![]() ![]() Gaye took the band on the road with him as one of his curtain-raising acts, and in 1976, he suggested that they change their name from Raw Soul to Maze. With a few personnel changes, a relocation from Philadelphia to the San Francisco Bay Area in California in 1971, and an introduction to Marvin Gaye, the band became an immediate success. They recorded a couple of singles on the small Gregar label, but without any major hits. Career įrankie Beverly started the band as Raw Soul in 1970. The band has maintained a large and devoted following. Their well-known songs include "Happy Feelin's", "While I'm Alone", "Golden Time of Day", “Southern Girl”, "The Look in Your Eyes", "Joy and Pain", " Before I Let Go", "We Are One", " Back in Stride", " Can't Get Over You" and "The Morning After". Maze released nine Gold albums from 1977 to 1993. Gaye took the group on the road with him as one of his opening acts, and in 1976, he suggested that they change their name from Raw Soul. Under its original name Raw Soul, the band relocated to San Francisco and was introduced to Marvin Gaye. Maze, also known as Maze Featuring Frankie Beverly and Frankie Beverly & Maze, is an American soul band founded by Frankie Beverly in Philadelphia in 1970. We’ve been jamming to the original all along, but now the youth have a point of reference.Frankie Beverly of Maze performing in June 2002 We contain multitudes, see? With any luck, this “Before I Let Go” will be one kids and grandparents love in common at the next warm-weather cookout. Bey’s “Before I Let Go” speaks to a specific people from a specific point in time, but it also attempts to build bridges between generations in the nods to 2010s trap and ’90s Louisiana bounce music. When the beat switches over to Cameo’s “Candy,” you either picture Larry Blackmon’s high-top fade and codpiece or it draws up one of the 20 hip-hop and R&B songs that sampled it. ![]() Either it brings back fond memories of hot dogs and potato chips on Styrofoam plates at summertime block parties or it strikes you as a clever cover of an underappreciated ’80s lite-funk song. Beyoncé wants us to know that, to quote Solange, “this shit is for us.”Ĭapping off the live-album version of Homecoming with a cover of Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “ Before I Let Go” hammers the point home further. Homecoming wants you to know that blackness is rich and vast and deep. Most artists who headline Coachella use the opportunity to showcase the versatility of their appeal. It was a bold move, using music’s biggest stage as a set piece for a celebration of this sort. It’s full of references you might miss for lack of a specific upbringing. What? How? Homecoming is what we talk about when we talk about public figures being “unapologetically black.” It’s steeped in southern culture, HBCU culture, black pride, and black history. Beyoncé shoots up out of the floor at minute four, and a woman in the audience in a white cap gasps for several seconds. There’s a moment in the first five minutes of Homecoming, the Netflix documentary about the show, the audience, and the rehearsals, that captures my thoughts on the show. There’s no way for me to tell you how many times I watched my dodgy YouTube stream rip of Beyoncé’s Coachella performance over the last year or to enumerate how many times I “rewound” pieces of it out of sheer astonishment. There isn’t a foolproof way to quantify the number of times a person listens to a song now. There aren’t many comparable experiences in 2019. ![]() ![]() Your tape popped because you played it every day. Back when the sound of music was tethered exclusively to tangible artifacts like tapes and CDs, wear was a sign of pride. I think about Biggie saying “I let my tape rock ‘til my tape popped” a lot. Photo: Courtesy of Parkwood Entertainment Bey’s “Before I Let Go” speaks to a specific people from a specific point in time, but it also attempts to build bridges between generations. ![]()
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