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Tuesday, January 20, 2009
People Get Ready
The following is from NPR news:
Part of the March on Washington's legacy is its music. Singer and songwriter Curtis Mayfield's "People Get Ready" was written in the year after the march. For many, it captured the spirit of the march -- the song reaches across racial and religious lines to offer a message of redemption and forgiveness.
After hearing the Rev. Martin Luther King deliver his "I Have a Dream" speech that August day in 1963, the crowd of 250,000 sang "We Shall Overcome." In 1965, another gospel song emerged -- "People Get Ready" by Mayfield and the Impressions.
People get ready, there's a train a-comin'
You don't need no baggage, you just get on board
All you need is faith to hear the diesels hummin'
Don't need no ticket, you just thank the Lord
In addition to the march, the song followed several jarring events in American history: the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham -- which killed four little girls -- and the assassination of President Kennedy
Music critic Stanley Crouch explains Mayfield's response to those events: "...by saying 'There's a train a-coming, get ready' that was like saying, okay, so regardless of what happens, get yourself together for this because you are going to get a chance. Your chance is coming."
"The train that is coming in the song speaks to a chance for redemption -- the long-sought chance to rise above racism, to stand apart from despair and any desire for retaliation -- an end to the cycle of pain," Williams adds.
The song became one of the first gospel crossover hits, while at the same time continuing a tradition of American folklore -- the train of salvation -- in the vein of Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash's popular versions of "This Train's Bound For Glory." Mayfield sings about the same train stopping to pick up the faithful of all colors.
"Curtis Mayfield died in 1999. 'People Get Ready,' the song inspired by the March on Washington, lives on. It's idealism and optimism make it the ultimate crossover -- crossing not only racial barriers but generations,"
a truly great song. and what a special talent Curtis Mayfield was.
ReplyDeleteThe Bob Marley version is CLASSIC... good stuff! I'm glad to see this positivity creeping its way onto SBY NEWS!
ReplyDelete1luv
isnt that Taylor Dayne singing with him?
ReplyDeleteYes, it is Taylor Dane. I felt this was the right time and the appropriate song to send the message. It's time for people to get ready to work together and be a driving force in their communities, counties, states and the world. The negativity was becoming quite overwhelming. It's time for people to stop the madness, give the President a chance to prove himself and most of all tear down that color barrier that divides us all.
ReplyDeleteIt,s the only thing that will save us, Earlssister. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. Pull up your bootstraps, America, and get working on the change like our new president says. Get on that train!
ReplyDeleteA great song and a good post by Earlsister. It is time to come together and be a positive force in our communities.Let's give our new President a chance; we are a much stronger country when we are working together for a common goal.
ReplyDeleteI remember singin along with that song. Still sing it sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI listened to Obama's words today.
There weren't no hate. Only remembering the bad and how folks pulled together to make things better.
I know some white folks out there feelin bad because they ain't done nothing personally bad to no blacks, but they still hear some black brother calling them honky or cracker.
Can I ask you to gather up some love in your heart just one more time, people? It just fear and despair comin out of those mouths. Just like when the white folk still say n-----.
But Martin, he taught us, white and black, they gotta walk together for both to be free. Jew and Christian gotta pray together to overcome.
To the Sister who posted this, that Earl is some lucky brother. I hope the love of that song and what you say gets held tight then spread about it.
Obama ain't the Messiah. He's the just livin proof that when white and black come together as one, anything is possible.
Have a Blessed Day.
"That until there are no longer first class and second class citizens of any nation? Until the color of a man’s skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes? There will be war"
ReplyDeleteThe Hon. Robert Nesta Marley, O.M.
Great song by a great artist, Thanks for all the information. It was all a good read.
ReplyDeleteTo me, The Jeffersons theme keeps playing over and over. George and Weezy are movin' on up!
ReplyDeleteJeff Beck did a great version
ReplyDelete