When was people get ready written

In addition to Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions' original version, stunning recordings and performances of the song exist by the Chambers Brothers one of the first 45s I ever bought , the Blind Boys of Alabama, Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin, U2, Bruce Springsteen and many, many more.

Mayfield said he originally wrote it in response to both the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and the deadly church bombing of Bloody Sunday in Birmingham. Not surprisingly, "People Get Ready" became one of the most-performed, most-loved freedom songs of the movement in the difficult, sometimes bloody Chicago campaign.

Activist Gordon Sellers called the song "warrior music," adding that "it was music you listened to while you were preparing to go into battle. Fifty years later, it was sung during the protests in Ferguson, Mo. Certainly, the melody line is immediately arresting, a sweet and solemn mixture of ancient spiritual and modern soul music. Like the best black sacred music, the melody allows the performer room to breathe, providing room for Mark Knopfler, for example, to solo and Jeff Beck to add haunting countermelodies.

The music is both sad and hopeful at the same time. The allusion to the railroad is no accident. It immediately resonates not just with the spirituals, but with older blues song as well, where references to trains quickly show up in the lyrics.

A host of writers have noted, during the Civil War and Reconstruction, railroads still evoked awe and wonder among African Americans in the South. The unofficial pathways to freedom in the North were called the Underground Railroad, where passengers were summoned by the spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot. According to his son and biographer Todd Mayfield, Curtis' ancestors been enslaved in Louisiana and carried their stories with them on the Illinois Central Railroad to the South Side projects of Chicago including the infamous Cabrini-Green.

His grandmother, called Annie Bell, was a passionate churchgoer and encouraged her grandson's love of music, especially gospel. When Curtis introduced "People Get Ready to the other Impressions in February , it carried those hopes and dreams and memories in its words. Note, if you will, the line, "you don't need no ticket.

As Peter Burns, who wrote Curtis Mayfield: People Never Give Up , notes: "It's a completely open invitation to all [listeners] with no conditions, no religious or racial barriers.

Mayfield doesn't stop there, of course. A later verse contains an unmistakable warning to certain unnamed people:.

There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner whom would hurt all mankind. And, as is the case with the best songwriters, both interpretations can be right.

For those in the trenches of the civil rights movement, such as former Ambassador Andrew Young, then with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, however, there was no mistaking the message: "You have to think of Curtis Mayfield as a prophetic visionary teacher of our people and of our time. Martin Luther King was trying to do it legally and morally, but there's a sense that the music has been more successful than the courts and the church.

Even as I say that, I think of Curtis Mayfield as the church. Ultimately, 50 years later, I still hear "People Get Ready" has an unabashed celebration of hope in otherwise sometimes hopeless times. Writer Juan Williams agrees: "The train that is coming in the song speaks to a chance for redemption, the long-sought chance to rise above racism, to stand apart from despair and any desire for retaliation — an end to the cycle of pain.

It is faith, not power, not might, not anger, the song says, that's the key to that redemption:. Mayfield lived that hope. He was paralyzed during an on-stage accident in and yet continued to write and perform nearly until his death from Type 2 diabetes on Dec.

He was only Of his father, Todd Mayfield writes, "Though he isn't here, my father is still part of that fight. Take 6. Trin-i-tee Lord High Fixers. The Blind Boys of Alabama. Paul Carrack. Steve Hass. Paulini feat. Spencer Bohren. Jimmy Little. Sista Monica Parker. Hans Theessink Band. Mary Ann Hurst.

Jeffrey Osborne. Lisbeth Scott. Blue Merlot. Jonathan Horenstein. The Idea of North. Alicia Keys and Lyfe Jennings. The Spirits up Above Suite [Pt. The Euphorics. Russell Watson - The Voice. Ryan Shaw. The Dorff Family. Liz Longley. Jeff Baker. Amy Lowe. Ronnie Milsap. David Clayton-Thomas. Jeff Beck with Sting. Anam Cara. The CalypsoNuts. Jaimee Paul. Messiah's Men. Vargas Blues Band. Jeff Beck. Chie Ayado. Delta Twins. Beacon Drive. The Jacquie Young Band.

Larry Braggs. Hans Theessink. Cliff Ellis. The Baudboys. Elisabeth Kontomanou featuring Geri Allen. Pat Surface. Fermata Town. Cheryl Jewell. Gary Pailer. The California Honeydrops. Greg Lake. Miss Murphy. Zion Harmonizers. Gaetano Pellino feat. Soul Sarah. Frank Lauridsen. Leslie West. Sara Niemietz. Glen Hansard. Mandy Brooks. Michael Lington featuring William Bell. Gordon Mote feat. Cana's Voice.

Marc Jordan. Robert Glasper. The Freedom Sounds featuring Wayne Henderson. Larry Carlton. Chris Barber's Band. Maceo Parker. People, Get Ready.

Spectrum [US2]. Wayne Gratz. Tom Constanten. Ricardo Scales. Darrell Grant. One Love - People Get Ready. Bruce Radtke Jazz Trio. Patrick Yandall.