Roy Shuler – Actor. Print Model. Blogger. Voice Actor. Inspirational Speaker.

Roy Shuler

Actor. Print Model. Blogger. Voice Actor. Inspirational Speaker.

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🎵 Happy African-American Music Appreciation/Black Music Month 🎵

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Decreed by former and 39th President Jimmy Carter on June 7, 1979, it took a score plus a year for the bill to pass through Congress in 2000 to make this annual celebration official. Without question, music made by Black Americans has had a profound impact on music made in America and throughout the world. While criticisms arise when Black artists are inducted almost annually into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, here are the facts: • 60% of the their inaugural class of 10 performers in 1986 were Black: Chuck Berry, James Brown & The Famous Flames, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, and Richard Penniman, aka Little Richard. The other esteemed inductees were: The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley. • 65% of the following class of 17 performers in 1987 were also Black: The Coasters, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin (the first female), Marvin Gaye, Louis Jordan, B. B. King, Clyde McPhatter (the first three-time inductee – solo, The Drifters, The Dominoes), Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, and Jackie Wilson. The other esteemed inductees were: Eddie Cochran, Bill Haley, (Jerry) Lieber & (Mike) Stoller, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins. So, according to the pundits and learned folk, at its foundation, almost two-thirds of those artists who were recognized as the creators of Rock and Roll music, a genre not normally associated with Black people, are from this very same group. The music of legendary groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Police, while clearly brilliant in its own right, was heavily influenced by the similarly-hued artists whose inductions are sometimes met with controversy. I’m just sayin’. 🎶 Happy African American Music Appreciation/Black Music Month 🎶

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Black While _____

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Driving. Walking. Shopping. Selling loose cigarettes in front of a store on Staten Island. Waiting on a business client in a Philadelphia Starbucks. Add to those list of ‘offenses:’ Doing his job. By now, thousands, if not millions, have seen the video of the attack on Damien Pickett, a Black man and Co-Captain of the Harriet II, a riverboat docked at a riverfront dock in Montgomery, AL, by a group of White men and a White woman. The reason? For asking the group to move their private pontoon from a spot designated for the Harriet II. According to reports, Mr. Pickett tried for 45 minutes to get the group to comply while more than 200 people on board his boat waited to get off and proceed with the rest of their evening. According to those same reports, he was ignored and mocked, then blindly attacked before a full out brawl ensued. Some heard at least one of the attackers called him a nigger while striking him. For having the audacity to do his job. At this time, I’m satisfied to know that four of the attackers have been arrested and charged accordingly. I hope that they’re prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and, that their respective employers disassociate themselves from such behavior by terminating their employment. More arrests may follow. Interestingly, despite the allegation that he was called a nigger while being attacked, Mr. Pickett, according to police interviews, does not believe that the attack was racially motivated. Still, the authorities have reserved the right to charge the attackers with a hate crime based on where the investigation leads them. Allow me to pose these questions to the cowardly attackers: Just how did you think this was going to go in the year 2023? Did the residue of the march in Charlottesville in 2017 or the assault on The Capitol in 2021 lead you to believe that you could operate in the absence of accountability? Did you think that this proud Black man would simply yield in obedience to your disrespect, meanness, and taunts? Did you think that, despite being in plain view, that you existed within some opaque silo and that people who looked like Mr. Pickett would not come to his aid and boldly thwart your attempts to hurt this man? Did you THINK at all?

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In Deep Ends Day

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On this 4th of July, one on which our country purports to proclaim its independence, by definition according to the folks at dictionary.com: “freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others,” know that this is still a fight for many of its citizens. For some time now, in light of the pronounced aggression towards and treatment of similarly hued people by those whose job description calls for them to “protect and serve,” to protect the health of my psyche, I’ve chosen to limit my exposure to those beyond questionable recorded interactions between the parties, if you will. That is, until about 45 or so minutes ago. In short, out in Los Angeles County, a Black woman was recording the arrest of her husband, a Black man suspected of shoplifting, by local law enforcement. I know of no law that prohibits this. One of the arresting officers leaves the detained man, grabs the woman by the back of her neck, throws her to the ground, and places a knee on her neck before handcuffing her as well. According to The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, they’ve opened an investigation into this incident. Merriam-Webster defines the idiom “the deep end” as follows: “starting a new and difficult activity when one is not fully prepared or ready to do it.” Hmm. In Deep Ends Day. Sounds about right. Oh, say can you see…🎵.

