Growing up on "The Other Side of Town"

[Troy]

This song, "The Other Side of Town," by Curtis Mayfield is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite artists.  It came out in 1970, but I was an adult before I first heard it -- if I heard it before them I probably could not appreciate it.

 

It is a very sad song in many was. It reminds my of the lives, and contributions to society, that were lost because people grew up impoverished.  It also make me think of the comments @Gibran and @Pioneer1 made in earlier conversation where people do something dumb because some negative remnant of their upbringing presents itself.

 

Know know folks who have completely derailed their lives because -- they let the ghetto comes out of them.  I'm not immune to it either, but I've been lucky (relatively speaking).

 

 

 

[Pioneer1]

Something tells me Maurice is going get up from the chair and do a "I just hit the number" dance if he clicks on to this thread....lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Complete Lyrics to:  The Other Side Of Town

 

Quote

 

I'm from the other side of town
Out of bounds
To anybody who don't live around
I never learned to share
Or how to care
I never had no teachings about being fair

Depression is part of my mind
The sun never shine
On the other side of town
The need here is always for more
There's nothing good in store
On the other side of town

It's hard to do right
In this filthy night
Just plain simple comfort
Is completely out of sight
My little sister
She hungry for bread to eat
My brother's hand-me-down shoes
Is now showing his feet

Ghetto blues showed on the news
All is aware
But what the hell do they care?
You across the track
Completely relaxed
You take a warning fact
Don't you never come back

 

I'm from the other side of town
Out of bounds
To anybody who don't live around
I never learned to share
Or how to care
I never had no teachings about being fair

Depression is part of my mind
The sun never shine
On the other side of town
The need here is always for more
There's nothing good in store
On the other side of town

Oh, baby
It's hard to do right, you know
On the other side of town
This depression really got a hold on me
Oh, baby, on the other side of town
The other side of town
Out of bounds

 

 

 

[Pioneer1]

When Curtis said:

I never learned to share
Or how to care
I never had no teachings about being fair

I found that interesting.....
Because most people of color I know who grew up poor were among the BEST at sharing!
The poorer they were, the better they were at it.

I remember when I was about 4 or 5 and I was with my older brother who was only a child himself.
We were in the projects and somehow got lost from our cousins on our way back from the store.
While wandering around from building to building we ran into a bunch of other kids who invited us to go play with them and we played half the day not even caring about how worried our aunt probably was.....lol.

When one of the kid's mother called them back home she must have saw we were lost or not from the area and invited us up to have dinner with them and help us get back to our family.

I still remember us two sitting down at a big ass table with a bunch of other little kids while that nice woman piled neck bones, greens, macaroni, and a big ass piece of corn bread on our plates!

You know how they used to do in the ghetto....piling EVERYTHING on one big plate, lol.

 

That was back in the 70s and man.....I STILL get feelings just thinking about it!

I thought that woman was so nice.
I have numerous stories I could tell about the love and sharing I've experienced from people who were REALLY in poverty.

Poor people tend to be better at caring about others in the community also.
 

[Troy]

@Maurice is the resident Mayfield expert, but I believe for the song to really resonate, unless you are super empathic, you have to have grown up in a ghetto.  What do you think?

 

3 minutes ago, Pioneer1 said:

Because most people of color I know who grew up poor were among the BEST at sharing!

 

Think about all the Black on Black crime in the ghettos, how we rob each -- even from their own families. The lessons learned in the home is different that the ones learned on the street. 

 

The default is distrust, that was called being "street smart." In the wider world it is paranoia, for most people are not going to rob you as you walk down the street.  

 

Moving through life distrusting everyone is stressful, carrying that mentality into the wider world, where it is not necessary is just as stressful.  It prevents you from really engaging with the world.

[Pioneer1]

Troy

 

 but I believe for the song to really resonate, unless you are super empathic, you have to have grown up in a ghetto.  What do you think?

 

I think you're right in for the MOST part.
However I'll say you don't necessarily have to actually "grow up" there for the song to resonate and you relate to it if you had regular contact with it.

