July 12, 2023 • 26 mins
Stevie Wonder wrote "Cash In Your Face" in the early 80's as it appears on his Hotter Than July album. The lyrics of Cash In Your Face are just as appropriate in 2023 as they were in the early 80's. Not much has changed. In fact, we are regressing. The clocks are being turned back with decisions such as those being made by our current Supreme Court and politicians around the country. Book bannings, Diversity courses being outlawed, etc. are just a few examples of what is going on today. In this episode we analyze Stevie's lyics and discover how they apply to us today. Take a listen.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
M hm. Well, hello andwelcome to another episode of The Mark Medley
(00:40):
Show. Thank you so much forthe applause. It's been said that when
people are nice, they don't haveto be nice to you, so I
am very much appreciative of the applauseas the show kicks off, and as
(01:04):
I said, this is another episodeof The Mark Medley Show. Actually,
this is kind of like a continuationof the last episode. The last episode,
if you recall or if you listento it, was about the affirmative
Action decision as well as customer serviceor lack thereof, and this particular episode
(01:34):
is somewhat like a continuation or anextension of that one, because it's actually
me picking apart or analyzing or explodingone of my favorite songs by Stevie Wonder.
And that song is not one ofhis most popular songs per se,
because it was on the album HotterThan July, and that was back in
(01:59):
nineteen eighty four, nineteen eighty sixor somewhere around there, but that wasn't
one of the main featured songs.And yet I found it to be one
of the most powerful songs on thatalbum and one of the most powerful songs
in my mind that Stevie has donebecause many of Stevie's songs actually were sending
(02:22):
messages. When he did you haven'tdone nothing that was sending a message.
When he did Happy Birthday, hewasn't just doing Happy Birthday for the sake
of happy Birthday. He was lettingthe officials know that it didn't make any
sense that we were just getting aholiday celebrating Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior.
For all his contributions, many ofStevie's other songs were message related as
(02:50):
well. But this particular song,I loved it when it first came out,
and for me, it's made aresurgence because I started playing it again.
So what I'm gonna do is I'mjust gonna go through the lyrics first.
I'll play the song a little bitlater on, but I'm gonna go
through the lyrics and kind of explodethem out. So the song title is
(03:14):
cash in your Face. First off, I always love a play on words
because cash in your face has acouple of different meanings. One of course,
is the actual green in your face, like I'm putting cash in your
face. Another way to look atit is like when you go to cash
(03:35):
a check. How you present thecheck to the teller and then they in
turn give you your money. Well, what Stevie saying this song is I
might very well have the cash,but I cannot cash in my face.
I cannot cash in my skin color. That's pretty much the next play on
(03:58):
words there. So you might havethe cash, but you cannot cash in
your face. That's part of thelyrics of the song, and I'm getting
ready to go into those, becausehe actually masterfully tells a story, a
narrative throughout the songs, even tothe point wherein you can hear his voicing
(04:19):
and the vocalization change depending on who'sspeaking. So when Stevie is speaking,
you hear one voice. However,when the Landlord is speaking, you hear
another. Now, clearly Stevie isrepresenting minorities African Americans, the non dominant
group people of color, black people, African Americans, whatever name you want
(04:43):
to call them, that's what Stevieis representing. And the Landlord is representing
the dominant group Caucasians, white folks, and again, any name you might
want to ascribe to that, that'swhat that particular voice and each response to
Stevie is represent so let me kindof get on into the lyrics that I
get excited about the song. Firstof all, I think he did a
(05:06):
wonderful Stevie did an absolute wonderful jobbetween the vocalization, the rhythm on the
song, the instrumentation, the melody, everything. I mean, it is
just a well put together song.As a musician. I'm not telling you
what I think. I'm telling youwhat I know. The song is tight.
(05:26):
He has syncopation in there, hehas off beats in there, he
has off rhythms in there, allat the same time, where for the
most part it's a conversation. Sothe song is title cash in your Face,
and Stevie says, you just couldnot know how long we tried.
Now, I know those lyrics byheart, but I tell you what,
(05:46):
I'm reading it to make sure Idon't make any mistakes. I have it
right here in front of me onpaper to make sure I don't miss a
word. I know them by heart. I do. I could recite them
without looking at this paper, butI want to make sure I don't miss
a word. He said, youjust could not know how long we've tried.
