North Philadelphia jobless Blacks. Man standing at right Is Gerald "Heat Wave" Jones, who works For "the Network", a resource center sponsored by The Urban Coalition
Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac
Gangsta whitewalls, TV antennas in the back
You may not have a car at all
But remember brothers and sisters
You can still stand tall
Just be thankful for what you got
Diamond in the back, sunroof top
Diggin' the scene with a gangsta lean
Be Thankful for What You Got (excerpt): Willliam De Vaughn, recorded at Sigma Sound Studio, Philadelphia, 1972, released 1974
Street scene, North Philadelphia
Street gang members, North Philadelphia
Street gang members, North Philadelphia
Member of a street gang in North Philadelphia
Mounted policeman on busy downtown thoroughfare, Philadelphia
Noontime rally in downtown Philadelphia
Fisheye from center courtyard of City Hall, Philadelphia
Center city, Philadelphia
Traffic on Market Street, Philadelphia's main east-west artery, looking west
Traffic on Market Street, Philadelphia's main east-west artery, looking west
Walt Whitman Bridge crosses the Delaware River at South Philadelphia, leads to New Jersey suburbs
Walt Whitman Bridge crosses the Delaware River at South Philadelphia, leads to New Jersey suburbs
Schuykill Expressway (I-76) speeds traffic between center city and the northern and western suburbs, Philadelphia
Schuykill Expressway (I-76) speeds traffic between center city and the northern and western suburbs, Philadelphia
Railroad switching yards just west of center city, along the Schuykill Expressway, Philadelphia
Abandoned car in trash-strewn lot, North Philadelphia
Two men sit silently on stoops of abandoned North Philadelphia houses
Child on steps of a North Philadelphia row house
Row houses in North Philadelphia
School girl on street in North Philadelphia
Playground, North Philadelphia
Boy in back alley in North Philadelphia
Housing project in North Philadelphia
Black neighborhood in North Philadelphia
Woman looks out of window of her apartment in North Philadelphia
Neighborhood medical center in North Philadelphia
Killing time in North Philadelphia
Inner city, Philadelphia
Photos by Dick Swanson, August 1973 for the Environmental Protection Agency's DOCUMERICA Project (U.S. National Archives)
William De Vaughn: Be thankful for what you've got
ReplyDeleteThis in any case is the music one remembers these years by.
ReplyDeleteThe world historical narrative here remains hidden, the Seaboard a submarine mythic place as might have been sung by an exiled Greek like Ritsos.
Did Jesus die for a box of Newports in the Soft-Pack?
Omar collection (Part II)
Thought provoking series of images. Difficult to associate Leaves Of Grass with that bridge scene. Something eerie in seeing the time frozen at 5:10...
ReplyDeleteThe William De Vaughn track goes well with those images of The Great Aspiration filling up the freeways.
ReplyDeleteDick Swanson could have walked with his camera a few streets up from where we are and taken some very similar photos.
The De Vaughn track -- possibly the best record ever made.
ReplyDeleteBreath of Life: William De Vaughn: Be Thankful
Other night late I was having a chat with a longtime friend who perseveres heroically with anachronistic ambitions (not to mention considerable skills) in attempting to make a career as an r & b singer and songwriter. He is a soulful man who makes soulful music, that lost thing. But his all consuming "real" job as a night maintenance man, cleaning up after educated spoiled brats, has put his daughter through school and kept a wolf from a thin door. And kept his real passion, his music, under a lid, apart from the occasional CD and club gig.
We got to talking about the time of his release from the military service in the early 1970s, that time Curtis Mayfield captured in the album Back in the World.
"The first music we were listening to when we got off the plane was Curtis -- and William De Vaughn, Diamond in the Back."
His eyes lit up.
"Now that's when the music was real. But kids nowadays...they just don't get it."
Sad shake of the head.
A lot of people have mistakenly attributed William De Vaughn's song to Curtis. But it even outdoes that lyric master, in the capture of a moment of victory for a quiet attitude of ghetto pride and self-respect -- "you might not even have a car at all".
At the time William De Vaughn (b. 1948) wrote this song he worked as a US government employee in the Washington, DC post office. He was a drafting engineer, designing sewers. Having the one hit record convinced him to quit his government job.
After his brief but decisive role in helping design the Philadelphia Sound on record, and a brief public performing career in which he employed the stage as a preaching pulpit (he was a practising Jehovah's Witness), he left the music business in the mid-70s (it was reported he had been screwed out of proper royalties, not an uncommon fate for r & b artists), worked in a record store and went back to drafting.