The Overlooked Activist Power Of Marlena Shaw

Morning Edition’s series called One-Hit Wonders / Second-Best Songs focuses on musicians or bands whose careers in the United States are defined by a single monster hit, and explains why their catalogs have much more to offer. In this installment, Emily Lordi — an Associate Professor of English at Vanderbilt University and the author of the upcoming book The Meaning of Soul: Black Music and Resilience Since the 1960s — argues that we should know more about Marlena Shaw, whose 1969 song, “California Soul,” has since been sampled by hip-hop producers and used in TV commercials. Read Lordi in her own words below, and hear the radio version at the audio link. Marlena Shaw is a really extraordinary soul/jazz singer. She was never quite as well-known as she might have been, in part because she was hard to categorize. ” California Soul ” is a cool song, but its lyrics are kind of ridiculous. They don’t really say anything except for, like, “California’s cool,” “People are in love,” you know?