Donny Hathaway

Mark Olague looks at the compositional potential of the “live” album in pop music through the other “performance” coming through the speakers on Peter Frampton’s 1975 album Frampton Comes Alive: that of the crowd. He then switches focus to look at Donny Hathaway’s 1972 album Donny Hathaway Live! The key to the late soul singer’s enormous talent, according to critics like Emily J. Lordi, was the way Hathaway was able to build a shared intimacy with his mostly African American audience, reflecting their triumphs and suffering even through reinterpretations of popular covers like Carole King’s “You Got a Friend” and John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy.” Hathaway’s live performances, captured on his classic live album, invite the crowd to participate and spontaneously create community, a practice rooted in the African American religious tradition in which Hathaway was raised.