I’m just blessed to have had her music, when I was a teenager, which was when I needed her most.
This has been a wild month. A wild two months. Three months, really. Full of writing — a lot of writing— plus researching, editing, and traveling. And attempting to come to terms with what the rest of this year might look like for me.
I recently saw Bad Boys: Ride or Die and adored it. It’s like watching a reunion show: everyone’s older but they’re still funny, obviously using quality moisturizer, and they have the non-frantic energy of people who made massive Hollywood money in our previous century. I had passes for a Bad Boys screening, but ending up seeing it nearby in Playa Vista. The theater had hot kettle-ish popcorn, which made me happy because I like salt with my sweet. The Cinemark, with its reclining seats, also had a bar. My date got me a Jameson, which I mixed with Coca-Cola Icee. If this is the future of movies, continue to count me in. I was also on a list for the premiere of Cyndi Lauper’s new documentary, Let the Canary Sing.
I couldn’t get there! But what I do have this one time I watched Lauper and Kelly Rowland sing in a soundcheck. I was running around with Rowland that day, and after lunch we dipped into a huge room with eight trillion cords linking sound equipment I did my best not to twist an ankle on. Rowland and Lauper were the entertainment for a benefit (must have been the June 2010 amFAR Inspiration Gala at New York Public Library), and almost as soon as we walked in, Rowland hopped on a tiny stage with Lauper. I sat at a random, un-set banquet table. And the two women just started singing. I pretty much melted.
The song was “True Colors” (written by Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg and co-produced by Lauper).
I see your true colors
Shining through
I see your true colors
And that's why I love you
So don't be afraid to let them show
Your true colors
True colors are beautiful
Like a rainbow
Their voices melded in places. Braided into the other’s in places. And then their notes separated, pure and generous and noncompetitive. Maybe it’s just that Cyndi Lauper and Kelly Rowland are professionals — but it felt like they both had deep things, at that soundcheck, on their hearts. I didn’t even see the “real” performance. Or maybe I did.
The singer/songwriter Angela Bofill died on Thursday. She’s a hero of my youth, and in 2021, I spoke to her for my Black Girl Songbook podcast.
It was a deeply emotional afternoon. Especially because she was so philosophical, after having suffered a few strokes, about not being able to remember the many songs she’d written. Below is a part of the script from the above linked episode show. If you don’t know Bofill’s music, do yourself a favor and listen. If you do know her music, I send you my condolences. A real one has departed for the upper room.
Angela Bofill. The soul/R&B/jazz/pop singer songwriter of the late 1970s and 1980s. You either have no idea who she is — or you’re like me. And she means everything to you because her music flowed into your life when you needed it most. And because now, decades later, and unable to sing anything, EXCEPT FOR ONE SONG, Angela is more inspiring, more of an angel, than she was when you were a teen.
CUE: “Angel of the Night”
That’s the great Angela Bofill singing her “Angel of the Night,” from 1979. This was back when Earth, Wind and Fire was ruling the world with “After the Love Is Gone” and “Boogie Wonderland.” Jimmy Carter was President of the United States. I was looking up to reproductive rights activist Faye Wattleton, who was the first Black and the youngest president ever elected of Planned Parenthood. Rickie Lee Jones was big with “Chuck E.’s In Love.” And Angela Bofill was on the cover of her second album— the album too was called Angel of the Night — sitting outdoors at sunset looking like a high priestess of wisdom, sophistication, deep and unattainable sexiness, and romantic love. Maybe you know Bofill from a viral clip in which she presents Michael Jackson with an American Music Award — and almost hyperventilates. Here she is announcing him:
It’s a great clip. Mchael’s award was for Thriller, he had on the red sequin jacket with the gold detail, and when he kisses her hello, it’s like she is a school girl. It’s so emotional, and real.
CUE BLACK GIRL SONGBOOK THEME
Hi How are you? This is episode 16 of Songbook, and this is the third episode of Season 2. I’m your host, author and journalist Danyel Smith and I am actually not checking in from California this time, but from the state of New York where I lived for long enough to call it my second home state. Thank you for hanging out with me here at Black Girl Songbook the place and the space where Black women in music receive the credit we are due. I hope you are well as we continue to navigate these very strange 2021 times. I hope you are registered to vote and that you are thinking of the kids and all our fellow citizens. I mean: parts of California are literally on fire. New Orleans is in hurricane recovery, and this pandemic strains the sanity of us all.
A thing that does keep me on track is and has always been music, especially the music of my childhood and teen years. was listening to Angel Bofill the very most from the age of like … 14 to 24. That decade, the teens into the early twenties are intense days for everyone. And for me those days were extra tumultuous. I had an evil father figure, and that situation molded me into an adult before it was my time. I was obsessive. I was “fun” and involved in so much stuff — I always wanted to be busy busy so I didn’t have time to think. I was standoffish with adults — who I viewed as wildly untrustworthy. I leaned into singers like Bofill because they sounded very
KNOWING
and
STRONG
and
NOT SCARED
You may have heard — or cried your eyes out to, or slow danced to “I Try,” and “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter” and “Tonight I Give In,” which we’re going to talk about today. The reasons were discussing Angela Bofill is because
Part 1: she was a part of a group of post disco soul singers who rarely received the radio play or cultural uplift that hey should have and we have a special guest to help us understand that.
And Part 2: her songwriting ability and — where she is now. Miss Angela Bofill joins us today, and when I tell you, it’s an honor.
Part 3: vocally, Bofill is a precursor to Whitney Houston. She was even signed by Whitney’s mentor and executive producer Clive Davis, but more on that later, as
I mean, Bofill’s “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter” is about, for me, a woman acknowledging that she has been wrong, perhaps even unfaithful to the relationship. In the song, Bofill is plainly — and not pitifully — asking to be taken back.
CUE: “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter”
There’s no whining. She doesn’t sound ...desperate, she sounds very clear. She is stating her case and she is taking responsibility. Bofill had my heart.
In music,
Danyel
P.S. I think Bad Boys: Ride or Die put me in a Jerry Bruckheimer mood, because I somehow ended up re-watching Déjà Vu (2006), starring Denzel Washington and Paula Patton (first of all: that chemistry!). Erika Alexander is in there, and so is Val Kilmer, and Enrique Castillo (who played Cesar in Weeds). The film more than holds up.
Beautiful post, Danyel, for the Divine Angela✨ ✨And your description of Kelly and Cyndi singing together was so touching!
“This Time I’ll Be Sweeter” and “I Try” were passionate ballads that I used to have on repeat while I was in college. Her strong vocals were truly mesmerizing. Rest in Peace Superstar 🕊️❤️