Presenting Roberta Flack

<v Performance>[Roberta Flack's performance of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"] <v Performance>[Eugene McDaniels performs an acoustic song in a room]. <v Eugene McDaniels>Oh, I can't remember the lyrics.

<v Roberta Flack>Did you play that tempo last? Together as- Did you play that? <v Eugene McDaniels>He heard it. He asked for it. <v Roberta Flack>Who was that you were playing for when I saw ?inuaidble? ? <v Eugene McDaniels>It's Sunday and Sister Jones, he has to hear it. He has to hear it. <v Roberta Flack>But you weren't, how- he wouldn't have known about it. <v Eugene McDaniels>He heard it before you heard it. <v Roberta Flack>But you told me. No, he didn't. Because you told me Gene. <v Eugene McDaniels>Yes, no he heard it, really, he heard it. <v Roberta Flack>But you told me, you told me. <v Eugene McDaniels>What did I tell you? <v Roberta Flack>You called me on the phone and told me you had a song for me. <v Eugene McDaniels>That's right. And you are the only person that I write exclusives for. <v Roberta Flack>But why are you playing my song then? <v Eugene McDaniels>He has to hear it. He just asked to hear it. He can't have it. He can't have it. It's yours. <v Roberta Flack>Is that a promise? <v Eugene McDaniels>Yes, ma'am.

<v Roberta Flack>Cause you know how I feel about your songs. <v Eugene McDaniels>Sure feels great to have the folks fighting over your music. It's really a trip. <v Roberta Flack>I'm not fighting. <v Eugene McDaniels>I went I went four years. I couldn't get anybody to even look at the lyric. And now folks want my music. <v Roberta Flack>Well, see, I'm not fighting, but if you give me something then I'm going to take it. <v Eugene McDaniels>It's for you. It's for you. <v Roberta Flack>You said, you called me up and said Sunday and Mrs. Jones, this is for you. And you sang it on the phone. <v Eugene McDaniels>That's right. <v Roberta Flack>I remember the exact day. <v Eugene McDaniels>That's right. <v Roberta Flack>And I remember all the tears and things that I shed over, and you let Les McCann hear it. <v Eugene McDaniels>Well, it's alright if he hears it. <v Roberta Flack>No, I want him to hear it from me. <v Eugene McDaniels>All right. <v Roberta Flack>I think we should do that, I think all the songs should go new on my next album. Nobody should hear it except you and I, and Susan. <v Eugene McDaniels>You don't want nobody to even hear it? Well, can't hardly help it. <v Roberta Flack>Because there are thieves in the night [laughter] You know I love Les McCann but there are thieves in the night. There really are. <v Bill Cosby>She can spin a mood for you and and take you right along with her so that you probably hear words and understand them and accept them for the first time. And that's what a great singer is all about. So at this time, I would like to introduce to you a lady who can spin, make you understand and accept just what she's singing about. Let's all welcome Miss Roberta Flack.

<v Performance>[Roberta Flack performs "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"]

<v Roberta Flack>In this type of business, when you marry, the trick is to find someone who knows where he's going. And my husband, Steve Novosel, is a beautiful musician. He plays the bass. He's worked with a lot of great musicians, Roland Kirk, Stanley Cowell, David Newman. When I first started in this singing thing, he didn't like it because of the constant traveling, the pressure. And we've had problems. But I think for the most part, they've been worked out.

<v Roberta Flack>You know, do you think I have a choice about doing this, what I'm doing or not doing. How do you feel about that? Would you like me to not do it? <v Steve Novosel>Absolutely not, because you have to be happy doing what yoy're doing, otherwise, we would probably never be together if she weren't able to be what she is. She is a musician. <v Performance>[Roberta Flack performing "Sunday and Sister Jones"]

<v Performance>[Roberta Flack performing "Save the Country"]

<v Performance>[Roberta Flack performing "O-o-h Child"]

<v Roberta Flack>I was 19 when I graduated from Howard University. I went to North Carolina as soon as I finished college to teach. When I got to the school, it was called a coordinated school, and that simply meant that it was the only Black school in the county. There were 2800 students in the school and I had to teach all of them. Kindergarten through the 12th grade. I taught physical education, personal hygiene and music. I tried really to teach them everything that I could, all the music I could, just everything. I lost 40 pounds and almost had a nervous breakdown. But we did some very beautiful things that year. And I learned an awful lot about myself. I was all of a sudden a grown woman and I learned to teach.

<v Roberta Flack>Boys and girls this is a beautiful song, it talks about love, and I'd like for you as you sing it to really, really, really try to get the message of the song across. Pretend that you're singing this song to a group of foreign students, for example, who don't even speak our language. So not only do we have to enunciate the words clearly, but you also have to put little stress, little emphasis on certain words, make the words almost pitch picturesque, make them very descriptive. Now, let's do the song right from the beginning. This is "Love is but the song we sing and fear's the way we die." And of course, what it's saying is simply that with a song, with the words of a song, with a message that words are can bring to a song, you can say so many things. You can talk about love, hate, beauty, all sorts of things. So let's let's try this right from the beginning. Okay, let's do do do do do part at the beginning and then we'll get into we'll do that twice. Doodle doo doo doo. And then right into the song. Here we go. <v Sound on camera>[Singing exercises with the students].

