A Rochester musician says he was inspired to do something to lift people's spirits during a time of distress and separation.
Billy Goodness, drummer and vocalist for the band "The Klick," says the idea came to him in a dream.
"I literally woke up one night ... I guess, one morning at about 3 a.m.," he says, "and this whole thing was playing it my head, but I heard it with this choir, this chorus."
It was Robert Palmer's 1978 hit, "Every Kinda People." Even though the lyrics are 42 years old, they still resonate in this time of heightened awareness of racial injustice and political division.
Ooh, it takes every kind of people
To make what life's about, yeah
Every kind of people
To make the world go 'round
Someone's looking for a lead
In his duty to a King or creed
Protecting what he feels is right
Fights against wrong with his life
There's no profit in deceit
Honest men know that
Revenge do not taste sweet
Whether yellow, black or white
Each and every man's the same inside
Goodness wanted to get a group of musicians together to bring to life the arrangement echoing through his mind. But how to do that during the COVID-19 pandemic when studio sessions put people at risk?
After talking it over with his bandmates, they decided to post a request on social media. Twenty-five current and former Rochester musicians responded by sending in their individual recordings of the vocal tracks. Goodness and his band performed the instrumentals, and he produced the final product.
He hopes people who listen take hope.
"In this moment, there's an awful lot of pressure out there to point out our differences and make us more aware of that and driving division," Goodness says. "It just really bothers me when I see that in society in generally because that's not the way the music community is, and so I thought, 'What better way to deliver this message than to use this song to spread something a little more positive about the fact that it does take every kind of people in this world?' "
Click on the LISTEN link above to hear Goodness talking about the project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGYaX3HEWUw&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR24ibUBmtj1ikUiPerwPgTATqLbjoK96ZFE5KWgfZb7lbFJeVl6WGPT_Fc
