The Freewheelin Troubadour and the King of Soul: The Lasting Legacy of 1960s Civil Rights Music

Throughout history, music has been an important tool in the disruption of political boundaries, using artistic expression to create a ‘collective consciousness that would seek to challenge injustices’. [1] The civil rights movement in 1960s America saw several examples of this. Within this essay I will be focusing on two of the artists whose songs came to define this moment: Bob Dylan and his song ‘Blowin in the Wind’, and Sam Cooke with his song ‘A Change is Gonna Come’. Music was a way of connecting a political message with a wider audience and John Street suggests ‘popular music provided a space in which acts of resistance could be articulated’. [2] Additionally, by focusing on the work of these two artists, there is a noticeable variation when it comes to ease of release, reactions, and writing styles of the songs that lead to questions of racialised barriers. Whilst the ‘boundary between musical culture and politics was porous’, it meant those political inequalities were brought into the music industry itself. [3]

Dylan and Cooke may have come from different musical backgrounds, but Sharon Monteith notes that ‘Metaphors of struggle occurred in Appalachian mountain ballads, African American spirituals… and folk songs’. [4] In the 1960s, Bob Dylan - the ‘Freewheelin Troubadour’ - was an upcoming white folk singer. Typically, folk music was ‘white’ music, often used as a political voice; therefore, when Dylan released ‘Blowin in the Wind’, his comments on the state of American injustices may not have been seen as unusual or threatening to common American ideology. Perhaps, a song from a privileged artist like Dylan was what was needed to break the initial barrier into political civil rights music. Dylan claimed ‘Blowin in the Wind’ ‘ain’t no protest song’ because he ‘don’t write no protest songs’. [5] However, David King Dunaway suggests that ‘A political song offers resistance to an abstraction of the social order’, and the ‘resistance’ demonstrated in Dylan’s lyrics has been used to protest unjust social order and ideology ever since its release. [6] We may now relate ‘Blowin in the Wind’ to images of defiance and protest, but lyrically the song is simply a collection of poetic questions. The listener is urged to reflect on what Dylan saw as ‘man's greatest inhumanity to man: indifference’. [7] The ambiguity of this set of lyrics could be one reason why Dylan achieved such success with it - he was writing on the political tribulations of the time whilst his privilege as a white male musician prevented a serious backlash over controversy. Dylan is ‘not a singer of protest as much as he is a singer of concern about people’ his record producer said of him, but this ‘concern’ resonated with the supporters of the civil rights movement. [8]

When Sam Cooke, the ‘King of Soul’, discovered who had written ‘Blowin in the Wind’ he was shocked – ‘Geez, a white boy writing a song like that?’ – but the idea that a song could ‘address civil rights and go to number 2 on the pop charts’ struck him even more. [9] ‘Sam always said a black man should’ve wrote ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’, it was unfair’ Cooke’s brother said, by the mid-sixties Cooke had a huge fan base but a significant part of this audience was white. [10] A fear of alienating this audience prevented him from writing his own politically charged song, instead he made the first step by covering ‘Blowin in the Wind’ at a New York nightclub. However, as time went on, Cooke worried less about the potential impact on his commercial success and wrote what he felt he needed to say in ‘A Change is Gonna Come’. ‘It wasn’t a huge hit and he was a huge hit artist. He was one of the most popular singers of his day’ wrote Dr. Charles L. Hughes. [11] Cooke was accustomed to commercial success; he knew how to write a chart-topping hit song and had crossed the boundary from his Gospel roots into pop music to appeal to a white audience. However, ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ saw Cooke return to Gospel music with deeply personal autobiographical lyrics. Whilst Dylan’s song had ‘philosophical musings and rhetorical questions amid antiquated word choices’, Cooke’s song was ‘unequivocal’. [12] It ‘told the story both of a generation and of a people’. [13] The events in his lyrics were not a unique experience to him; he was a highly successful entertainer and entrepreneur but still shared the same racial barriers as other Black Americans. ‘I know, A change gon' come, Oh yes, it will’ Cooke sings defiantly, a lyric full of hope and determination. When compared to Dylan’s ambiguous lyric of ‘the answer is blowin in the wind’, Cooke’s words feel more like a direct call to action. Whilst this may be why the song became such a pivotal moment of the civil rights movement, the combination of stirring lyrics, Gospel sound and Cooke’s increasing political involvement could be reasons for its lesser commercial success. In contrast to Dylan’s chart-topping song, ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ would only peak at number 31. [14]

Upon reflection, Cooke’s pleading call for social change is even more heartbreaking when considered that ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ was released as a single after his death. ‘It feels like death…it feels eerie, like something’s going to happen.’ Bobby Womack had said after hearing Cooke’s magnum opus for the first time, almost like a premonition. [15]  Whilst there is significant unknown in the investigation of Cooke’s 1964 murder, it is difficult not to connect it with his participation in political conversation, deep friendships with other civil rights activists and envied success as a Black businessman. Only a year later Malcolm X was assassinated, and four years later would see the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.. As seen consistently throughout history, Black voices were being silenced in the most extreme ways possible.

