Morning Song – Chain Reaction

“Chain Reaction”, the title track to Carolyn Franklin’s 1970 album, could be about the Civil Rights movement (family friend Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated just two years earlier), the burgeoning gay rights movement (Stonewall had happened the year before, and Carolyn’s bisexuality was an open secret in the Detroit musical world), the global struggle for human rights and justice, or—despite coming nearly two decades before Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term intersectionality—all of the above.

Whatever it’s about, it’s a smoldering, fiery, propulsive piece of psychedelic soul that reminds you again what a travesty (and a loss) it was that the music industry couldn’t (or wouldn’t) make room for more than one Franklin sister.

“Everyone’s just a link in the chain, and once united we can stand the strain;

What we need is a strong inspiration, for everyone to find the way to true salvation;

So why can’t you see it’s up to you and me to start a chain reaction.”