To see how this building looks inside? This must be a lucky day
(06:10):
for me because the sign said there'sa vacancy. Now this is the response,
because again, as I said,Steve Stevies, he's representing black folks.
He's representing a black person coming toan apartment complex or a housing complex,
or a house that's for sale.This is the response. Look,
(06:31):
I know you've came a long way, but you made it just too late.
So we had to give it tosomebody else. Now see Steve's getting
ready to respond in the response thatStevie's getting ready to give. I went
through that experience as a teenager.I was looking for a keyboard. I
told you I'm a musician. Iwas looking for a keyboard and it was
(06:55):
advertised in the paper. I calledup the person, talked to them,
and got my dad to take meup there. Dad, you know what
doesn't keep board available? It wasthe next town over, as a matter
of fact, a couple of townsover, except for it was I was
coming out of an urban area acity, going into a suburban area when
I get to the door. Becausethe same response that Stevie's about to give
(07:18):
here, it had to be noless than no more than fifteen minutes to
twenty minutes. So Stevie says,well, I talked to you on the
phone less than fifteen minutes ago,and you told me that it was cool.
I had that experience. So nowStevie goes on to say, I
(07:40):
graduated from Howard you. My jobis paying good money too, and if
you check on my resume, you'llfind they all wanted me to stay.
So Stevie thought he would appeal toall right, listen, I'm a college
graduate. I'm working. I'm makingmoney. I can pay my rent or
(08:01):
my mortgage or whatever it is thatneeds to be paid. I can pay
it because I'm working and I haven'tgone anywhere. But now this is the
response, Well, I can't takethe time out to check your credit card
because the computer just broke down today. Now Stevie says, well, i'll
tell you what. I'll stop byhere tomorrow to complete our interview. But
(08:26):
I know what you're gonna say.I know what your bottom line is.
You might have the cash, butyou cannot cash in your face. We
don't want you living in here.See the whole decision with the Supreme Court.
What that's really saying is no,we don't want you with us.
(08:48):
That whole affirmative action thing and someof these other decisions that are coming down
the pike is saying exactly in anotherway what Stevie is saying. Yes,
you might have, you might havemade this progress, you might have gotten
ahead, you have had an AfricanAmerican or a black president, but we
still don't want you living in here. That's why we're having now these book
bannings. We don't want the historyto come out. We don't want the
(09:11):
history of how folks were treated byanother set of folks to come out.
So that's why we're quote unquote whitewashingit. I mean, see even that's
a play on words, because Ilove puns and so forth and so on.
But where do we want to whitewashit? We want to ban what
truly happened because we don't want Ohwe're afraid of what our kids will say,
Oh my god, I can't believemy ancestors did that to another set
(09:33):
of folks. Ancestors, we don'twant you living in here. Say you
might have the cash, but youcannot cash in your face. We don't
want your kind living here. Now. These are the words and Stevie's lyrics
too, bad too, too,too, too, too sad. So
(09:56):
now all right, Stevie's already.Now he's appealed to the fact that,
you know what, we were lookingfor a place and finally I saw a
sign that was vacant, all right, And he got his pushback. Then
he went on to say, youknow what, I graduated college, I
got a job, I'm working,I got money. Then he got pushed
back on that, and so nowhe hits them from a different approach.
He says, our first child isdue here any day. Because I think
(10:22):
he thought Stevie thought, all right, I'm going to appeal to you from
the really the money aspect, thequalification aspect. But now I think I
want to appeal to you from thehuman side. So he says, our
first child is due here any day. That's why we're desperate for a place
to stay. The location is soperfect too, so please try to do
(10:46):
what you can do. Now herewe go push back again. Now he
just you know, Steve, again, Stevie thought he was gonna appeal to
the human side. He says,now this is the landlord again. Well,
in this apartment complex, no childrenare allowed. And if you would
have told me that, I couldhave saved you a lot of time.
(11:09):
Now Stephen comes out of intellectually aswell as knowing the law. Well,
I thought the bill was passed thatsaid you could not discriminate. But I
know some excuse. You'll fine becauseyour bottom line is you might have the
cash, but you cannot cash inyour face. We don't want your kind
(11:31):
living in here. Said, youmight have the cash, but you can
not cash in your face. Wedon't want your kind living in here.
