Folk Singer

♪ well, when iwas a little boy ♪ ♪ sittin' on my momma's knee ♪ ♪ she said"son, let me tell you ♪ ♪ about that bad stagger lee." ♪ going to mississippi in '64 you knewyou could be arrested, you knewyou could be killed, you knewyou could be injured. and so it's not somethingthat you did lightly,

not something you didbecause it was going to be fun, because it was definitely, it was definitelynot going to be fun. but there was this feelinginside of me that it was just somethingi had to do. ♪ with a blue steel .44 ♪ before i went to mississippii was living in new york. i was teaching guitarand banjo. at that time in my life i was,you know, i was a folk singer,

and i had been involvedin the movement singing at ralliesand hootenannies and fundraising eventsin new york for sncc. you know, i wasn't bigfor going on demonstrations or getting thrown in jailand this, that and the other, but music was something, was a gift that i had,that i had to offer. ♪ billy lyonstold stagger lee ♪ ♪ said please don't... ♪

i grew upin the black church. my fatherwas a methodist minister and was a very good preacher. i loved to hearmy father preach because of his useof language and especially the rhythm and the musicof the language. i understood the black church and the cultureof the black church

so that when i wentto mississippi and would lead singingat mass meetings and church it was a very, veryfamiliar environment. my job was to get peopleto start singing and to create that senseof community through peoplejoined together in song. that block in thereis all freedom songs. those are songs that i wouldhave sung in mississippi in '64. the most vivid memorythat i have

from that summer and singing was a night in gulfport,mississippi. it's hot in mississippi, especially hot and humidon the gulf. and we weren't ina church that night, i don't know where we were, i don't rememberwhere we were, but the place was fulland so it was even hotter than it would have beennormally.

and i remember starting offon "wade in the water." ♪ wade in the water ♪ ♪ wade in the water, children ♪ ♪ god's gonnatrouble the water. ♪ and of courseback in those days i played guitarand my voice was-- that was 50 years ago-- my voice was a lot betterthan it is now. but it was a kind of songwhere i would sing, "wade,"

and the whole congregationwould come in on, "in the water." and there was just thisimmediate electricity. and one of the thingsthat came through in the singing that night was how much painthere was in the singing. and it was as if, you know,the centuries of pain going back to slavery,they all released that night. near the end i would startsinging songs

about the possibilityof death. ♪ one kind favori'll ask of you ♪ ♪ one kind favor i'llask of you ♪ ♪ please see that my graveis kept clean. ♪ i mean that's a stark song, but that was the realityin mississippi in 1964. you know you'd lead singingfor 30 minutes, an hour, depending on the situationyou were in or what have you, but at a certain pointthe people were present,

they were there,they were ready. then at that pointthe organizers got up and began to talk. "tomorrow, how manywant to go to vote? "we gonna marchto the courthouse, or we gonna do this,or this, that and the other." but that's whenthe organizing would start. but the music, the musicproduced the energy, the musiccreated the community,

and the musicfought the fear. ♪ wade in the water,children, now... ♪ i basically traveledaround the state wherever we were...it was thought we were needed. ♪ god's gonna troublethe water. ♪ go into a town and, you know,you don't know where you're going to staythat night, and so somebodywill put you up, or if noti certainly spent nights

sleeping on the back seatof the car. for those looking back,it seems romantic. it was not romantic at all. there was nothing romanticabout it. it was difficult. there was a rule that summer,which i broke often. the rule was you werenot supposed to drive at night. and we did. and so when you're drivingalong highway 61

or highway 51in mississippi at night and suddenly thereare car lights behind you, and then when that carpulls alongside you, you don't know whether or notthere's going to be a shotgun barrel sticking outof the window or what. wasn't a song in the world made any differencein that moment. having, you know, theexperiences that i had in '64, you know, in mississippi,has certainly given me

the abilityto affirm my values even when my lifeis threatened. that if somebodycan threaten your life and you give up your values, then they own you,they own your soul. and you can't let somebodyown your soul. ♪ now, wade, wade,wade in the water ♪ ♪ god's gonnatrouble the water ♪ ♪ i said wade in the water ♪

♪ wade in the water,children, now ♪ ♪ wade in the water... ♪

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