Reading the liner notes to an album is an important part of listening to any album (Note: For those of you out there who think an MP3 is actually music, go buy a physical cd. It costs about the same and includes notations and pictures that add to the effect and tone of the music. i.e The Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band). Some notes are sparse as the musicians would like you to dream some of the meanings to the songs. Some notes are copious. Those are the ones I like and on The Amazing Oscar Micheaux, Stace England remembers an almost forgotten legend in the seminal film director Oscar Micheaux. Wrapping up the life of a great director into an album is also a feat as England and his Salt kings break down the life, times, and accomplishments of Micheaux into twelve songs.

Each song chronicles a part of Micheaux’s career, so it is best to look at each one separately as to get the whole effect of the story England is portraying in his lyrics.

Track:

1:The Homesteader

Born in 1885, Micheaux set out to find his own way in life. His early travels from Metropolis, Illinois took him north to Chicago where he saved enough money to buy two tracts of land in South Dakota. Having never been a farmer, he detailed his daily hardships into his first book The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer. In 1917, he republished his work as the novel  The Homesteader. After losing his farms due to hard financial time, Oscar moved to Sioux City, Iowa and began work in a new medium-the silver screen. The Homesteader became the first full length movie ever directed by an African-American and was a rousing success among the African-American community with the Chicago Defender saying,” (The Homesteader is) destined to mark a new epoch in the achievements of the Darker Races . . . every Race man and woman should cast aside their skepticism regarding the Negro's ability as a motion picture star, and go and see, not only for the absorbing interest obtaining therein, but as an appreciation of those finer arts which no race can ignore and hope to obtain a higher plan of thought and action."

2:Vendome

The Vendome Theater ran Micheaux’s inaugural work The Homesteader to rave reviews in 1919, but no known copies of the movie are known to survive.

3: Within Our Gates

In 1920 Micheaux made his own statement against the poplar movie The Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith. His statement included an innocent African-Americans being lynched by mobs and even included a controversial scene of a white man attempting to rape a black woman who is his own daughter. Within Our Gates was a monumental statement against racist stereotypes and with this film, the name Oscar Micheaux was cemented into the lore and legends of cinema. One copy of this dynamic and seminal film survives at The Filmoteca in Madrid, Spain.

4: The Symbol of the Unconquered

The Symbol of the Unconquered was also released in 1920 along side Within Our Gates as a statement against racial stereotypes as the African-American heroes defeat the Ku Klux Klan. One copy of this film survives in Brussels, Belgium.

5: The Virgin of the Seminole

After finding success with his early films, Micheaux set himself to make thrillers to entertain audiences. The Virgin of the Seminole focuses a young black man joins the Canadian Mounted Police and rescues a woman who has been captured by Indians.

6: Body and Soul

In 1924, the legendary Paul Robeson who would lend his baritone to the song “Ol’ Man River” in Showboat and other classics of the thirties and forties, starred in his first role playing two brothers. Body and Soul was heavily censored and Micheaux was forced to release an extremely inferior version of the movie to theaters, but the film has been restored to all its beauty with all the original content.

7: The Exile

Micheaux rehashed his original book The Homesteader to create the first talking film directed by an African-American. The Exile was very popular among audiences and yet again Micheaux had developed a following of those who did not follow Hollywood’s ideas of how movies were supposed to be made.

8: Veiled Aristocrats

Basing his next talkie on the book The House Behind the Cedars by C.W. Chesnutt, Micheaux crafted a controversial film that featured light skinned actors passing as white people. Veiled Aristocrats yet again won Oscar more and more fans for his attention grabbing and taboo topics.

9: The Girl From Chicago

During the depression of the 1930’s, Micheaux’s films suffered in their production values. The Girl From Chicago is one of his best work from this lean era that proved talent could overtake money in the cinema.

10: God’s Stepchildren

God’s Stepchildren was not greeted with the same enthusiasm as Micheaux’s earlier works. At its premier in Harlem, members of the Communist Party picketed saying the film was “racist.” Even though the new leadership of the black community started to avoid his works, God’s Stepchildren is regarded as Micheaux’s masterpiece in retrospect.

11: Lying Lips

Oscar’s wife Alice Russell was at times in his late career his only supporter. She helped produce, edit scripted and even took starring roles like the one in Lying Lips.

12: The Betrayal

Deciding to try for one more epic to define his legacy, Micheaux set about to direct and produce The Betrayal. Weighing in at nearly three and a half hours, critics bashed his movie that was loosely based on his original The Homesteader. Even though The Betrayal was released widely and reviewed in the New York Times, success did not follow as he was abandoned even by The Chicago Defender who helped start his career.

As an album, The Amazing Oscar Micheaux paints a portrait of an artist who stood firm in the face of failure and criticism. Stace England and the Salt Kings gracefully show Micheaux’s vision and how he was nearly fifty years ahead of his time. To tell a story of a legend is a massive undertaking for anyone and as a whole the story unfolds as a musical tale of wonderment.

“I have always tried to make my photoplays present the truth, to lay before the race a cross section of its own life. To view the colored heart from close range. My results might have been narrow at times, due perhaps to certain limited situations which I endeavor to portray. But in those limited situations truth was the predominant characteristic.” – Oscar Micheax

The Amazing Oscar Micheaux by Stace England and the Salt Kings will be released on January, 19,2010 on Rank Outsider Records. For more film information on Oscar Micheaux please click here.

www.staceengland.com