And now Stephen goes out and mindyou, this was written prior to President
Obama being elected. This was writtenprior to that. This was back in
the early eighties. He says,you might be a great doctor, you
(11:52):
might be a great lawyer. Youmight possess the key to the city,
or maybe Apolo Titian, but allthat doesn't matter. That's what he's saying,
because you might have the cash,but you cannot cash in your face.
In other words, you're black.No matter where you go. You
cannot take off your blackness. Nomatter where you go. There's those such
(12:13):
thing as passing. If you're dark, you do not get the opportunity to
take off and put on your blackness. Now you might be able to deny.
You know, if you're going ifyour verage ethnic and heritage groups,
if you're white and you want todeny that your Italian, you'll be able
to do that because you know,nobody would never know. They're still all
they see is your whiteness. Butsee, as a black person, they
(12:35):
cannot deny being black because you donot get the opportunity to take the black
off. So that's what That's whatStevie's really saying that no matter which way
I go, I don't get totake that blackness off. See, this
is the thing when you walk intoit, when a black person walks into
a store, that may I helpyou? As it's totally different, has
(12:56):
a totally different connotation in meaning thanit does if a white person walking in
the store. The how can Ihelp you? If you ever listened to
it, is a totally different tone. How can I help you? Generally?
You know, and I'm generalizing.Good, you know, this is
not every time, so I don'twant everybody say, oh my god,
no, no I'm generalizing. Butin many cases, that how can I
(13:18):
help you for a black person iscoming from I need to get you out
of here because I'm afraid you mightshoplift something compared when it's with one of
our Cargasian brothers and sisters, whenit's how can I help you stay as
long as you want whenever you're readyto buy, I'm here. See,
that's the kind of things we're talkingabout. That's what Stevie's talking about it
in that song. And the songis just as applicable today in two thousand
(13:39):
and twenty three as it is orwas in nineteen eighty four and nineteen eighty
six, or in the early eighties, or whenever hotter than July came out.
The song fascinating because I love itand it's so applicable. As so
many other songs. There were somany artists that when they wrote, they
were sending messages to the powers thatbe. They were singing truth to power
(14:01):
in their songs the James Brown's,the the Stevie Wonders, the Bob Marley's
The Rob, the Bob Dylan's theI Mean these folks, Sam Cook,
they were singing truth to power.And there's so many others that I have
not mentioned, but they were singingtruth to power. And this song is
(14:24):
exactly what Stevie meant it to do. The same way when he did,
the same way when he did,you haven't done nothing. When he did,
you haven't done nothing. He wassending a message to the government.
Then, so again, I'm gonnalet you. I'm gonna play the song.
I'm gonna play. I'm gonna I'mgonna put it in as a part
of the recording, Cash in yourFace. I'm gonna put it there,
(14:48):
and I'm gonna go ahead and letit play. But listen to the lyrics,
Listen to Listen to the beauty ofthe song. Listen to the mastery
of the song. Listen to everythingthat went into it. Listen to the
lyrics, Listen to the music,Listen to the rhythm, Listen to the
(15:09):
sounds of the voices. How Steviekeeps going back and forth between the landlord
and himself. They did a wonderfuljob. And again, if you if
I said I was going to connectthis, because this is this is what
I promised on my social media sitethat I was gonna put together. I
said I was going to connect itto this whole affirmative action rule. But
just take a look at what theSupreme Court that was put in place by
(15:31):
forty five and some others. Seewhat they're doing. They're doing exactly what
they were put in there to do. They went after affirmative action, they
went after, you know, votingrights. They're still fooling around with that.
