It’s comedy month at theGrio, and Dear Culture promises laughs with the original series Tru’ish Black Stories. Is Randy Watson’s rendition of “The Greatest Love of All” better than Whitney’s? It’s the pop culture debate you didn’t know you needed, as Panama Jackson analyzes classic Black films that impacted the culture.
READ FULL TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:07] Okay. I’m going to start the second one now.
Panama Jackson [00:00:20] A lot more fun. What? Question again. Please state your name and title. State your name and title.
Michael Harriot [00:00:34] My name is Michael Harriot and I’m a columnist at The Grio.
Panama Jackson [00:00:39] All right. So how did you come to learn about Jackson Heights on Randy Watson? Did you happen to see his appearance on the What’s Going Down episode of That’s My Mama. That’s my mama.
Michael Harriot [00:00:50] Well, I think, you know, everybody in black America has seen that, even if they’ve only seen Randy Watson’s appearance on. That’s My Mama on YouTube. I think we all know about that. But I think most people saw that after it happened. You know, I was I was raised in a home by Randy Watson’s Faye Watson fan. You know, my grandmother used to tell me about the time where she was in a juke joint and heard somebody. Singing with the band. And this was before he joined Sexual Chocolate. And she heard this golden voiced, silky haired man singing Like an Angel. And she asked who it was, and someone named someone told her his name was Randy Watson, and since then she was like a Randy Watson stand. And so I was raised in a home where, you know, we listened to some of his early recordings on Dell Tone Records. And so I knew about, you know, I don’t want to seem like I know more than everybody else, but, you know, I know a little bit more about Randy Watson than most people.
Panama Jackson [00:02:15] All right, Jeff, could you mute yourself? We’re still hearing you and appreciate it. Where were you when you first heard his rendition of The Greatest Love of All? The greatest love of all.
Michael Harriot [00:02:31] Well, you know, when I first heard Randy Watson’s rendition of The Greatest Love of All, first of all, if you look at his recordings in the early seventies, he did a demo of that, like the actual song, The Greatest Love of All. He sang the demo before it was recorded. So, you know, and it is that early demo. You can hear him saying, you know, and I think, you know, one of the things that I always point out is I think that Randy Watson should get writing credits for that song, because in the demo it says, I believe the people are the future. And then Randy Watson said, What if we put Shearer in here and you can hear them telling him, explaining how to say children? But so again, I heard an early version of I believe that the greatest, the greatest love of all, I think is the name of the song. Even though black people, we call it, I believe the children are the future. But whatever the name of the song may be. You know that that Randy Watson song when I was growing up, it was more ubiquitous than all of the versions, including the Whitney Houston verse. That’s a name like Whitney Houston. Like she’s she’s sung almost as good as Randy Watson. Yeah, the Whitney Houston version, the version that appeared in the Muhammad Ali film. Like, you know, I’ve heard all the versions. But Randy Watson, to me is the definitive version.
Panama Jackson [00:04:26] Where so? And you answer that, too. Okay. Where does his performance of that? At the Black Awareness rally. The Black Awareness Pageant. Where does that rank in terms of live performances of a song all the time?
Michael Harriot [00:04:44] So Randy Watson’s version of I Believe that children are the future of what white people call the greatest love of all. I put it, okay, so this is my list, my top five. So at five you have well, let’s just go top three, Right? So I have, you know, Whitney Houston singing the national anthem. Then Michael Jackson’s performance at Motown 25 when he did the moonwalk, and then Randy Watson at the Black Awareness. Well, I think Randy Watson won. Michael Jackson to Whitney Houston three. I think that’s probably most people’s ranking. You know, they might flip Whitney and Michael depending on how patriotic they are. But I think that’s most people’s ranking. Randy Watson is one of the goats when it comes to live performances and that black awareness rally performance, the way he just, you know, welcomed the saxophone player who, you know, most people don’t know was a great jazz musician who taught John Coltrane. So that black awareness rally, that performance when you dissect it, is really one of the greats of all time.
Panama Jackson [00:06:12] Talk to me about sexual chocolate as a band.
Michael Harriot [00:06:18] So sexual chocolate as a band. So sexual chocolate is. Most people know it, as you know, one of the great bands of all time. You know, you have France in a revolution. You have sex with chocolate. You have maybe the Jackson five. Earth, Wind and Fire, Parliament. You know, out of those five. Pick one. Right. And sexual chocolate. One of the things about sex with chocolate is the versatility, right? You have a saxophone player. You have, you know, Randy Watson’s ability to sing almost anything. Like you have the drummer who was just in the background, looked like he was eating chips and. But but I think what separates sexual chocolate. Is there a connection to the people? Would Prince be at a black awareness rally in Jackson Heights? I mean, I love Prince, but, you know, I haven’t seen footage of him at one black awareness rally. You know, George Clinton was, you know, strung out on drugs. And that’s one thing you can say about really was, you know, that was it of Ebony. Everybody knows about that brief period in the late seventies when, you know, he was doing shrooms. But other than that, Randy Watson never had a problem with drugs. You know, some people say that he had an addiction problem with Jerry Crow juice. I like to point out that that was in escrow. But other than that, sexual chocolate is one of the great bands of all time. And unlike, you know, other bands with similar talent like Shalamar, they never broke up. Right. You never once heard about sexual chocolate not wanting to go on tour because they couldn’t stand to be around each other or needing separate tour busses. They are the definitive R&B. Black awareness rally in a suburb. Sponsored by a fast food bootleg franchise. They are the definitive band of that genre.
