God Bless The Child
Monday Vinyl by Kerry Zagarella
This week’s Monday Vinyl features the music from the rock jazz genius sound of Blood Sweat and Tears’ second album, Blood Sweat and Tears. This album, released in 1970 immediately hit the charts and maintained a high rating for several weeks. This record seemed to have always been a part of my childhood, especially when I was younger growing up in Miami, Florida for the first 10 years of my life. But in reality, it wasn’t. It was released when I was 10 years old and living in Massachusetts. I attribute this time warp delusion to the visceral impact of this record. The horns are prominent in all the songs, like the band Chicago, those horns vibrate through you aiming directly for your soul; and they always reach their destination.
I chose the song, God Bless the Child, to honor my mother, who as a young mother of 17 years old in the late 1950s faced many struggles. The lyrics written by Billie Holiday and Arthur Herzog describe the good fortune of children who grow up to be economically self-sufficient, and at the same time, the song explores the reality of shame for those children who need to seek financial help from family members- “Rich relations give crusts of bread and such. You can help yourself, but don’t take too much” (lyrics).
My mom fell in love with my dad and got pregnant while she was a senior at a private catholic all girls high school in Peabody. They were married in the back yard of her family’s home. The morning of the wedding my mom was asked to shower outside using a garden hose so that others could use the indoor shower. She did wear white, but her dress looked more like a first communion dress in the pictures. She was very young. After the birth of my brother, they moved to Florida and my father became a police officer, while my mom was a homemaker. Once alcoholism stepped into the picture and wrestled my dad for the rest of his short life, they lived in poverty. My mother always had to borrow money from family members, and that couldn’t have been easy.
I always thought this song was about being a single mom and doing whatever it took to feed your family. It is a bit more nuanced than that. Billie Holiday claimed the lyrics came to her after a fight about money with her mother and Billie saying to her mom, “God Bless the Child that got it’s own”. “Got it’s own” turns out to mean can economically care for oneself. I always thought it was a plea for heavenly intervention to help the mother; God bless the young single mom trying to raise a baby on her own.
When a song can mean different things to different people, and even different things to the same people on a different day marks an artistry of lyrics and musical composition. This song has that timeless quality. Billie Holiday brings a deep melancholy to it and Blood Sweat and Tears blasts the message with an earthquaking horn section. If you haven’t heard this album, cue it up and prepare yourself.
Billy Holiday Live performance
Blood Sweat and Tears live performance
XOXO Happy Mother’s Day, especially to the moms doing the job of many. XOXO
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