They women after women's rights in termsof the whole abortion and the control
they have over their body. They'regoing to be going after civil rights and
anything else that will help turn theclock back. They're going to be going
(15:54):
after that. You can rest assured. Is that so? Stevie was prophetic
whenever he's saying, you might havethe cash, but you cannot cash in
your face. Let's go ahead,let's get that going. He just could
(16:22):
not go over bye. See howthis building looks just the spey with me,
the sun sas the spect I knowyou came along way. You made
(16:47):
it just late, so we hadto give into somebody else. But I
talk to you on the phone.Let's send fifteen minutes ago, and you
told me that it was cool.I can't wait for hall with you,
(17:07):
the dumbest paying good money dude.And if you checked on my resumet you
find this all on in me.Stay well, I can't take some time
out to check your credit card.Computer just broke down today. All I'll
(17:33):
stop by hearing the more complete inof you. But I know what you're
gonna say. I don't go anhave the head. But you can't not
can't in your face, You don'twork a bit in your head you have
(17:56):
you can't not can't in space.We can't live it A big do do,
(18:18):
he said. A brist house isstill feeling to day. So I
will desperateful thissday. The location showis sper Please trust to do what you
(18:42):
can do well in this apartment complex, no children are allowed. You told
me that I can see you alot of time. Well I thought to
do with that said you could notdescribing gay, But I know something.
(19:03):
Excuse you for your days against knockcasking your base and I'm living again.
She might say, you can't notcatch you, You don't much kind damn
it again. You might be uptreaddoctor, you might be untread lawyer.
(19:37):
You might that's the key to theday. Maybe a bloodition b again,
but you can't knock cat can thesame and it runs living a game.
You'll might ga you see, That'swhat I'm saying. The song was masterfully
(20:07):
done. The message was there.The question is for those who needed to
receive it, did they receive it? Now? There are a lot of
songs by Stevie Wonder that I love, but this one is ranks right up
there in my top five songs forStevie easily, if not number one,
(20:33):
Living for the City. There's otherSir Duke. I mean that album he
did in nineteen seventy six or seventyseven or so, songs in the Key
of Life that I mean. Ithink all the songs, right, you
know. I wish Sir Duke Saturnon down the line on that particulal album.
But this particular song for me,when he talks about cash in your
(20:57):
face, well you know what thatis my take on the song. Do
some thinking about it and reflecting andconnect it to everything that's going on here
with the Supreme Court, the decisionsthat's being made, the book bannings,
all these craziness that's going on inFlorida and in Texas and some other states.
(21:18):
All of this is just regression.As Stevie is saying that we might
have the cash because we're getting forthe most part, we could be getting
the cash now. Some of usare getting the cash now, but it
doesn't matter if you have the cashor not, because at the end of
the day, you can't cash inyour face. Well, i'll tell you
what that brings us to the endof this episode of The Mark Medley Show.
(21:42):
If you want to know a littlebit more about me, please visit
my website. It's Mark A.Medley dot com, m A r C
A M ed l e y dotcom. If you go there, that
is the hub to all of mysocial media sites. It tells you about
my radio show that I'm gonna tellyou about in a couple of seconds,
(22:04):
my musical work that's playing right nowin the background, these my original compositions,
tells you about all of that,tells you about various guests who's been
on the show, Folks, famousfolks I've met. All of that's at
my website Mark A. Medley dotcom, m A r C A M
D L y dot com. Nowon Saturday mornings, this is the podcast.
(22:27):
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podcast. They're two different things.The podcast is the Mark Medley Show.
That's when I get a chance todo, like what I'm doing right now,
The Reading Circle with Mark Medley onSaturday mornings is where I interview authors.
So from six o'clock am to nineo'clock am, I'm on the air
(22:48):
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am Eastern time. If you logon to go Brave g O b r
(23:10):
a vee dot org, you cancatch me there on the show. And
I have fascinating guests and interviews eachweek. Whenever I'm not interviewing guests,
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well as the book talk radio show, so you get a chance to hear
both if you log on to goBrave dot org on Saturday mornings from six
to nine am Eastern time. Thisis the Mark Medley Show, and this
(23:33):
is yet another episode of that whereI've had the opportunity to express myself to
give you my thoughts and opinions.You don't have to agree, you can
agree or disagree. At the endof the day, it's my show.
