A Change is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke

Marine Chauveau, 1ES2

Hey Bloggers, today I wanted to talk to you about one of my favorite protest song : A Change is Gonna Come by the American singer-songwriter Sam Cooke. This song has been released on December 22, 1964. This amazing ballad was recorded for his final album « Ain't That Good News ».

 Click to listen to the song.

Let's take a look to the lyrics : 

I was born by the river  →  In reference to the Born-Again Church baptisms where they submerge you in a river. 

In a little tent                      Sam Cooke was brought up in and first performed with these Churches.

And just like the river

I've been running ever since  →  Because he was a black man born in the United States, he has had to “run”

                                                 in order to succeed in a world dominated by whites

It's been a long, long time coming

But I know a change gonna come   →  people did believe that big change was inevitable

Oh, yes it will

It's been too hard living                   

But I'm afraid to die               →  It shows that despite his difficult life, he does not want to leave this world.

I don't know what's up there        Instead, he hopes that the current world he lives in will get better.

beyond the sky

It's been a long, long time coming

But I know a change gonna come    → Cooke believed that a day would come where blacks and whites

Oh yes it will                                        could exist as equals.

And I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keeps telling me, "Don't hang around"   → This line refers to when Sam Cooke was kicked
It's been a long , a long time coming                           out of   a Holiday Inn due to his skin color.

but I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will

Then I go to my brother

I say brother help me please

But he winds up knocking me    → In Sam Cooke own words, this was in reference to the white 

Back down on my knees                establishment, which was completely unhelpful and hostile

                                                     towards the black community.

There's been times that I thought

I couldn't last for long                        →  Sometimes Cooke thought he wouldn't survive but he hope again.

But now I think I'm able to carry on

It's been a long, long time coming

But I know a change is gonna come

Oh, yes it will...

There were lots of circumstances and events that inspired Cooke to write this song. The song came to him in a dream. Cooke even said about it that the song  "felt like death." This was quite different from the rest of his work, which was mainly love ballads. It's almost natural that it would come to him in a dream : the song clearly is inspired (and inspiring obviously!). The hit song isn't only different in the way it was written, the subject is unusual too. Cooke wrote musics chiefly about love and heartache, but this track is a ballad clearly focus on the black freedom struggle.  He clearly reckoned the song as the most important piece he had ever written. But how was the society of 60's ?

 

The 60’s in America was marked with great social changes. When you think of the 60’s, some hippies come to your mind or music such as the British “invasion” (Are you also thinking of four dudes walking over Abbey Road?).  But not only. We also think about the black civil rights movement because blacks suffered during years of segregation. And that's what Sam Cooke sings. 

 

Some Hippies ☮

The four dudes ! ♫

And this is what was Segregation...

Finally, it's pretty difficult to listen to this Sam Cooke song without thinking about Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 Presidential election. The election of the first black President most surely proves that some change has come in America. Obama even paraphrased Cooke during his presidential acceptance speech in front of thousands of people declaring that « It's been a long time coming, but tonight, change has come to America. »

Thanks for reading ! See you soon.

                                                                             xoxo. ♡