School of Rock
Random article All articles A–Z
2 languages

Melvin Van Peebles

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Melvin Van Peebles was born in 1932 in Chicago as Melvin Peebles. He studied literature at Ohio Wesleyan University and then served for over three years in the American air force. The Van in his name was added when he lived in the Netherlands in his late twenties. He worked as a cable car gripman in San Francisco, wrote a book about it and made short films. When he could not get work as a director in Hollywood, he moved to Europe, eventually to Paris.

Music and breakthrough

In France he became a prolific writer of novels and plays. He wrote plays in French and used Sprechgesang, in which the text is spoken above the music. That style returned on his debut album Br'er Soul from 1968. In 1967 he made his first feature film, The Story of a Three-Day Pass, which was shot in France because it was hard for a Black American director to get work. In 1971 came his best-known film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, in which he himself acted and for which he also made the music. The film led to the emergence of the blaxploitation genre. His play La Fête à Harlem became the musical Don't Play Us Cheap, of which an original cast album and soundtrack appeared in 1972. Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death, an album in 1970 and later a Broadway musical, also belongs here.

Influence

Van Peebles was an actor, filmmaker, writer and composer, and showed that a Black artist could produce his own stories and music himself. He died in 2021.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a song from Br'er Soul and notice how he half speaks and half sings the lyrics: what does that do to the way you listen to the story?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsBlaxploitation: soul and funk