<v Roberta Flack>When I was still teaching school, right after we got married. If you had never taken me down to caverns to let Tony Taylor hear me, I would probably still be teaching school because it was always like an inner desire that I talk to you about and some other people and you actually took me down there. <v Steve Novosel>Well, like I said I had reservations at first because you look at the music business and you see people that have been in the music business for long periods of time, especially women and the how hard it is for them and how they have to develop certain attitudes, but now, what can I say? She's just beautiful. <v Performance>[Class singing The Youngblood's "Get Together"] <v Roberta Flack>Do you think that your mother and father would recognize me by name if they saw me on national television? What do you think they'd do? If they see me would they know who I am? That I'm your wife?

<v Steve Novosel>Sure, they know who you are. <v Roberta Flack>They do know who I am? <v Steve Novosel>Certainly. <v Roberta Flack>How do you know? <v Steve Novosel>Well, we told them before we got married, we told them-. <v Roberta Flack>You told them what my name was. <v Steve Novosel>Right. <v Roberta Flack>But you think they connect that with with, you know, whatever the image is supposed to represent now? You don't think that they see me on television and say, that's the daughter, that's the girl that my son married? <v Steve Novosel>I think they say that. And they also say that that's-. <v Roberta Flack>Do you really think they know who I am? <v Performance>[Roberta Flack performs "Tryin' Times"]

<v Roberta Flack>We lived in Green Valley, Virginia, which was like the section of Arlington where all the Black people were. They weren't anywhere else unless they were living in some house cleaning up, you know. My mother arranged for my brother and I to attend school in Washington and the bus fare for children was a nickel. Now, it was so much more fun for us to spend the 10 cents that we needed to get home in the afternoon and buy a great big giant, enormous, sour, sour pickle, makes my mouth water and our peppermint stick make a hole in it, fella. Put the peppermint stick in there and squeeze the juice up through there and use the peppermint stick as a straw, you know, and that was like sweet and sour pickle. And we walked home to Green Valley, Virginia, down through Georgetown, across Key Bridge and through Arlington Cemetery. And sometimes it would be way, way past dark when we got home. We used to have more fun looking for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and we'd go different routes and play peek a boo behind the tombstones and scare each other to death. Oh, it was so much fun. This is a very funny business as you travel around the country, you have to satisfy the people who are buying your albums and coming to hear you and loving you. And the things they love you for are the songs that you've been doing for a year and a half or two years. I think I've done "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" 5000 times, and it is a beautiful song. But there are other songs out there, so to sort of stay ahead of the game and keep things interesting for you so that you can be truly satisfied and involved and challenged you have to work with that, and I'm constantly concerned about that. Then there's something else that you have to watch while you're building, trying to achieve something in the business, and that is simply to be in good health and to really feel like doing it. I'm convinced that people are what they eat. And sometimes when I don't feel good, it's because I've had too many glazed donuts and not enough broccoli. You know, I have to go out and travel two or three days in a row with concerts each night. And at the end of it, I'm just whipped. And it's because I don't have any energy. I haven't taken care of myself properly. And you just have to if you're going to stay in the pace <v Joel Dorn>?inaudible? There's no pressure at all. In other words, like ideally, to be honest with you, I would hope we could use some time tomorrow and Wednesday to do some voice and piano things with you.

<v Roberta Flack>Well, you know, <v Joel Dorn>But if you don't want to, I'm not going to look, man, you know, if pressure's a word we're using already, I'm not going to create any kind of pressure. <v Roberta Flack>Right. Because I'm telling you I need this time to get it together. <v Joel Dorn>Do what you got to do, my dear. In fact, if you want-. <v Roberta Flack>Dead chord, that sounds like a ?inaudible? chord, but I think you have to you have to have an E on the bottom there. <v Performance>[Roberta Flack performing "Chasing the Sunshine"] <v Joel Dorn>The first time I ever spoke to Roberta on the phone, I signed her without ever hearing her because Les McCann called here. He said, there's a girl in Washington. Her name is Roberta Flack. I said, I heard about Roberta Flack before. Leave me alone. I don't want any chick singers. They're a problem. They're a hassle. You want to record her then you record her, but don't call up here and give me any chick singers, because Roland Kirk had called us the year before and said there's a girl in Washington. Her name is Roberta Flack. And I said, listen, you know, I just don't want to record a female vocalist. Les McCann, he didn't want to know about no for an answer. He was howling, so fine, I'll send her a contract. And then and then I heard the tape and then I heard her and it was unbelievable. We want people who by James Brown Records and people who buy Andre Segovia records to buy Roberta Flack records. We hear all of that in her. Now for this LP. We're starting at the very bottom. To me, Roberta is so pure that we're going to start with pure Roberta Flack voice and piano. <v Joel Dorn>There you got it. What's the name of the song?

<v Roberta Flack>Chasing the Sunshine. <v Off-screen voice>Would you believe? <v Announcer>Roberta Flack, "Going Down to the River," take one. <v Performance>[Roberta Flack performing "Going Down to the River"] <v Sound engineer>Let's listen back. OK.