otis redding, “ change gonna come,”
from: Otis Blue, 1965
“I was born by the river in this little old tent
Oh just like this river I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long long long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh yes it is
Oh my!
It’s been too hard living
And I’m afraid to die
Cause I don’t know what’s up there
Beyond the clouds
It’s been a long long long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh yes it is
Oh my
There’s a time I would go to my brother
I asked my brother “will you help me please?”
He turned me down and then I ask my dear mother
I said “Mother! I’m down on my knees”
It’s been a time that I thought
Lord this couldn’t last for very long
But somehow I thought I was still able to try to carry on
It’s been a long long long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh yes it is
Just like I said, I went to my little bitty brother
I asked my brother “Brother help me please?”
He turned me down and then I go to my little mother
I said “Mother! I’m down on my knees”
But there was a time that I thought
Lord this couldn’t last for very long
But somehow I thought I was still able to try to carry on
It’s been a long long long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come
Oh yes it will
”
Recorded by it’s author, Sam Cooke in January 1964, “A Change Is Gonna Come,” was inspired by him getting turned away from a Holiday Inn in Louisiana. In December of 1964 Cooke died by a gunshot at the age of 33. “Change Gonna Come” is Otis’s tribute to Sam, recorded soon after Sam’s death. Otis died in 1967 in a plane crash at the tender age of 26
-Alan West-