“People Get Ready” is a 1965 single by The Impressions, and the title track from the People Get Ready album. The single is the group’s best-known hit, reaching number three on the Billboard R&B chart and number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100. The gospel-influenced track was a Curtis Mayfield composition that displayed the growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing. “People Get Ready” is an American song about the sin of slavery never atoned for, the systemic racism that followed, and the promise of deliverance.
“Slavery“ is a snake with a multitude of heads of oppression. It has evolved in modern times but the strong themes of oppression are always present. Nowadays oppression comes in the form of sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, forced labour, bonded labour or debt bondage, domestic servitude, forced child labour, unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers, mental abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, etc. Therefore, this song can be an anthem to all souls (all races, all genders, all ages…) In some way or other we have been through many different forms of oppression, crises, challenges, abuse, pain, slavery, chains…. In a way it linked to most issues we even have now as a society as it can be interpreted to any problem, issue or theme. By using our trust and faith in God. Where we need to overcome obstacles and we shall overcome. This song is inspirational and motivates.
In 2021, Rolling Stone named “People Get Ready” the 122nd Greatest Songs of All Time. The song was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. “People Get Ready” was named as one of the Top 10 Best Songs of All Time by Mojo music magazine, and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2015, the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its “cultural, historic, or artistic significance”. Martin Luther King Jr. named the song the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement and often used the song to get people marching or to calm and comfort them.
Various artists have covered the song, including Bob Marley and the Wailers in 1965 and 1977, the Chambers Brothers in 1968, Bob Dylan in 1975, and Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck in 1985. Australian group Human Nature had a minor hit in Australia with their version in 1997. Vanilla Fudge covered it on their 1967 debut album, and Kenny Rankin covered it on his 1974 album Silver Morning.
The gospel-influenced track was written and composed by Curtis Mayfield, who was displaying a growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing. Mayfield said, “That was taken from my church or from the upbringing of messages from the church. Like there’s no hiding place and get on board, and images of that sort. I must have been in a very deep mood of that type of religious inspiration when I wrote that song.” “People Get Ready” is in a long tradition of Black American freedom songs that use train imagery, such as “Wade in the Water”, “The Gospel Train”, and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”.
