Homework Question #5

“People Get Ready”
The Impressions


People get ready
There's a train a-coming
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear diesels humming
You don't need no ticket
You just thank the Lord
Yeah yeah yeah

People get ready
For the train to Jordan
Picking up passengers
From coast to coast
Faith is the key
Open the doors and board them
There's room for all
Among the loved and lost

Now there ain't no room
For the hopeless sinner
Who’s hard on mankind
Just to save his own
Have pity on those
Whose chances are thinner
Cause there's no hiding place
From the Kingdom's Throne

Ohh people get ready
There's a train a-coming
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear diesels a- humming
You don't need no ticket
You just thank the Lord
Yeah yeah yeah



I chose this song first because it’s beautifully peaceful for such a soulful song with such a strong message. People Get Ready came out during some of the most publicized violence of the Civil Rights Movement. Its release closely followed the Birmingham Church Bombing and the assassination of President Kennedy. Still, its lyrics convey a very important message of freedom, redemption, and forgiveness as a necessary component of both. The persistently inspiring message of this song is another reason why I chose it. “People get ready, there’s a train a coming” symbolizes hope for a change that’s coming, although there are clearly a number of stops or obstacles to experience before getting there. The lyrics also say the train is open to all and to “have pity” on certain passengers. Lines like that symbolize the forgiveness that’s necessary for redemption and true freedom.

To me, freedom is much more than the literal emancipation of the slaves. It’s more importantly their mental and spiritual freedom. The still segregated South and even North kept African-Americans imprisoned to the same feelings of inequality and fear that accompanied slavery. Because of that, the Civil Rights Movement and its results, in my opinion, involved the true emancipation of African-Americans.