 | This article appears to be slanted towards recent events.(January 2012) |
"Love, That's America" is a song written by Melvin Van Peebles in 1970 for his film Watermelon Man . He re-recorded it for his 1971 album As Serious as a Heart-Attack . In 2011, the song became associated with the Occupy Wall Street movement due to being used on videos featuring footage from the movement.
The song was written by Van Peebles for his only Hollywood production, Watermelon Man. Van Peebles wrote the soundtrack himself, in order to have creative control. The song is narrated from the point of view of someone walking around America, and seeing "people run through the streets, blood streaming from where they been beat", and declaring "naw, this ain't America, you can't fool me". [1]
In 1970, the song was released as a single, [2] and mentioned as a top pick in Billboard's Oct 31, 1970 issue. [3]
The first video featuring video from Occupy Wall Street (mostly involving police brutality) and the audio from the song was uploaded to YouTube on October 26, 2011, [4] which was quickly endorsed via Van Peebles' Facebook page [5] and mentioned in several blogs. [6] On November 8, this video was presented at an Occupy Wall Street benefit at Zebulon Cafe Concert in Brooklyn. [7] In mid-November, several other videos featuring footage associated with Occupy Wall Street and the audio from the song were also uploaded, which have been featured in many blogs. [8] None of these videos were created by Van Peebles, despite the claims made on some blogs, but he did endorse the making of these videos. [9] On November 18, Newsday published an interview with Van Peebles from November 7, which discussed the original video as well as the fact that it has "gone viral". [10] On December 5, 2011, Turkish newspaper Radikal described it as the surprising unofficial anthem of the movement, and mentions three YouTube videos that use the song in connection with the movement. [11] On January 17, 2012, Van Peebles played the Players' Club to honor the fact that the song has become a theme for the Occupy Wall Street movement. [12] On February 22, 2012, Van Peebles commented further, "When I found out that the song had been co-opted by Occupy Wall Street, my jaw dropped. It went viral online. People were remixing it and mashing it up with videos from the protests. The time I wrote it was a time of social upheaval — the Stonewall Riots had just happened. Forty years later, the same thing was going down in the streets of New York City." [13]
Daniel Handler is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series A Series of Unfortunate Events and All the Wrong Questions, published under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The former was adapted into a film in 2004, as well as a Netflix series from 2017 to 2019.
Melvin Van Peebles was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. He worked as an active filmmaker into the early 2020s. His feature film debut, The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1967), was based on his own French-language novel La Permission and was shot in France, as it was difficult for a black American director to get work at the time. The film won an award at the San Francisco International Film Festival which gained him the interest of Hollywood studios, leading to his American feature debut Watermelon Man, in 1970. Eschewing further overtures from Hollywood, he used the successes he had so far to bankroll his work as an independent filmmaker.
Mario Van Peebles is an American director and actor. He is best known for appearing in Heartbreak Ridge in 1986 and known for directing and starring in New Jack City in 1991 and USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage in 2016. He is the son of actor and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, whom he portrayed in the 2003 biopic Baadasssss!, which he also co-wrote and directed.
Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a 1971 American independent blaxploitation action thriller film written, co-produced, scored, edited, directed by, and starring Melvin Van Peebles. His son Mario Van Peebles also appears in a small role, playing the title character as a young boy. The film tells the picaresque story of a poor black man fleeing from the white police authorities.
Baadasssss! is a 2003 American biographical drama film, written, produced, directed by, and starring Mario Van Peebles. The film is based on the struggles of Van Peebles' father Melvin Van Peebles, as he attempts to film and distribute Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, a film that was widely credited with showing Hollywood that a viable African-American audience existed, and thus influencing the creation of the blaxploitation genre. The film also stars Joy Bryant, Nia Long, Ossie Davis, Paul Rodriguez, Rainn Wilson, and Terry Crews.
Karyn Layvonne White is an American singer who was popular during the late 1980s and early 1990s. She is known for several hit singles including "Superwoman" (1988), "Secret Rendezvous" (1989), "The Way You Love Me" (1988), and the U.S. Hot 100 No. 1 single "Romantic" (1991).
