SAM COOKE -

A Change Is Gonna Come has always been a powerful song for me as it comes from a place of vulnerability. The song is for everybody, but coming from Cooke it sounds like a plea. This is one of the major purposes of soul and jazz music; to state what you feel. The ’60s and ’70s was a tumultuous time all over the world, but particularly in the US. A song like this is optimistic yet states the problem as well, a combination of the bitter and the sweet. It’s the kind of message I’m talking about in my song Musical Genocide from my Liquid Spirit album. I sing: “And the soul man with your heart in the palm of his hand, singing his stories of love and pain.” This song is love and pain.