A lot of people were doing what they used to call soul songs
and i guess a lot of people's souls needed the same things
you know, according to the music.
most soul was about dancing, or about having sex

i mean, you know, it was basically the blues
and the blues was all about pain, and the blues was about suffering and the blues was all about loss and depression
and it was kind of always the same message


people said that those songs came from slave songs,
but you know,
contrary to popular belief,
slaves weren't just sitting around saying
oh lord, massa gon come down on us if we try to do anything
no no no, this is, this is a fallacy, man
i mean, you know
slaves were always trying to figure out how to get free!

how am i going to get rid of these people
who have their feet on my back so i can get out of here?
so there was always resistance.
if you're a human being, there's no way you can accept that without some type of resistance!


so don't tell me that all the slave songs
were about being sad and dejected and depressed you know, and that's where the blues came from, because that was just part of it.
that was the part that we know most about

but there was obviously another part

and we wanted to be writers who wrote those kind of blues, you know?

the kind of blues that you wrote to schedule a secret meeting, to get together and plan a revolt,
the kind of blues that said
don't give up
the kind of blues that said
don't believe what they tell you.

you are important
you are an individual
you are intelligent

you can get past this