by Dick Edelstein

After creating for a party a playlist of old R&B tracks recently, I was struck by the optimistic mood of so many of the songs that I had selected, by how their hopeful or celebratory moods contrasted with the tone of much of our current popular music, songs that frequently rely on themes expressing cynicism or detachment.

One of my first choices for the playlist was the gospel-inspired song ‘People Get Ready‘ composed by Curtis Mayfield in 1964, not long after the March on Washington and Kennedy’s assassination. The song  was first released by The Impressions in 1965 and became one of the first gospel-inspired crossover hits. Before long it had become the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, which had already achieved a string of hard fought successes, but not without many tragic events. The track continued to be popular throughout the sixties and seventies,  and cover versions were recorded by many well known artists, including Aretha Franklin. Steeped in the tradition of gospel music, Mayfield’s lyrics proclaim the good news and suggest a better future to come:

People get ready
There’s a train a-coming
You don’t need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels humming
Don’t need no ticket
You just thank the Lord

Today, we may look back and question the basis of this optimism and whether it was realistic, but I don’t question the religious tone of Curtis Mayfield’s lyrics, since, to me, earnest sincerity has always been the hallmark of his songs. Religious references, in those days, formed an intrinsic part of the ethos of Black music, both gospel and R&B, although in very different ways. While gospel stars like Johnny Taylor and Sam Cooke were able to easily make the transition from gospel to R&B, this move was seen as a betrayal by the true believers of the gospel movement, who considered R&B to be the devil’s music. But the widespread popularity of soul music showed that the devil had many good tunes. Read more »