Mecca Flat Blues

artist:Spanky And Our Gang

, writer:Jimmy Blythe

Song Info

Title: Mecca Flat Blues

Artist: Spanky And Our Gang

Writer: Jimmy Blythe

Song Types: Blues

Key: A

Info: Spanky and Our Gang was an American 1960s sunshine pop band led by Elaine "Spanky" McFarlane. The band derives its name from Hal Roach's Our Gang comedies of the 1930s (known to modern audiences as The Little Rascals), because of the similarity of McFarlane's surname with that of George McFarland (Spanky). The group was known for its vocal harmonies and had major hits in the US and Canada in 1967-68 with "Sunday Will Never Be the Same," "Lazy Day," "Sunday Mornin'," and "Like to Get to Know You."

Mecca Flats was an apartment complex in Chicago completed in 1892 and originally built as a hotel for visitors to the World's Columbian Exposition. The building was designed by Willoughby J. Edbrooke and Franklin Pierce Burnham. Franklin Pierce Burnham was not related to Daniel Burnham. The 96-unit Mecca Flats became an apartment complex after the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and is also known as the Mecca Apartments to some.

After the Exposition when the building was converted to apartments, rooms were leased only to white tenants at first. This policy was later reversed and the building became home to mostly middle-class black families. IIT razed the building in 1952 after a decade-long fight with tenants who aimed to prevent its destruction. S.R. Crown Hall, designed by Mies van der Rohe, replaced the building. Portions of the building's basement floor were unearthed in 2018 and subsequently displayed by IIT's architectural school, which is located in S.R. Crown Hall.

The building inspired a song by Jimmy Blythe titled "Mecca Flats Blues" and a poem, "In the Mecca", by poet Gwendolyn Brooks

The vibrancy and social life that was present at the Mecca Flats inspired the musician Jimmy Blythe to write his jazz song "Mecca Flat Blues" in 1924, which he recorded with vocalist Priscilla Stewart that year

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Mecca Flat Blues

artist:Spanky And Our Gang

, writer:Jimmy Blythe

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