Playing Music in the Ivory Tower

Social Studies Review, Fall 2003 by Whitmer, John

In covering the fortieth anniversary of the March on Washington, National Public Radio senior correspondent juan Williams reported on the song "People Get Ready" for Morning Edition on August 26, 2003. As Williams's report noted, Curtis Mayfield of the soul group the Impressions wrote the song in 1964. Moved by the progress and also the frustrations that the civil rights movement was encountering, Mayfield wrote the song as encouragement. Chances are that your students, as with mine, have heard a version or two of this song and might understand why the tune made it to #14 on the pop charts. However, when explained the historical context in which the song was written-especially the brutal bombing of four girls attending Sunday school at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963 0ust a few weeks after the March on Washington and the "I Have a Dream Speech")-the words will resonate with students: "There ain't no room for the hopeless sinner/whom would hurt all mankind just to save his own/ Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner/For there is no hiding place against the kingdom's throne." This compares well with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s own entreaty for peace following the bombing in Birmingham: "These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilt blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed, this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience." Once explained the context in which the song was written, students can then tell the historical significance of the song and of the civil rights movement in general. They can also begin to see how the song and history influences future generations.

As Williams's report noted, Bruce Springsteen was one artist inspired by Mayfield. His most recent album, The Rising (2002), was a tribute to 9/11. It was no coincidence that Springsteen borrowed the melody of "People Get Ready" for his final song of the album: "My City of Ruins." Springsteen was attempting to depart the same emotions of pain and hope that Mayfield had done in another pivotal point in American history. Springsteen's song describes the ruin of a city and its people and attempts to answer the song's own question-"Tell me how do I begin again?"-with the cathartic lyrics: "I pray for the strength, Lord/With these hands/I pray for the faith, Lord/With these hands/I pray for your love, Lord/With these hands." The song ends with the affirming chorus: "Come on, rise up!" Students will surely connect their own feelings following 9/11 to the melancholy and hopeful tone Springwteen struck in this song. When they listen for Mayfield's melody, they begin to see the connection artists with their predecessors and they get to see how the past influences the present. Without their knowing it, the students are participating in the historical process and are being taught the importance of history. In other words, music has its place in the ivory tower.