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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