There's so much hate going on today
On the right and on the left
You see, we hate our brothers
Yes, we do, and we hate our own self.
There's even hate going on today
Between the young folks and the old
Can't see all this hate is really
Eating up our very soul.
That's why I'm singing now
I hate hate, everybody listen to me
I hate hate, all sing together now
I hate hate, the good Lord above
Don't you know I love love
I really, really love love.
Following on from Lou Reed’s Sick of You and The Monks’ I Hate You, with a brief interim tribute to Prince yesterday, we pick up a soulful, funky number that remains highly relevant in today’s political climate of divisions in the US, on the eve of a racially-charged French presidential election, and of course a Britain divided over Brexit. It really sounds like a classic black soul number, but is actually sung by a white country singer. Razzy Bailey was raised on a farm in Lafayette, Alabama, spent the 60s trying to raise a family, and scratching around in honky tonk bands and bars in the deep south, but clearly his heart was elsewhere. In 1966 he recorded a single, 9,999,999 Tears, but it failed to chart. So did I Hate Hate, but finally on its released in 1974, the album of the same name sold over 500,000 copies, and his career took off. And all these years later this great record is as relevant as ever, and what a superbly soulful number.
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