So because it's my show, Iget a chance to express what I like
to express, and you have theopportunity to agree or disagree. Again,
make sure you do go visit Marka Medley dot com. That's m A
(23:57):
r C A ME d l eY. The reason I spell it out
because so many people immediately assume themark is with a K. I am
a mark with a C, Sothe website is my entire name is my
first name, middle initial, lastname, So it's m A r C
A, M E d l ey dot com. As always, thank
(24:22):
you so much for listening, Mylove, my
M hm. Well, hello andwelcome to another episode of The Mark Medley
(00:40):
Show. Thank you so much forthe applause. It's been said that when
people are nice, they don't haveto be nice to you, so I
am very much appreciative of the applauseas the show kicks off, and as
(01:04):
I said, this is another episodeof The Mark Medley Show. Actually,
this is kind of like a continuationof the last episode. The last episode,
if you recall or if you listento it, was about the affirmative
Action decision as well as customer serviceor lack thereof, and this particular episode
(01:34):
is somewhat like a continuation or anextension of that one, because it's actually
me picking apart or analyzing or explodingone of my favorite songs by Stevie Wonder.
And that song is not one ofhis most popular songs per se,
because it was on the album HotterThan July, and that was back in
(01:59):
nineteen eighty four, nineteen eighty sixor somewhere around there, but that wasn't
one of the main featured songs.And yet I found it to be one
of the most powerful songs on thatalbum and one of the most powerful songs
in my mind that Stevie has donebecause many of Stevie's songs actually were sending
(02:22):
messages. When he did you haven'tdone nothing that was sending a message.
When he did Happy Birthday, hewasn't just doing Happy Birthday for the sake
of happy Birthday. He was lettingthe officials know that it didn't make any
sense that we were just getting aholiday celebrating Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Junior.
For all his contributions, many ofStevie's other songs were message related as
(02:50):
well. But this particular song,I loved it when it first came out,
and for me, it's made aresurgence because I started playing it again.
So what I'm gonna do is I'mjust gonna go through the lyrics first.
I'll play the song a little bitlater on, but I'm gonna go
through the lyrics and kind of explodethem out. So the song title is
(03:14):
cash in your Face. First off, I always love a play on words
because cash in your face has acouple of different meanings. One of course,
is the actual green in your face, like I'm putting cash in your
face. Another way to look atit is like when you go to cash
(03:35):
a check. How you present thecheck to the teller and then they in
turn give you your money. Well, what Stevie saying this song is I
might very well have the cash,but I cannot cash in my face.
I cannot cash in my skin color. That's pretty much the next play on
(03:58):
words there. So you might havethe cash, but you cannot cash in
your face. That's part of thelyrics of the song, and I'm getting
ready to go into those, becausehe actually masterfully tells a story, a
narrative throughout the songs, even tothe point wherein you can hear his voicing
(04:19):
and the vocalization change depending on who'sspeaking. So when Stevie is speaking,
you hear one voice. However,when the Landlord is speaking, you hear
another. Now, clearly Stevie isrepresenting minorities African Americans, the non dominant
group people of color, black people, African Americans, whatever name you want
(04:43):
to call them, that's what Stevieis representing. And the Landlord is representing
the dominant group Caucasians, white folks, and again, any name you might
want to ascribe to that, that'swhat that particular voice and each response to
Stevie is represent so let me kindof get on into the lyrics that I
get excited about the song. Firstof all, I think he did a
(05:06):
wonderful Stevie did an absolute wonderful jobbetween the vocalization, the rhythm on the
song, the instrumentation, the melody, everything. I mean, it is
just a well put together song.As a musician. I'm not telling you
what I think. I'm telling youwhat I know. The song is tight.
(05:26):
He has syncopation in there, hehas off beats in there, he
has off rhythms in there, allat the same time, where for the
most part it's a conversation. Sothe song is title cash in your Face,
and Stevie says, you just couldnot know how long we tried.
Now, I know those lyrics byheart, but I tell you what,
(05:46):
I'm reading it to make sure Idon't make any mistakes. I have it
right here in front of me onpaper to make sure I don't miss a
word. I know them by heart. I do. I could recite them
without looking at this paper, butI want to make sure I don't miss
a word. He said, youjust could not know how long we've tried.
To see how this building looks inside? This must be a lucky day
(06:10):
for me because the sign said there'sa vacancy. Now this is the response,
because again, as I said,Steve Stevies, he's representing black folks.
He's representing a black person coming toan apartment complex or a housing complex,
or a house that's for sale.This is the response. Look,
(06:31):
I know you've came a long way, but you made it just too late.
