“Once You Understand” (1972) – Lily Fields and the Family * Written by Lou Stallman and Bobby Susser * Produced by John Bennings * 45: “Once You Understand” / “Help Me Make It Through the Night” * Label: Spectrum
If the original “Once You Understand”—a #23 hit for a studio project called Think—told a tragic tale, with its generation gap unrest and drug-overdose ending, the soul cover version by Lily Fields and the Family managed to lighten things up a bit. Produced by Spectrum label head John Bennings, this one featured a chugging, danceable backing track with the kind of kitchen table family banter that became more of a familiar sound a few years later when black family sitcoms such as Good Times had a regular TV presence. For the climax of this new version of “Once You Understand,” the father merely finds out his son is at the police station, and it feels like more of a punch line than a tragic turn of events. The record never charted, but samples of it turned up on Biz Markie’s “Things Get a Little Easier” (1989). Lily Fields put out a number of recordings in the late sixties and early seventies, but the strongest of these, called “Changes,” sat unissued and unappreciated until Northern Soul excavators brought it to light in 2019.