We didn't actually "grow up" in the ghetto.
We grew up in what rarely exists in America today known as a "Black working class" neighborhood.

Unless you grew up in Chicago, or Detroit, or Atlanta, or St. Louis, or some other mostly Black city with a wide variety of AfroAmericans in different socio-economic classes....most people aren't going to be familiar with that.

Most Black folks in other parts of the country only know ghetto and suburbs...lol.

But we didn't live around poverty or wealth.
Just blocks and blocks of Black folks who worked in factory and civil service jobs.

 

 

 

But ALL of us in the neighborhood had 2 things in common:

1. We ALL had relatives who lived in the ghetto/projects.

2. We ALL had relatives who still lived down South in Mississippi, Georgia, and the Carolinas...lol.
 

We (meaning every family in the neighborhood) would visit the latter occasionally and the former REGULARLY.

And the REASON we used to visit our relatives in the ghetto regularly was to keep THEM from coming over and visiting US....lol.

No offense to YOU Troy (because I remember you saying you were from the projects)....but the adults didn't want yall bringing your ghetto selves and your little bad ass kids over to our neighborhoods and causing trouble or embarrassing us.....LOL.

Getting drunk, shouting, and pulling out knives and pistols...lol.

But my point is most of us knew from first hand experience what poverty and ghetto life was like and could relate to much of what was being talked about based on our direct connections to it without having to have had immersed ourselves in it.
 

 

 

 

The lessons learned in the home is different that the ones learned on the street. 

 

This is true.
The reason being is because most of the homes in the ghetto are ran by WOMEN, while the streets are primarily ran by MEN.
 

Different natures with different expectations.

You can sweet talk mamma and give her a hug or a kiss to get her to give you a break or cut you some slack.

But you ain't gonna hug or kiss Junior or Jamaal...atleast not back THEN.....lol.

If you don't give THEM cats what you promised you would, they're going to hemm your ass up in a alley or vacant building some where and whoop that ass (if you're lucky)....lol.

 

 

 

 

Moving through life distrusting everyone is stressful, carrying that mentality into the wider world, where it is not necessary is just as stressful.  It prevents you from really engaging with the world.
 

Not for me.
I think it depends on the LEVEL.

I've said many times I have a healthy distrust of most Caucasians and it has helped me tremendously.
I don't go around with a chip on my shoulder....I'm just aware of people and the tricks they may try to play.

As long as you maintain a low level of suspicion of most people's intentions...especially people you just come across, you're gonna be SAFE and it will keep you out of a lot of unnecessary danger.

But if you're walking around on DefCon 4 all the time with no reason to be, ofcourse you're going to wear down your adrenalin glands.

 

 

"Hell naw you can't help me!
Why you want to help ME?
All of these white folks walking
around  in the department store
and YO ass is following ME around
asking how you can help ME.....
For fucking WHAT????
Cuz I'm BLACK????
HUH????
Is THAT why you wanna help me muthafu...."
 

[Pioneer1]

It's hard to describe it but their is a certain type of tension and hostility that exists in the United States that most AfroAmericans don't notice until they LEAVE the United States for other Western nations and then come back home...then it's readily noticeable. 

I used to go to Canada a lot and as soon as I crossed the border I immediately sensed a diff

I believe AfroAmericans (most humans but AfroAmericans especially) are very sensitive and highly tuned to the emotions of those around us.
It's what helps us survive.
And much of the tension and our behavior is in RESPONSE to the hostility and hatred from other peoples that we can "sense" even if they don't act on it or say a word.
 

[Maurice]

My fav album by Curtis. Roots a very close second.

Very interesting thread. And I wasn't born in the ghetto, not if you class the East End as a ghetto which it isn't. 

[Chevdove]

On 11/7/2020 at 9:58 AM, Troy said:

This song, "The Other Side of Town," by Curtis Mayfield is one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite artists.  It came out in 1970, but I was an adult before I first heard it -- if I heard it before them I probably could not appreciate it.

 

Wow!