My kids can always tell when I’m listening to a song by the “Elements of the Universe, ladies and gentlemen,” as the jocks on old black radio would sometimes introduce Earth, Wind and Fire. I’d close my eyes and twist up my face. I’d tighten my fists as the horns would rise. By the time the lyrics settled about my head, I was already gone. Singing along. Feeling a sacred pull in all my secular places.
It was: You need devotion. Bless the children.
It was: If you look way down in your heart and soul , don't hesitate 'cause the world seems cold ...
It was: Now, I'm craving your body, is this real? Temperatures rising, I don't want to feel. I'm in the wrong place to be real.
When my husband called to say that Maurice White, 74, who founded Earth, Wind and Fire in the late 1960s had died of Parkinson’s disease Thursday, I was already grieving. White wrote many of the hits for the group, which won six Grammy Awards, sold 90 million records worldwide and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But they meant so much more than that. It’s impossible to pick your favorite Earth, Wind and Fire song, because it’s always the one that’s playing right now. We grew up listening, putting our needles on their records with our brothers and sisters. “They took it to the cosmic,” my husband, Tom, said, and he’s right about that.
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When I was a child and the world was black, God emceed and Earth, Wind and Fire was the house band. They lifted us and told us exactly who we were.
You’re a shining star, no matter who you are,
Shining bright to see, what you can truly be.
I suppose I could translate. I could tell you that they didn’t get any bigger than EWF in the 1970s and ‘80s. They were to R&B what Led Zeppelin was to classic rock; funk and soul at its zenith in the culture, the foundation of any playlist built around the genre.
Donnie Simpson, who has had one of the most storied careers in radio and hosts a weekday program on WMMJ-FM, had just done an EWF triple play on Thursday afternoon. “We were all talking on the air and I said Earth, Wind and Fire was the greatest band ever, without a doubt,” Simpson says. “I was talking about the fact that they were firing on all cylinders. Obviously great musicians, with Philip Bailey and Maurice White up front singing. And they had the whole spiritualism thing going. We were singing all the praises of Earth, Wind and Fire, then an hour later, I get this text telling me Maurice White had died.”
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The last song he'd played, “All About Love,” was “the one that defined Earth, Wind and Fire for me,” Simpson says.
You know, like, we study
All kinds of sciences ... astrology an’ mysticism an’ world religion
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And like, ah, coming from a hip place
All these things help
Because they give you an insight to your inner self.
Have mercy!
Now there’s a outer self we gotta deal with; ya know
The one that likes to go to parties,
One that likes to dress up,
Be cool, look pretty, on ego trips and all this.
And so, um, hey, y’all,
I’m trying to tell you, you gotta love you.
Gotta love all the beautiful things around you, trees and birds.
And if there ain’t no beauty,
You got to make some beauty, have mercy!
“Man, please,” says Simpson. “That just makes me so full, hearing that. I played that song for a million people over the years, because that’s me right there.” The music wasn’t just hit song after hit song, Simpson says. It was character building. “It was about life, about bettering you. ... And appreciating life and love. It’s the most basic thing, but that song is all about love.”
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Simpson talks about White’s signature kalimba, the African thumb piano he played in his songs. “I can only say it was great, and he was brilliant. I adored the man to no end. To have all this God-given talent, what a blessing. On top of that, he worked at it. He was a perfectionist.”
Simpson is dedicating his Friday show to White.
I don’t have a show. I’m just going to listen as my husband sings “Reasons” in my ear. I’m just going to commune with the Elements of the Universe, play Earth, Wind and Fire on continuous loop and think about what my life can truly be.
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