But short of that, a Honda Fit would work.
You’ll get the same effect as you cruise past empty storefronts; past a man sleeping in the doorway of an abandoned factory; past vacant houses with legal documents taped to the picture windows as a grim reminder that you, too, are only a pink slip away from losing it all.
“Havin’ hard times,” he sings, “in this crazy town.”
The music sounds exactly like something out of a ’70s blaxploitation flick — and the imagery matches.
Only it’s not 1972 and this is no movie, although the album’s fifth song, “Little Ghetto Boy,” was, in fact, once used in a blaxploitation movie 38 years ago.
But honestly, you don’t even have to be cruising the so-called “ghetto” to see some of this stuff.
From Southgate to Northridge, hard times are everywhere in Legend’s hometown.
Every town for that matter.
“I wanted to do something musically that reflected what was going on politically and socially,” he explained recently.
Proving that the more things change, the more they stay the same, the Springfield native has teamed up with The Roots for an album of ’70s soul covers.
With material spanning from 1969 (Roberta Flack’s “Compared to What”) to 1979 (Prince Lincoln’s reggae tune “Humanity”), they manage to hit all the epicenters of soul.
Detroit. Chicago. Philly.
What could have been a gimmicky undertaking, the week-old “Wake Up!” album instead reveals the timelessness of even the most obscure soul songs from that golden era.
“We could’ve covered the most obvious songs,” Legend said, “but we wanted to do something fresh.”
The former John Stephens, already a six-time Grammy winner in the five years since his debut, set out to reinterpret 11 lost classics by everyone from Marvin Gaye on down to Donny Hathaway on down to Baby Huey.
All of them speak about society’s ills in a way that seems frighteningly contemporary.
And you know what?
Like chocolate and peanut butter and the fusing of “Dracula” and blaxploitation to make “Blacula,” some things just seem to go together naturally.
At 31, Legend — the North High grad who received his stage name because everybody thought he sounded like one — was born to sing this kind of stuff.
The Roots, best known as of late as Jimmy Fallon’s house band, were born to play it.
Legend had his biggest hit to date a couple of years ago with “Green Light,” but that’s not really him.
This is him.
After just the first song, a super-bad rendition, complete with horn section, of Baby Huey’s super-obscure, Curtis Mayfield-penned “Hard Times” from 1970, you’re ready to concede that, “Good God, John Legend is one bad mutha — shut yo’ mouth!”
“You can’t think about trying to outdo the original,” Legend said. “You just go into it trying to make a good recording. You can’t try to beat Marvin Gaye. You’re not gonna do it.”
The fact that Legend wanted to do something political shouldn’t come as a surprise.
The last time he performed locally, he gave a brief free concert in Veterans Park to drum up support for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.
Legend isn’t surprised that Obama has taken so much flak since winning office.
“People are frustrated with the economy. They just blame whoever’s in charge,” he said. “I know in Ohio, people are feeling it. They’re looking for someone to blame.”
In the wake of the election, Legend felt that his last album, “Evolver,” just wasn’t enough of a statement.
“I thought it would be cool to do an EP of cool covers,” he said. “But the more we got into this with The Roots, it felt like something we should do bigger.”
It also turned into a learning experience for Legend — a deep study of R&B history — as The Roots’ drummer and music director, Questlove, brought forward the material.
“He’s definitely the music aficionado, the record collector,” Legend said. “ I didn’t know half of them. Some of them I didn’t even know the artist.”
Ever heard of Ernie Hines?
He recorded one album for Stax.
How about the aforementioned Baby Huey?
“Baby Huey died of a heart attack after his first album,” Legend said.
They would be among the scores of singers throughout the years that, for reasons forever unknown, just slipped through the cracks.
“You can have a moment in time that doesn’t get noticed by people,” Legend said. “That’s the great thing about music. It can always be rediscovered.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.
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