As co-lead singer Billy Davis Jr. acknowledges in the film, the 5th Dimension were blessed and cursed. Coming together from worlds as varied as pop and gospel, the quintet were, in a way, a black version of the Mamas and the Papas. Their harmonies were similarly sunny and enveloping, and one of their earliest hits was, in fact, a cover of John Phillips’ “Go Where You Wanna Go.”
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[T]he 5th Dimension also became victims of their own success. In an extended Summer of Soul segment, Davis and Marilyn McCoo, the group’s most prominent female member, rewatch the footage with equal degrees pride and pain. “We were constantly being attacked because we weren’t ‘black enough,’” McCoo says. “Sometimes we were called the black group with the white sound, and we didn’t like that. … Our voices sound the way they sound. How do you color a sound?” As Davis adds, “Everyone thought we were a white act until they saw pictures.” Those poignant moments recall similar put-downs that Whitney Houston endured two decades later, after she began pulling in both black and white audiences with her first two albums.
Thanks for those kind words and for sharing that very interesting piece on the 5th Dimension. I agree -- I'm a bit mad to be researching and writing daily, but I'm loving it so far and learning so much -- and totally digging the tunes!
I saw that Summer of Soul documentary a while back and found it eye-opening as I'd never heard about the Harlem Cultural Festival. What an amazing line-up and performances.
I imagine that many black acts experienced the same thing as the 5th Dimension back then if they weren't under the Motown umbrella. I can understand the feeling within the black community that the group was selling out when they attained success with a white sound, or any sound, given how black music was consistently expropriated and mainstreamed by the dominant white culture. But I can also understand black groups thinking that making it commercially was a way of moving closer to equality with the mainstream white culture. I also think anyone who 'makes it' in music or otherwise tends to be subject to envy and the tall poppy syndrome no matter who they are. And I also think anyone who makes it in the music business deserves incredible kudos as it's a hard industry to make it in.
The 5th Dimension did so many hit tunes. They really earned their fame and fortune in my book (for what it's worth).
I agree that it's not unique (as Joan Armatrading wrote in "How Cruel" "Some people want to see my blood gush out / And others want to watch while I cry / I heard somebody say once I was way too black / And someone answers she's not black enough for me") but it was interesting for me to hear them speak about how much it affected them and how much they still felt that weight even now.
Great example from Joan Armatrading. It has to be hard to feel that it's not enough to be an artist, you also have to represent something (race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, appearance, etc.). As Joan says, you're never going to succeed in meeting everyone's, or even anyone's, expectations. I think that's why I like artists who do their own thing and say take it or leave it. Their job is not to please you but to be true to their gift. But of course that's great in theory but not always in practice with all the commercial expectations and pressures.
Yes, very interesting indeed. Thanks for the thought-provoking comments, Nick!
"Hair" and the entire hippie/antiwar/civil rights movement were incredibly divisive among people our age group, at least where I lived. I idolized the protesters and the hippies; my aunt took me to see Jefferson Airplane when I was in junior high school. (https://zapatosjam.substack.com/p/the-coolest-aunt-in-the-world). But many of my peers had adopted postures of intense hostility and contempt for all that, probably by osmosis from their parents. The first date I ever went on was to see Hair--of course it was a much later production, sometime in 1974. Thanks for all the backstory--I'm not sure how you manage it!
You did have the coolest aunt --taking you to see Jefferson Airplane! -- and my condolences on her passing. My mom thought Simon and Garfunkel were extreme. But she did let us control the radio in the car and watch the Monkees on TV, so I wonder if, at some level she could't admit, she liked what she was hearing. All of a sudden in the late 80s she began buying rock and pop albums and playing them a lot, which shocked us. Never too late to catch up, as I know from only becoming a metalhead fairly recently. So you were lucky to have a mom and aunt who both liked and supported the new 'hippie' music.
It was my experience as well that the movements of the 60s were divisive. Although I loved all the flower power stuff and even had a Nehru shirt and other groovy outfits, I was proudly pro-Nixon like my parents. But I had a social studies teacher who made us debate both sides of an issue, including the war and civil rights, and what a lively classroom (and an incredible gift) that was. We also had male teachers sporting crewcuts to long hair, so there were different role models, and the boys followed suit. Maybe being far from places where hippies gathered made a difference -- they weren't anywhere nearby for us as they were for you, so they weren't a 'threat' to the local establishment and we were able to stay more immersed in our own little world.
It's certainly interesting to think back on. It was an extraordinary era to live through!
Now THAT is an interesting exercise in whiplash! My dad was a Goldwater/Nixon Republican, my mom a Stevenson/Eugene McCarthy Democrat. It's pretty much why they divorced. My dad was endlessly frustrated that Nixon didn't literally round up and execute all the hippies.
Thanks for the memories! My Broadway theatre-loving parents took me to see the original B'way production at the Biltmore theatre in 1968 - I was a 12 year old wannabe hippie, and we all loved the show. I played the original cast LP regularly as a kid, and still pull my well-worn LP copy out to play occasionally - amazing music, and fittingly amazing how many hit records it provided for other artists. Has any other Broadway show before or since done that? Loved your piece!
Thanks for sharing your personal experience and have to agree that the music was fantastic. How great that you still have your original LP. Alas, like an idiot, I sold all of mine.
Not aware of a Broadway show having that same impact on people's careers. But that was such a vibrant time when it seemed like so many opportunities were opening up. A great time to grow up!
First, I'm impressed that your posts are so well researched and you're planning to write daily!
Second, I thought the discussion about the Fifth Dimension cover of "Age Of Aquarius" in _Summer Of Soul" was really interesting (see this summary: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/5th-dimension-summer-of-soul-1190823/ ) .
