A few days ago marked 21 years since, RnB singer Aaliyah died in a plane crash. She was 22 years old. At the time of her death she had just completed filming her second leading role in Queen of the Damned, after the release of Romeo Must Die with Jet Li in 2000, and her self-titled third and what would be her final studio album was riding high in the charts, topping the Billboard 200. Aaliyah was at the top of her game and poised to go even further.
At the time of her death and for years after I would continuously listen to that last album of hers, which is arguably her best because it gave her a much stronger and mature sound which suited her more than her previous albums. It seemed to tell her story in her words and tell us about the woman she was becoming and wanted to be.
After that album what else could we have seen from her? What heights could she have transcended, with that extraordinary, yet somehow rather understated talent? As the long-awaited R Kelly trial drew to a close, I wondered if Aaliyah had still been alive what she would have made of it all. I like to think it would have been the final vindication and closure that we all wanted for her.
The Legend of Baby Huey
Of course Aaliyah is not the only artist taken from us far too soon. Countless articles, blogs, films and documentaries have been made about talented people, muscians in particular, who died at the peak of their popularity. Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Amy Winehouse, are just a few that come to mind in part because of their ‘membership’ of the so-called 27 Club.
But the subject of my post today is not a member of this club and is probably not as well known as he should be. American soul singer, James Thomas Ramey, was otherwise known as Baby Huey – a name he gave to himself, after the cartoon character, because he was a 6’5″, babyfaced man, who due to a glandular disorder weighed over 300 pounds. Later as heroin addiction took its hold and his health declined, his weight would balloon to over 400 pounds, a likely factor in his early death from a drug-related heart attack at 26 in 1970.
Baby Huey was the frontman of the band Baby Huey & the Babysitters, and though the band toured extensively throughout the US and were once flown to Paris to play at a Rothschild family ball, they never took the time out to record an album.
It was only when Curtis Mayfield signed Baby Huey to his label Curtom Records to record his first and only solo album that the opportunity arose. But the album, The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend, wouldn’t be completed due to Baby Huey’s untimely death, so Curtis Mayfield, put together a few instrumentals to justify a full length album and released the album posthumously in 1971.
The album is just 30 minutes of psychedelic soul typical of the period and astonishingly did not sell well at the time of its release. Now it’s considered a cult classic and a favoured source of samples for many a hip hop artist including Ice Cube, A Tribe Called Quest and Ghostface Killah.
“Hard times in this crazy town…”
My love for this album and the song ‘Hard Times’, which I’ll come to in a bit, knows no bounds. I read that Baby Huey would open his shows announcing “I’m Big Baby Huey, and I’m 400 pounds of soul!”. This album to me is 400 pounds of soul and then some. The self-referential statements and anecdotes give it a personal touch that allows you an insight to the heart of the man behind the music.
The opening lines to ‘Hard Times’ always stops me dead in my tracks whenever I hear it. It’s sheer poetry, and I can honestly sat there are only a few opening lines of songs in the world that have me in my feelings like this. Baby Huey sings of cold eyes staring and people being in fear of him, which I assume is in reference to his height and size. As a 400 pound 6’5″ tall Black man with a huge afro, there were probably a fair few people intimidated by his size and presence, despite the fact that he was actually known to be a gentle giant. So he plays ‘the part’ he thinks people want to see of him, even though he is just as afraid of whatever it is that they fear.
Cold, cold eyes upon me they stare
People all around me and they’re all in fear
They don’t seem to want me but they won’t admit
I must be some kind of creature up here having fits
The song paints a picture of a new transplant to the city or town who is unused to the life he’s now living. It speaks of loneliness, poverty and mistrust of others. There’s no love to be found in this place, where even a ‘brother’, the same race and creed as him would try to rob him.
From my party house I feel like meetin’ others
Familiar faces, creed and race, a brother
But to my surprise I find a man corrupt
Although he be my brother, he wants to hold me up
As the song’s instruments, the horn section and drums battle for supremacy becoming more intense, Baby Huey softly breaks down the difficulties that he’s experienced, culminating in a wail in recognition of the lowest points of his life. Baby Huey’s wail is a key feature on this album and varies in its emotion and intensity. On ‘Listen To Me’, it’s euphoric, like he’s just taken a hit of something really good, similiarly with ‘Running’. But ‘A Change Is Going To Come’ like ‘Hard Times’ is personal, but his wail on that record is more like a screech of pain coming from a deep place within.
So many hard times…
Sleepin’ on motel floors
Knockin’ on my brother’s door
Eatin’ Spam and Oreos and drinkin’ Thunderbird baby
The line about sleeping motel floors is likely in reference to the amount of touring he did with his band as well as the fact that motels were cheap accomodation even if you weren’t on the road. It’s also sadly ironic because Baby Huey was found dead on a motel floor. He also name checks the food and drink brands marketed to and eaten by people with low incomes. It’s a song so of it’s time, but yet still relatable some 50 years later. It would used in films and TV programmes depicting the 1970s and the hustle to survive the endemic poverty of American inner cities.
As much as ‘Hard Times’ has this rather upbeat tempo and really powerful funk sound thanks to that horn section, it is one of the most saddest songs I’ve ever heard. You hear the frustration, the pain, and even the shame of what he’s experiencing. The song ends with Baby Huey saying how tired he is of everything, he’s been paying his dues but getting nothing in return. And yet still, I press repeat each and every time I listen to it.
In the same way that I think about Aaliyah, I wonder what would Baby Huey being doing now if he were still alive today? Would he be a living legend as his album suggests? I like to think so, but regardless, alive or not, I think Baby Huey is one of the little known greats who has gifted us with a timeless classic of a song, and of an album that should never be forgotten.
Listen to ‘Hard Times’:
Sources
Baby Huey – Wikipedia
Hard Times, by Baby Huey and the Babysitters – The Music Aficionado
Hard Times – Genius Lyrics
Just Read It 