Authors: Todd Mayfield
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1969 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
DIRTY LAUNDRY
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1982 WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. and MMM MUSIC
All Rights Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
FREDDIE'S DEAD (Theme from
Super Fly
)
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1972 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. and
TODD MAYFIELD PUBLISHING
All Rights Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
GHETTO CHILD (LITTLE CHILD RUNNIN' WILD)
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1971 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
HARD TIMES
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1975 WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
HERE BUT I'M GONE
BY CURTIS MAYFIELD, IVAN MATIAS, ANDREA MARTIN MARQUEZE ETHRIDGE, RICO WADE, PATRICK BROWN, AND RAYMON MURRAY
© 1996 WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP., MAYFIELD MUSIC and WARNER/CHAPPELL MUSIC LTD. (PRS)
All Rights on Behalf of ltself and MAYFIELD MUSIC
Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights on Behalf of WARNER/CHAPPELL MUSIC LTD.
Administered by WB MUSIC CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
I PLAN TO STAY A BELIEVER
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1971 (RENEWED) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
(DON'T WORRY) IF THERE'S A HELL BELOW, WE'RE ALL GOING TO GO
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1970 WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
IT'S ALL RIGHT
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1964 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
I'VE FOUND THAT I'VE LOST
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1964 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
KEEP ON PUSHING
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1964 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
KUNG FU
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1974 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. and TODD MAYFIELD PUBLISHING
All Rights Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
LOVE ME
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1971 WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. (BMI)
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
MIGHTY MIGHTY (SPADE AND WHITEY)
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1969 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
MR. WELFARE MAN
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1974 (RENEWED) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. and TODD MAYFIELD PUBLISHING (NS)
All Rights Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1970 (RENEWED) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
PEOPLE GET READY
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1964 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. (BMI) and MIJAC MUSIC (BMI)
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
PUSHERMAN
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1972 WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. and TODD MAYFIELD PUBLISHING
All Rights on Behalf of Itself and TODD MAYFIELD PUBLISHING
Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
SO YOU DON'T LOVE ME
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1974 (RENEWED) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
SUPERFLY
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1972 (Renewed) TODD MAYFIELD PUBLISHING and
WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
SWEET EXORCIST
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1974 (RENEWED) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. and TODD MAYFIELD PUBLISHING
All Rights Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
THIS IS MY COUNTRY
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1968 (Renewed) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
TO BE INVISIBLE
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD and RICHARD TUFANO
© 1974 (RENEWED) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. and
TODD MAYFIELD PUBLISHING
All Rights Administered by WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
WE PEOPLE WHO ARE DARKER THAN BLUE
Words and Music by CURTIS MAYFIELD
© 1970 (RENEWED) WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP.
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission of ALFRED MUSIC
1. The Reverend A. B. Mayfield
were worth almost $800
: Hall, “Mean Price by Gender.”
Louisiana citizens lynched
: “Lynching by State,” Charles Chesnutt Digital Archive.
“Up and down Indiana and Wabash and Prairie”
: Wilkerson,
Warmth of Other Suns
, 268â269.
“There was nothing to block or buffer”
: Rawls, “Dead End Street.”
2. My Mama Borned Me in a Ghetto
“Until the 1943 uprising in Detroit”
: Wilkerson,
Warmth of Other Suns
, 131.
“Mom had this great big pot”:
Carolyn Mayfield, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“Mama was kind of on the timid side”
: Ibid.
“She was always around”:
Ibid.
“I guess pimps are a luxury”
: Page, “Does Curtis Mayfield Sincerely Want to Be Rich?”
“Many Christmases, we didn't have anything”
: Carolyn Mayfield, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“If anything went on, we looked to him”
: Ibid.
“De times is mighty stirrin'”
: Dunbar, “How Lucy Backslid.”
“It is a peculiar sensation”
: DuBois,
Souls of Black Folk
, 3â4.
“When other children came by to play”
: Monroe Anderson, “From Superfly to Super Star.”
“He used to stand on the tree stump”
: “Darker Than Blue,”
Omnibus
.
“She was a reasonable mother”
: Ibid.
“I never will forget”
: Carolyn Mayfield, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“Aside from the gospel music”
: Valentine, “Curtis Mayfield in the Talk-In.”
