to keep them uplifted.

Jay Ray: Absolutely. So for all of you who are supporting Queue Points, who are listening, who are watching, thank y'all. We appreciate you so much. Um, hit the subscribe button wherever you are tuning in. That is definitely a thing. Also share the show. If you are into Queue Points, chances are people that you love and that love you will also love Queue Points.

So go ahead and share the show with them. Visit our website at Queue Points. com. There you can sign up for a newsletter. You can also, um, access Queue Points magazine and you can listen to shows and do all the things over there too. And if you want to support us further, you can certainly shop our store at store dot Queue Points dot com.

We'd really appreciate it.

DJ Sir Daniel: I'd like to say, um, take your rest, Keo. Um, we hope that you are at peace. You will be missed, um, from your peoples over at Queue Points. And, uh, like I always say in this life, you have a choice. You can either pick up the needle or you can let the record play. This is DJ Sir Daniel.

Jay Ray: J Ray y'all

DJ Sir Daniel: This has been Queue Points podcast, dropping the needle on black and white.

Music history. We will see you on the next go round. Peace.

Jay Ray: peace.

[00:46:37] Closing Theme
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