"When shadows fall and trees whisper day is ending, my thoughts are even when they home"
Sam Cooke is a legendary musician known for mixing various styles of music into chart topping hits. He is most notable for mixing gospel styled songs into his repertoire. Ain't That Good News is an album that was released shortly before his death. It wasn't his biggest album but it did show a change in Sam as a man and artist. The album was the first time Same was able to choose what songs eh would sing. He was also able to choose who would be backing him on tracks. It was the first time Sam had full control over his art after a long period pf time. This caused it to differ majorly from a lot of his past work.
During the recording of this album Sam had more people in the studio than ever before, being backed by a full band, featuring everything from drums to violins, it was almost an orchestra during some recording sessions. This was also a departure from Sam's standard genres. This was the first time that people had heard Sam mix in the country genre to his music. Singing classic country songs like "Tennessee Waltz."
The first half of the album is dedicated to nothing but love songs. Love songs were a staple of Sam Cooke's music. The difference is this time they were much faster and country than ever before. The second half, or B-Side is much slower and features more introspective songs. While most of the tracks still sound like love songs people argue that there is more to them.
Sam had long been wanting to embrace his black fans but feared running away his white fans. People argue that event he love ballads on the second half can be related to racism going on in the country at the time. Sam just chose to leave them coded for his black fans. Personally, I didn't get that feeling at all. However, I can still see why people would think that was the case.
For example, the track "Falling In Love," tells the story of someone falling in love with someone who doesn't love them back. The strange thing about the song is it doesn't explicitly mention women like love songs on the first half of the album. Lyrics like "I'm giving my all to someone who's not giving her all to me, if she only knew what she's doing to me," can be applied to being black in America. Sure, black people love America, fight in the armed forces and everything else, but it's clear America doesn't love us.
The song "Sittin' In The Sun," can be viewed as being sung from the view of a plantation owner. Simply sitting around counting money while others work. I felt like Sam just liked relaxing after making so much money. Maybe I didn't get the supposed coding on the album, maybe I need a few more listens to pick up on it.
The one song I really want to talk about is "A Change Is Gonna Come." After hearing how Bob Dylan, a white man, wasn't afraid to sing about racism against black people. Sam was still hesitant about doing a song, so he didn't. Then one night in Louisiana a hotel clerk refused to admit Sam and his band, despite the fact that made reservations in advanced. They eventually went to another hotel but were arrested for disturbing the peace.
The thing about the song is Sam was right, it did alienate his white fans. The track peaked at 34 on the charts, a long way from his number one hits on this album and others. However the track did go on to become a large part of the Civil Rights movement. It's also considered the best musical composition that Sam ever created. The song sings of the Jim Crow laws that were used to keep black people out of various places like movie theaters. In the end he asks another black man for help and is turned away. This was same taking a shot at black people who were okay with Jim Crow laws. He ends the song asking people to carry on.
Ain't That Good News is a nice album and it did inspire the Civil Rights movement when it was blunt. Did it feature coded messages? That's for each person to decide. Maybe there was a code that I'm not aware of. However, if it is coded, it's one of the best examples of code switching ever.
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You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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