Every celebration of Black culture ends with Frankie Beverly’s ‘Before I Let Go’

When the deejay spins Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “Before I Let Go,” we all know it’s time to go home.

Take that last sip. Grab your coat. Dap your friends.

The lights are about to come on.

Yet, there is still time for one easy two-step or Electric Slide, one final, joyful get-down before the birthday celebration, wedding reception, or repast is over.

“Before I Let Go” is a one-of-a-kind cultural treasure. In a little over five minutes, Beverly — who died Sept. 10 — packs a river of emotion: sadness, hope, joy, pain, and love in the iconic tune. His moans are sweetly layered over jazzy strings and drums in such a way he sounds as if he’s crying. Beverly is indeed pleading, not for someone to stay, but that he finds the strength to “let go.” Move on. Grow. Change. We cry with him. Our hands lift in unison at the opening line: You make me happy. The love is palpable as the last dancers on the floor get lost in the night’s final groove.

Then we let go and go home.

That is the power of “Before I Let Go.”

Beverly, the Philadelphia-born band leader, who grew up in Germantown but found stardom in San Francisco, had no idea that “Before I Let Go” would be the heartfelt jammy jam it’s become. He wrote it back in 1981. It’s the only song on Maze’s Live in New Orleans album that is a studio recording. It was released on the B-side.

In a 2020 Essence article, Beverly said “Before I Let Go” was written as a slow drag. But when he started practicing it in the studio, the tempo picked up. The song, he said, is about a breakup.

“I was seeing some lady, but I was just with someone [else] and we broke up,” he told Essence. “And it got kind of hard because I wasn’t with the woman I wanted to be with and I couldn’t stay with the woman I was with.”

Eventually, Beverly said, he found the strength to let go. We are all faced with this dilemma. Letting go — of people, ideas about others, and ideas about ourselves — is excruciating. The path is tough.

Similarly, in the moments before we leave a good time, we want to hold on to the fantasy and keep dancing before we return to the reality of the daily grind. We need this last dance before we let go. A good deejay will give it to us every time.

“Before I Let Go” was Beverly’s most enduring song, yet it wasn’t a crossover hit, peaking at 13 on the Billboard R&B chart in 1981. Beyoncé breathed new life into it when she covered it for her 2019 album, Homecoming, adding Cameo’s “Candy” as a pulsating backdrop.

I love both songs, but I wasn’t a fan of Beyoncé’s version. Why mess with perfection? In time, however, I softened. It was a brilliant add. Homecoming is a celebration of Black culture and every celebration of Black culture ends with “Before I Let Go.”

That said, Beverly’s catalog is a banger, full of songs that elicit the kind of joy that starts deep in your soul and flowers at the end of your fingertips. The first chords of “Happy Feelings” pep me up. I feel connected to Black culture when Beverly croons “We are One.” “Silky Soul,” Beverly’s ode to Marvin Gaye, reminds me of my eighth grade dance. “Golden Time of Day” is a beauty about sunset that sparks tears. “Joy and Pain,” Beverly’s version and Rob Base’s hip-hop cover, makes me dance in my car seat when WDAS plays it.

“We haven’t had any pop records, ever,” Beverly told The Inquirer in 2004 article about Frankie Beverly and Maze’s legacy. “We never crossed over, but look at us and the music we’ve done. We’re still here.”

Fans have worried for a while that each of Beverly’s concerts would be his last. He held on as did his fans. In May, the 6000 block of Norwood Street in Germantown was named Frankie Beverly Way. In July, he performed at the Dell Music Center as part of his final concert tour.

I’m so glad that Beverly, one of Philadelphia’s most unsung musical treasures, got a chance to make sure he was right, before he let go.