Uncategorized

Eyes on the Prize

75 Comments

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

It’s important and right for good people to say uplifting, unifying things today, although going through a polite, ritual observance over the course of many, many years can obscure the truth of how brutal and utterly scary it was in the ’60’s. Not that anything truly ended there.

Mavis Staples’ fine recording of “Eyes on the Prize” is accompanied here by some disturbing images that we should not allow ourselves to forget.

The marchers and protesters of the ’60’s were that era’s people of conscience. They took great personal risks and in some cases sacrificed everything they had for their own freedom, or to advance the freedom of others. We all owe them a debt of gratitude.

Mavis Staples is one of a handful of musicians involved in the movement who is still performing and recording today. She sang at Dr. King’s rallies with her family, The Staples Singers.

Which musicians and/or songs speak most eloquently to the cause of civil rights?

75 thoughts on “Eyes on the Prize”

  1. I came of age during the Vietnam War protests, so these are the songs that I am most familiar with… so I’m looking forward to what the rest of the group, who is generally more well versed with music, comes up with.

    Thanks to the government and everyone’s love of Monday holidays, this year the teenager shares her birthday with the MLK holiday and gets the day off. Big “1-6”. Yikes the years go so fast.

    Like

    Reply

    3. whacha gonna do?
      missed the weekend with a toasted computer. i ate it whan that happnens fun conversations, clyde travel well. great trip i loe new mexico, taos and sante fe and the rest. enjoy the time and try to relax and enjoy it. you buzz through all that stff marveling at the bauty an before you know it you are done and back crossing ekansas again on the way back home trying to remember that beautiful scenery and those vibrant towns.
      pete seeger was a ittel too in your face for me but then again woody guthrie is the one who taught pete to do it with that straight forward style an i never was bothered by woody at all. dylan did it maybe the best with masters of war country joe and the fishwith one tow three what are we fighting for don’t ask me i don’t give a damn next stop is viet nam and its five six seven open up the pearly gates ani’t no time to wonder why, whoppee we’re all gonna die.
      we shall overcome by anyone was great. richie havens was a pleasure. arlo guthrie and alices resteaurant was classic back with more later i’ll bet. happy mlk day. i wish the world would shut down rather than 20% of it.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Sorry about the computer. Get a new one?
        Thanks for the send-off. I remain amazed about how much of my prep for the trip is re technology. GPS, Computer, cell phones, mp3, cameras, and all the stuff to make them work in various places and talk to each other.
        Current plan is tomorrow a.m. but may delay a day–se what weather does.

        Like

        Reply

    4. HB to your daughter…ah, to be the big 1-6 again. My birthday is the same as MLK Jr, so I just include whatever Monday follows in my celebrations (such as they are, getting to the age when the celebrations should be getting larger to honor the years of survival, but instead are less and less so…)

      Like

      Reply

    6. Congratulations, “Teenager”. Enjoy your birthday and have an unforgettable, wonderful year. Before long, this group will have to change its nickname for you to “Former Teenager”, “Young Adult”, “Productive Person Funding Our Social Security” or simply “Boss”.

      Like

      Reply

  2. gosh, such courage. and in our high school “current events” classes, at home, in church, in our groups of friends – NOT A WORD of this was spoken. when i came to the Twin Cities, in late 1964, i finally learned and read about what had been going on for years. yesterday i was looking at my Mom’s social security card – issued when she got her first official job in Phoenix, AZ where she and Dad moved after they were married in 1940. “Clyde’s White Kitchen”

    Like

    Reply

  4. Rise and Sing Baboons:

    I’m with VS on this one folks–picking music is not my talent. Marion Anderson, singing on the steps; Allen Lomax — colorblind recordings of everyone; Gospel music by anyone captures the yearning for freedom. But it is too early and I don’t know enough to make a selection so early.

    Like

    Reply

  5. Eric Anderson wrote a hauntingly lyrical song about protest in the late 1960s, a song called “Thirsty Boots.” Leo Kottke used to perform it at the Scholar. It came to mean something special to me. A friend who suffered from schizophrenia explained to me how the lyrics worked both to describe the crusade for a better world and the way the voices in her head operated on her. The voices eventually persuaded her to take her life.

