Donny Hathaway, Someday We’ll All Be Free | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 67^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Someday We’ll All Be Free” by the late, great Donny Hathaway. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 67^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Someday We’ll All Be Free”, performed by Donny Hathaway. 

“Hang on to the world as it spins around / Just don’t let the spin get you down.” Prudent words, Donny Hathaway. Mental health is real, something more readily acknowledged in the 21^st century compared to the 20^th when Hathaway was alive. Sadly, the musical genius was short-lived, passing away at age 33 in 1979. Despite an untimely death, Hathaway left his mark with a brilliant catalog, including the ballad, “Someday We’ll All Be Free”. “Keep on walking tall / Hold your head high,” he sings, in an uplifting fashion, in the second verse, adding, “Lay your dreams right up to the sky / Sing your greatest song / And you’ll keep going, going on.” Word!

“Someday We’ll All Be Free” appears as the second track on Hathaway’s 1973 album, Extension of a Man. He composed it alongside Edward Howard (lyricist) with Arif Mardin producing the soulful gem. “Someday” features a gorgeous palette of sounds: guitar, electric piano, bass, drums, and orchestra. The highlights of the orchestra include a dynamic trumpet solo, performed by Marvin Stamm.  Beyond the instrumental, the soulful pipes by Hathaway shine brightly. Furthermore, he nails the tuneful melodies. The harmonic progression is sweet as well, while Howard’s lyrics, sung utterly sublimely, are where Hathaway’s bread is buttered. Of course, the liberated, one-line chorus marks the lyric to beat: “Take it from me, someday we’ll all be free, yeah.” “Someday We’ll All Be Free” is a masterpiece, PERIOD!

Donny Hathaway // Extensions of a Man // Atlantic // 1973

Donny Hathaway, Someday We’ll All Be Free: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 67 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Atlantic; OpenClipart-Vectors, Speedy McVroom via  Pixabay]