Rapper Common’s song, “A Dream,” produced by will.i.am for the film Freedom Writers, is one of the most well-known tunes highlighting King’s speech delivered on Aug. 28, 1963, to civil rights marchers gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Less well known are the recordings about King from Chicago gospel family, The Norfleet Brothers. This group of 15 siblings, 10 of whom were male, who moved from Alabama to Chicago in the late 1940s. They first sang the story of King for Rush Records in 1961.
The group recorded an update after King’s assassination.
From the folk music realm, Pete Seeger—who played a role in popularizing the civil rights movement anthem “We Shall Overcome”—also sang frequent tributes to King. Here’s an 89-year-old Seeger on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2008, singing “Take It From Dr. King,” which he wrote in 2002.
Down in Alabama, 1955
Not many of us here tonight were then alive;
A young Baptist preacher led a bus boycott
He led the way for a brand new day without firing a shot
Don’t say it can’t be done
The battle’s just begun
Take it from Dr. King
You too can learn to sing
So drop the gun
Oh those must have been an exciting 13 years
Young heroes, young heroines
There was laughter, there were tears
Students at lunch counters
Even dancing in the streets
To think it all started with sister Rosa
Refusing to give up her seat
Song, songs, kept them going and going;
They didn’t realize the millions of seeds they were sowing
They were singing in marches, even singing in jail
Songs gave them the courage to believe they would not fail
We sang about Alabama 1955
But since 9-11 we wonder will this world survive
The world learned a lesson from Dr. King:
We can survive, we can, we will
And so we sing —Don’t say it can’t be done
The battle’s just begun
Take it from Dr. King
You too can learn to sing
So drop the gun
Seeger also recorded with folk singer and activist Brother Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick.
He was an associate of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning in 1968, he recorded three albums with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. One was a recording of the 1978 Louisiana Folk Fest, an annual event that Kirkpatrick had conceived and regularly hosted to preserve and celebrate musical culture. He used music to teach schoolchildren Black history, including the American Civil Rights Movement. Kirkpatrick was featured singing “Bring ‘Em Home” and “Give Peace a Chance” on stage with Pete Seeger at the anti-Vietnam War march and rally on November 15, 1969, in Washington, DC, inspiring an audience of more than half a million people.
Here’s a 1974 collaboration between Seeger and Kirkpatrick for Sesame Street.
Certainly today’s anti-critical race theory right-wing white supremacists would be shocked about this song being sung to children, for public funded television, no less.
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Of all the international tributes to King, my top picks will always go to two songs by rockers U2 and lead singer Bono from their 1984 album The Unforgettable Fire: ”Pride (In the Name of Love)” and “MLK.”
This 1986 performance of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” from the Amnesty International “A Conspiracy of Hope Tour,” opens with a stanza from “MLK,” and has been described as “epic” and “transcendental.”
“He wasn’t just talking about the American dream,” Bono stated at the 2004 ceremony honoring the 75th birthday of Martin Luther King. “It was a much bigger idea, actually, an idea that could fit an African dream, an Irish dream. And it certainly wasn’t a daydream. It was a call to action.”
When “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” was initially conceived on the 1983 War tour, it was written with claws directed at Ronald Reagan and his pride in the Military Industrial Complex of American imperialism. But when Bono picked up a copy of the Stephen B. Oates 1982 biography Let The Trumpet Sound: A Life of Martin Luther King, Jr. and rearranged the song from a place of protest to a celebration of life.
Enjoy.
”Pride (In the Name of Love)” lyrics:
One man come in the name of love
One man come and go.
One man come he to justify
One man to overthrow.In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.One man caught on a barbed wire fence
One man he resist
One man washed up on an empty beach
One man betrayed with a kiss.In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.Early morning, April four
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky.
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride.In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
In the name of love
What more in the name of love.
Here’s a powerful performance of “MLK,” the less known of the band’s King tributes, which has been described as “a meditative masterpiece, written as a consolation for the slain dreamer.”
Sleep, sleep tonight
And may your dreams be realized.
If the thunder cloud passes rain
So let it rain, rain down on he.
So let it be.
