THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE: O-o-h Child

This was originally written as an entry in my weekly 10 Songs feature. It was also penciled in for use using in my long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), but is not part of that project's current blueprint.

An infinite number of tracks can each be THE greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Today, this is THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE!

THE FIVE STAIRSTEPS: O-o-h Child

Written by Stan Vincent

Produced by Stan Vincent

Single, Buddah Records, 1970

For decades, I thought of the Five Stairsteps' sublime 1970 soul hit "O-o-h Child" as a song of comfort offered by a parent to a distraught child, rather than as a larger call for peace in times of social strife. Now I realize that it's both, and the song still resonates in that sense today. Black lives matter. You can say that all lives matter, sure, but all lives can't matter unless black lives matter, too. Our troubles continue, with no immediate path to deliverance. 

But things are gonna get easier. Someday, when the world is much brighter. We can allow ourselves the soothing balm of reassurance, the bond of love, family, friendship, unity, all blessed to us in song. And we'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun, eyes fixed on the prize. 

Someday.

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This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.