ATLANTA -- Curtis Mayfield urged black Americans to "Keep On Pushing" at the height of the civilrights movement, with songs that preached pride and perseverance.
His life imitated his art when an onstage accident in 1990 left him a paraplegic, but that failed to stop his music. He continued to record new songs by singing flat on his back.The gentle voice that sounded more like a pensive philosopher than a raging revolutionary was silenced on Sunday when Mayfield died at age 57.
With classics such as "People Get Ready," "We're a Winner" and "Freddie's Dead" in the 1960s and '70s, Mayfield put civil rights at the forefront of soul music when black radio was dominated by love songs and dance tunes.
"You don't have to break anything over anybody's head, no matter what you're trying to say. It doesn't have to be preached," Mayfield told The Associated Press in a 1996 interview. "What's important for me is that it's said in a manner where it gives food for thought."
Music critic Nelson George dubbed Mayfield "black music's most unflagging civil rights champion." Rolling Stone magazine declared in 1997 that "black music as we hear it today simply wouldn't exist without him."
Mayfield's socially conscious lyrics paved the way for rappers more interested in gritty urban landscapes than heavenly romance. The funk grooves on his album "Superfly" proved irresistible to hip-hop samplers.
Longtime manager and business partner Marv Heiman said Mayfield "wanted people to think about themselves and the world around them, making this a better place for everyone to live."
Mayfield was paralyzed when he was struck by a lighting rig that toppled while he was on stage performing in Brooklyn. The accident caused his health to deteriorate in recent years, and doctors amputated his right leg last year because of diabetes brought on by the injury.
Born June 3, 1942, in Chicago, Mayfield started singing gospel as a boy and taught himself to play guitar by tuning it to the black keys of the piano.
In 1956, he joined church choir member Jerry Butler, brothers Arthur and Richard Brooks, and Sam Gooden in a group called The Roosters. They changed their name to The Impressions two years later, and had a No. 11 hit with "For Your Precious Love."
The group went on to record a string of hits, including "Gypsy Woman," "It's All Right" and "I'm So Proud."
It was 1964's "Keep On Pushing" that marked a turning point for Mayfield, and broadened the parameters of black music. Widely regarded as the first rhythm and blues song to rally blacks behind the civil rights movement, "Keep On Pushing" became a Top 10 R&B and pop hit.
Mayfield continued putting black pride and social issues at the forefront in Impressions hits such as "We're a Winner," "This is My Country" and "Choice of Colors," which asked: "How long have you hated your white teacher?/ Who told you to love your black preacher?"
"Being a young black man, observing and sensing the need for race equality and women's rights," he said, "I wrote about what was important to me."
Other black songwriters soon followed Mayfield's lead. Sam Cooke recorded "A Change Is Gonna Come" shortly before he was shot to death in December 1964. James Brown had a hit four years later with the strident "Say It Loud -- I'm Black and I'm Proud." And Marvin Gaye joined Mayfield on the cutting edge of thinking man's soul in 1971 with "What's Going On."
After his accident, Mayfield found he could still sing by lying down, letting gravity put pressure on his chest and lungs. With vocals sometimes recorded lines at a time, Mayfield released his final album, "New World Order," in 1996.
Mayfield was a two-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame -- as a member of The Impressions, and as a solo artist. Though his songs often invoked bleak surroundings, they never lost sight of hope.
"Like a true nonviolent civil-rights activist, Mayfield looked for the best in antagonists as well as friends, gently prodding for change and rarely pointing an accusatory finger in anger," critic George wrote in his 1988 book, "The Death of Rhythm & Blues." "There was dignity in his approach, a feeling that his ideals were for the elevation of his listeners."