    Then of course there were all the songs we sang, filled with that beautiful wine of hope that singing could quell evil. “We Shall Overcome.” “Blowing in the Wind.” You had to be there. You had to be singing with Pete Seeger to fill up with his passionate conviction that the world can be changed by singing.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan, as well, were the musicians that came to my mind first. Like Barb in Blackhoof, my high school years in Cloquet were lived in a cocoon, but CU Boulder 1960-64 and the years following were doors and windows flung open and innocence lost…folk musicians the soundtrack…including Joan Baez, Sonny and Brownie, Lightn’n Hopkins, Mississippi John…and the aforementioned Pete and Bob.

      Like

      Reply

      1. Odd because 50 miles away in TH we addressed the issue on occasion, now and then. Our lousy senior year Social Problems teacher was quite liberal and tried hard to introduce current issues such as civil rights into the day, especially on Fridays. Not that it meant very much to most of us in safe pure white small town MN. And then in the fall of 63 I was suddenly living in the heart of South Chicago.
        I have never been a fan of politically-conscious arts of any kind. Not sure why. Except photography. I like Pete Seeger, except, like tim, when he gets political. And so with many of that era.

        Like

        Reply

  6. Hard to beat Mavis Staples. “Down in Mississippi” is another good one from Ms. Staples. By the time I was aware of current events, this part of the struggle for equality was past, so for me it was a recent history lesson. That said, my aunt shared this link recently from Nina Simone for “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”. Nina Simone is another good listen on a day like today.

    I’d also make an argument for “This Land is Your Land” – mostly because it doesn’t specify who “you” is, it’s pretty inclusive, and pretty emphatic that “this land is *your* land this land is *my* land”…all of it. Doesn’t seem to say anything like, “this land is your land…unless your skin color is wrong…this land is my land…unless you love the wrong person…but only in Massachusetts and California.” Not how Woody Guthrie wrote it as I recall. More along the lines of “this land was made for you and me.”

    Like

    Reply

    2. Anna Mavis Staples apparently had a torrid affair with Bob Dylan. I saw an interview where she tried to talk about it. Each time she opened her mouth to say something she broke into giggles, obviously filled with stories that she couldn’t share.

      Like

      Reply

      1. She was on “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” awhile back – and was asked about it…Peter Segal didn’t get too far with that line of questioning either as I recall.

        Like

        Reply

  7. Thank you for this, Dale. Will be sharing it with the s&h later today.

    It is hard for him to wrap his head around the idea that this was going on during my lifetime (mostly, it makes him think I am very old indeed-in this case, sadly no, my boy).

    I cannot sing, We Shall Overcome, it is too hard. I do love Jacob’s Ladder and the idea that “every rung goes higher, higher”. I think you played a version of “I’ll Fly Away” that also sticks in my head, Dale.

    The current trend by some to narrow the idea of what a “real” American is reminds us that it ain’t over yet.

    Like

    Reply

  8. Very nice reminder of how important MLK Jr. was to us all and how violent that movement really was. Its very disturbing indeed.

    Like

    Reply

  9. The first Martin Luther King Jr. day happened on my birthday. I was in parochial high school at the time, and doubly indignant over not getting the day off. Obviously I wasn’t around for the Civil Rights movement, but I remember the AIDS crisis and ACT-UP, so I nominate Holly Near for her song “Singing For Our Lives.” It’s an all-inclusive song, “black and white,” “women and men” and “young and old together”, and is perhaps a reminder that civil and human rights still have to be fought for in the U.S. as well as elsewhere in the world.

    Like

    Reply

  10. Those who were alive and singing in the Sixties and beyond might recall that intoxicating sense that we were on the side of the angels and that all the dogs and bombs and burning crosses of the other side were fated to go down in defeat. It was a heady feeling. You had the sense that if you were on the right side of an issue and sang enough it would all work out. And then came the war that would not go away.

    Happy MLK Day, Baboons. Happy Birthday, Teenager.

