One of my faves - a little background:
From Wiki: ""Mary Don't You Weep" (alternately titled "O Mary Don't You Weep", "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep, Don't You Mourn", or variations thereof) is a Spiritual that originates from before the American Civil War[1] – thus it is what scholars call a "slave song," "a label that describes their origins among the enslaved," and it contains "coded messages of hope and resistance."[2]
It is one of the most important of Negro spirituals.[1] The song tells the Biblical story of Mary of Bethany and her distraught pleas to Jesus to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead.[1] Other narratives relate to The Exodus and the Passage of the Red Sea, with the chorus proclaiming Pharaoh's army got drown-ded!, and to God's rainbow covenant to Noah after the Great Flood.[1]
With liberation thus one of its themes, the song again become popular during the Civil Rights Movement.[1] Additionally, a song that explicitly chronicles the victories of the Civil Rights Movement, "If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus", written by Charles Neblett of The Freedom Singers, was sung to this tune and became one of the most well-known songs of that movement.[3]"
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| Courtesy New York Times |
Update/edit 08/18/18:
Here is a wow outstanding review which will make you smile and even jump of "Amazing Grace" and "Mary Don't You Weep" from Wesley Morris of the New York Times. Within the review is a link to the still not released film-documentary by Sydney Pollack of the event in Los Angeles - see if you can catch Mick Jagger getting down in the front row.
From: The New York Times
"Amazing Grace': How Aretha Franklin Took Us All To Church
By, Wesley Morris
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| Courtesy Democracy Now! Angela & Aretha |
Update/edit 08/20: Many of you will remember back to 1969-1970 when the Board of Regents of the University of California fired/banned (twice !) Angela Davis under the thumb of Ronald Reagan. San Diego was never quite the same after that - it would never develop into another radical Berkeley or Santa Cruz town, it would just about always remain a conservative Military town, the right had a tight grip on everything San Diego, and the developers completely ruined it. Although Ms. Davis moved on and actually made several comebacks at UCSD much later, there's more to the story:
Here is Democracy Now's coverage of the Aretha-Angela Davis connection, full interviews and videos: (sorry I'm late on this)
From Democracy Now !
Angela Davis: Aretha Franklin Offered to Post Bail for Me, Saying "Black People Will Be Free." -08/17/18
Angela Davis: Aretha Franklin "Will Forever Animate Our Collective Sense of Desire for Change" - 08/17/18
Will return to the drug war events in our region shortly. Big power outage here at SADM Saturday night, it lasted for over nine hours - no other areas affected.
end edit.
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