L O V E I T V I O L E T – DANIEL & VIOLA 1971 (Single Review)

Johnny Sanders and his ‘fake but SOULFUL band’, LOVEITVIOLET, have a new single. The track is called ‘DANIEL & VIOLA 1971’, and is a love song about an interracial couple.

Johnny Sanders describes ‘DANIEL & VIOLA 1971’ this way: ‘This song is SPOT on my BEST way to convey the brutal completeness of WAR & the resilience of a young couple giving back to their community & giving in, more importantly, to each other!’

Storywise, we first meet Daniel, who is said to have always stayed out of trouble, a man who always knew his rights from wrongs. Moreover, we hear that he was baptized in holy water. 

‘So let’s rock and roll,’ the song goes at this point of the story, in a way giving us a break from the story so far, in a way reminding us that we’re probably here more for the music than the story. I find this very innovative. 

Then, when the story resumes, we hear of Viola washing in from East Aurora or maybe Lewiston, New York. She did two tours in Empire East Dome, we hear, and left two kids with her father. She, however, snarls a new tune called Nixon’s War.

Instrumentally, the song is driven by steady drumming that’s paired with some saccharine strings. There’s nothing really innovative about the instrumentation, which is not to take it down. The advantage is that the vocals really shine since they are clear. The singing is dynamic. We get a male singing in an almost feminine voice. It’s one singer, but some parts seem to take the voice of different personas.

At a bus stop, Daniel sees a beautiful black woman. It’s Viola, and the pair seem to tag along. One of her dreams is to become, maybe, Nina Simone.

It’s a beautiful song. Love the singing, but I’d cut the song’s length. Also, I’d cut some of the references of music in the song. 

SCORE/Excellent:  It’s an excellent song that takes us into historical America. What’s more, this is a song that references well-known music icons. It’s more or less a song about people also involved in the music industry in one way or the other. 

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