    Like

    Reply

      1. yup, that part made me cringe too. It did make me wonder what goat licensing in St Paul looked like. I know I’ve seen chickens on the boulevard in the Saint Anthony Park neighborhood.

        Like

        Reply

  12. I’ll probably be adding to this all day as I remember stuff, or look in my old books. Thanks for the opportunity, Dale.

    I’ll post the words of a favorite P P & M song I used to sing with the guitar:
    Because All Men Are Brothers (tune was an old Bach hymn)

    Because all men are brothers wherever men may be
    One Union shall unite us forever proud and free
    No tyrant shall defeat us, no nation strike us down
    All men who toil shall greet us the whole wide world around.

    My brothers are all others forever hand in hand
    Where chimes the bell of freedom there is my native land
    My brother’s fears are my fears yellow white or brown
    My brother’s tears are my tears the whole wide world around.

    Let every voice be thunder, let every heart beat strong
    Until all tyrants perish our work shall not be done
    Let not our memories fail us the lost year shall be found
    Let slavery’s chains be broken the whole wide world around.

    Like

    Reply

  13. I was born by the river in a little tent
    Oh and just like the river I’ve been running ever since
    It’s been a long, a long time coming
    But I know a change gonna come, oh yes, it will.

    It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die
    ‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there beyond the sky
    It’s been a long, a long time coming
    But I know a change gonna come, oh yes, it will.

    I go to the movie and I go downtown
    Somebody keep telling me, “Don’t hang around.”
    It’s been a long, a long time coming
    But I know a change gonna come, oh yes, it will.

    Then I go to my brother
    And I say, “Brother, help me please,”
    But he winds up knockin’ me
    Back down on my knees…

    Oh there been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long
    But now I think I’m able to carry on
    It’s been a long, a long time coming
    But I know a change gonna come, oh yes, it will.

    Like

    Reply

  14. There are MP3’s of many of these songs available free from the freegalmusic.com site if you have a library card in St. Paul (or perhaps a library near you, I don’t know if other libraries so this). My searches have found versions of “Eyes on the Prize” by Sweet Honey in the Rock, Springsteen, and Pete Seeger (didn’t find Mavis Staples there); “A Change is Gonna Come” by Aaron Neville, Solomon Burke, and the Nylons; “Because All Men Are Brothers” by PP&M; “To Be Young, Gifted & Black” by Nina Simone; “Thirsty Boots” covered by John Denver. Looked for the Holly Near song, but came up empty on that one.

    I think I’ll make my own iTunes playlist. Three per week is the limit, so it will take awhile, but next year I’ll have them all stacked up.

    Like

    Reply

  15. You have all mentioned such great songs! In the classical repertoire, Copeland’s Lincoln Portrait and Fanfare for the Common Man are pretty moving. Happy birthday to the teenager. Mine has her 16th planned with dinner in Bismarck since it falls on a Monday when we go for violin lessons. They grow up too fast and too slow, it seems. Son and DIL made it here and back to Fargo with cruddy weather for both trips, but stayed out of the ditch.

    Like

    Reply

  16. Something that bothers me is how a safely dead heroic figure like Martin Luther King is celebrated but in a sanitized way. We have built up a popular mythology around King that makes him look heroic but denies the difficulty of his life. He faced intense hatred, as we all know, and was involved in constant infighting within his own ranks. To see him on old newsreels now he looks so sure of himself and so much in command. At the time, he knew he could die for just marching without a permit, and meanwhile he was being called an Uncle Tom by radical youngsters and being called a Communist by right wingers.

    Even King’s supporters when he was alive picked at him, criticizing his tactics. A typical expression of support would embrace his goals and then savage him for having chosen the wrong way to get there. And if he weren’t hated enough for opposing Jim Crow, when King spoke against the Vietnamese war he inspired new ferocious heights of hatred.

    The King who had to actually plan the tactics and lead the marches was not the demi-god we have created. Like Jesus, he was highly controversial and subversize as well as incredibly courageous and loving. I wish we could love the real man, not the myth, and remember how scary he seemed to so many Americans while he lived. I wish we could celebrate the memory of the real man with all his shortcomings and big heart.

