Musical Truth

This is a clever book, whose ambition is belied by its lucid and approachable text. Boakye sets out to tell the story of modern British black history through twenty-eight records. These are, mostly, but not exclusively, by black artists, for Boakye recognises that musical influences are not confined by social and cultural boundaries, and some of the most influential creators of modern popular music have been open to music from anywhere that excites and intrigues them. I was born in the year that the first record on Boakye’s list was released: Lord Kitchener’s “London is the Place for Me”, and my interest in pop music stopped somewhere about 1982, the year that Boakye was born, so I have no idea if he has selected what might be the most important of modern black music, despite recognising the names Craig David and Stormzy. I was pleased to see the inclusion of Winifred Atwell, though, the pianist whose LP introduced twelve-year-old me to Chopin’s nocturnes. Perhaps my ignorance doesn’t matter too much because the book is not so much about the music itself but its historical and cultural context and what it might tell us about the black experience in Britain and where we are as a nation at any one time. You will learn about Stephen Lawrence, the New Cross Fire, the Brixton Riots and Phyllis Akua Opoku-Gyimah, the founder of Black Pride, and many other events and people along the way, coming up-to-date with George Floyd and Edward Colston. For Boakye, music is “a celebration, a way of talking about oppression, and a type of resistance” and he discusses all three aspects. He is forthright and, despite recognising how far we have yet to go to create an equal society, he is upbeat, particularly in what might be accomplished by young people. He asks them to ‘really listen…Think about the people behind the music…What they are saying and why they are saying it. It’s important. Take it seriously.’

Read Darren Chetty’s interview with Jeffrey Boakye here.