Who Did It Better
Where Is the Love
The Original -- 1972
Donny Hathaway
<p>The song is a question that has no good answer. Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack recorded it as a duet, two voices trying to understand what went wrong in a relationship that seemed perfect. Where is the love... the one that was supposed to last forever? The song is about the specific pain of watching something beautiful fall apart without understanding why. The arrangement is warm and forgiving, but the lyrics are not. They are a post-mortem of a relationship that neither person wanted to end.</p> <p>That same painful question gets a group-harmony reading from Gladys Knight & the Pips in their 1973 version. Where Donny and Roberta's original is a duet between two people trying to understand each other, Gladys transforms the song into a conversation between friends. The Pips' harmonies back her every line, the call-and-response structure turning the question into something communal. Where the original was two people wondering where the love went, Gladys's version is a group of people who have all been through the same thing, reassuring each other that the question does not have an answer and that is okay. The arrangement is brighter than the original, the gospel influence more present, the emotion less private and more shared. Where is the love becomes not a lament but a conversation.</p>
The Cover -- 1973
Gladys Knight
Gladys Knight & the Pips in their 1973 version. Where Donny and Roberta's original is a duet between two people trying to understand each other, Gladys transforms the song into a conversation between friends. The Pips' harmonies back her every line, the call-and-response structure turning the question into something communal. Where the original was two people wondering where the love went, Gladys's version is a group of people who have all been through the same thing, reassuring each other that the question does not have an answer and that is okay. The arrangement is brighter than the original, the gospel influence more present, the emotion less private and more shared. Where is the love becomes not a lament but a conversation.</p>