Stephanie Beacham is an English actress. In a career spanning six decades, she has a wide number of credits to her name on film, television, stage and radio in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Watermelon Man is a 1970 American comedy film directed by Melvin Van Peebles and starring Godfrey Cambridge, Estelle Parsons, Howard Caine, D'Urville Martin, Kay Kimberley, Mantan Moreland, and Erin Moran. Written by Herman Raucher, it tells the story of an extremely bigoted 1960s-era white insurance salesman named Jeff Gerber, who wakes up one morning to find that he has become black. The premise for the film was inspired by Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, and by John Howard Griffin's autobiographical Black Like Me.
Don't Play Us Cheap is a 1973 American musical comedy film based on the 1970 musical of the same name. The musical was written, produced, scored, edited and directed by Melvin Van Peebles. Both the original stage musical and the film adaptation are based on Van Peebles' 1967 French-language novel La fête à Harlem (1967).
Ghetto Gothic is the fifth studio album by Melvin Van Peebles. Released in 1995, this album marks the second traditional music effort by Van Peebles, after What the....You Mean I Can't Sing?! Previously, Van Peebles released the experimental spoken word albums Brer Soul, Ain't Supposed To Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack.
Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death (Tunes from Blackness) is a musical with a book, music, and lyrics by Melvin Van Peebles. The musical contains some material also on three of Van Peebles' albums, Brer Soul, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and As Serious as a Heart-Attack, some of which were yet to come out.
Go Radio was an American rock band from Tallahassee, Florida, formed by former Mayday Parade vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Jason Lancaster in April 2007.
"Loving You No More" is a song by American rapper and producer Diddy and his group Dirty Money, from their debut album, Last Train to Paris. It was written by Dawn Richard of the group, as well as Mario Winans and Canadian rapper Drake, the latter of whom featured on the song. Sean Garrett and his production group, Team S. Dot, receive writing and production credits, as does Miykal Snoddy. The song was released as the album's second single in the United States on September 21, 2010.
Zebulon Café Concert, also known as Zebulon, is a music venue, bar, and restaurant located in Los Angeles, California. Zebulon was originally located in Brooklyn, New York, where it operated as a combined café/bar and hosted live music until closing in December 2012. It was named as a critic's pick by New York magazine. More than four years after its original closure, Zebulon reopened in a new space in Los Angeles' Frogtown neighborhood in 2017.
"Tattoo" is the first song and single from the album, A Different Kind of Truth, from American rock band Van Halen. The single was released online and to radio stations January 10, 2012.
The Occupy Wall Street demonstrations garnered reactions of both praise and criticism from organizations and public figures in many parts of the world. Over time, a long list of notable people from a range of backgrounds began and continue to lend their support or make reference to the Occupy movement in general.
"Cat Daddy" is a 2011 song by American hip hop group The Rej3ctz. It is based on a dance of the same name and is from the 2010 mixtape TheFUNKtion vs theKICKback. "Cat Daddy" was a MTV Jams "Jam Of The Week" in January 2011. It was released for digital download on February 16, 2011, on iTunes and subsequently charted on several Billboard charts, including the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, where it spent fourteen weeks and eventually peaked at number 77, after being re-released on June 27, 2011. In 2018, the song was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.
"Lilly Done the Zampoughi Every Time I Pulled Her Coattail" is a song written by Melvin Van Peebles.
How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It), is a 2005 documentary film directed and written by Joe Angio, and produced by Michael Solomon. The film follows Melvin Van Peebles through his illustrious musical, acting, and directing career. The name comes from a controversial article that Van Peebles wrote, but never got published. Joe Angio, the director received four nominations for his film. Three of these nominations were for best documentary at the Chicago International film festival, and one nomination was at the Los Angeles Film Festival for best documentary feature.
Melvin Van Peebles was an American actor, filmmaker, writer, and composer. Over his career he recorded several albums with various musicians, and also recorded soundtracks.