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Happy Birthday, Sam Cooke

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A few weeks ago, Rolling Stone Magazine released its 200 Greatest Singers List. In what is certain to spur a number of spirited debates, this list will make news for who it excludes as much as for who it includes – and where they are placed. On a personal note, I’m delighted to see that many of of my favorites made the cut: Frank Sinatra, David Ruffin, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, Solomon Burke, Steve Perry, the tragically under-appreciated Clyde McPhatter, Jackie Wilson and Gladys Knight (did they really place 100+ singers ahead of them 🤔?) Teddy Pendergrass, Dion, Amy Winehouse, and a few others. Still, from my perspective, the likes of Levi Stubbs of The Four Tops, Marvin Junior of The Dells, Sting, and Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D’Arby) would’ve been welcome additions. But make no mistake about it: on this 92nd anniversary of his birth, I’m here to talk about Sam Cooke. Reflect, if you will, on the fact that a voice that was silenced 58 years ago the 11th of last month in a still controversial shooting was ranked #3, behind Aretha Franklin and Whitney Houston, respectively – two still relatively contemporary voices who left us in 2018 and 2012. The man hasn’t sung a note in almost six decades. To borrow a quote that accompanied the list: “There is American popular music before Sam Cooke and popular music after.” Joe Gross, Rolling Stone Magazine It’s somewhat redemptive to see the ‘pundits’ confirm what 10,000+ members of Facebook’s Sam Cooke Club have known all along. That’s a #1 in our book. Happy Birthday, Sam 🎉

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The Black Sinatra

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For those who really know me, this finding by the folks at Spotify (watch until the end) is no surprise. On this 58th anniversary of his shocking killing, an event that preceded my birth by five-and-a-half months, Sam Cooke has had a profound influence on my thinking and on my aspirations as well as my musical tastes, and, as a vocalist of the first order, on generations of singers worldwide. A Gospel music phenom as a teenager, in seven short years as a secular singer that began with the release of the self-penned classic “You Send Me” in September 1957, Sam managed to carve out a distinctive career as a pioneering Pop, Soul, and R&B singer and songwriter, and, as an entrepreneur that is revered to this day. After President-Elect Barack Obama quoted a line from his magnum opus ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ on Election Night 2008, courtesy of various interpretations on YouTube, TikTok, and beyond, that song is as popular as it ever has been. Here’s what Pop crooner Michael Bublé said about Sam in an interview earlier this year: He also lauds everyone from Pink to Eminem, but saves his highest praise for Sam Cooke, whom he calls “the greatest voice in the history of music.” “It might sound strange for some of you listening out there, [but] I’ve always considered myself a soul singer,” he says. “When people tried to put me into a box and asked me what I was, well, soul singer was always what I wanted to be and who I felt I was. And one of the big reasons for that is Sam Cooke, the greatest voice in the history of music. Not the genre, not a genre, not soul, not R&B. I think music. Sam Cooke was a very special, special performer, a special writer, an incredible human being.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Blog, Music

A Little Respect When I Come Home…

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Many may recognize those words as a line from the late Aretha Franklin’s anthemic 1967 hit song ‘Respect.’ What many may not know is that the song was written, performed, and released two years earlier by her Atlantic Records label mate (via a distribution with Stax Records), the legendary Otis Redding. I heard a lot of Otis’ music growing up courtesy of my father. He always sounded so gritty, so emotional, so soulful…and so old! When I became a huge fan of his as a young adult, I couldn’t believe that he was only 26 years old when he died. Otis, along with four members of his backup band, The Bar-Kays, died in a plane crash 55 years ago today. A few months later, his signature song, (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay, became the first posthumous number one song in the history of Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. It won two Grammy Awards a year later: Best R&B Song and Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. When I listen to Otis, he still sounds so gritty, so emotional, and so soulful. I’m glad that’ll never get old.

Blog, Music

Well, I Guess I AM Getting Old (er)…

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Today marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the best-selling album of all time: Thriller. And I was there. I remember the build up with the release of the lead off single, ‘The Girl is Mine,’ a duet between Michael Jackson and former Beatle Paul McCartney. A couple of months later saw the release of ‘Billie Jean.’ Everything changed for me after that. As if the bass line and synthesizer chord changes weren’t hypnotizing enough, when I checked out the lyrics, I was done. Or so I thought. Then came the video that signaled the beginning of a new day for the still fledgling MTV network as it kicked opened doors for other Black artists to have their videos played as well. THEN came the iconic performance in May 1983 on Motown 25 that sent him into the stratosphere. While his legacy has been tainted by noticeable physical changes, sensational accusations regarding his personal behavior, and odd decisions in general, let’s briefly go back to a time when Michael Jackson could do no wrong.

Blog, Music

Black Rock & Roll

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Sounds like a contradiction in terms, doesn’t it? Well, in commemoration of the launch of Black Music Month, humbly, allow me to demystify this for you. In launching the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1986, six of the 10 charter performing members were Black: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, and Richard Penniman, better known as Little Richard. The following year, 10 of the next 15 performing inductees were also Black: The Coasters, Bo Diddley, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, B. B. King, Clyde McPhatter, Smokey Robinson, Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters, and Jackie Wilson. So statistically, almost two-thirds of the individuals who pundits deemed were at the foundation of what is referred to as Rock and Roll emanated from folks who are not traditionally associated with the genre. Now mind you, I’m a fan of all kinds of music and artists. I admire and am a fan of Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, James Taylor, The Police, Journey, Sting, and the like; White artists who are more often associated with the term ‘Rock and Roll.’ But let’s not be confused. It is commonly known that the origins of this music were the ‘sanitized’ reinterpretations of Rhythm and Blues, music made primarily by Black artists. None other than charter member Ray Charles said it this way. So, should you choose to visit the website for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and see names like Jay Z, LL Cool J, and Public Enemy, kindly go back to the roots.

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