    Like

    Reply

    1. True of all. And if there are any cracks found or invented then the whole structure must crumble.
      IN TH when I grew up there was one resident Black man. Maybe some agency sent out such men as single vanguards into small town North. And he fulfilled many of the stereotypes, a Beaujangles sort of figure. Played several instruments, would do a light jig every now and then eternally sunny. He seems in my memory to have been quite fully engrained in the neighborhood, if not the whole community. When the Valley framers helped each other out, he was there. But he was always referred to as not Bill or Bill Mayberry, but rather as N___ Bill. That last name later, much later, struck me as ironic when you consider how in the fictional Mayberry of the South no African ancestry people were shown. Bill’s wife kept cats after cats. Bill collected old arcade games in his yard and kept them working. When we were over there, he would always let me play them. Only time in my life I played arcade games.

      Like

      Reply

      1. amazing isn’t it to think that a short while ago people were allowed to show their bias without fear of being thought less of. my concern today is that the bias is still there but now smokescreened by pc behavior and only discussed in kkk like meeting of kindred spirits with a slower filter process to total transition because of hidden agendas. lets hope we get there one foot in front of the other no matter how long it takes.

        Like

        Reply

      2. Clyde, sometime in the early ’80s, a friend and I drove up the Shore. We got to Beaver Bay and decided to take a short break. We pulled into the Holiday gas station and looked at the little strip mall just ahead. There, parked in the corner, was an older white man who had set up kind of a booth out of the bed of his pick-up truck. He had large hand-painted signs that were blatantly racist. One of the signs suggested a local chapter of the KKK. Laura and I went over to talk to him. He said that “they” were moving north and that we had to “keep them outa here.” He strongly expressed a number of biased views and encouraged us to educate ourselves on the matter. We asked if we could take his picture and he allowed it. I can’t find those pictures anymore but the memory is vivid. We were astonished!

        Like

        Reply

      3. The NS attracts all sorts of extremists, who usually base on after awhile. But generally the Shore has the sort of indifference of those who have never really confronted the issue. About that time the next county north, Cook County, had a Black sheriff, whose family were the long-time lone African residents of Cook County.

        Like

        Reply

  17. Ah, yes, Fanfare for the Common Man, which was played at HHH’s funeral, fittingly.
    Here is a cultural shift. My second-grade grand-daughter got classes this weekend, which will make her not the subject of teasing but the star of the classroom for awhile because glasses are the coolest of accessories these days in el. schools.

    Like

    Reply

  18. Morning–

    I’ve said before I don’t pay enough attention to the words of songs…

    I am listening to you all though– and paying attention.

    Like

    Reply

  19. The opening reading at church yesterday was a story about 2 ladies with pictures of Dr King and Jesus pinned to the wall. The piece went on to say that we miss the point when we keep them safe and on the wall rather than allow them to live and be radical out in the world.

    Went to a wonderful concert last night. Dan Chouinard told the story of the Rondo neighborhood in St Paul through song and archival photos. The music was wonderful and the tale of the shameful destruction of the African American community was shameful.

    Like

    Reply

    1. was dan at st joans or elsewhere? my sister goes there and said dan is not there as much as previously. too bad when that kind f stuff happens. i sure enjoy him.

      Like

      Reply

  20. Dan was at St Joan of Arc both for the service and the concert. He has moved on to bigger venues and we only get him on special occasions

    Like

    Reply

  21. I’ve always been amazed at these lyrics from the 1949 R & H’s South Pacific:

    You’ve got to be taught
    To hate and fear
    You’ve got to be taught
    From year to Year
    It’s got to be drummed
    in your dear little ear
    You’ve got to be carefully taught

    You’ve got to be taught
    To be Afraid
    Of people whose eyes
    are oddly made
    And people whose skin
    Is a different shade
    You’ve got to be carefully taught

    You’ve got to be taught
    Before it’s too late
    Before you are 6 or 7 or 8
    To hate all the people
    your relatives hate
    You’ve got to be carefully taught

    This from Wikipedia: South Pacific received scrutiny for its commentary regarding relationships between different races and ethnic groups. In particular, “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” was subject to widespread criticism, judged by some to be too controversial or downright inappropriate for the musical stage.[1] Sung by the character Lieutenant Cable, the song is preceded by a lyric saying racism is “not born in you! It happens after you’re born…”

    Like

    Reply

    1. hoping this will not seem trite, but in 1966, Gene Rodenbury cast Nichelle Nichols to play a bridge officer on Star Trek. She thought it was a rather fluffy role, but was encouraged to stay with the show by Dr. King, as she was one of the few black women in a major role on tv who was not a servant.