In conclusion, whilst music was being used as a way of disrupting American ideologies and contributing to the conversation surrounding the civil rights movement, there were boundaries within the music industry itself that created racial differences in the ease of release and commercial success of songs. ‘The US 1960s were a carnival of politics and show business’ John Dean said, but arguably we are still experiencing this ‘carnival’ today with music being just as relevant in political commentary now. [16] Both protest songs left a huge legacy behind them, ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ was referenced by Barack Obama in his 2008 Presidential victory speech, the words being as powerful coming from the first Black President of the United States, as they were coming from one of history’s most popular Black entertainers. [17] It was performed by Jennifer Hudson at the Democratic National Convention in 2020 and had a pivotal moment in the 1992 film ‘Malcolm X’. [18] ‘One thing about Sam’s music, Sam’s music don’t get old.’ Cooke’s brother rightly said after the 2008 election. [19] With ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ having now been covered by 375 artists and counting, it is evident that these songs are still disrupting the American ideology surrounding freedom, race, and social structure. [20] In 2003, Rolling Stone positioned ‘Blowin in the Wind’ at number 14 and ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ at number 12 in their ranking of ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’. [21] In 2021, they were positioned at 100 and, the remarkable, number 3 respectively – political conversations and social barriers may have experienced some change, but these songs remain relevant. [22]

[1] Stephen Brandon, ‘Bob Dylan: The Prophet of Social Change in the 1960s’, (Mississippi, Kentucky: Media Watch, 2017)

[2] John Street, ‘Fight the Power: The Politics of Music and the Music of Politics’, Government and Opposition, Vol. 38, 1, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003)

[3] Sharon Monteith, ‘American Culture in the 1960s’, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), p 45

[4] Sharon Monteith, ‘American Culture in the 1960s’, (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2009), p 45.

[5] Mike Marqusee, ‘Chimes of Freedom: The Politics of Bob Dylan’s Art’, (New York: The New Press, 2003), p. 55

[6] David King Dunaway, ‘Music and Politics in the United States’ in Folk Music Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3, (1987), p. 269

[7] Rolling Stone, ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004)’, December 2004

[8] Nat Hentoff, ‘The Crackin’, Shakin’, Breakin’ Sounds’, in The 60s: The Story of a Decade, (New York: Random House, 2016)

[9] Greil Marcus, ‘Like A Rolling Stone: Bob Dylan at the Crossroads’, (London: faber and faber, 2005), p. 39

[10] Tom Taylor, ‘Bob Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’: The legacy of a masterpiece’, in Far-Out Magazine, (July 2022)

[11] Patrick Ryan, ‘One Night in Miami: The true story behind Sam Cooke’s stirring ‘A Change is Gonna Come’, https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2021/01/16/a-change-gonna-come-same-cooke-one-night-in-miami/6649395002/, [accessed 3rd May 2023]

[12] David Cantwell, ‘The Unlikely Story of “A Change Is Gonna Come”’, The New Yorker, (March, 2015), [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-unlikely-story-of-a-change-is-gonna-come]

[13] NPR, ‘Sam Cooke And The Song That ‘Almost Scared Him’, National Public Radio, (February, 2014), https://www.npr.org/2014/02/01/268995033/sam-cooke-and-the-song-that-almost-scared-him, [accessed 3rd May 2023]

[14] Peter Guralnick, ‘Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke’ (New York City: Little, Brown and Company,

2005)

[15] Peter Guralnick, ‘Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke’ (New York City: Little, Brown and Company,

2005), p. 549

[16] John Dean, ‘The Importance of the Folk Singer in the American Sixties: A Case Study of Bob Dylan’, in Etudes Anglaises, Vol 64., 2011

[17] BBC, ‘Obama: Change Has Come to America - BBC News’, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN5YMz8yuKI>, [accessed 10th May 2023]

[18] Dan Adler, ‘“A Change Is Gonna Come” Has a Long History in Politics’, in Vanity Fair, (August 19,2020)

[19] Mary Schmich, ‘Obama's Sam Cooke connection’, in The Chicago Tribune, November 16, 2008

[20] Joe Taysom, ‘What is Bob Dylan's most-covered song?’ in Far Out Magazine, (March 3, 2022)

[21] Rolling Stone, ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time (2004)’, December 2004, <https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-151127/sam-cooke-a-change-is-gonna-come-72334/>

[22] Rolling Stone, ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’, September 2021, <https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/bob-dylan-like-a-rolling-stone-3-1225334/>