Nickolas Ashford, the primary lyricist of the legendary singer-songwriter duo Ashford and Simpson recently died at age 70. of throat cancer.
Over a 40 year career Ashford wrote and produced for
Ray Charles, who had a comeback of sorts in 1966 with the decidedly secular, yet sanctified, “Let’s Go Get Stoned”;
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell recordings of the late 1960s, including “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough";
Diana Ross, whose finest early '70s sides as a solo artist - see Diana Ross (1970) and The Boss (1979) - where arguably written by Ashford and Simpson;
The first two Dynamic Superior recordings, their eponymous 1974 debut and Pure Pleasure (1975) - (Motown's willingness to even visually suggest lead singer Washington’s queerness is striking).
Chaka Khan, whose signature tune “I’m Every Women” (1978) is an Ashford and Simpson classic;
Teddy Pendergrass who recorded “Is It Still Good To Ya”;
Cheryl Lynn, who matches the duo’s own performance of “Believe in Me”;
Beginning with I Wanna Be Selfish (1974) , Ashford and Simpson released seven studio albums under their own names for Warner Brothers including the brilliant So So Satisfied (1977), produced by Harvey Fuqua, founding member of the doo-wop group the Moonglows and one-time Motown record executive, which featured the proto-Disco classic “Over and Over” . “Over and Over” was covered the same year by Sylvester on his solo debut. (See also Sylvester's influential gay classic Step II in 1978).
In 1972 Ashford and Simpson appeared on Soul!, a televised variety-show format which provided a stage for a breathtaking array of black cultural and political luminaries, including many performers who had never before appeared on TV. http://www.thirteen.org/soul/2009/02/04/oct-11-1972/
Perhaps the best evidence of the value of Ashford and Simpson’s music was their securing of “Pullman Bonds” in 1998, where financier David Pullman guaranteed the duo eight figures drawn from future royalties on their 250-song catalogue.
In "Nickolas Ashford and the Cult of Black Manhood", Marc Anthony Neal writes:
Ashford also pushed boundaries with regards to notions of Black masculinity. With his long, straightened mane, falsetto singing voice (balanced by Simpson’s vocal heft), measured mannerisms, and clear comfort in his body, Nick Ashford, became the model for a cosmopolitan, metro-sexual Black masculinity. While Ashford had many falsetto peers during the era, like Earth Wind & Fire’s Phillip Bailey, Blue Magic lead-singer Ted Mills, Stylistics’ lead singer Russell Thompkins, Jr. and the oft-forgotten Ronnie Dyson, few functioned with the sartorial sass that Ashford did, save the aforementioned Sylvester. Years later, Eddie Murphy’s character in Vampire in Brooklyn was a l nod to Ashford’s singular style. Ashford’s radical performance of Black masculinity in the 1970s and 1980s, was largely muted because he was romantically linked to Simpson as the couple served as a model for the possibilities of a Black love.
