The Color of Music by: Gilbert Purtee  

GEORGIA 1979

I was raised in Ohio. After moving to the deep south, cultural differences were apparent almost immediately. None where as blatant as the racial prejudices I witnessed. As a child, I was not taught that skin color made any difference in a man. I was raised in a home that believed in the proposition that all men are created equal. Here in Georgia, I met some people that were not raised with the same values.

My first cultural clash came on a date I had with a young lady I admired very much. We went to the Dairy Queen after Church and then took a ride in my GTO. I put my favorite 8-track tape into the player. It was Earth, Wind and Fire. I turned up the volume and smiled. That is when my date reached over and turned it off and said “We don’t listen to black music down here!”. I was flabbergasted.

I was not aware that Earth, Wind and Fire was playing black music. I was not aware that music had a color at all. I was bewildered as to what black music was. Earth, Wind and Fire was one of the most talented groups I knew. They performed some of the most technically challenging works on the radio. Musically speaking, they were geniuses. So what made their music black? Just because the members of the group were black does not make the music black, does it?

I asked my date to explain what black music was. She told me it was that “banging drum stuff” those black people do. I was appalled. I liked that banging drum stuff.

I asked my date about The Bee Gee’s. “Oh no”, she said “they are cool. I like Andy’s stuff”. I, for one, did not see much difference in the “banging drum” in You Should Be Dancing by the Bee Gees and Shining Star by EW&F. There must be more to it.

I then asked my date, “Is country music white or black?” You would have thought I had just spit on the confederate flag. “It is white, don’t be crazy”, she said. “Even if the singer is black?” I asked. “We don’t have black country singers” she exclaimed. “That’s just crazy”. “I think Charlie Pride is black” (remember ‘Kiss an Angel Good Morning’), I told her. She gave me a look that could kill and said, “Charlie Pride is not black, now you are just being silly”.

My first thought was how sorry I felt for this girl. The amount of wonderful music available to this young lady had been limited to just people that are Caucasian. And not just music but food, movies, places, people, friends and such, all limited by her upbringing. She had been taught to hate. It was just her cultural duty to turn off my radio.

To this day, I remember that night. I remember how I felt this young lady had been betrayed. I felt she had been denied a great deal of life because of a skin color. The worst part is how she had been denied the opportunity to make her own choice as to music, friends and other cultures. What a shame. There was a completely new and wonderful world out there she knew nothing about and did not want to know. What a loss.