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After Martin Luther King got killed, I wanted to write a song. Ten years into his role as poster boy for pop soul and peak-hour R&B, Syl Johnson did an unlikely about-face and cut the most inspiring and powerful song he'd ever touch. InchI didn't want to write no song about hating this people or hating that people,Inch Johnson said. InchI really didn't have no vendetta against people. It's a sympathy song.Inch Issued on 45 in September of 1969, InchIs It Because I'm BlackInch struck an immediate chord within the black community, forcing the song up the charts by sheer volume of call-in requests. It would be Syl's biggest hit for Twinight, climbing as high as #11 on the Billboard R&B chart during it's 14-week stay, marking the defining moment of what had become more than just an occupation. Syl had his hands on a career. The days of shuckin' and jivin' through dance songs were over, replaced by a heavy and sometimes cynical undertone that would dominate Syl's output for the foreseeable future. As the world-at-large was changing, so was Syl's personal life. Fed up with 13 years of her husband's life-on-the-road, Hazel Thompson checked out of their bungalow at 6843 S. Aberdeen. The formerly rock-solid band was beginning to show cracks too, as the pressures of an offstage life took their toll. Willie Henderson was the first to duck out, grabbing his shot at producing Tyrone Davis for Brunswick. InchIt kind of fell apart,Inch Syl lamented. InchZachary became an entrepreneur. George Moss couldn't travel. Harvey Burton was teaching school. And Cameron couldn't go on the road. His wife wouldn't let him.Inch For the first time in 33 years, Syl Johnson found himself alone. He holed up at Twinight's woodshedding studio at 2131 S. Michigan (the former address of both King and USA Records) and spent the bulk of 1969 tinkering. That storefront space would host the rehearsal of seve
