People Get Ready: Audio Documentary
The KEXP “Civil Rights” documentary on Curtis Mayfield’s classic, “People Get Ready,” is now in the archives, should you wish to give it a listen. Below is a description, and there are more documentaries, including one on James Brown, coming soon!
“People Get Ready” was a song Curtis Mayfield wrote for the Impressions. And it would become one of Martin Luther King’s favorites and a standard used for demonstrations during the civil rights struggles in the 1960′s. Throngs of famous people would later record the song, including Bob Dylan, U2 and Aretha Franklin. Curtis shared a philosophy with Martin Luther King, Jr. – that what really mattered about people was not “the color of their skin but the content of their character”. And this song’s lyrics have the stamp of sincerity, intelligence and soul shared by both great men.