So we had to give it tosomebody else. Now see Steve's getting
ready to respond in the response thatStevie's getting ready to give. I went
through that experience as a teenager.I was looking for a keyboard. I
told you I'm a musician. Iwas looking for a keyboard and it was
(06:55):
advertised in the paper. I calledup the person, talked to them,
and got my dad to take meup there. Dad, you know what
doesn't keep board available? It wasthe next town over, as a matter
of fact, a couple of townsover, except for it was I was
coming out of an urban area acity, going into a suburban area when
I get to the door. Becausethe same response that Stevie's about to give
(07:18):
here, it had to be noless than no more than fifteen minutes to
twenty minutes. So Stevie says,well, I talked to you on the
phone less than fifteen minutes ago,and you told me that it was cool.
I had that experience. So nowStevie goes on to say, I
(07:40):
graduated from Howard you. My jobis paying good money too, and if
you check on my resume, you'llfind they all wanted me to stay.
So Stevie thought he would appeal toall right, listen, I'm a college
graduate. I'm working. I'm makingmoney. I can pay my rent or
(08:01):
my mortgage or whatever it is thatneeds to be paid. I can pay
it because I'm working and I haven'tgone anywhere. But now this is the
response, Well, I can't takethe time out to check your credit card
because the computer just broke down today. Now Stevie says, well, i'll
tell you what. I'll stop byhere tomorrow to complete our interview. But
(08:26):
I know what you're gonna say.I know what your bottom line is.
You might have the cash, butyou cannot cash in your face. We
don't want you living in here.See the whole decision with the Supreme Court.
What that's really saying is no,we don't want you with us.
(08:48):
That whole affirmative action thing and someof these other decisions that are coming down
the pike is saying exactly in anotherway what Stevie is saying. Yes,
you might have, you might havemade this progress, you might have gotten
ahead, you have had an AfricanAmerican or a black president, but we
still don't want you living in here. That's why we're having now these book
bannings. We don't want the historyto come out. We don't want the
(09:11):
history of how folks were treated byanother set of folks to come out.
So that's why we're quote unquote whitewashingit. I mean, see even that's
a play on words, because Ilove puns and so forth and so on.
But where do we want to whitewashit? We want to ban what
truly happened because we don't want Ohwe're afraid of what our kids will say,
Oh my god, I can't believemy ancestors did that to another set
(09:33):
of folks. Ancestors, we don'twant you living in here. Say you
might have the cash, but youcannot cash in your face. We don't
want your kind living here. Now. These are the words and Stevie's lyrics
too, bad too, too,too, too, too sad. So
(09:56):
now all right, Stevie's already.Now he's appealed to the fact that,
you know what, we were lookingfor a place and finally I saw a
sign that was vacant, all right, And he got his pushback. Then
he went on to say, youknow what, I graduated college, I
got a job, I'm working,I got money. Then he got pushed
back on that, and so nowhe hits them from a different approach.
He says, our first child isdue here any day. Because I think
(10:22):
he thought Stevie thought, all right, I'm going to appeal to you from
the really the money aspect, thequalification aspect. But now I think I
want to appeal to you from thehuman side. So he says, our
first child is due here any day. That's why we're desperate for a place
to stay. The location is soperfect too, so please try to do
(10:46):
what you can do. Now herewe go push back again. Now he
just you know, Steve, again, Stevie thought he was gonna appeal to
the human side. He says,now this is the landlord again. Well,
in this apartment complex, no childrenare allowed. And if you would
have told me that, I couldhave saved you a lot of time.
(11:09):
Now Stephen comes out of intellectually aswell as knowing the law. Well,
I thought the bill was passed thatsaid you could not discriminate. But I
know some excuse. You'll fine becauseyour bottom line is you might have the
cash, but you cannot cash inyour face. We don't want your kind
(11:31):
living in here. Said, youmight have the cash, but you can
not cash in your face. Wedon't want your kind living in here.
And now Stephen goes out and mindyou, this was written prior to President
Obama being elected. This was writtenprior to that. This was back in
the early eighties. He says,you might be a great doctor, you
(11:52):
might be a great lawyer. Youmight possess the key to the city,
or maybe Apolo Titian, but allthat doesn't matter. That's what he's saying,
because you might have the cash,but you cannot cash in your face.
