Sam Cooke - "A Change Is Gonna Come"
That "A Change is Gonna Come" comes from a great gospel singer is surprising in at least these ways:
1. The vocal restraint - Cooke's voice is huge. His phrasing is gut-wrenching, drawing out a word (on the same note) for a beat longer than one thinks likely, or waiting, singing behind the band, not moving til the spirit moves him. He sings big notes, but the runs are minimal and it is the richness of his voice and the good taste he shows in the arrangement of his own music that communicates feeling so powerfully.
2. The secular approach to personal and social problems/religious skepticism - A song about personal and social struggle, "A Change is Gonna Come" (as its title suggests) espouses a hopeful outlook despite bleak conditions, and implies a secular humanist solution to problems of civil rights. When he sings that "It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die, 'cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky," a violin plays a plaintive pentatonic run.
Besides civil rights and theology, Cooke deals elsewhere with issues as diverse as trigonometry, history and Ludwig Wittgenstein, so why not buy his greatest hits and drop out of school?
***
Last week I posted the Tara Jane O'Neil song, "The Poisoned Mine" under the title "The Poisoned Well." Today, in the name of justice, I'm posting the Quasi song, "The Poisoned Well" under the name "The Poisoned Mine." [Buy]
Posted by Jordan at May 2, 2005 11:05 PMChange is gonna come is one of the greatest recordings of all time.
Thanks for sharing it!
K
Posted by fatcitizen at May 3, 2005 12:39 AMHey Jordan, so what Cooke song talks about Wittgenstein? "Pass over in silence"?
Posted by Matthew at May 3, 2005 3:27 AMI'm a big music fan. All genre. I spend countless hours, researching, playing, listening to music. I run a damn audioblog.
And I've never found anything as brillant, moving, exhilarating & aching as "A Change Is Gonna Come" ...
Posted by Garrincha at May 3, 2005 5:08 AMAm i going nuts? Didn't you blog this song last year? Might have been a different blog, but this song made me run out and buy his greatest hits and I'm so grateful for it.
Posted by matt at May 3, 2005 10:56 AMHey Zaidie!
So did he (Jordan, not Sam Cooke) learn about a singer 'singing behind the band' from listening to Frank Sinatra, one of the greatest masters of the technique?
Be proud of this boy, he's got great taste!
Thanks, Jordan, for the Cooke cut.
J
May I also suggest this other "best of" :
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00009N1ZV/qid=1115139958/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/103-9653227-6403853?v=glance&s=music&n=507846
Posted by Garrincha at May 3, 2005 1:07 PMThere aren't that many songs that give me as many goose bumps as "Change". Probably one of top 10 or so songs of all time. It kills me every time I hear him sing how his brother "winds up knockin' me back down on my knees..." That's as bleak as you get, and to hear him sing right after how he thinks he's "able to carry on" *really* kills me (in a good way this time).
Thanks for spreading the word.
Posted by Anonymous at May 3, 2005 1:37 PMlong time reader, first time commenter. firstly, thank you for introducing to me to a wealth of great music over the last 6 months or so i've been reading. i, too, can swear that you blogged this sometime late last year -- i think it was one of the first songs i got from this site, and it really is just absolutely gorgeous. it's become one of my favorite songs.
anyway, thanks.
Posted by bethany at May 3, 2005 3:08 PMThanks for all the Sam Cooke love.
Mathew - I remember taking note that Cooke mentions Wittgenstein in a song, but now I can't find it and I'm beginning to worry that I can't tell the difference between 'Frankenstein' and 'Wittgenstein.' Either way, Cooke's not as thorough a Wittgenstein scholar as, say, Saul Kripke, but he brings more soul to the table, by far.
Beth (can I call you Beth?) and Matt - I first heard "Change" two weeks ago, and I started writing for STG about eight months ago, so I can assure you that I didn't post this song a year ago. However, it is possible that Sean posted it. In which case... Oops.
Did you, Sean?
Posted by jordan at May 3, 2005 3:44 PMI wish I had, but I, um, hadn't.
And doing a search for "Cooke" gives no other returns... A mystery!
Posted by Sean at May 3, 2005 4:06 PMYep I remember you blogging it Jordan! A collective mystery... Maybe it pops up everytime there's an important election. Here in the UK I ~do~ hope a change's gonna come... I sure campaigned for it! (Blair out!)
Posted by Matthew in London at May 3, 2005 4:27 PMIt was posted over at Soul Sides a couple months ago as part of a "Revolutionary Mixtape". It was a great post, also including Nina Simone's "I Wish I Knew (How It Would Feel To Be Free), an amazing song in its own right.
Posted by mlp at May 3, 2005 5:20 PMSam Cooke sings, "don't know much about history, don't know much biology..." (yes he says trigonometry, too) on "Win Your Love". In "Another Saturday Night" he compares a girl he went out on a date with to Frankenstein.
Soulful? Yes. Scholarly? No.
In "Change Is Gonna Come", when he talks about his brother, he isn't talking about his relative. He's talking about his "brother" or "soul brother". In fact, I don't think it's him talking. I don't think he wrote the song.
Posted by Michael at May 3, 2005 7:29 PMI am Sean's old aunt and I have loved Sam Cooke for many years....he has a heavenly voice.... Thanks for sharing this track....
Posted by Aunty D at May 3, 2005 8:42 PMHe clearly wrote it himself. Check out Guralnik's chapter on Sam Cooke in "Sweet Soul Music" : he wrote it right after he heard "Times They Are A Changing" by Dylan
I too blogged this song earlier this year, on new years eve ...
Posted by Garrincha at May 4, 2005 5:19 AMIt wasn't here. Music.for-robots posted it last year. I remember Tuwa mentioning it on his (sadly) short-lived blog.
Great song still..
Posted by rosie at May 4, 2005 12:21 PMthat's it, then. must've got it from music for robots. mystery solved.
Posted by matt at May 7, 2005 9:17 AMNever heard it before! THANK YOU!
Posted by Audrey at May 9, 2005 11:58 AM
and it will begin playing. All songs are also available to download: just right-click the link and choose 'Save as...'