“a whiskey-drinking Democratic precinct captain”
: Werner,
Higher Ground
, 36.
3. Traveling Souls
“It wasn't a pleasant home”
: Carolyn Mayfield, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“My father had a doctor”
: Butler, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“We sang traditional gospel songs”
: Ibid.
“I never really had to acquire an interest”
: Werner,
Higher Ground
, 35.
“
[Eddie Patterson] brought a guitar with him”
: Light, “Lasting Impression.”
“The church had plenty of little affairs”
: Werner, “Curtis Mayfield.”
“A group of white boys”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 22.
“They seemed to know only one phrase”
: Ibid.
“It was a twelve-string”
: “Soul of an R&B Genius,”
Guitar Player
.
“When I first started playing guitar”
: Valentine, “Curtis Mayfield in the Talk-In.”
“It was my other self”
: Gonzales, “Curtis Mayfield.”
“My education didn't give me any background”
: Alexander, “The Impressions.”
“When we were little she told us”
: Carolyn Mayfield, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“Brown v. Board was what the grown-ups talked about”
: Butler, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“We felt we were up in Pill Hill”
: Carolyn Mayfield, interview by Atria and Mayfield, 2013.
“It was really high-class living”
: Page, “Does Curtis Mayfield Sincerely Want to Be Rich?”
“We used to harmonize and sing Frankie Lymon”
: Aletti, “Jerry Butler.”
“We were all trying to sing”
: Werner,
Higher Ground
, 68.
crowds of eager young kids lined up
: Ibid., 69.
“We thought that this would all be over”
: Garrow,
Bearing the Cross
, 26.
“We'd tell him to get away from us”
: Werner,
Higher Ground
, 68.
“Once they'd gone to bed, I'd slip out”
: Bowman, booklet for
Movin' On Up
.
“Arthur was stockily built”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 38.
“If you join us, man, with the way you play”
: Ibid.
“We woodshedded for a good year”
: Werner,
Higher Ground
, 69.
“The Medallionaires thought they were hot stuff”
: Thomas, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“Their harmony was mind blowing”
: Ibid.
“We couldn't get through a song”
: Ibid.
“I can't see it on a marquee”
: Ibid.
“What's the new name then?”
: Goins, “Soulful Conversation.”
4. The Original Impressions
“I had never heard of [Eddie Howard]”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 40.
“She talked very fast”
: Ibid.
“Vee-Jay had an employee lounge”
: Davis,
Man Behind the Music
, 44.
“We thought they were ridiculous”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 40.
“Gee, I really want to record you guys”
: Ibid., 42.
“That's it! That's it!”
: Werner,
Higher Ground
, 74.
“Here comes the rip off”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 43.
“We were very happy and very grateful”
: Ibid.
“I ain't gonna lie”
: Ibid., 44.
“a huge room with the control room way up in the air”
: Callahan, “Vee Jay Album Discography.”
“Four or five takes later”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 44.
“When we heard that song coming across”
: Butler, interview by Atria and Mayfield.
“I knew that Curtis, Sam, Arthur and Richard didn't like it”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 50.
“By the time he got through talking”
: Ibid.
“The rift over the phrase”
: Ibid.
“You can understand all these fellows”
: Werner,
Higher Ground
, 76.
the market featured “cigar-chomping hawkers”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 53.
“We were treated like a bunch of kids”
: Ibid., 52.
“Don't worry”
: Ibid.
“dressed like some fairytale prince”
: Ibid., 53.
Larry started his rap: “Ladies and gentlemen”
: Ibid.
“I got the same feeling that night”
: Ibid., 54.
“didn't even buy us a hamburger”
: Ibid.
“Curtis was so broke in those days”
: Gonzales, “Gangster Boogie.”
“Mrs. Washington was a very hip old lady”
: Butler with Smith,
Only the Strong Survive
, 66.
“She sure did bless the hell out of us”
: Ibid.
“Wait a minute!”
: Ibid., 56.
“We used to play tricks on one another”
: Ibid., 174.
“I felt like a stranger”
: Ibid., 66.
“Jocko was number one”
: Ibid., 58.