Pied Piper - Bob and Marcia/Crispian St Peters

Bob and Marcia were a Jamaican vocal duo, Bob Andy and Marcia Griffiths. They had a hit with Nina Simone's Young, Gifted and Black in 1970 and followed it up the next year with Pied Piper. In both cases there are original Jamaican versions and then popular versions with added orchestration. Pied Piper was actually written by the duo The changin' times ie Steve Duboff and Artie Kornfeld. They had reached the lower end of the charts with it in 1965. British pop singer Crispian St Peters (Robin Peter Smith) had then recorded it and scored a major hit in the summer of 1966. It had also been recorded by Cher and then Rita Marley.

The song's title is, of course, from the German folklore fairy tale that was written up in poetic form by Robert Browning in the nineteenth century. Hence the flutes and whistles on the versions under review here. In the original story the town of Hamelin is over-run by rats but the city officials hire a rat-catcher to rid the place of vermin. He wears a costume that looks somewhat like a court jester and plays a magic flute, which leads all the rats away. The town then refuses to pay him, so in anger he does the same thing with the flute, this time leading away the children.

The lyrical problem here is that the Pied Piper character is trying to persuade a reluctant and nervous character that all will be well if they will follow him. And yet if they know anything about the Pied Piper story, they will continue to be cynical. The tune is so joyful, however, especially in the reggae-fied Bob and Marcia version, it is hard not to be convinced that this man is worth following.

To be young, gifted and black - Bob and Marcia

Being neither young, black or particularly gifted, it may be difficult to see why I like Bob (Andy) and Marcia (Griffith)'s 1970 hit To be young gifted and black as much as I do. It is partly the very positive nature of the song, I guess ("We must begin to tell our young There's a world waiting for you This is a quest that's just begun") with its bouncy, infectious and (for me) unusual reggae beat. For years I heard it on the radio and didn't catch what they were actually saying in the chorus! It is also partly an awareness of the history of people of colour and their oppression. It is somehow a relief to know that in 1968, despite everything, Bob and Marcia at least, and no doubt many others, could sing in this very positive way about being young, gifted and black. After years of being told you had to be older, white and from another class, they appear to have woken up one morning with this wonderful realisation that in fact that wasn't so. I don't think the song is meant to be racist or ageist or elitist for that matter. It is a reaction rather to the hegemony of a rich, white, older generation that seemed to have dominated everything until this point in time. The song is actually addressed to their contemporaries and is saying that being black is not a disadvantage but, in the day's new climate, a potential asset, especially if you also have youth and talent on your side. Bob and Marcia's version is the best known though it was first recorded by Nina Simone. It was written with her band leader, the late Weldon Irvine, and was intended as an homage to her long time friend, playwright Lorraine Hansberry (best known for Raisin in the Sun). Inevitably, it became something of an anthem among the young, gifted and black of the title and was also recorded by Donny Hathaway and Aretha Franklin, who made it the title track on her 1972 album. Despite my lack of qualification I take the first verse quite literally and so make it mine - "To be young, gifted and black, Oh what a lovely precious dream ... Open your heart to what I mean. Whatever the doubts or regrets you have to believe in yourself" – this is the authenticate voice of humanism. Here it happens to be black humanism but it is no different to secular humanism of other hues. It will take you so far but what an awakening a person will face if they think being young or old, gifted or privileged, black or white guarantees him anything in this life, let alone anything in the next.