I took this photo last year during a family vacation in Center Sandwich, New Hampshire. A thunderstorm raged all afternoon, but just as we were finishing dinner the storm suddenly ended. Three generations of extended family went out into the still-damp field to watch the sunset reflected on the lifting storm clouds. As often happens in the mountains, it was a dramatic change. At the time, and ever since, the play of setting sun on passing thunderheads makes me think of Sam Cooke and “A Change is Gonna Come“. Recorded in January 1964, the song became one of the greatest anthems of the Civil Rights Movement.
A Change is Gonna Come
I was born by the river in a little tent.
Ohh and just like the river,
I’ve been running ev’r since.
It’s been a long time, 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 tellin’ 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, ohh
There have 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 is gonna come, oh yes it will.
A singer who blurred the lines between gospel, R&B and pop, Cooke was reportedly inspired to write “A Change is Gonna Come” by Bob Dylan and “Blowin’ In The Wind”. While on tour in October 1963, Cooke and his band were turned away from a “whites only” motel in Shreveport, Louisiana where they had a reservation. When they protested, they were arrested and thrown in jail for disturbing the peace. Not long after, Sam Cooke wrote “A Change is Gonna Come”
“Sam as a writer saw himself almost as a reporter,” said biographer Peter Guralnick said in one interview. “He took all of those experiences[of racism],” Guralnick says, “but he enlarged upon them and he broadened them to the point that the song… becomes a statement of what a generation had had to endure.”
The song was only a modest commercial success and Sam Cooke only performed it live once. Yet “A Change Is Gonna Come” has become an iconic symbol of triumph over adversity. It has been called Sam Cooke’s legacy and “heralded as his magnus opum”. In 2005, it was voted number 12 in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It has also been selected National Public Radio (NPR) as one of the 300 most important songs. In 2007, it was added by the Library of Congress to the National Recording Registry. Bettye LaVette performed “A Change Is Gonna Come” with Jon Bon Jovi, at the Lincoln Memorial during the first inaugural concert for President Obama, introducing a new generation to Sam Cooke. (Watch the video here .)
Sam Cooke died on December 11, 1964 in a shooting at a Los Angeles motel. He was 33 years old.
***
Today is a gray and cold day where I live – a day on the tipping point between winter and spring. To fight the doldrums, I took my two youngest children swimming at the our local YMCA pool. As I looked at all the kids laughing and playing in the pool, the splashing water sparkling on skin that was black and white and every shade in between, I realized that this was a scene that wasn’t even possible in most of the United States when Sam Cooke wrote “A Change Is Gonna Come” in 1964. And while we still have a ways to go, Sam Cooke was correct. The storm clouds will pass and the sun will come out.
“But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will.”
This post is a response to the Weekly Photo Challenge: Change. You can see more responses here.
The Human Rights Warrior 
What a stunning photo! Sunsets proved fodder for so many beautiful pictures. As for change, it’s ongoing and I’m thankful to live in a country where it happens in a positive direction (overall.)
janet
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Hi Janet! Thanks for your comment! Sunsets can be so different – I love them. I’m also very thankful to live where I do (in the US). When I travel for work, I am constantly reminded of how important it is to have the freedom to speak and to act to create change. I see many governments in the world working hard (sometimes violently) to prevent changes to the status quo. That’s why it is so important for those of us who have these freedoms to stand in solidarity with human rights defenders who are working to create change in their own countries.
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This is a very touching post. I’m particularly appreciating following the bombing in Boston today. (It’s a small world, my office is in Tamworth. The next town over from this photo.)
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Wow, I know Tamworth well! We spend a couple weeks in that area every summer. How lucky you are to live in that beautiful corner of the world!
Thanks for your comment. My heart goes out to the people in Boston! (I used to live in Boston and have run three marathons, so I can picture the tragedy at the finish line very vividly.) Take good care, Jennifer
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Pingback: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Change | rfljenksy – Practicing Simplicity
An, absolutely, elegant and eloquent entry for this week’s photo challenge.
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Thank you so much!
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Pingback: 4-16-13 Weekly Photo Challenge: Change | The Quotidian Hudson
Pingback: 4-16-13 Weekly Photo Challenge: Change | The Quotidian Hudson
Bang on with matching that song with the photos! I have to admit, I’m partial to Seal’s version of it, but regardless, a tumultuous sky is the perfect companion.
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Thanks! Yes, the Seal version is great as well. Thanks for the reminder.
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