Ike White — "Changin' Times"
Ike White — "Changin' Times"
Ike White was 19 when he was sent to prison in 1963 with a life sentence for murder.
While at San Quentin, White's musical talent caught the attention of producer Jerry Goldstein. In 1974, Goldstein and Greg Errico, formerly of Sly & the Family Stone, brought recording equipment into the prison and recorded what would become "Changin' Times".
It's a remarkable record—funk, soul, rock and something else underneath it all. Maybe the sound of a guy who knew what freedom was supposed to sound like. Then Stevie Wonder heard it.
Wonder became a fan and helped get a lawyer involved in White's case. In 1978, after roughly fifteen years behind bars, Ike White was released.
You'd think this is where the story takes off. It doesn't. White more or less disappeared.
Instead of becoming the next big thing, he drifted away from the music business, living under different names, including David Maestro, and playing smaller local gigs. The man who had made a remarkable album inside a prison and had Stevie Wonder in his corner simply stepped out of the spotlight.
Years later, filmmaker Daniel Vernon went looking for him. The result was "The Changin' Times of Ike White", a strange and haunting documentary about a man who was given a second chance, briefly touched the music world, and then seemed to disappear from it.
Some records are famous. Some are forgotten. And some seem to carry a story inside them.
"Changin' Times" is one of those records.
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शान्ति εἰρηνικός سلام 和平 ☮︎ शांति 평화 ſíot͡ʃáin ሰላም pax