Broken Home starts up like something Lalo Schifrin might have created for a Dirty Harry soundtrack - electric piano, guitar, cymbals, saxophone, the grit and grime of an urban landscape slowly coming into focus. But this isn't a movie, it's a reality that Eddie Palmieri witnessed, and he turned his thoughts about it into a powerful social statement called Harlem River Drive. You can read more about it here. And here.
Jimmy Norman on lead vocals at 1:53 (Wow, he sang a few tunes with Jimi Hendrix in 1966, and met a young Bob Marley in 1968). The song documents the inner city experience, the unspeakable conditions that children and parents suffer through - a crib was just a playground for a rat, the pushers ran the sidewalks, the feelings of confusion and helplessness: Where do we go from here? When do we leave? Or do we stay?
The music provides a gloomy backdrop, sprinkling notes like grey rain on broken shards of glass, hitting the walls of dead end alleys, shadows and sirens, cracked playgrounds.
The narration ends at 6:30 but the life never ends. The music gives us an additional four minutes of reflection, coming down a bit but still getting the point across. It wants us to feel uneasy, visualize the loneliness, and the hardship. Count your blessings.
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