Lyrics

Help Somebody

(Frank Johnson)

By Vinson “ALäZ” Muhammad

Said I just wanna help somebody, call me Frank Johnson
Show my people that we got some options
If I can just help somebody take away the pain
I know that I ain't livin' in vain
Said I just wanna help somebody
If I can just help somebody 

What I speak is truth call it gospel, spit it like it's doctrine
Straight up outta Macon, but we rep it like it's Compton
Young Frank Johnson, born up on that westside
1927 Unionville, let's take a ride
Got the name for the love that had us unified
Layers to this legacy of lands they try and vilify
Pictures of poverty, we only see that black man
But Franks daddy had that farmland, man
So now his son growing like the crops 
In sunlight, his son's light shinin' like his pops
In high school at Hudson, down in Pleasant Hill
Had academic skill, and was nice on the field
But he ain't get a chance for backpacks and the team
Put a pause on the books to go and join the Marines
In fact in the branch, he was one of the first blacks
Always giving back like that

Said I just wanna help somebody, call me Frank Johnson
Show my people that we got some options
If I can just help somebody take away the pain
I know that I ain't livin' in vain
Said I just wanna help somebody
If I can just help somebody 

He was one of 20,000 blacks trained in North Carolina
But before a soldier, first they had to be survivors
The tale of two camp sites, one black, one white
One camp was all wrong, the other camp was all right
Montford Point was mosquitos and bad boots
Bad accommodations, every station was bad news
Camp Lejeune on the other hand had the upper hand
Like the lunch counters and the fountains for the other man
So medieval, conditions so unequal
Like Plessy vs. Ferguson where nonexistent people
It was what it was though, unfair and cutthroat   
But Frank said I gots  to see it through, word to Lantbo
Shinin' like a lamp post, training that was basic
A soldier from the ville, wit' a will built to make it
Finished out his tour then he came back to Macon
And you already know what he was sayin'

Said I just wanna help somebody, call me Frank Johnson
Show my people that we got some options
If I can just help somebody take away the pain
I know that I ain't livin' in vain
Said I just wanna help somebody
If I can just help somebody 

1945, Frank was 19
Went back to highschool and Frank became a young king
Met a young Queen named Dorothy Purnell
They had the type of the love that early on you could tell
That they would be a power couple so they got a couple scholarships
To Savannah State a couple scholars in a partnership
They graduated, then he made her his wife
The definition of a servant, dedicated his life
On Bloody Sunday, he marched with belief like Phillippians
In '96 ran with the torch like Olympians
Frank came back to the city like Dan Freeman
Taking everything that he learned then started teaching
Really in the streets cleaning up, call it black soap
Voter registration, taught us how to use the black vote
Led associations built for Unionville Improvement
His motto is a movement

Said I just wanna help somebody, call me Frank Johnson
Show my people that we got some options
If I can just help somebody take away the pain
I know that I ain't livin' in vain
Said I just wanna help somebody
If I can just help somebody