MLK Day, Special Edition

A new doc plus musical tributes from Aretha, Marley, Toussaint and Dylan.

For the past two days, in my report on the new film One Night in Miami, I explored Sam Cooke writing “A Change Is Gonna Come,” but never posted a performance of the song itself. So for MLK Day, I will rectify that, with Queen Aretha’s epic 2014 tribute for another giant, Nelson Mandela. (For MLK’s funeral in 1968, Aretha performed “Precious Lord.”) Aretha idolized Sam Cooke above anyone during his gospel days and when she got to meet him after he went pop they came within minutes of consummating a hotel room affair, she revealed in a film not long ago—until her preacher father arrive on the scene in the nick of time. Dig the audience reactions in the clip below. And then consider subscribing to this newsletter—it’s still free!

A new film and a few more musical tributes

Last night we watched the acclaimed new documentary via Amazon with the rather self-explanatory title, MLK/FBI, directed by Sam Pollard. I loved his recent, if somewhat obscure, doc Two Trains Runnin’, about twin pursuits to find and record legendary blues artists before they passed decades ago. His most recent film, Mr. Soul, was also fine. Everyone should watch the new film, but I have to say much of it was old hat for me. Then again I lived through the period and then closely followed revelations about FBI spying in general and the specific targeting of King (and I was directly or indirectly surveilled by the feds myself).

Pollard exposes some great new archival footage of King, along with fresh FBI papers and clips from a few phone conversations, but most of that added little to what I already new or at least assumed. You may respond differently. The interview subjects (we hear but don’t see them until the very end) include Andrew Young and another close King associate, Clarence Jones. There’s even a brief bit with the dreaded Jim Comey. These add color but no fresh revelations. The film seems to end after 95 minutes—but then there is kind of coda which promises controversy to come.

It seems that all of the remaining FBI files, transcripts and audio recordings from the spying on King will be released in 2027. As we know, the bureau at first was mainly concerned with MLK’s ties to alleged Communists—most notably his closest white friend, Stanley Levison—but then shifted its focus to his purported sexual affairs in a persistent attempt to shame and discredit him. This latter material was circulated widely within the FBI and, thanks to cruel and perverted J. Edgar Hoover, to high reaches of the government right up to the White House, and to some journalists (who thankfully remained mum).

Now it will fully released, offering a new challenge to historians, reporters and the public. Some King associates have long admitted that he had affairs (Clarence Jones does so again in this film) but have denied the extent of that and other sensational claims that have circulated. Or they have pointed out that MLK, like all of us, had his flaws but this doesn’t diminish his overall stature. Now we will apparently see the proof behind the scandalous assertions.

Or will we? Some historians and King champions charge that the files should be culled or held back. Others warn that the transcripts and summaries will reflect the bias of the agents engaged in the surveillance, as they likely made assumptions to sustain their work and please Hoover and others. Already one of those interviewed at length in MLK/FBI, David J. Garrow, is the subject of much criticism (in fact, the credits for the film reveal it is based on his latest book). Garrow won a Pulitzer over thirty years ago for a King biography but not ago he spotted some sexual-oriented summaries of FBI tapes on King inadvertently released with JFK materials. He then wrote about them for a conservative UK site—he naming names of some of MLK’s alleged lovers— and this was quickly championed in rightwing circles, pointing to King as a kind of a new poster boy for #MeToo. Garrow, who self-identifies as a Democratic Socialist, went so far as claim that the new evidence “poses so fundamental a challenge to his historical stature as to require the most complete and extensive historical review possible.”

Garrow was then roundly denounced by some fellow historians for treating the possibly inaccurate or biased summaries as truth when no one has heard the tapes to confirm this. One commented, “Most scholars I know would penalize their graduate students for doing this.” The most serious new charge, in fact, is based on a one-line handwritten note on one of the summaries. There’s much more to say but little time for me to do so right now, so look at this Washington Post report from 2019 for now. And here’s the film’s trailer.

Plus: This is not a new story but I’ve always loved it. Contrary to what most believed until recently, the close to King’s “I have a dream” speech in 1963 was largely improvised, and much of the credit goes to…Mahalia Jackson.

And now another man who needs no introduction. Mr. Bob Marley, with “Get Up, Stand Up (For Your Rights).” About six years before this, in my Crawdaddy days, I caught him doing this little ditty over several nights upstairs at tiny Max’s Kansas City in NYC, as part of possibly the greatest double bill ever—with young Bruce Springsteen and the E Streeters. They took turns opening for the other. Much ganja was passed upstairs outside the dressing rooms. I heard.

The great Allen Toussaint (writer/producer/piano master) brought a civil rights plea back to the Top Ten around 1974 with his “Yes We Can” performed in a lively way by the Pointer Sisters. But his earlier anthem “Freedom for the Stallion” is more haunting (and covered by everyone from Lee Dorsey to Boz Scaggs). Shortly before Allen’s death, I saw him play it with Elvis Costello in NYC. Another fond memory: Catching this supremely elegant man eating a po’ boy in the rain at Jazzfest in New Orleans while trying to keep his fine white shoes out of the mud. Still, we shared a friendly word. Genius.

Song of the Day

A just-emerging youngster named Bobby Dylan looked a little nervous performing his classic “Only a Pawn in Their Game” at MLK’s “March on Washington.” He later told Marty Scorcese, “I looked up from the podium and I thought to myself, ‘I’ve never seen such a large crowd.’ I was up close when King was giving that speech. To this day, it still affects me in a profound way.”

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels, the current The Beginning or the End, and The Campaign of the Century, which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. He won more than a dozen awards as editor of Editor & Publisher magazine and for all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. This year he wrote and directed his first film feature, Atomic Cover-up.