The Soul Train – Wade in the Water

Marlena Shaw (born Burgess) in New York in 1942 is another oft-sampled vocalist hailing from the jazz and then R&B soul era of the 1960s United States. With a jazz trumpeter uncle, Marlena both performed – and studied – music and became entwined in the jazz scene of clubs and festivals until she auditioned and was signed to legendary Chicago’s Chess Records and began recording on the subsidiary Cadet label.

Mild success ensued until her rendition of the classic 1969 “California Soul” captured the essence of the movement of the time into more idealistic, hippy times following the Summer of Love in 1967.

But what she’s not so well known for is a vocal version of one of the most iconic songs in black music’s heritage. Wade In The Water.

I’m like a ship in a stormy sea
So wade in the water, daddy, and rescue me

A secular take on a spiritual that dates back to 1901. It appeared first in recorded form in 1925 with the Sunset Four Jubilee Singers and a recognition that this song was likely a homage to Harriet Tubbs and the Underground Railway movement of the slave states of the US at the time. Where songs were used to communicate and circumvent the ban on basic literacy education.

This is the power of song. In itself, a form of underground code and masquerading as a tale of sorrow or accepted expression, the power in songs that conveyed messages of clarity, hope and helped people escape the oppression of the time, proved Wade In The Water was not simply a musical celebration. It was an essential piece of coded connectivity to others and forged plans and intelligence to escape and seek freedom and liberation.

Knowing this makes me feel the strength in the theme – as well as the vibrancy and construct – of the song beyond its obvious melodic form.

What happened after the initial 1925 recording, was further recordings until the social consciousness of the mid-1960s gave composer, pianist and conductor Ramsey Lewis the chance to record an instrumental version that became a huge hit. Adopted a little later by the Staple Singers (of Stax fame) during the surge of expression from the Civil Rights movement in the latter 1960s, but Marlena Shaw had already graced the song as an uptempo R&B version with more secular quasi-romantic lyrics to give it a crossover feel.

Many bought this as a B Side to a single, probably unbeknownst of its spiritual significance and indeed, its coded existence as part of the Underground Railway movement from the turn of the 20th century.

Marlena then, added a pop appeal to the spiritual and with Ramsey Lewis’s musical interpretation it perfectly captured the transition of power from jazz to soul that was emerging in the mid-1960s.

You know you got me sailing from midnight till dawn
You even got me drifting all night long

Marlena never really scored a massive hit with it (B sides weren’t always played much) – instead, this song found its fame in the underground Northern Soul scene of 1970s working-class Britain. Clubs in Wigan, Stoke-on-Trent and Cleethorpes would see people gleefully dance acrobatically to Marlena’s soaring vocals and Ramsey Lewis’s adapted thumping beat.

In its instrumental form, Wade In The Water is every bit as legendary in the annals of black music history as Porgy & Bess; Strange Fruit and It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World.

Now in her 70’s Marlena performed in her 60s at international Jazz festivals and is still known for her more famous hits “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”,  “Better Than Walkin”, “Pictures And Memories”, “Yu-Ma/Go Away Little Boy”,  “Woman of the Ghetto” (which formed the centre of Blue Boy’s 2013 hit “Remember Me”) and of course “California Soul”.

Yet her moment with Wade in the Water of merging perfectly secular crossover appeal and spiritual, iconic history into one powerful 3 minutes 34 seconds of Rhythm & Blues deserves our attention and continued appreciation.

I need your loving power, it’s really outta sight
C’mon, wade in the water, where everything is right

Perry Timms

Perry is Founder and Chief Energy Officer of People and Transformational HR Ltd (PTHR) and is a Chartered Member of the CIPD, a fellow of the RSA and Visiting Professor at 4x Business Schools in the UK. Perry is a 3x published author; a 2x TEDx Speaker and 3x Member of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers List. Perry’s musical heritage is in music of black origin and particularly 1960s American R&B and British Soul & Funk from the 1980s-date.