A couple nights ago, while playing pyramid solitaire \u2013 my idea of relaxing \u2013 I was listening to music on YouTube in the background. I don\u2019t remember what song I started with, but I ended up coming across a Whitney Houston concert filmed live at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, this is one of the greatest concerts of all time. It holds a special meaning to me for so many reasons…okay, maybe so many is an exaggeration, but for several reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I first saw this concert about 22 years ago in 1998. I was at my Grandmother\u2019s house (though at the time, I also lived there) in the living room. It had been brought over on VHS, after being taped from HBO which we didn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was before the \u201ccrack is wack\u201d Whitney, the \u201cshow me the receipts\u201d Whitney. This was when she was still just The Voice. Even though this isn\u2019t her best vocal performance, and in hindsight it may even be a harbinger of the troubles that were later to compromise her singing ability, it was still pretty damn good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This concert introduced me to songs that I had never heard before. It was my first time hearing Porgy and Summertime. My first time hearing Alfie. And my first time hearing one of my all-time favorite songs \u2013 Ain\u2019t No Way by Aretha Franklin, uh, love that song! As a matter of fact, for the longest time \u2013 I\u2019m talking until about a year ago \u2013 I thought the words to the bridge of that song were \u201cif you need me, don\u2019t you know that I need you\u201d as Whitney sings in during this concert. The words are actually, \u201cbaby, please, please, please,\u201d or something like that. Something totally different than what Whitney sings, but I actually like Whitney\u2019s version better \u2013 the words she uses at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The concert also had some historical significance, which Whitney alluded to during the show. Back when I first saw the concert, it wasn\u2019t too long after I had taken a music 101 class in college where I learned about a woman named Marion Anderson. She was a contralto if memory serves me correctly, and she wasn\u2019t allowed to sing inside Constitution Hall because she was Black. Then several decades later, here comes Whitney and she\u2019s doing a show in that same place that Marion Anderson couldn\u2019t enter, and her show was being nationally televised. What an appropriate evolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also like the whole ambience of the concert. It was so simple: just jazzy, and mellow and soulful \u2013 just Whitney and the band. She interacted with the audience and didn\u2019t do a bunch of wardrobe changes. There were no props or dancers crowding the stage. Well, except one. That happened to be my favorite part of the concert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bobby Brown came out and did an interpretive dance to Whitney\u2019s version of Mr. Bojangles, which she sang as a tribute to Sammy Davis, Jr. I had no idea Bobby could dance like that. I mean I knew he could bust out those \u201cEvery Little Step I Take\u201d moves, but this was different. That segment of the show was just so beautiful: Whitney\u2019s voice, Bobby\u2019s moves, the lyrics and story of the song \u2013 so enthralling. At one point her mother, and then brother also showed up to do a duet with her. Even little Bobbi Christina ran on stage \u2013 it was a family affair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this quarantine going on, and actually attending a concert right now being out of the question it\u2019s fun to look back on a different time, while at the same time giving us something \u2013 when this is all over \u2013 to look forward to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are the videos I checked out on YouTube:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bobby Brown’s apperance:<\/p>\n\n\n\n