Impressions – People Get Ready

To my ears, this was always a hymn that doubled as a pop song. As smooth as you can get. After posting the Jerry Butler song this week, I wanted to hear some Impressions. It’s been covered by everyone from Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart to Bob Dylan, but the original remains untouchable.

The producer Johnny Pate understood that this song didn’t need horns blaring or big arrangements. The Impressions’ harmonies, Fred Cash and Sam Gooden’s voices around Curtis’s lead, were the orchestra, and it works perfectly. The roots of the song go back to Curtis’s church upbringing on Chicago’s North Side. He grew up playing guitar in gospel groups and listening to the Five Blind Boys of Alabama and the Soul Stirrers, where Sam Cooke had once stood at the mic.

The song was released just after the 1963 March on Washington and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often spoke of “the train of freedom,” and Mayfield picked up that imagery and carried it into the studio. The track would be used by King himself at some rallies. It was released in 1965 and peaked at #14 on the Billboard 100 and #3 on the Billboard R&B Charts. 

Curtis Mayfield: “While I had written a few Gospel songs, what would be looked upon as Gospel, I called them more inspirational, such things as ‘People Get Ready, this is a perfect example of what I believe has laid in my subconscious as to the preaching of my grandmother, and most ministers when they reflect from the Bible.”

Curtis Mayfield: “It doesn’t matter what color or faith you have, I’m pleased the lyrics can be of value to anybody.”

Curtis Mayfield doing a live version.

People Get Ready

People get ready, there’s a train a comin’ 
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board 
All you need is faith, to hear the diesels hummin’
Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord 

So people get ready, for the train to Jordan 
Picking up passengers coast to coast 
Faith is the key, open the doors and board ’em 
There’s hope for all, among those loved the most 

There ain’t no room for the hopeless sinner 
Whom would hurt all mankind, just to save his own, believe me now
Have pity on those whose chances grow thinner 
For there is no hiding place, against the kingdom’s throne 

So people get ready there’s a train a comin’ 
You don’t need no baggage, you just get on board 
All you need is faith, to hear the diesels hummin’ 
Don’t need no ticket, you just thank the Lord

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Impressions – People Get Ready”

  3. Pingback: Impressions – People Get Ready – MobsterTiger

  7. A quality song I first heard through the Rod Stewart take. Curtis’s is excellent though and with lyrics more inspirational than I had realized, having not listened to them too closely I guess

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    1. Yea I remember the Beck/Stewart take of it…I liked it a lot. It would be hard to mess this song up because it’s written so well…not that Beck/Stewart would anyway. I do love Bechks guitar on Stewarts version. Wonderful song.

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    1. I certainly know of Mayfield better. In 2019 Bailey and I went to the Belle Meade theater to see Superfly…to hear him with that sound system was incredible.

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      2. Oh no…not Curtis but the Superfly movie… Bailey and I did go see Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan in June…the first concert I’ve been to in 6 years

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      3. Oh. Okay. I was thinking, hmmm…is Curtis Mayfield still alive? Lol! (I looked it up. He died in 1999.) 😊

        I bet that was cool, i.e. seeing Superfly there. I love the movie. I think it’s the best blaxploitation flick, hands down and Mayfield’s contribution to the soundtrack had a lot to do with its greatness.

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      4. Sorry about the confusion! It’s a cool place to see an older movie and they show them a lot. If you haven’t been there…it’s worth checking out.
        Yes…I’ve watched a lot of them and I do think it’s the best one.

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  12. Curtis Mayfield was a genius, indeed. Definitely a gospel song as well as a civil rights anthem that succeeded as a pop song. Having the voice of an angel certainly helped this song succeed. The Jaguar XKE on the album cover makes for a bit of a mixed message.

    After stage lighting fell on him, resulting in quadriplegia, he could no longer play the guitar but continued to sing and record. Since the nerves to his diaphragm were damaged, he had to sing lying down.

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    1. He is one of the few musicians I would call a genius…I totally agree. I remember when that happened to him…I didn’t know that about him recording lying down. Such a tragic accident.

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  18. it’s a song I think we know, right? and every so often we hear ot and take that deep dive in…its a song that always sends me somewhere else, towards the Temptations, Aretha, Marvin Gaye, Freedom Highway, just my imagination….just great songs…

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      1. Badfinger
        Interesting song verses message which, based on the news I read every day, appears to me mat more people need to listen and discern, because we sure do not appear ready yet to board the train, in my opinion..
        Regards and goodwill bloggings

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  19. I love this song. My favorite version is an a capella version by The Persuasions on their 1972 release, Street Corner Symphony.

    I am a big a capella fan, and that includes the Persuasions. It also includes the completely off the wall the Bobs, and their take on Zeppelin’s Whole Lotta Love. I warn you. You will either love it or hate it.

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