Tag: People Got To Be Free

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Sunday!

The Young Rascals or by this time…The Rascals were the ultimate singles band. A great band that ruled the singles charts. I found the Rascals in 1985 at the same time I found Cream and The Lovin Spoonful. The Rascals and Lovin’ Spoonful were not known for their albums but man did they ever do some incredible great singles. Some of the best of the 60s. Steven Van Zandt is a huge fan of the band and I can see why. 

This is one of their biggest songs. It peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, and #14 in New Zealand in 1968. This was their 3rd number 1 song and would be their last. 

A very positive message for all the listeners. Rascals co-leaders Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati wrote the song together. The Young Rascals  / The Rascals had had 6 top ten hits in their career and 13 top-40 songs. The record sold over 4 million copies. They wrote this song in reaction to Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy’s murders, condensing King and Kennedy’s message into a simple missive calling for unity and understanding. The message was simple and clear and not overly political.

Felix Cavaliere wrote it after working for Bobby Kennedy’s presidential campaign. After Kennedy’s assassination, the follow-up song “A Ray of Hope,” was written for the Kennedy family after RFK’s death and the band received a thank-you letter from Bobby’s little brother, Ted Kennedy.

Felix Cavaliere has said that he had to fight with Jerry Wexler at Atlantic Records to get this released because Wexler was worried that a message song would hurt the Rascals’ career. Cavaliere won and the song became their biggest hit. 

Felix Cavaliere: I was working for Bobby Kennedy’s (presidential) campaign, and you know that Robert Kennedy got assassinated. I just felt compelled to say something. The record company didn’t really like the idea, but they let it [be released as a single] and it became number one in all the places that were oppressed, such as South Africa, Berlin and Hong Kong, So I was always very proud of that. [Writing this song] was a direct result of the assassination. In my eyes, Bobby Kennedy was an idealistic person who had visions for how our country should be, and his brother (John Kennedy) as well. So I was attracted very much to that. I just thought that it would be a good direction for me, and the United States of America.

People Got To Be Free

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
Listen, please listen, that’s the way it should be
There’s peace in the valley, people got to be free

You should see
What a lovely, lovely world this’d be
Everyone learned to live together, ah hah
Seems to me
Such an itty bitty thing should be
Why can’t you and me learn to love one another?

All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free (wanna be free)
I can’t understand it, so simple to me
People everywhere just got to be free

If there’s a man
Who is down and needs a helpin’ hand
All it takes is you to understand and
To pull him through, ah hah
Seems to me
We got to solve it individually, ah ah
And I’ll do unto you what you do to me
Said, no

Hear the shoutin’ from the mountains on out to the sea
No two ways about it, people have to be free (they gotta be free)
Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be
Natural situation for a man to be free

Get right on board now, huh, huh

Yeah oh, what a feelin’s just come over me
Love can move a mountain, make a blind man see
Everybody sing it now come on let’s go see
Peace in the valley now, we all can be free

See that train over there?
Now that’s the train of freedom
It’s about to ‘arrive any minute, now
You know it’s been a long, long overdue
Look out ’cause it’s a’comin’ right on through
Ha, ha, yeah, ha, ha, yeah