During this election week in the U.S. we’re focusing on socially relevant songs from years past. With that in mind, today’s classic socially relevant song of the day is Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come.”
Sam Cooke wrote “A Change is Gonna Come” in reaction to an incident he experienced while touring Louisiana in December of 1963. He made a reservation at a Holiday Inn in Shreveport, but when he and his entourage arrived, they were refused lodging because they were Black. Mr. Cooke made a fuss but eventually drove away to another, more minority friendly, hotel in downtown Shreveport, where the police were waiting for them. Cooke and his group were arrested for allegedly disturbing the peace. (They eventually made bail and continued on to their planned concert.)
That incident, combined with his admiration for Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” and other protest songs of the time, inspired Sam Cooke to write a protest song of his own. That song was “A Change is Gonna Come,” which addressed the hopes and dreams of the Civil Rights movement head on:
Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knockin’ me
Back down on my knees.There been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
But now I think I’m able to carry on
It’s been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.
Powerful words for an uncertain time—words that still resonate today.
Sam Cooke first performed “A Change is Gonna Come” on The Tonight Show on February 7, 1964, but it wasn’t released as a single until December 22 of that year. That was two weeks after he was fatally shot on December 11, 1964. After his death, the song reached #31 on the Billboard Hot 100 and became an unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. In 2007, the Library of Congress selected the song for preservation in the National Recording Registry.
And here’s a short piece from reporter Anthony Mason of CBS News on December 24, 2014, detailing the story behind the song. It’s worth a watch.
