It was writer and father of England’s conservative party, Benjamin Disraeli, who is credited with the phrase, “Change is inevitable,” an axiom I find rings of some truth, some of the time. And yet, because this issue of Crawdaddy! goes into production before our long and tiring presidential election concludes, it’s impossible for me to know if the people got fooled again or if the inevitable change some of us have been hoping for has finally arrived. While the votes are being counted, and until there’s dancing in the streets, I’m thinking of Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” and how for 40 years it’s been an anthem not only of hope and change, but of faith.

Before it became an anthem, Cooke’s song began as an answer of sorts to Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” If anything, it was a more soul-powered alternative to Pete Seeger singing “We Shall Overcome”, but as the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Era, it was written, released, and partly inspired by the movement’s peak event, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August of 1963.

Fuelled by hearing The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan and seeing Dylan and the other musical guests invited to the historic march and perform their songs on television, according to Cooke’s biographers and accepted music lore, Cooke was moved to match Dylan’s achievement. Stunned that a white person could get as deep inside the feeling of the black struggle for freedom and equality as Dylan did (and possibly a little put-out that he wasn’t invited to participate), Cooke set about writing a freedom song of his own. What he ended up with was a song that would go on to earn him a place on practically every best-song list that’s ever been compiled. It continues to get covered reverently by diverse artists and holds a place on the registry of recordings in the Library of Congress. For anyone not immediately familiar with the early ’60s standard, you might recognize it by its vivid opening line: “I was born by the river in a little tent.”

Perhaps hearkening back to his humble beginnings in Clarksdale, Mississippi or his baptism into a church family, there is a tremendous sweetness to those opening notes. And yet, thoughts turn bitter with the follow-up, “And just like the river, I’ve been running ever since,” as in North, away from the troubles. And then comes the inspirational, gospel tones of the refrain: “It’s been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come.”

What follows is a woeful tale of being left-back, left-out, and left-behind, a merging of gospel and blues themes, and ultimately a secular song of faith. The only thing the singer claims to have faith in is the inevitability of change, though sometimes that alone is enough to carry a weary pilgrim.

As the song opens, “I was born” rises high, just as the opening of the second verse’s “It’s been too hard living” reaches for the skies then plummets back down; it’s a dynamic technique, not unusual in gospel music. Incidentally, the melody matches one used later by Cooke’s friend Otis Redding in “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long”, written by Redding and Jerry Butler (”You are tired, and you want to be free”). Redding also faithfully covered “A Change Is Gonna Come” a year after its release.

The second verse, “It’s been too hard living, but I’m afraid to die,” echoes the line “I’m tired of livin’ and scared of dyin”” from “Ol’ Man River”, a set piece in the musical Show Boat. The Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II show was about life along the Mississippi as seen through the eyes of a put-upon dock worker; it was a role and song popularized by Paul Robeson in the late ’30s and the 1940s. As an activist/performer, Robeson took the song all over the world, taking liberties with the lyric and turning a show tune into an anthem of empowerment on its own, most significantly by tweaking the aforementioned line, which he punched up to the more potent, “I must keep fighting, until I’m dying.”

But back to Cooke’s song: He follows the line about life and death by revealing the source of his fear. “‘Cause I don’t know what’s up there, beyond the sky.” As he borrows those old-time spiritual words for heaven, he rubs them up against the doubt and disbelief of a skeptic: The great spirit makes no appearance in former gospel star Cooke’s song. The verses that follow refer to further demoralizations of the inner spirit. As the message “you’re not welcome” permeates the mood, brothers demonstrate they are not available to lend a hand. But these harsh external realities are drowned out by a louder, more defiant inner voice that mandates to carry on.

In his biography of Cooke, Peter Guralnick tells of a soul-stirring performance of the song on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show that left not only Carson and Cooke but also his bandmates shaken. “It almost scared the shit out of me,” Cooke was said to say to drummer June Gardner. Sadly, there are no surviving tapes of the performance, so you can’t YouTube it right now, though Cooke’s recording of “Change” lives, as do its many versions. As years went by, his contemporaries—Arthur Conley, Otis Redding, Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin, and Tina Turner—would record it in nearly note-for-note versions at some point in their respective careers. Neo-soul singers Seal and Terence Trent D’Arby (accompanied by Booker T and the MGs) also discovered and updated it. Rick Danko of the Band sang a mournful version of it on Moondog Matinee and Billy Bragg included it in his reissue of The Internationale, a collection of mostly political songs.

Although he’d written and recorded it 10 months prior, the single edit of “A Change Is Gonna Come” was released in late 1964; the singer did not live to see 1965 or his song cross over from the R&B charts to pop success.

Cooke’s final statement was a mighty song for the ages that returned him to his gospel singing roots, the very thing that had brought him to pop music in the first place. Joining his litany of signature pop hits that float like butterflies, from “Cupid” to “Wonderful World” and “You Send Me”, Cooke also left behind a song that rises up higher, inspirational on occasions when and where the need for change is called for, as well as on the day it finally comes. And, as for our election day, it was a long time coming: Here’s to hoping the inevitable change has come.

Listen: Sam Cooke, “A Change Is Gonna Come” [at youtube.com]

Read more from Origin of Song:

I Don’t Want to Grow Up

Don’t Blame It On the Boogie

When a Good Song Goes Bad