A change is gonna come...

One of the truly great soul/freedom songs of the 60s is Sam Cooke's, "A Change Is Gonna Come." It was released posthumously in 1964 and has grown in value over the past 46 years. Cooke - a complicated former gospel singer turned soul man - was knocked out by Bob Dylan's civil rights anthem "Blowin' in the Wind" and wondered how someone who was not black could write so powerfully about racism.

After experiencing discrimination - and arrest - at a whites only Louisiana motel when he and his band tried to get lodging - Cooke made a commitment to write his own song of liberation and hope. Sadly, during his life time "Change" never got the audience it deserved both because Cooke was killed in 1964 while having a motel rendezvous with a married woman (correction: she was not married and was later convicted for prostitution. thanks for the correction, brother.) and because the Beatles hit Ed Sullivan and America in early 1964 knocking everyone off the pop charts.

But "Change" has slowly grown and matured over the years: Bob Dylan covered it in tribute as have countless others and the song became a model for other soul artists like Marvin Gaye who wanted to work social justice themes into their unique dance groove. And Bettye LaVette and Jon Bon Jovi shared it last year at the Obama inauguration.

I love this cover by the "singing for a change band" - so enjoy - and keep the dream alive.

Dr. King preached about change and healing - challenge and hope - and grew increasingly clear that there is always a connection between so-called neutrality and injustice. At the Riverside Church in NYC - one year to the day before he was gunned down - he said:

Now, I’ve chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal. The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one.

Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government’s policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one’s own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing, as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we’re always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty.

But we must move on. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony. But we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak.

He continues to be so relevant - speaking to the heart and head - of this land and so much of the world.