Curtis Mayfield: The Paralyzed Genius Who Sang Lying Down

In a mid-1990s studio, a man recorded an entire album lying flat on his back, paralyzed from the neck down, using gravity alone to press air from his lungs and force out his vocals one agonizing line at a time. That was Curtis Mayfield, fighting for every syllable to make sure we heard the message.This episode explores the triumphant and tragic life of the "gentle genius" who wrote the soundtrack to the Civil Rights Movement. From the projects of Cabrini-Green to his self-taught, uniquely tuned guitar, it reveals how he fused biting social commentary with beautiful melodies and lived out his own lyrics after a catastrophic stage accident.How tuning his guitar to his mother's piano's black keys gave him a one-of-a-kind soundWhy "Keep On Pushing" and "People Get Ready" became anthems of the freedom ridesHow he subverted the Superfly soundtrack into an anti-drug warning instead of glorificationThe 1990 falling-stage-lighting accident that severed his spineThe estimated 140 unreleased Mayfield songs still sitting in the Curtom vaults