Time & Perspective Quote by Solomon Burke

Burke’s line lands with the bluntness of a backstage truth everyone in the business knew and few wanted printed. It’s not an abstract complaint about “unfairness”; it’s an accounting statement. Deals. Terms. Percentages. Ownership. The kind of paperwork that decides who gets to age into comfort and who gets to keep touring until their body gives out.

His specific intent is corrective: to puncture the mythology that the golden era of American music was purely about talent, hustle, and a lucky break. Burke is pointing to a two-tier system baked into contracts and enforced by custom. Black artists were often steered into one-off fees, punishing royalty rates, no publishing control, and murky accounting, while white counterparts were more likely to be treated as long-term assets whose careers merited investment, leverage, and legal protection. The racial divide wasn’t just social; it was administered through clauses.

The subtext is even sharper because Burke says “at that time,” a phrase that sounds historical while daring you to ask how much has really changed. He’s indicting an industry that loved Black sound but priced Black labor cheaply, then sold it back to America at a premium. Coming from a musician with gospel roots and crossover success, it’s also personal: Burke watched the culture celebrate the music while the artists got “paid” in exposure and legend.

What makes the quote work is its restraint. No melodrama, no sermon. Just the cold language of commerce, where discrimination hides best and lasts longest.