So let it be.Sleep, sleep tonight
And may your dreams be realized.
If the thunder cloud passes rain
So let it rain, let it rain
Rain down on he.
While U2 is known globally, I’d like to introduce you to Israeli-American violinist Miri Ben-Ari.
Meet Miri Ben-Ari, a Grammy Winner violinist-producer-humanitarian, “UN Goodwill Ambassador of Music” to the United Nations and TED speaker, originally from Israel, who has invented a unique sound – a revolutionary fusion of classical, Hip Hop, and dance music. She is a music trendsetter, recognized as a musical pioneer.
This classically trained violinist, who once studied under the late classical master Isaac Stern, has helped sell millions of records by collaborating with other Grammy Award Winning artists such as Kanye West, Jay Z, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keys, Twista, Wynton Marsalis, Britney Spears, Maroon 5, Akon, Patti Labelle, Akon, Donna Summer, Janet Jackson, John Legend, Aventura, Fetty Wap, Diamond Platnumz, and Armin Van Buuren. Her album “The Hip Hop Violinist“/ Universal Records features many of these collaborations.
Ben-Ari’s stunning “Symphony of Brotherhood” samples King’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.
Moving on to classical music, musicologist and critic Walter Simmons discussed American composer Nicolas Flagello’s 1968 “Passion of Martin Luther King,” as performed by the Portland Symphonic Choir and the Oregon Symphony Orchestra in 1995.
Flagello’s Passion of Martin Luther King is constructed along the lines of an oratorio, in which five choral settings of Latin liturgical texts alternate with solo settings of lines taken from King’s speeches. Actually, the choral portions originated in a work entitled Pentaptych, which Flagello had composed in 1953, but which had left him with certain reservations. King’s assassination 15 years later crystallized for him the realization that the eloquent words of the contemporary spiritual leader could provide just the human focus the Pentaptych lacked. He immediately restructured the work, selecting excerpts from King’s speeches and setting them in an expressive arioso that blends seamlessly with the choral portions, in such a way that the vernacular solo element continually reverberates against the timeless spirituality of the Latin choral sections in a deeply moving synergy.
One complete opposite of classical music is what many would call classic old school hip-hop. In 1991, New York rappers Chuck D and Flavor Flav, known as the group Public Enemy, responded to the racist moves from Arizona voters and then-Gov. Evan Mecham, who decided to remove Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday for state workers. In February 2021, Alexander Fruchter wrote about Public Enemy’s epic “By The Time I Get To Arizona” and its immediate and long-term impact for LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells blog.
The video could not be ignored. It was quickly condemned by conservatives and banned from TV. The message was already out there though, and Public Enemy received tremendous support from the artist community. The song helped in national efforts to make MLK day a holiday everywhere. It put pressure on other artists to boycott the state, and had to play some role in the NFL’s decision to pull the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix.
The song and video definitely struck a nerve. To recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day is to recognize MLK’s role in the Civil Rights Movement; and in doing that, forces us to recognize the evil that MLK fought to end. It is a conversation a lot of folks did not want to have in 1991, and it’s a conversation that many still don’t want to avoid at all costs. It took a vicious pandemic, and a summer of riots and civil unrest for America to wake up and recognize the racism and white supremacy that is embedded in the very DNA of this country.
The very controversial video for the song—which features Sister Souljah and was never released as a traditional single—is worth a watch.
In 2011—20 years after “By the Time I Get to Arizona” dropped—writer Evan Serpick revisited the song’s impact for SPIN Magazine.
The video for “By the Time I Get to Arizona” aired on MTV only one time in 1991. But its vision of violent retribution in the face of government callousness kicked over the coffee table of America’s polite conversations about race. On November 6, 1990, the people of Arizona voted down a proposal to create a state holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by a margin of 17,000 votes. The vote came two years after then-Governor Evan Mecham canceled MLK Day, saying, “I guess King did a lot for the colored people, but I don’t think he deserves a national holiday.”
Public Enemy’s response, “By the Time I Get to Arizona,” bubbled over with frustration, contempt, and wit, as legendary firebrand Chuck D took aim at the citizens of Arizona and, Mecham in particular: “The cracker over there/He try to keep it yesteryear/The good ol’ days/The same ol’ ways/That kept us dyin’.” Says Chuck, “I’m a firm believer that hip-hop can change the world and make statements like Bob Marley.”
