Now, It's Personal: 'Save The Children,' 'Soul!,' and YouTube

For years, I'd see these amazing Black performances on YouTube, only to discover they came from TV shows & films that were hidden from history.

It’s 2006. I’d been living in Brooklyn for over a year, and working as a customer service rep CitiStorage, a box storage and courier company. One day my fellow customer service buddy, Damien Weber, told me about a website where you could look up random videos called YouTube. I couldn’t believe it was true.

I went home to my one bedroom apartment on Nostrand Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in Bed-Stuy that I was sharing with my girlfriend. When she went to bed, I went to my computer in the living room to survey this YouTube thing. Damien was right! I could look up damn near anything and it popped up!

For the next six or seven hours, I was up, trying to think of any past PSA, sitcom moment from my childhood to watch again. Then I started looking for things I’d never seen. One such video was a clip of The Jackson 5 performing “I Wanna Be Where You Are” live.

(The Jackson 5 perform “I Wanna Be Where You Are” at the Save The Children Black Expo in 1972)

I clicked on the link, and I saw my favorite singing group performing a song from my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, circa 1972, with a split screen that showed the audience dancing along to the song. I got instant goosebumps from the clip. This is the moment I realized that Michael Jackson wasn’t the lead singer of the Jackson 5 anymore. He was the LEADER of The Jackson 5. He had total command, endless energy, infinite charisma. Already a lifelong fan, I didn’t think I could admire him and his brothers anymore than I did. I was wrong.

I listened to Jermaine Jackson rip the ever-loving hell out of that bass guitar, with Tito shanking Leon Ware’s infectious electric guitar rhythm. Marlon and Jackie held down the choreography and backing vocals with Jermaine, and little 11-year-old Randy playing the congas like a 10-year vet.

Over and over and over I repeated this 3:31 clip, with little to no drop off in my wonder and reverence. I asked myself where was this footage from? What show was this? I didn’t find out until years later that it was an excerpt from a 1973 documentary called Save The Children, featuring an all-star line-up of performers like Bill Withers, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Temptations, Nancy Wilson, Sammy Davis Jr., Roberta Flack with Quincy Jones, and so many others.

(Marvin Gaye and The Funk Brothers perform “What’s Going On” and “What’s Happening Brother” at the Save The Children Black Expo in 1972)

This was the case when I saw Marvin Gaye performing '“What’s Going On” and “What’s Happening Brother” on-stage in a tuxedo with the Funk Brothers. Gaye, in my estimation, the greatest male singing voice in history, sitting at a piano, playing with Motown Records’ famed house band (James Jamerson, Eddie “Bongo” Brown,” Earl Van Dyke) was a sublime. His singing was so effortless and yet filled with conviction and intention. He was the star but played like he was part of the band. This wasn’t just from Save The Children as well, but the film got its name from a song Gaye performed that night; a clip I also found on YouTube.

If the footage was floating around, how come the source was not?

One day, I saw a YouTube clip of the GOAT, Stevie Wonder, singing “My Cherie Amour” on some sort of TV show in the early 1970s. He sang the second verse in Portuguese, which I thought was super impressive. I saw a clip from that same performance of him singing “Superstition,” “For Once in My Life,” and “You and I.” Now, what show was this?

(Stevie Wonder and Wonderlove performing “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You” and “My Cherie Amour” during an episode of PBS’ Soul! in 1972)

Turned out that the clip was an appearance on a PBS series called Soul!, that aired from 1968 to 1973. I discovered this by reading about it on Wax Poetics magazine’s website. I became OBSESSED with this show. I looked up every article, I bought the book about the show, I wound up interviewing the late producer’s niece, Melissa Haizlip, who was crowdfunding a documentary about the show and her uncle, Ellis Haizlip. Years later, Mr. Soul! premiered at Tribeca Film Fest here in New York, then went to PBS and now HBO Max. Even full episodes were briefly available on Prime Video!

There were so many gems on that series; Earth, Wind and Fire, The Spinners, LaBelle, conversations with Stokely Carmichael, Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin, Muhammad Ali, and so on! A Black talk show, the first of its kind, actually, that ran for six years, influences EVERY Black variety, talk and/or entertainment show that followed, and NOBODY I spoke to knew it existed?!?!? What is going on?!?!?!

As both a music journalist and a music fan, I am very angry that so much of rich Black music history that was documented was suppressed from me and my generation for decades! Over the years, I’ve consumed documentaries like Soul Power, Summer of Soul, Mr. Soul!, The Sun Rises in the EAST, Amazing Grace, and now Save The Children about events, gatherings, concerts, and programs that show Black artists and communities in its most beautiful, prideful, and inspiring. Watching Mr. Soul! in particular, and writing several articles about it, I understand that former President Richard Nixon played a big part of slowing images of Black pride and solidary like PBS’ Soul!. Therefore, I have no choice but to take the erasure personally.

(Poet Nikki Giovanni and writer James Baldwin in conversation during an episode of PBS’ Soul! in 1972)

When I was going to school, I learned about white musicians like Mozart, Gershwin, and Chopin in music class. Everything I learned about Black musicians and Black music history came from outside of my classroom. I can only imagine how much things would be different for me and my fellow students if we had these documentaries, shows, and programs to reference to learn about our history and our contributions as pioneers and architects of American music.

In retrospect, the fact that documentaries like Wattstax (1973), Jay-Z’s Fade to Black (2004) and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (2005) were released in real time were basically miracles. Now, that more of these documentaries are coming out, we must now do what we can to make up for lost time. Personally, I’ve written about many of these pieces in print, and even produced at TV special in tribute to Soul!. But there’s more work to be done to reverse this injustice.

No matter the reason - whether it was because, as stated in Summer of Soul, distributing Black concert films wasn’t profitable enough, or because the government wants to suppress positive images of unapologetic Blackness - I think that there has been purposeful, collective action to erase Black art from those who would benefit from it the most (This includes several websites like Vice and Paramount deleting their respective video archives, full of material for and about Black people, but that’s another conversation).Now that the events are coming to light, it’s time to not only keep them in the light, but do what they events were meant to do in the first place: inspire expansion and education.

PS: Thank you, God, for YouTube. Not only did it open my eyes to these amazing, culturally affirming performances, but it has provided a platform for Black creatives to educate viewers about Black music history that we should’ve been taught in school.

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