Original Broadway Cast – Go Where I Send Thee 1962
Langston Hughes was the original and best gay rapper. Political rapper too. Very good.
One of the many things on his CV is adapting the story of the nativity for the stage. For 160 gospel singers on the stage. A whole lot of Jesus.
The production is mostly made up of well known carols sung gospel style but includes some original Hughes songs. The original production opened on Broadway in 1961 (which was some feat for an all black musical) and featured an all-star gospel cast including Marion Williams, Princess Stewart and Alex Bradford.
They’ve performed it 38 years in a row in Boston, I think its a bit of an institution.
Mixing stage shows and gospel, strips the gospel of some of its church fire but perhaps leaves it a little tidier, which on this recording often makes the soloists’ voices stand out more than usual.
The production came to London on tour in the early 60s and was by all accounts a phenomenal success, attracting secular audiences not used to such fervour in British theatres. Apparently your Rolling Stones and the like were there, nicking ideas and minstrelling it up, bless ‘em.
You can get the album on CD now and if you like the above rendition of “Children, go where I send thee”, I reccomend you do. It’s a fine meeting of traditions, performed with all the fire and passion of a vengeful god. Very good.
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Langston Hughes gets name dropped a bunch of times in the musical ‘Rent’ as one of the people the characters aspire to be most.
Comment by Becca 29.05.07 @ 2:39 pmAre there any gay rappers of note now? When I was 12 the crazy creativity of record scratching and sampling blew my mind. My best friend used to mix and sample between cassette tapes before he got a record player and we made our own t-shirts with glow in the dark paint. Then it seemed to became all about overly macho posing and I started listening to the Smiths instead. I wish somebody would come along who got the local kids dressing up in geeky sunglasses and inventing new things instead of doing that fake limp strut and staring me down like they’re straight outta jail.
Please prescribe me some camp rap listening, Doctor B.
Comment by Special K 04.06.07 @ 8:59 amYo spesh,
i saw this interview the other day, theres a lotta links at the bottom of the page
http://www.ukhh.com/features/interviews/johnny_dangerous/index.html
Comment by Hurk 06.06.07 @ 5:32 pmIt’s an absolutely awesome album – well I have the 1968 broadway version (they appear now an then on ebay) and if you haven’t heard it, you’ve missed a treat. I missed out on the 60’s tour (not being quite born yet!) I’ve just seen its on in New York again – well, it would be worth the flight from the UK just to see/experience it performed live. Since I got my Cd version in the summer (all the way from Australia!) I have played it considerably and at least now I can do so and get into the Christmas spirit!
Comment by Su 16.11.07 @ 10:30 pmLeave a comment