Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam The song was released as a single and became a civil rights activist anthem. It was banned in several Southern states, ostensibly because of the word goddam in the title. Together with Four Women and To Be Young, Gifted and Black it is one of her most famous protest songs and self-written compositions. The song captures Simones response to the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi; and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four black children. On the recording she cynically announces the song as a show tune, but the show hasnt been written for it yet. The song begins jauntily, with a show tune feel, but demonstrates its political focus early on with its refrain Alabamas got me so upset, Tennessees made me lose my rest, and everybody knows about Mississippi goddam. In the song she says: Keep on sayin go slow...to do things gradually would bring more tragedy. Why dont you see it? Why dont you feel it? I dont know, I dont know. You dont have to live next to me, just give me my equality! She performed the song in front of 40,000 people at the end of one of the Selma to Montgomery marches when she and other black activists, including Sammy Davis, Jr.., James Baldwin and Harry Belafonte crossed police lines.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 12:42:58 +0000
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