It’s been nearly two months since I’ve done an artist-based theme week. The first of 2011 belongs to Stew, a little-known singer-songwriter whose chops put him up there with just about anybody.
Stew (the stage name of Mark Stewart) has released six full-length CDs, sometimes under the name Stew and sometimes with his band, The Negro Problem. However, the members of The Negro Problem also play on his solo records, so the distinction is really more about the kind of music he’s releasing than the performers in the lineup.
Stew’s first release was The Negro Problem’s 1997 Post Minstrel Syndrome, and it’s worth owning for that clever title alone. If the band and album name haven’t tipped you off, Stew is black. He named the band The Negro Problem as a reference to his struggles being accepted by the music industry for the sort of music he writes as opposed to the R&B or hip-hop genres black artists are often boxed into.
And what sort of music does Stew write? That’s a tough one. His songs sound like everyone from Prince to The Beatles, Burt Bacharach to Led Zeppelin. He cites Jimmy Webb as a major influence, and recorded a stirring version of his ‘MacArthur Park’ on this album. AllMusic.com describes the songs on Post Minstrel Syndrome as “freaky, Phil Spector-on-acid psych-pop gems” and I guess that’s as good a description as any.
I like pretty much everything Stew writes, but I especially like the pretty ones. Today’s track, ‘Heidegger in Harlem,’ is one of the prettier songs on Post Minstrel Syndrome.
I’m not ashamed to admit I had to do some Google research on Heidegger, the Nazi philosopher. And I confess I’m still not sure what he has to do with Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. But I find this song provocative nonetheless.
black paint streaming down his face
He’s trying to equalize the distortion in his room
People screaming unify your race
But see, it takes so long
Long I have heard, Martin
I want to thank you for pushing my cart along
There’s a soap box burning, there’s a preacher in the street
Black left Christian on the way
The preacher’s saying Jesus danced to communist beats
Remember how he spread the fish and bread around that day
But it took too long
Long I have heard, Preacher
I want to thank you for pushing my cart along
See, Heidegger collapses in a soul food restaurant
The sisters bring him cool lemonade
One of `em reads aloud from a notebook by the plate
It says I think this poor white boy’s about to fade
See it takes too long
Long I have heard, Preacher
I want to thank you for pushing my cart along
Now the preacher’s wearing boxing gloves, the crowd is with him now
He’s punching out the demons of the state
Even Malcolm smiles adjusts his tie in the book store window
He says take me home now, Preacher, I can’t wait
History clock
don’t make no tick-tock
It won’t tell the time,
so wish what should be mine
It won’t plant the seeds,
which whisper through the trees
And sway on the song
That pushes my cart along
Meet Me In Montauk 
Interesting choice for a theme week. I’ve liked much of what I have heard from Stew. In a few instances, I found his music to be a bit theatrical (not in the showy sense, but more in that I could hear it in a live stage performance of an off Broadway show). This song, however, doesn’t have that element at all. It’s just a nice song about someone I have never heard of:)
Wow! Stew is an amazing, talented songwriter and musician. Pretty nice to see a post about Stew and his music 🙂 Cheers, Olga.
@Dana
Stew won a Tony for His Broadway production of Passing Strange
also a Spike Lee Joint DVD
I wonder if there’s any resentment by the other members of his “band” that he sometimes wants to release music under his name alone rather than under the band’s name….
I like the sound of this song a lot, and I agree with Dana that I’ve enjoyed those songs you’ve shared by Stew over the years. This one may be the best yet.
As a Heidegger expert, I particularly appreciate the powerful allusion in the song 😉
Or maybe they’re grateful that he sometimes chooses to release his music as a band rather than under his own name.
One, Stew would never have gotten to Broadway without Heidi. (Hey, is there a pun here or a reference???)
The Negro Problem was a rock band that wanted to re-create Beach Boys Pet Sounds from a post-James Baldwin perspective; whereas the Stew solo records were simpler arrangements, sometimes funnier, more banter and story telling between songs. Heidi was in both groups. Stew was a duo, sometimes with sidepeople, like on tour with Counting Crows as opening act;
Post-Passing Strange, he splits the difference and calls the whole thing Stew and The Negro Problem.
Anyone who has been in a band or worked with Stew on any level, or loved him, would report a complicated set of feelings, @Amy.