HUNGRY

My stomach begins to rumble, but there will be no food cooked for me,
For my mother doesn’t return from her midnight rendezvous till about three.
I LIKE THE WAY YOU SING

You see, back in the fifties when I came up, there weren’t a whole lot of Black Folks on television. And Mahalia, she lived right in my hometown, Chicago. She was born in Louisiana, the birthplace of jazz; she lived next to a Holiness church; and went to a Baptist church. So, she was getting all kinds of rhythms up in her head. Then she came to Chicago. She was attending a Baptist church. She started singing with a gospel choir and with a professional gospel group. After she made her first record, she got her own little local television show….