When I was university, one of my favourite songs to play after every exam was ‘Move On Up’ by Curtis Mayfield. It’s joyous, upbeat and encouraging message reminded me that regardless of how I did on the exam, I could keep moving forward and upward. I was going to be fine, I was going to be great, because Curtis Mayfield said so. He believed in me, even if I didn’t.
That optimism was the soundtrack to my summers as a student, the epitome of that funk/soul sound that I loved. To this day whenever I hear it, I smile and think of sunny days, dancing in the student union with my friends, drinking too much, and dreaming of bright days ahead.
‘(Don’t Worry) If There’s Hell A Hell Below We’re All Going To Go’, is the complete opposite of the joyful optimism of ‘Move On Up’, emphasized further by the fact that they are the opening tracks on both sides of the same album, Curtis.
Curtis Mayfield was known as the ‘Gentle Genius’, and genius though ‘(Don’t Worry)’ is, it is anything but gentle. It’s a fierce, heavy and angry song rapidly taking the listener though a grim tour of 1970s America, imbued by a sense of impending biblical and socio-political doom.
When I first heard it I actually felt like I was being taken on a journey to hell with the heavy bass guitar, Latin percussion and strings seemingly spiralling downwards. The song begins ominously with an evangelical exhortation to “read the Book of Revelation”, followed by a message to the audience that we’re are all going to hell together, ending with a terrifying scream, presumably a soul leading the way down to the fiery depths of hell.
But it’s the way Mayfield delivers this message to the audience that’s so shocking. He addresses everyone in the rawest of terms by calling them by the derogatory names used to degrade different social classes, though it’s notable that Black women get a slight pass by being called “sisters”.
Sisters!
Niggers!
Whiteys!
Jews!
Crackers!
Don’t worry
If there’s hell below
We’re all
Gonna go
In doing this Mayfield sets out the main crux of his message to address the state of race relations and the raging storm of discontent in America’s inner cities. He implies that no one is above retribution or judgement, everyone is going to hell on account of how we treat one another, calling to mind a Bible verse in the Book of Ecclesiastes which says ‘there’s is no one on earth who is righteous”.
Mayfield then runs down a list of what he sees as our moral degradation, including drugs, murder, corrupt police and politicians, and the destruction of the environment. With this level of apocalyptic bleakness, it’s clear to Mayfield that we don’t even have to die to go hell, it’s already here on earth.
Cat calling
Love balling, fussing and a-cussing
Top billing now is killing
For peace, no one is willing
Kind of make you get that feelingEverybody smoke
Use the pill and the dope
Educated fools
From uneducated schools
Pimping people is the rule
Polluted water in the pool
And Nixon talking ’bout “Don’t worry”
Listening to this song feels like sitting through a fatalistic pentacostal sermon full of fire and brimstone but set to a glorious funk/psychedelic soul backing track. And one thing is for certain, if there is a hell below we’re going to dance our way there!
You might think it’s a unusual to have a rather heavy dose of sermonising in a Curtis Mayfield song. But don’t forget, Curtis Mayfield had a very strong church background in the gospel choirs of Chicago, Illinois, before moving to the frontline of the Civil Rights movement and penning hits such as “Keep On Pushing”, “People Get Ready” and “We’re A Winner”.
Although he moved away from gospel, he always maintained a sense of education and message in his music, which is what made him such a great social and civil rights activist as well as a musician:
“Our purpose is to educate as well as to entertain. Painless preaching is as good a term as any for what we do.”
Curtis Mayfield
In addition, psychedelic soul, the genre in which this song falls into, gave politically active songwriters a sound that was as fierce and as powerful as their message. Thinking back to my Ball of Confusion post two weeks ago, that song echoes the themes and the sentiment held in ‘(Don’t Worry)’, and such darkness, for want of a better description, was a feature in soul music in the 1970s as it highlighted the spirit of the times.
But Mayfield was not heralding the end of the world, he, like his contempories, was demanding social change, not just from the lawmakers but in our attitudes as well. We are all responsible for the world we live in, and if change did not come soon, then the current state of affairs would only get worse and we’d all perish.
In saying “don’t worry”, he was mocking the weak platitudes used by policitians for political gain, as well as those failed to see the urgency and the crisis that emerging in the inner cities. Or they saw but chose to ignore it, feeling that as it did not directly affect them then it wasn’t a problem. Which is not unlike what we are experiencing today.
But even as a such descriptive social commentator as Curtis Mayfield wasn’t “overtly political”, according to his son Todd Mayfield. “He didn’t participate in marches and things like that…I never knew him to vote,” he said, which is quite an extraordinary statement considering.
Curtis Mayfield was a pioneering voice in the Black pride movement and paved the way for a future generation of rebels, musicians and activists. However, he paid the price for his political charged music both artistically and commercially by being banned by several radio stations on a consistent basis. But, like his songs ‘Keep On Pushing’ and ‘Move On Up’ still he pursued his quest for social justice and equality right up until his death in 1999.
When I listen to ‘(Don’t Worry)’ now, it’s not with a sense of impending doom as I initially had when I first listened to it. When I listen now, I hear the call to action and the cry for social change embedded in those lyrics, and look for significant ways, however small, that I can add my voice and be heard.
Listen to ‘(Don’t Worry) If There’s Hell Below We’re All Going To Go here:
Sources
Psychedelic Soul: 10 of the best by Dorian Lynskey
(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go – Wikipedia
(Don’t Worry) If There’s a Hell Below, We’re All Going to Go – Genius lyrics
Curtis Mayfield – 10 of the best by Stevie Chick
Six definitive songs: The ultimate beginner’s guide to Curtis Mayfield by Tom Taylor
In 1968, Curtis Mayfield was the voice of victory for civil rights by Afi-Odelia Scruggs
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