Love, that's America

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"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.

Melvin Van Peebles American actor

Melvin "Block" Van Peebles is an American actor, filmmaker, playwright, novelist and composer.

<i>Watermelon Man</i> (film) 1970 film by Melvin Van Peebles

Watermelon Man is a 1970 American comedy-drama 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.

<i>As Serious as a Heart-Attack</i> album by Melvin Van Peebles

As Serious As A Heart-Attack is a 1971 spoken word album by Melvin Van Peebles. This is Van Peebles third studio record. The album's cover can be briefly glimpsed on the bathroom door in the 1973 film version of Van Peebles' musical Don't Play Us Cheap.

Contents

Song development

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 Magazine's Oct 31, 1970 issue. [3]

Video

Love thats america youtube.png

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]

Occupy Wall Street 2011 protest movement

Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing protest movement that began on September 17, 2011, in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Wall Street financial district, against economic inequality.

Zebulon Cafe Concert

Zebulon Cafe Concert was a cafe/bar in Brooklyn that hosted live music shows, before it closed in December 2012. It was considered a critic's pick by New York magazine.

Brooklyn Borough in New York City and county in New York state, United States

Brooklyn is the most populous borough of New York City, with an estimated 2,648,771 residents in 2017. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, it borders the borough of Queens at the western end of Long Island. Brooklyn has several bridge and tunnel connections to the borough of Manhattan across the East River, and the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge connects it with Staten Island. Since 1896, Brooklyn has been coterminous with Kings County, the most populous county in the U.S. state of New York and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, after New York County.

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Mario Van Peebles American actor

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References

  1. ↑ Frank Beacham (2011-10-23). "Frank Beacham's Journal: Melvin Van Peebles' 41-Year-Old Protest Song". Beachamjournal.com. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  2. ↑ Billboard - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1970-08-29. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  3. ↑ Billboard - Google Books. Books.google.com. 1970-10-31. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  4. ↑ "Occupy Wall Street montage to the song "Love, That's America" by Melvin Van Peebles #OWS". YouTube. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  5. ↑ "Melvin Van Peebles starting residency @ Zebulon, supports Occupy Wall Street". Brooklynvegan.com. 2011-10-27. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  6. ↑ Clifford (2011-10-27). "Occupy… at Asymptotia". Asymptotia.com. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  7. ↑ "Zebulon cafe concert". Zebulon cafe concert. 2011-11-08. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  8. ↑ "Melvin Van Peebles Supports The Occupy Wall Street Movement With His 1971 Song From "Watermelon Man" | Shadow and Act". Blogs.indiewire.com. 2011-11-21. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  9. ↑ "Welcome..." Facebook. 2011-11-16. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  10. ↑ [ dead link ]
  11. ↑ "İşgal hareketi şarkılarla büyüyor / Hayat / Radikal İnternet". Radikal.com.tr. Retrieved 2012-01-13.
  12. ↑ "Legendary musician and film maker Melvin Van Peebles shows some love", ClicCloc, January 25, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Melvin Van Peebles: Love, That’s Occupy Wall Street, MetroFocus, February 22, 2012.
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