To this day, I have a hard time listening to this emotion-filled tribute from Nina Simone, which was recorded days after King’s assassination, when we were all reeling, filled with shock, pain, and anger.
From the YouTube video’s notes:
Recorded on April 7, 1968, live three days after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. and performed at the Westbury Music Fair. Nina Simone dedicated her performance to King’s memory. The song was written by her bass player, Gene Taylor. An edited version of this performance appears on Simone’s album, Nuff Said (1968). I felt the unedited version captures the true emotional energy of the period surrounding Simone’s performance.
”Why? (The King of Love is Dead)” lyrics:
We want to do a tune
Written for today, for this hour
For Dr. Martin Luther King
We’ve stated before that the whole program is dedicated to his memory
But this tune is written about him, and for him and so
We had yesterday to learn it and so we’ll seeOnce upon this planet earth
Lived a man of humble birth
Preaching love and freedom for his fellow man
He was dreaming of a day
Peace would come to earth to stay
And he spread this message all across the land
Turn the other cheek he’d plead
Love thy neighbor was his creedPain humiliation death, he did not dread
With his Bible at his side
From his foes he did not hide
It’s hard to think that this great man is dead (oh yes)
Will the murders never cease
Are thy men or are they beasts?
What do they ever hope, ever hope to gain?
Will my country fall, stand or fall?
Is it too late for us all?
And did Martin Luther King just die in vain?Cos he’d seen the mountain top
And he knew he could not stop
Always living with the threat of death ahead
Folks you’d better stop and think
‘Cause we’re heading for the brink
What will happen now that he is dead?He was for equality
For all people, you and me
Full of love and good will, hate was not his way
He was not a violent man
Bigotry had sealed his fate
We can all shed tears but it won’t change a thing
Teach your people, will they ever learn
Must you always kill with burn and burn with guns
And kill with guns and burnDon’t you know how we gotta react?
Don’t you know what it will bring?
Well see he’d seen, the mountaintop
And he knew he could not stop
Always living with the threat of death ahead
Folks you’d better stop and think
Cause everybody knows were on the brink
What’s will happen now that the king of love is dead?Cause see he’d seen, the mountaintop
And he knew he could not stop
Always living with the threat of death ahead
Folks you’d better stop and think and feel again
For we’re headed for the brinkWhat’s gonna happen now? In all of our cities?
My people are rising; they’re living in lies
Even if they have to die
Even if they have to die at the moment they know what life is
Even at that one moment that ya know what life is
If you have to die, it’s all right
Cause you know what life isYou know what freedom is for one moment of your life
What’s gonna happen now that the King is dead?
I heard, that um, well we’ve heard all kinds of stories
But I heard that this was his favorite song near the end of his life
Last year or a year ago, maybe a little longer than that now
Lorraine Hansberry left us, and she was a dear friend
She had her favorite song, that Langston Hughes left us
Coltrane left us, Otis Redding left us
Who can go on, do you realize how many we have lost?
Then it really gets down to reality, doesn’t it?
Not a performance, not microphones and all that crap
But really something else
We’ve lost a lot of them, in the last two years
But we have remaining, Monk, MilesAudience: Nina!
Ms. Simone: I love you tooAnd of course, for those we have left we are thankful
But we can’t afford any more losses, oh no, oh my god
They’re shooting us down one by one
Don’t forget that
Because they are
Killing us one by oneWell all I have to say is that those of us who
Know how to protect those of us that we love
Stand by them and stay close to them
And I say that if there’d been a couple of more a
little closer to Dr. King he wouldn’t have got it
Just a little closer to him, stay there, stay there
We can’t afford any more lossesHe had seen the mountain top
And he knew he could not stop
Always living with the threat of death ahead
Folks you’d better stop and think
For we’re almost to the brink
What will happen, now that the King is dead?
Less well known is this tribute from Terry Callier, who remains an unknown to far too many music lovers.
