[TonyB06]

from the 7/4 blackamericaweb.com:


Commentary: R.I.P., Luther – The Man Who Made Us Believe in the Power of Love
Date: Monday, July 04, 2005
By: Deborah Mathis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

How did you do it, Luther?

How did you take so many ordinary men and ordinary women in so many ordinary moments and infuse them with romance and passion?

How did you transport us, time and again, by putting a soundtrack to the sweetest moments of our lives? And the most aching.

Goin’ out of my head
Over you.

And the most heartbreaking.

Darling, have a heart.
Don’t let one mistake keep us apart.

Nature and fate surely had a big hand in it. You must have been born with that voice. And aren’t we lucky that, way back when, David Bowie had the soulfulness and insight to notice it? And that Roberta Flack eventually pushed you out there, away from the backup microphones and onto center stage?

We loved you from the very beginning, Luther. You gave us a break from, first, the driving beats of disco and, later, the groan and growls of hip hop. You were the antidote to gangsta rap, remembering that there’s nothing like a love song, nothing like tenderness, nothing like remembrance.

Bye-bye sadness
Hello mellow

How we had hoped that you would recover from that stroke and the subsequent maladies that kept you sequestered from an adoring and respectful public. Maybe those eight Grammys and rows of platinum albums reassured you that you were beloved, even when we couldn’t see you and weren’t sure how you were faring.

But, oh, how we would have showered you if you could have bewitched us in person just one more time. To hear those dulcet tones again, skipping round the scale, leaping to the high ranges and landing so softly, precisely, thrillingly.

Let me take you home
To keep you safe and warm
Till the early dawn
Warms up to the sun
It would be so nice if only for one night

Your death on Friday was the second shock of the day._ Sandra Day O’Connor’s impending retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court shook things up first.

Pundits and social observers are preoccupied with O’Connor’s legacy. You would understand the importance. A Supreme Court justice helps tighten or loosen the hem around liberty and justice for not only his or her contemporaries but, possibly and often, for generations.

But you leave a legacy too, Luther. And it is a rich one because, in sharing your gift with us, you removed the hard edges off our lives and sang us to sleep on nights that were not meant to be forgotten.

Our children will know your music too; we’ll see to that. So, long from now, you’ll still be reminding us about the power of love.

Never dreamed that he would be gone from me
If I could steal one final glance, one final step, one final dance with him
I’d play a song that would never, ever end.