Love Child

This post has nothing to do with Kenya. It's about Diana Ross and the Supremes. More specifically, it argues that the song "Love Child" is one of the most under appreciated pieces of social commentary in the history of American popular music.

I started thinking about "Love Child" when I woke-up unexpectedly at 4 in the morning and decided to make a beat sampling it. Obviously my beat was dope, but i also learned that there's some real deep messages in the song, that i see as breakin-down into five parts:

1. It is, to my knowledge, the only number-one Billboard song (1968) with a central focus on pregnancy. I mean, when was the last time ANY song, #1 or otherwise, referred to, "the child we may be creating"? Keep in mind this is before Roe v. Wade. Also keep in mind that the pill had only recently become legally available for MARRIED women everywhere (1965, Griswold v. Connecticut) but was still not available to UNMARRIED women in many States until 1972 (Eisenstadt v. Baird).

2. It's also, i think, the only number-one Billboard song to advocate abstinence. Even more interesting, its not Christian/religious abstinence, but practical, "sensible" abstinence: she doesn't want to have sex with the guy not bc G-d says no, but bc she straight-up doesn't want to get pregnant. respect.

3. She doesn't want to have sex with him, YET SHE STILL LOVES HIM. This may be the last (first?) time in American music that someone sung a song about not having sex with someone, ha. for real though, compare more recent reasons pop singers cite for not wanting to have sex with somebody: "a scrub is a guy who thinks hes fly..." and "is it worth it? Lemme work it...". In contrast, Diana lets her man know its not about that ("u think that i dont feel love, but what i feel for u is real love") she just don't want that baby.

4. the social stigma of out-of-wedlock children: "in others eyes I see reflected a hurt, scorned, and rejected love child" and "I shared the guilt my momma knew." Damn. usually the most powerful raw emotional material in music is reserved for break-ups, cheating, unrequited love, etc. but this is about a mother-daughter relationship in the context of a single-parent home. pretty heavy social-issues for pop.

5. a woman's view of poverty: "i started school, in a worn, torn dress that somebody threw out." for reasons i dont quite understand, there have always been more songs about being poor by men than by women. this is just another reason why Ms. Ross once introduced "Love Child" as "the song our managers said would never make it."

ok heres the video. a little corny (but it was pre-MTV!), a little Blaxploitation (it was Motown!), but i still see the value in the message. i also love that no one in the video is wearing shoes (why?).

Next on NairobiHomi: Elvis Presley's, "In the Ghetto." Jk. prolly just more about Kenya. but i will say that the Elvis song does confirm the correlation between crime and abortion/unwanted children described in "Freakanomics," which i just read.

btw, when i was writing this post there were some (what sounded like) Muslim calls-to-prayer happening outside my window and some sporadic screaming that i believe (hope) concerned a soccer game. ok now this post is about Kenya.