For far too long, folk-jazz mystic Terry Callier was the exclusive province of a fierce but small cult following; a singer/songwriter whose cathartic, deeply spiritual music defied simple genre categorization, he went all but unknown for decades, finally beginning to earn the recognition long due him after his rediscovery during the early ’90s. Born in Chicago’s North Side — also home to Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, and Ramsey Lewis — and raised in the area of the notorious Cabrini Green housing projects, Callier began studying the piano at the age of three, writing his first songs at the age of 11 and regularly singing in doo wop groups throughout his formative years. While attending college, he learned to play guitar, eventually setting up residency at a Chicago coffeehouse dubbed the Fickle Pickle and in time coming to the attention of Chess Records arranger Charles Stepney, who produced Callier’s debut single, “Look at Me Now,” in 1962.
“Martin St. Martin” appears on Calllier’s 1978 album Fire and Ice.
Callier sings “… your name will never be forgotten,” and we continue to see that promise kept.
Another artist from the Chicago music scene to pay homage to the civil rights icon is Mississippi-born bluesman Otis Spann.
From the YouTube video’s notes:
The great blues piano man, Otis Spann, captures the horror and desolation of the loss of King in his deep and moving song “Blues for Martin Luther King”. While Spann (who is probably best known as a sideman to Chicago blues legend Muddy Waters) was not known as a singer, this song was so personally important to him that he opted to sing it himself. As an African American who grew up in the Jim Crow South before moving to Chicago, one can only imagine what King‘s actions (and the wider Civil Rights Movement) meant to Spann and how personally he must have felt the loss.
Long after his murder on April 4, 1968, King’s name was invoked in a song about another man surnamed King—first name Rodney—who was brutally beaten by the Los Angeles Police on March 3, 1991, a beating that was caught on video, which was far from the norm in the early ‘90s.
Folk-blues guitarist and singer Ben Harper links both Kings in this impassioned appeal for help.
Well Martin’s dream
Has become Rodney’s worst
Nightmare
Can’t walk the streets
To them we are fair game
Our lives don’t mean a thingLike a king, like a king, like a king
Rodney King, Rodney King, Rodney King
Like a king, like a king, like a king
How I wish you could help us Dr. KingMake sure it’s filmed
Shown on national T.V.
They’ll have no mercy
A legal lynch mob
Like the days strung up from the tree
The L.A.P.D.Like a king, like a king, like a king
Rodney King, Rodney King, Rodney King
Like a king, like a king, like a king
How I wish you could help us Dr. KingSo if you catch yourself
Thinking it has changed for the best
You better second guess
Cause Martin’s dream
Has become Rodney’s worst
NightmareLike a king, like a king, like a king
Rodney King, Rodney King, Rodney King
Like a king, like a king, like a king
How I wish you could help us Dr. King
I’ll close today with living legend Mavis Staples’ “MLK Song.” As Songfacts notes:
This tribute to Martin Luther King was written by Livin’ on a High Note producer M. Ward. The recording of it was an emotional experience for Mavis Staples. She recalled to Uncut: “I got so wrapped up in that I almost didn’t finish it. The first time I choked up and started to cry, as I could see Dr. Martin Luther King as I was singing. It just hit me and I almost broke down. But I held it together and I finished, and then I broke down: you have to take your heart into the studio.”
And indeed, her pain can be heard.
If I can help somebody as they pass along
If I can cheer somebody with a word or song
If I can show somebody that they’re traveling wrong
Then my living will not be in vain
If I can do my duty as a Christian ought
If I should sing salvation to the world he wrought
If I can spread the message as the Master taught
Then my living will not be in vain
Well it really doesn’t matter, most of the deeds I’ve done
It really doesn’t matter, the prizes I may have won
I’d like for somebody to say “I’ve tried to love someone”
When I have to leave my day
In the crawl for justice, I helped somebody run
In the walk for the hungry, I fed someone
And in the march for peace tell them I played the drum
When I have to meet my day
In the crawl for justice, I helped somebody run
In the walk for the hungry, I fed someone
And in the march for peace tell them I played the drum
When I have to meet my day
Join me in the comments to continue the celebration and memorial for King, and please post your favorite musical tributes.
