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ADRIENNE SAMUELS GIBBSADRIENNE SAMUELS GIBBS on February 9, 2015
Beyonce performs during Grammy Awards on Sunday. | Larry Busacca/Getty Images
ANOINTED DEBATE: SHOULD BEYONCE HAVE SUNGANOINTED DEBATE: SHOULD BEYONCE HAVE SUNGCHICAGO’S OWN ‘PRECIOUS LORD’CHICAGO’S OWN ‘PRECIOUS LORD’
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Beyonce in her angel dress at the Grammys. | John Shearer/Invision/APBeyonce in her angel dress at the Grammys. | John Shearer/Invision/AP
There’s something everyone should know when considering and analyzing Beyonce’s
Grammy performance of Thomas Dorsey‘s gut-wrenching gospel staple “Take My
Hand, Precious Lord.”
It’s this: The song was written after Dorsey’s wife and newborn baby died and he
writhed in pain, begging God to take even a piece of the hurt away. And anyone who is
familiar with the African-American church — funerals in particular — has heard this
song sung with a gut-punch. It’s not upbeat. It’s not fast. Rather, it’s poignant and
intended to show how God does heal the singer and, as many in the black church
might say, it offers proof of the “comforter” of the Holy Spirit.
It’s not a song to be sung lightly or without consideration. And that’s why there is a
schism between those who appreciated Beyonce’s literal, angel-in-a-see-through-
dress translation of the song and those who preferred Ledisi’s rendition (as Mahalia
Jackson) in the movie “Selma.”
Reporter Adrienne Samuels Gibbs saw this on a friend’sReporter Adrienne Samuels Gibbs saw this on a friend’s
Facebook timeline this morning in response to aFacebook timeline this morning in response to a
Beyonce post.Beyonce post.
Beyonce also swiftly came online today to post a video explaining why she asked to
sing the song. Being that Chicago’s Pilgrim Baptist Church is the home of Dorsey and
the birthplace of gospel music, it is only fair that local musicians and ministers weigh
in on the controversy.
Grammy-nominated gospel producer Percy Bady, who sits on the local Grammy
chapter, says he woke up to a Facebook timeline chock-full of judgments. “The
concern is this: Look, this is a staple for us who grew up in the black church,” says the
well-known producer who has years in the industry and is the minister of music for
New Life Covenant Church. “And, coming out of Pilgrim Baptist Church here in
Chicago, there’s a reverence that we have. No disrespect to Beyonce; she can sing
anything. But, her rendition of ‘Precious Lord’ did not move me. It’s one of those
songs you sing from another place.”
He goes on. “I saw it for
what it was: She
performed. I
wasn’t expecting to be slain
in the spirit and wallowing
on the floor or anything. It
almost makes you wonder if
this was a situation where
the Grammys said, ‘Hey,
this is what we’re gonna
d0.'”
Bady is not alone. Many of
Chicago’s Facebook pundits
are saying they believe
Beyonce really sang the
song because that’s the only
way the Grammys could get
the superstar to show up for
the telecast. The official
word, however, from John
Legend, is that Beyonce
asked, and he and Common said yes.
Regardless. It’s the talk of the town for churchfolk everywhere. The memes alone
— some of them using Jackson’s image — are to die for. And of course Black Twitter
very quickly created the hashtag #beysus, which was trending by midafternoon the
day after the show.
“It wasn’t a bad performance,” says Walt Whitman, founder of the Soul Children of
Chicago. “It wasn’t like she was horrible, but maybe it wasn’t the power piece that
would best represent that piece of music.”
But, says Whitman, there’s the political side of the performance as well. “There’s so
many different levels to this that you’re dealing with. You had all those gospel artists
in the room and any one of them could have killed it, but you chose not to. And in
some cases, I believe they just don’t know. We’re making assumptions that the people
[who produce] the Grammys know about anointing.”
And here’s Whitman’s clincher: “We’re not dealing with church. We’re dealing with
people who do music as a profession, and they are looking at numbers and the
bottom line for the TV show.”
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The general consensus of those interviewed here is that Queen Bey was not there to
bring people to God — and perhaps it was unfair to expect that she might. She’s a
secular, not a gospel, artist. “Beyonce did what Beyonce does: She performed,” says
singer and Deacon Joi Buchanan-Johnson, also one of the conductors for the woman’s
choir at Trinity United Church of Christ. “There is a difference between performance
and ministry. If you’ve heard the song, you know it was a song that comforted you.
And visually [she] has this semi-see-through dress on. Beyonce is a performer to her
bone.”
Other pundits say the entire incident — including a so-called “snub” against singer
Ledisi, who portrayed Mahalia Jackson and sang “Precious Lord” in the movie — was
contrived in order to get more people to talk about the controversy and
increase ratings. And on that end, all agreed that Ledisi was gracious in her response
to ET’s Kevin Frazier when asked about it:
“What I will say and what I’m excited about is that I had the pleasure of playing an
iconic figure in ‘Selma,’ and the song, ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord,’ it’s been going
on forever — starting with the queen, Mahalia [Jackson], the queen of soul Aretha
Franklin,” said the soul singer. “Then, I was able to portray and sing my version of
the song, and now we have Beyoncé. Her generation will now know the song, so I’m a
part of history.”
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Daily Sizzle Movies Television The 312
Beyonce Grammys precious lord thomas dorsey
ADRIENNE SAMUELS GIBBSAdrienne Samuels Gibbs covers arts, culture andentertainment for the Chicago Sun-Times. Tweet her@adriennewrites or email [email protected]. A Chicagonative, she's proud of her Morgan Park Mustangs and herNorthwestern Wildcats. She lives on the South Side.
@ADRIENNEWRITES#
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