Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child, things’ll get brighter
Ooh-oo child, things are gonna get easier
Ooh-oo child, things’ll be brighter
I was 13 in 1991 when I sat in a suburban movie theater and John Singleton’s Boyz n’ the Hood played on the big screen. My hometown version of suburbia, especially at that age, was pretty damn carefree. Watching Ricky get his football jacked, and Doughboy and Chris doing the perp walk with Tre looking on, was emotional. But what set the scene Pperfectly was the Five Stairsteps singing ‘Ooh Child’ in the background.
‘Ooh Child’ gave the Five Stairsteps — four brothers and a sister from Chicago — a pop-soul classic that rivaled the hits of another sibling gang, the Jackson 5. The children of police detective Clarence Burke, the group played their own music as well as sang. They ranged in age from 13 to 17 when Curtis Mayfield signed them to his Windy C label. ‘Ooh Child’ became somewhat of a standard with other artists recording the song — Nina Simone, Richie Havens and Hall & Oates have all put their stamp on it. It’s been covered in concert by the likes of Beth Orton, Destiny’s Child, gospel hero Kirk Franklin and Trey Anastasio. It even appears on the Rolling Stone list of ‘Top 500 Songs of All Time’ (#392 with a bullet).
When hearing the song in the theater, I barely knew soul music, and barely knew rap music, but damn if I didn’t go out and buy the soundtrack. The only problem was that amongst the Tevin Campbell, Too Short, and the Ice Cube tunes, ‘Ooh Child’ was nowhere to be found on the disc. And there sure as hell wasn’t YouTube or Limewire to get the track. So I was unfortunately left with the rare airing of the song on the radio about once a year.
Fast forward to college and when you really grow up. There were tests, girls, pledging, and then tests and more girls. It’s enough to make a carefree suburban kid get pretty stressed out.
Some day, yeah
We’ll put it together and we’ll get it all done
Some day when your head is much lighter
Some day, yeah
We’ll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day
When the world is much brighter
It was my sophomore year when the song came back to me on the radio. During midterms, I was a bit stressed. I went online to figure out how to get the song (still pre-Napster). I found it was on the Crooklyn soundtrack! Spike Lee felt the song too! So I hopped into the wagon my parents handed down and headed for the record store. I bought the Crooklyn tape (tape!) and played that song like crazy. I don’t dig on Prozac so this tune was my herbal boost. (As an aside, I got turned on to ‘Pusherman’ by Curtis Mayfield from this tape too and always get into it when Widespread Panic rocks out on it.)
Losing Ricky to gunfire was tough. It may have been the first time I cried in a movie theater. All the boy wanted to do was buy some milk and a lotto ticket. But he had to get gunned down. No football scholarship even though he finally got a high enough score on the SATs. Ice Cube, ever the poet, brings it all back home at the end of the movie: “Either they don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care bout what’s goin’ on in the hood.”
John Singleton knew ‘Ooh Child’ would resonate with both the suburban audiences and the urban audience. It has a great groove, horns, a singable chorus, and uplifting verses to keep the blues away. Now with the advent of YouTube, I can share the tune and the scene with you. Too bad I can’t find my Crooklyn tape, that would have really brought back some memories. But what the hell would I play it on…
3 Responses
Welcome aboard Ryan! Great stuff. I loved when Trey rocked this tune on his first solo tour back in ’99.
doubtless a classic tune.
This song will never get old and I could watch that video over and over. What a great looking family….very talented.