      She went on to be a recruiter of women and minorities for NASA.

      Like

      Reply

    2. Thanks for this, BiR.
      Ann Reed recorded this song too, on her disc “Life Gets Real” in the mid ’90’s and included it again on “Telling Stories” just a few years ago. Nice song. I’m glad R & H did something worth getting in trouble over.

      Like

      Reply

  22. Much like the rest of you, I like the Weavers, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Dylan and PP&M. Pete Seeger’s “in your face” politics made me nervous but I think anxiety was naturally part of it. The music really moved me and it still does. I loved to sing along and when you sing the words, you can’t help but notice their meaning.

    Happy MLK Day, all! And Happy Birthday to teenagers, goat-moms and my old friend Pinky Jean (RIP)!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Krista As a musician, you probably know this. When the Civil Rights movement began to gather momentum, singing was a potent part of its identity and a way of binding people together in common cause. The tactic of using singing that way was not invented on the spot. It had already been used like that for decades by union organizers, for they faced virtually the same sort of intimidation and official hostility when trying to organize workers in the early decades of the century.

      What was unusual about the Civil Rights movement was that the songs chosen often came from the tradition of black spirituals and black church music.

      Like

      Reply

    2. Good point Steve.
      The Civil Rights movement and organized labor had the best music, though it’s hard to think of a political movement today that could get as much mileage out of a handful of topical songs. There are “green” movement songs, but they don’t seem to have the same zing.
      And it could just be my politics, but I can’t think of any memorable conservative Republican ballads. Is there a tune called “Tax Cut Fever”?

      Like

      Reply

      3. I’m a little Tea Party…
        Cranky and stout
        Here is Palin’s handle
        Here is Limbaugh’s spout
        When Glenn Beck gets all steamed up
        Hear us shout
        Just tip me over and pour bipartisanship out…

        Like

        Reply

  24. Nice job with the songs, lyrics and clips, Kids. I’ve always liked Dion’s “Abraham, Martin, and John” and Teddy Pendergrass’ “Wake Up Everybody”.

    Like

    Reply

  25. OK, found one more in the oldest song book. This one’s a little more obscure. (Dale, I’ve really gotta thank you for today – I actually got out my guitar and tried playing.)

    Hey Nelly Nelly (by Shel Silverstein and Jim Friedman, recorded by Judy Collins)

    Hey Nelly Nelly, come to the window
    Hey Nelly Nelly look at what I see
    He’s riding into town on a sway back mule
    Got a tall black hat and he looks like a fool
    He sure is talkin’ like he’s been to school
    And it’s 1853

    Hey Nelly Nelly, listen what he’s sayin’
    Hey Nelly Nelly, he says it’s gettin’ late
    And he says them black folks should all be free
    To walk around the same as you and me
    He’s talkin’ ’bout a thing he calls democracy
    And it’s 1858

    Hey Nelly Nelly hear the band a playing
    Hey Nelly Nelly, hand me down my gun
    “Cause the men are cheerin’ and the boys are too
    They’re all puttin’ on their coats of blue
    I can’t sit around here and talk to you
    “Cause it’s 1861

    Hey Nelly Nelly, Come to the window
    Hey Nelly Nelly, I’ve come back alive
    My coat of blue is stained with red
    And the man in the tall black hat is dead
    We sure will remember all the things he said
    In 1865

    Hey Nelly Nelly, come to the window
    Hey Nelly Nelly, look at what I see
    I see white folks and colored walkin’ side by side
    They’re walkin’ in a column that’s a century wide
    It’s still a long and a hard and a bloody ride
    In 1963

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to verily sherrilee Cancel reply