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Be Thankful

By Jack Brenn on November 28, 2019

William DeVaughn and Onstage Magazine would like to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

DeVaughn wrote “Be Thankful For What You Got” in 1972. The record sold nearly two million copies on its release in the spring of ’74, reaching #1 on the U.S. R&B charts and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With a sound and content influenced by Curtis Mayfield (and often erroneously attributed to him), its simple and encouraging lyrics hit home, to the extent that it became featured on gospel radio stations. DeVaughn would later remake the song on his second album Figures Can’t Calculate.

The song is featured in the films Bug (2002), Be Cool (2005) and La Mission (2010). Rihanna references this song in “Shut Up and Drive”, with the phrase: “I’m a fine-tuned supersonic speed machine, with a sunroof top and a gangsta lean” and The B-Side of the single entitled “Diamond in the Back” was the same title adopted by Ludacris in 2004.

When we looked up the definition of “Smooth” on google it gave us this link. Now we understand why. What would the world be like if lyrics and beats like this constantly played in the city streets? One Nation Under a Groove — to quote an album title from Parliament/ Funkadelic.

Happy Thanksgiving & peace y’all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pvtlt-p7vB4

Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac
Gangsta whitewalls
TV antennas in the back
You may not have a car at all
But remember brothers and sisters
You can still stand tall

Just be thankful for what you’ve got
Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac
Diamond in the back, sunroof top
Diggin’ the scene
With a gangsta lean
Gangsta whitewalls
TV antennas in the back

You may not have a car at all
But remember brothers and sisters
You can still stand tall
Just be thankful for what you’ve got

Though you may not drive a great big Cadillac
Gangsta whitewalls
TV antennas in the back
You may not have a car at all
But remember brothers and sisters
You can still stand tall

Diamond in the back, sunroof top
Diggin the scene
With a gangsta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh
Diamond in the back, sunroof top
Diggin the scene
With a gangsta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh
Diamond in the back, sunroof top
Diggin’ the scene
With a gangsta lean, wooh-ooh-ooh