Power To The People
Peace and hope for a brighter future is the subject for part 4 of ‘Meet the Songs’. These songs will form an important part of the line up in our ‘Power To The People’ show on Sunday 18th November at The People’s Theatre in Heaton, Newcastle. A stark but significant contrast to the difficult subject we tackled in part 3.
Curtis Mayfield, The Impressions – People Get Ready.
Black American freedom song inspired by the March on Washington.
1963 in the US was a time of racial unrest and many civil rights protests. On August 28th the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was attended by 250,000 people. The largest demonstration in the capital’s history and the very first to be covered so widely on television. That same day Martin Luther King gave his famous speech “I Have a Dream” and the crowd went on to sing “We Shall Overcome”.
“People Get Ready” was written a year after the march by Curtis Mayfield. His gospel song really expressed the feelings of those people who demonstrated. It was widely felt that this very song’s message of hope for a better future managed to transcend religious and racial boundaries. The song was also released after some horrific events in America. One of these was in September 1963 where four young girls were killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama. Four Ku Klux Klan members planted dynamite in a deadly terrorist attack. Two months later, President Kennedy was assassinated.
The song was a hit for Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions and reached number 3 in the R&B chart. The lyrics called for people to get ready for a chance to move away from racism, despair and violence. ‘There’s a train a-comin’ and it stops off to pick up people of all colour and religious beliefs.
Jeff Buckley – Everyday People.
A song for peace and equality between different race and social groups
“Everyday People” was written in 1968 by Sly Stone and became a hit for Sly and the Family Stone. It reached the top spot in the soul singles chart and US Billboard Hot 100. It is well remembered as a popular sixties song. The main theme for the band and this song was the plea for peace and equal treatment for all social and racial groups. They were considered to be the first big integrated band in history. Sly performed alongside caucasians Greg Errico and Jerry Martini and female members Rose Stone and Cynthia Robinson.
The song makes fun of the idea people hate each other for their differences. Short or tall, fat or skinny, rich or poor, white or black. The famous line “different strokes for different folks” went on to become a popular catchphrase. It is also where the TV series Diff’rent Strokes came from! In the chorus each of the singers in the band take the line “I am everyday people”. This was to highlight that we are all everyday people and form an equal part in our society.
There have been many covers of the song since the late sixties including the legend Aretha Franklin and more recently Arrested Development. It is Jeff Buckley’s version that we will be emulating in our ‘People To The People’ show.
The Savage Rose – Where Have All The Flowers Gone.
Anti-war song for peace.
“Where Have All the Flowers” gone was written in the main by Pete Seeger in 1955. He wrote the first three verses and this was later added to in 1960 by Joe Hickerson. Seeger wrote the song during a plane journey reflecting on a novel he’d read about the Don River in Russia, And Quiet Flows the Don. In this book the Cossack soldiers sing as they ride to join Czar’s army. A few lines from that song were in the book and included: ‘Where are the flowers? The girls plucked them / Where are the girls? They’re all married / Where are the men? They’re all in the army’. He’d also written down the lines ‘long time passing’ and ‘when will they ever learn’. Incredibly within 20 minutes he had a song written.
Lyrics from a camp counsellor!
Pete was on his way to a performance at Oberlin College and he taped the lyrics to a microphone and sang it that day. One of the students heard the song and took it to his summer job as a camp counsellor and sang it to the kids. That student was Joe Hickerson and he added two verses to the song which prompted Seeger to give him 20 percent of the royalties. The song still brings in thousands of dollars from around the world. Not bad for a summer job!
The song has a modern folk style and in 2010 was listed as one of the Top 20 Political Songs in the New Statesman. There have been countless versions of this anti-war song understandably covered at various different points in history since it was written. Marlene Dietrich, The Searchers, Dusty Springfield, Bobby Darin, Roy Orbison, The Four Seasons, the list is endless! Savage Rose released their version in 1995 on their Black Angel album and over 20 years later Sing United will perform theirs!