In other words, you're black.No matter where you go. You
cannot take off your blackness. Nomatter where you go. There's those such
(12:13):
thing as passing. If you're dark, you do not get the opportunity to
take off and put on your blackness. Now you might be able to deny.
You know, if you're going ifyour verage ethnic and heritage groups,
if you're white and you want todeny that your Italian, you'll be able
to do that because you know,nobody would never know. They're still all
they see is your whiteness. Butsee, as a black person, they
(12:35):
cannot deny being black because you donot get the opportunity to take the black
off. So that's what That's whatStevie's really saying that no matter which way
I go, I don't get totake that blackness off. See, this
is the thing when you walk intoit, when a black person walks into
a store, that may I helpyou? As it's totally different, has
(12:56):
a totally different connotation in meaning thanit does if a white person walking in
the store. The how can Ihelp you? If you ever listened to
it, is a totally different tone. How can I help you? Generally?
You know, and I'm generalizing.Good, you know, this is
not every time, so I don'twant everybody say, oh my god,
no, no I'm generalizing. Butin many cases, that how can I
(13:18):
help you for a black person iscoming from I need to get you out
of here because I'm afraid you mightshoplift something compared when it's with one of
our Cargasian brothers and sisters, whenit's how can I help you stay as
long as you want whenever you're readyto buy, I'm here. See,
that's the kind of things we're talkingabout. That's what Stevie's talking about it
in that song. And the songis just as applicable today in two thousand
(13:39):
and twenty three as it is orwas in nineteen eighty four and nineteen eighty
six, or in the early eighties, or whenever hotter than July came out.
The song fascinating because I love itand it's so applicable. As so
many other songs. There were somany artists that when they wrote, they
were sending messages to the powers thatbe. They were singing truth to power
(14:01):
in their songs the James Brown's,the the Stevie Wonders, the Bob Marley's
The Rob, the Bob Dylan's theI Mean these folks, Sam Cook,
they were singing truth to power.And there's so many others that I have
not mentioned, but they were singingtruth to power. And this song is
(14:24):
exactly what Stevie meant it to do. The same way when he did,
the same way when he did,you haven't done nothing. When he did,
you haven't done nothing. He wassending a message to the government.
Then, so again, I'm gonnalet you. I'm gonna play the song.
I'm gonna play. I'm gonna I'mgonna put it in as a part
of the recording, Cash in yourFace. I'm gonna put it there,
(14:48):
and I'm gonna go ahead and letit play. But listen to the lyrics,
Listen to Listen to the beauty ofthe song. Listen to the mastery
of the song. Listen to everythingthat went into it. Listen to the
lyrics, Listen to the music,Listen to the rhythm, Listen to the
(15:09):
sounds of the voices. How Steviekeeps going back and forth between the landlord
and himself. They did a wonderfuljob. And again, if you if
I said I was going to connectthis, because this is this is what
I promised on my social media sitethat I was gonna put together. I
said I was going to connect itto this whole affirmative action rule. But
just take a look at what theSupreme Court that was put in place by
(15:31):
forty five and some others. Seewhat they're doing. They're doing exactly what
they were put in there to do. They went after affirmative action, they
went after, you know, votingrights. They're still fooling around with that.
They women after women's rights in termsof the whole abortion and the control
they have over their body. They'regoing to be going after civil rights and
anything else that will help turn theclock back. They're going to be going
(15:54):
after that. You can rest assured. Is that so? Stevie was prophetic
whenever he's saying, you might havethe cash, but you cannot cash in
your face. Let's go ahead,let's get that going. He just could
(16:22):
not go over bye. See howthis building looks just the spey with me,
the sun sas the spect I knowyou came along way. You made
(16:47):
it just late, so we hadto give into somebody else. But I
talk to you on the phone.Let's send fifteen minutes ago, and you
told me that it was cool.I can't wait for hall with you,
(17:07):
the dumbest paying good money dude.And if you checked on my resumet you
find this all on in me.Stay well, I can't take some time
out to check your credit card.Computer just broke down today. All I'll
(17:33):
stop by hearing the more complete inof you. But I know what you're
gonna say. I don't go anhave the head. But you can't not
can't in your face, You don'twork a bit in your head you have
(17:56):
you can't not can't in space.We can't live it A big do do,
(18:18):
he said. A brist house isstill feeling to day. So I
will desperateful thissday. The location showis sper Please trust to do what you
(18:42):
can do well in this apartment complex, no children are allowed. You told
me that I can see you alot of time. Well I thought to
do with that said you could notdescribing gay, But I know something.
