Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)

"Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)", often shortened to "Inner City Blues", is a song by Marvin Gaye, released as the third and final single from and the climactic song of his 1971 landmark album, What's Going On. Written by Gaye and James Nyx Jr., the song depicts the ghettos and bleak economic situations of inner-city America, and the emotional effects these have on inhabitants.

Composition and lyrics

In 1998, co-writer James Nyx Jr. recalled, "Marvin had a good tune, sort of blues-like, but didn't have any words for it. We started putting some stuff in there about how rough things were around town. We laughed about putting lyrics in about high taxes, 'cause both of us owed a lot. And we talked about how the government would send guys to the moon, but not help folks in the ghetto. But we still didn't have a name, or really a good idea of the song. Then, I was home reading the paper one morning, and saw a headline that said something about the 'inner city' of Detroit. And I said, 'Damn, that's it. 'Inner City Blues.' "

Inner City Blues (novel)

Inner City Blues is the 1999 debut novel by American crime author Paula L. Woods, and the first book in her Charlotte Justice series. The book was published by W. W. Norton & Company on 17 January 1999, winning the Macavity Award for Best First Mystery in 2000 and being named Best First Novel by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association.

The novel takes place during the 1992 Los Angeles riots as Justice investigates the death of "one-time radical Cinque Lewis...who years before had murdered her husband and daughter."

References

Inner City Blues (Grover Washington, Jr. album)

Inner City Blues is the debut album by saxophonist Grover Washington, Jr.. It was recorded at the Van Gelder Studio in September 1971 and released in 1972. The title track was a cover of the recent hit by Marvin Gaye released in June 1971. The album also includes a cover of Bill Withers' hit "Ain't No Sunshine", released shortly before recording this album. In 2008, it was reissued on CD by Verve Records.

Track listing

Personnel

Inner city

The inner city is the central area of a major city or metropolis. Inner city areas tend to have higher population densities than outer suburbs, with more of the population living inside multi-floored townhouses and apartment buildings.

In the United States, the term "inner city" is often used as a euphemism for lower-income residential districts in the city centre and nearby areas, with the additional connotation of impoverished black and/or Hispanic neighborhoods. Sociologists sometimes turn this euphemism into a formal designation, applying the term "inner city" to such residential areas, rather than to geographically more central commercial districts. However, some inner city areas of American cities have undergone gentrification, especially since the 1990s.

Such connotations are less common in other countries, where deprived areas may be located in outlying parts of cities. For instance, in many European and Brazilian cities, the inner city is the most prosperous part of the metropolis, where housing is expensive and where elites and high-income individuals dwell. Poverty and crime are more associated with the distant suburbs. The Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Swedish words for suburb (sobborgo, suburbio, subúrbio, banlieue and förort respectively) often have a negative connotation similar to that of the English term "inner city", especially when used in the plural.

Inner city (disambiguation)

The inner city is the central area of a major city.

Inner City may refer to:

Places

Other uses

Inner City (film)

Inner City is a 1995 film directed by Jean-François Richet. It stars Cyrille Autin and Emmanuelle Bercot. It won an award at the 1995 Avignon Film Festival.

Cast

References

External links