As co-lead singer Billy Davis Jr. acknowledges in the film, the 5th Dimension were blessed and cursed. Coming together from worlds as varied as pop and gospel, the quintet were, in a way, a black version of the Mamas and the Papas. Their harmonies were similarly sunny and enveloping, and one of their earliest hits was, in fact, a cover of John Phillips’ “Go Where You Wanna Go.”
...
[T]he 5th Dimension also became victims of their own success. In an extended Summer of Soul segment, Davis and Marilyn McCoo, the group’s most prominent female member, rewatch the footage with equal degrees pride and pain. “We were constantly being attacked because we weren’t ‘black enough,’” McCoo says. “Sometimes we were called the black group with the white sound, and we didn’t like that. … Our voices sound the way they sound. How do you color a sound?” As Davis adds, “Everyone thought we were a white act until they saw pictures.” Those poignant moments recall similar put-downs that Whitney Houston endured two decades later, after she began pulling in both black and white audiences with her first two albums.
Thanks for those kind words and for sharing that very interesting piece on the 5th Dimension. I agree -- I'm a bit mad to be researching and writing daily, but I'm loving it so far and learning so much -- and totally digging the tunes!
I saw that Summer of Soul documentary a while back and found it eye-opening as I'd never heard about the Harlem Cultural Festival. What an amazing line-up and performances.
I imagine that many black acts experienced the same thing as the 5th Dimension back then if they weren't under the Motown umbrella. I can understand the feeling within the black community that the group was selling out when they attained success with a white sound, or any sound, given how black music was consistently expropriated and mainstreamed by the dominant white culture. But I can also understand black groups thinking that making it commercially was a way of moving closer to equality with the mainstream white culture. I also think anyone who 'makes it' in music or otherwise tends to be subject to envy and the tall poppy syndrome no matter who they are. And I also think anyone who makes it in the music business deserves incredible kudos as it's a hard industry to make it in.
The 5th Dimension did so many hit tunes. They really earned their fame and fortune in my book (for what it's worth).
Same here. Agree that they really brought it. The real deal and not a studio creation.
I agree that it's not unique (as Joan Armatrading wrote in "How Cruel" "Some people want to see my blood gush out / And others want to watch while I cry / I heard somebody say once I was way too black / And someone answers she's not black enough for me") but it was interesting for me to hear them speak about how much it affected them and how much they still felt that weight even now.
Great example from Joan Armatrading. It has to be hard to feel that it's not enough to be an artist, you also have to represent something (race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, appearance, etc.). As Joan says, you're never going to succeed in meeting everyone's, or even anyone's, expectations. I think that's why I like artists who do their own thing and say take it or leave it. Their job is not to please you but to be true to their gift. But of course that's great in theory but not always in practice with all the commercial expectations and pressures.
Yes, very interesting indeed. Thanks for the thought-provoking comments, Nick!
"Hair" and the entire hippie/antiwar/civil rights movement were incredibly divisive among people our age group, at least where I lived. I idolized the protesters and the hippies; my aunt took me to see Jefferson Airplane when I was in junior high school. (https://zapatosjam.substack.com/p/the-coolest-aunt-in-the-world). But many of my peers had adopted postures of intense hostility and contempt for all that, probably by osmosis from their parents. The first date I ever went on was to see Hair--of course it was a much later production, sometime in 1974. Thanks for all the backstory--I'm not sure how you manage it!
You did have the coolest aunt --taking you to see Jefferson Airplane! -- and my condolences on her passing. My mom thought Simon and Garfunkel were extreme. But she did let us control the radio in the car and watch the Monkees on TV, so I wonder if, at some level she could't admit, she liked what she was hearing. All of a sudden in the late 80s she began buying rock and pop albums and playing them a lot, which shocked us. Never too late to catch up, as I know from only becoming a metalhead fairly recently. So you were lucky to have a mom and aunt who both liked and supported the new 'hippie' music.
It was my experience as well that the movements of the 60s were divisive. Although I loved all the flower power stuff and even had a Nehru shirt and other groovy outfits, I was proudly pro-Nixon like my parents. But I had a social studies teacher who made us debate both sides of an issue, including the war and civil rights, and what a lively classroom (and an incredible gift) that was. We also had male teachers sporting crewcuts to long hair, so there were different role models, and the boys followed suit. Maybe being far from places where hippies gathered made a difference -- they weren't anywhere nearby for us as they were for you, so they weren't a 'threat' to the local establishment and we were able to stay more immersed in our own little world.
It's certainly interesting to think back on. It was an extraordinary era to live through!
Now THAT is an interesting exercise in whiplash! My dad was a Goldwater/Nixon Republican, my mom a Stevenson/Eugene McCarthy Democrat. It's pretty much why they divorced. My dad was endlessly frustrated that Nixon didn't literally round up and execute all the hippies.
My dad ranted about 'those longhairs' so he probably would've agreed with your dad. No wonder your parents divorced!
Thanks for the memories! My Broadway theatre-loving parents took me to see the original B'way production at the Biltmore theatre in 1968 - I was a 12 year old wannabe hippie, and we all loved the show. I played the original cast LP regularly as a kid, and still pull my well-worn LP copy out to play occasionally - amazing music, and fittingly amazing how many hit records it provided for other artists. Has any other Broadway show before or since done that? Loved your piece!
Thanks for sharing your personal experience and have to agree that the music was fantastic. How great that you still have your original LP. Alas, like an idiot, I sold all of mine.
Not aware of a Broadway show having that same impact on people's careers. But that was such a vibrant time when it seemed like so many opportunities were opening up. A great time to grow up!