Panama Jackson [00:08:56] Do you think Randy Watson is a style icon? I like.
Michael Harriot [00:09:03] Well. Aside from being a great singer, you have to consider Randy Watson as a style icon. You know, I think Randy Watson was the first person they. Well, so people say that Randy Watson was the first one who wore a powder blue tuxedo. But, you know, if you know the back story, if you read his autobiography, I chocolate m sexual. If you read that autobiography, you see that that, you know, sexual chocolate was on tour. And they had played, I think, like 20 or 30 dates. And those tuxedos had begun to stink. Stink. And they were originally Royal Blue and Randy Watson, because he was so privileged because of his sexuality. He always had a woman around to wash his clothes. He didn’t know that you weren’t supposed to put bleach in colored clothes. He accidentally. Bleached a powder. A royal blue tuxedo. And the rest is fashion history. And so not only was he a style icon, he was an accidental style icon. He was one of the first people to endorse the S curl. And you recall that’s why he he spanned Jheri curl genres, span hair, product genres. He. I heard that his daughter was an endorser of just for me. So I think Randy Watson is is he changed fashion history and style history like you know we are all the children of Randy Watson when it comes to style and fashion.
Panama Jackson [00:11:01] How has Randy Watson’s performance of The Greatest Love of All, or I believe the Children of our Future inspired you in your own life? In your own life?
Michael Harriot [00:11:12] Well. First of all, when Randy Watson has inspired me in so many ways whenever I see children. I think of Randy Watson. Because, you know, I always thought of children as, you know, a reminder of the past. You know, what happens when two people love each other and they decide to. Well, you know, the birds and the bees. I don’t have to get into all of that. But, you know, Randy Watson changed my thinking because I had never thought about children as the future until until Randy was just think about that. Right. You know, most people thought of children as something that exists in the present. And so Randy Watson reminded us of his beliefs. And then he didn’t just tell us what he believes. He commanded us to teach them will live because we got to let them lead the way. And that is the thing that Randy Watson has given to the world. And I think about that. Every day, at least once a day. You know, I believe in a lot of things. I believe that you have to put your cereal in the bowl before you put your milk in the bowl. I believe that we are all connected. I believe that there is a higher power, whether it is love or an invisible man in the sky or the universe or nature. And I believe. That children are the future. Randy Watson. Didn’t just give us a song at a black awareness rally. He gave us a Negro spiritual. That will guide generations when you think about it. I don’t know. A black child in America. Who doesn’t know about that performance. And then just think about that. There was a little place in a little town that, you know, aside from the controversy of Lisa McDowell, you know, stealing that that that beauty contest, because we know she should wear them and come on, like everybody knows, like she was she should have won that beauty contest. But aside from that controversy and you know that Stop the steal movement that emerged from it when Lisa Dow won the Jackson Heights beauty contest at the Black Awareness rally, what people remember about that and across the world really is that performance. It is. It is America’s. It is black America’s version of like when the Beatles went on Ed Sullivan or when when Dolly Parton went on Hee Haw. Dolly Parton has been on. He helped heal, right? Well, yeah. So that’s what Randy Watson’s performance symbolizes to us.
Panama Jackson [00:14:41] All right, last question. Last question. Who are the greatest singers of all time? I mean, the top five greatest singers of all time.
Michael Harriot [00:14:51] Okay, Top five. I’m going to have to say five. Aretha. For. Luther. Three. Marvin Gaye. To. Whitney Houston, because I Whitney has seen and I want to kind of go off book, but there’s really no way that you can be a legitimate. Music critic or even have any kind of be taken seriously, really in the world. If you don’t put Randy Watson at number one, it’s like saying like, Oh no, this is probably like saying like you can debate over who the best basketball player was of all time, but you got to have if you don’t have Jordan in your top five, if you don’t have Randy Watson in your top five singers, if you don’t have Serena Williams as your top tennis player, then you really don’t know what you’re talking about. Randy Watson, the goat, he’s right up there with, you know, Jesus is one of the top five deities of all times or children of deities, depending on where you stand. And Randy Watson is the Jesus of Black Awareness Rally Singers.
Panama Jackson [00:16:21] Thank you, Mr. Harriet. Literally everything I could possibly ask for. That was perfect. All right, that’s it, Jeff. Man, that was great.
Michael Harriot [00:16:34] All right, man. I’m glad I you.
Speaker 1 [00:16:37] All right, Michael, as soon as you can. I’m going to be starting on this one first in the series. So thank you so much for your work today. And. Shoot either Sasha or my. John Slack it when you start that.
Michael Harriot [00:16:51] Okay, I’m starting it now. It’s all right. See, I let it out.
Speaker 1 [00:16:59] For over another hour.
Panama Jackson [00:17:08] I think what I probably need more help is because.
