BY: Vincent L. Hall
“When I left St. Louis, I was making five dollars a night. Now I’m getting $5,000 a week — for saying the same things out loud I used to say under my breath.” – – Dick Gregory
“Talk Back Liberation Radio” (TBLR) was hosted nightly by Dallas’ “controversial” County Commissioner John Wiley Price. The now-defunct KKDA Radio, which propelled the “Flyjock,” Tom Joyner, produced a mainstay of AM night talk shows in Dallas. TBLR was provocative, providential, and generally problematic for the status quo.
One brilliant Black Prodigy, Richard Claxton Gregory, made several appearances on TLR…and all of his preachments were profound.
Parenthetically, “Soul 73 KKDA” later became “Seoul 731”. But that is a whole ‘nother story! This skull session is all about celebrating what would be the 93rd birthday of an unlikely national icon.
There was one very memorable show featuring Dick Gregory near the turn of the new millennium. It was a crazy time. American capitalists were in rare form and y’all was buying everything from extra insulin to computer insurance for fear of what might happen. I still have a case of potted meat, some peanut butter, and a bundle of one-dollar bills in my underground bunker!!
Anyway…Dick Gregory made a foretelling of the “Age of Aquarius.”
Some of you are old enough to remember that 1960s hit. “When the moon is in the Seventh House…And Jupiter aligns with Mars. Then peace will guide the planets…And love will steer the stars. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.” The Age of Aquarius has always held a modicum of mystery in the astrological sciences.
Dick Gregory pronounced profusely that in the Age of Aquarius, there would be no more mysteries. Anything you conspired to do in the dark could be done in broad daylight.
Dick mused that although Black/Southern culture prescribed that a “Hit dog would holler”, you wouldn’t have to wait for the holler. In the Age of Aquarius, you might see the dog get hit.
Either by happenstance or circumstance, Dick’s messianic message marked the beginning of an age when social media and social outlets would replace crystal balls and Ouija boards.
“There ain’t no use to ducking and hiding now, it’s all going to come out and everybody’s going to know about it.”
If you were ashamed of who you were with, where you were going, or how your hypocritical habits might look… you’d better quit because in the Age of Aquarius, all of your secrets were going to be laid bare before the world. Your paramour would be no more, and your giftedness can’t hide your shiftiness.
Dick Gregory was a “Man’s man” but not sexist, the People’s prophet but not a carnival barker. He was the consummate comedian and a learned lecturer. Psychologists tell us there are 16 distinct personality types.
But within that 16, there are thousands of variations dependent upon passion, environment, education, and our experiences. Gregory was born and remained unique.
There’s a multitude of his musings we shouldn’t part with. “I never learned hate or shame at home; I had to go to school for that.”
Or, “Everything we do we should look at in terms of millions of people who can’t afford it.”
Or “When I first broke through, there was only NBC, CBS, and ABC, and they had news in the morning and in the evening – there was no 24-hour news.”
The Age of Aquarius remains a complicated astrological concept. But the age of Dick Gregory is a known quantity and one that I will always treasure.
A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