(19:03):
Excuse you for your days against knockcasking your base and I'm living again.
She might say, you can't notcatch you, You don't much kind damn
it again. You might be uptreaddoctor, you might be untread lawyer.
(19:37):
You might that's the key to theday. Maybe a bloodition b again,
but you can't knock cat can thesame and it runs living a game.
You'll might ga you see, That'swhat I'm saying. The song was masterfully
(20:07):
done. The message was there.The question is for those who needed to
receive it, did they receive it? Now? There are a lot of
songs by Stevie Wonder that I love, but this one is ranks right up
there in my top five songs forStevie easily, if not number one,
(20:33):
Living for the City. There's otherSir Duke. I mean that album he
did in nineteen seventy six or seventyseven or so, songs in the Key
of Life that I mean. Ithink all the songs, right, you
know. I wish Sir Duke Saturnon down the line on that particulal album.
But this particular song for me,when he talks about cash in your
(20:57):
face, well you know what thatis my take on the song. Do
some thinking about it and reflecting andconnect it to everything that's going on here
with the Supreme Court, the decisionsthat's being made, the book bannings,
all these craziness that's going on inFlorida and in Texas and some other states.
(21:18):
All of this is just regression.As Stevie is saying that we might
have the cash because we're getting forthe most part, we could be getting
the cash now. Some of usare getting the cash now, but it
doesn't matter if you have the cashor not, because at the end of
the day, you can't cash inyour face. Well, i'll tell you
what that brings us to the endof this episode of The Mark Medley Show.
(21:42):
If you want to know a littlebit more about me, please visit
my website. It's Mark A.Medley dot com, m A r C
A M ed l e y dotcom. If you go there, that
is the hub to all of mysocial media sites. It tells you about
my radio show that I'm gonna tellyou about in a couple of seconds,
(22:04):
my musical work that's playing right nowin the background, these my original compositions,
tells you about all of that,tells you about various guests who's been
on the show, Folks, famousfolks I've met. All of that's at
my website Mark A. Medley dotcom, m A r C A M
D L y dot com. Nowon Saturday mornings, this is the podcast.
(22:27):
I always like to make sure Idistinguish between my radio show and the
podcast. They're two different things.The podcast is the Mark Medley Show.
That's when I get a chance todo, like what I'm doing right now,
The Reading Circle with Mark Medley onSaturday mornings is where I interview authors.
So from six o'clock am to nineo'clock am, I'm on the air
(22:48):
on a real radio station and it'sstreamed around the world on gobrave dot org
and heard in New York, NewJersey area on the radio at eighty eight
point seven FM Radio. So onSaturday mornings from six to nine if you
want to hear me live, I'mon from six o'clock am to nine o'clock
am Eastern time. If you logon to go Brave g O b r
(23:10):
a vee dot org, you cancatch me there on the show. And
I have fascinating guests and interviews eachweek. Whenever I'm not interviewing guests,
I have Actually I'm between two formats. I host the gospel music show as
well as the book talk radio show, so you get a chance to hear
both if you log on to goBrave dot org on Saturday mornings from six
to nine am Eastern time. Thisis the Mark Medley Show, and this
(23:33):
is yet another episode of that whereI've had the opportunity to express myself to
give you my thoughts and opinions.You don't have to agree, you can
agree or disagree. At the endof the day, it's my show.
So because it's my show, Iget a chance to express what I like
to express, and you have theopportunity to agree or disagree. Again,
make sure you do go visit Marka Medley dot com. That's m A
(23:57):
r C A ME d l eY. The reason I spell it out
because so many people immediately assume themark is with a K. I am
a mark with a C, Sothe website is my entire name is my
first name, middle initial, lastname, So it's m A r C
A, M E d l ey dot com. As always, thank
(24:22):
you so much for listening, Mylove, my
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