A Change Is Gonna Come

Ok I just saw an excellent programe on BBC about Sam Cooke, and it explained this song in good detail. Sam Cooke heard the song "Blowing in the wind" by Bob Dylan and thought that protest songs like that should come out of the black community. (I have heard from other sources his actual words were "Since when do whiteboys make music like that?") So he rose to the artistic challenge presented by that song and more than met it with "A Change Is Gonna Come"

I was born by the river In a little tent And just like the river I've been running ever since

(-In reference to the Born-Again Church baptisms where they submerge you in a river. Sam Cooke was brought up in and first performed with these Churchs)

It's been a long, long time coming But I know a change is gonna come Oh, yes it is

(- this was the 60s, people did believe that big change was inevtiable, and soon)

It's been too hard living But I'm afraid to die I don't know what's up there beyond the sky

(-fairly self explanatory really)

It's been a long, long time coming But I know a change is gonna come Oh yes it will

I go to the movie And I go Downtown Somebody Keep telling me Dont hang around

(- They left ths fairly ambigious, but the suggestion was that he would go downtown and either it refered to the way that the owners of restaurants and cinemas would tell him to 'move along' cos they didnt want any black faces on their establisment or that you would get all the young radical blacks saying "Dont hang around! Revolution now!" etc)

Then I go to my brother I say brother help me please But he winds up knocking me Back down on my knees

(- In Sam Cookes own words, this was in reference to the white establisment, which was completely unhelpfull and hostile towards the black community)

There's been times that I thought I wouldn't last for long But now I think I'm able to carry on

(- perhaps Sam saying that fame and fortune have made things easier for him... Lol I realise now that I should say Mr Cooke as I'm not actually on first name terms with the man)

It's been a long, long time coming But I know a change is gonna come Oh, yes it will

Eerily, when Sam first played this song to friends and family they all said it reminded them of death. This meant that Sam only performed it live two or three times because it spooked him out. However, on the night it went to press on the B-side of his new single, he was murdered.

this song was inspired by (1) hearing a socially conscious song like dylan's blowin in the wind and (2) If I'm not mistaken, Sam was dealing with his depression after the death of one of his children

i am by far contesting your post Hooby but i'd like to think that this song had transended beyond the meaning(s) in which it was originally composed. In contemporary society this song has been used to denote overcoming in general. Overcoming personal struggles, overcoming adversity. Sadly, this song was embraced after the death of Mr. Cooke, just as most of the singers/artist that we have grown to love and charish from generation to generation.

A Change is gonna come... woot woot :]

I think the best part of the song is "Hope" despite these bad facts : "It's been too hard living" "don't hang around" 'he winds up knockin' me"

This is 100% a protest song about the change in social norms and removing racism from society, but I also feel like it's about Cooke rising in popularity and coming into the public eye. It is really too bad that he wasn't around long enough to enjoy the success of this song. Greta Van Fleet has an awesome cover of this, definitely worth the listen!

This song's got a double meaning.....

1. coming out of the shadow of racism

2. becoming more than just a backwater singer

I have never got to hear the Sam Cooke version of this song, but I have heard the Otis Redding cover, and it's excellent.

Yeh I agree with both posts 1 and 2 about the meaning.

Just heard the Sam Cooke version. Pure gold.

Heard this song for the first time tonight and Sam's voice just gives me the chills. Beautiful.