“People Get Ready” is a 1965 single by the Impressions, and the title track from the People Get Ready album. The gospel-influenced track was a Curtis Mayfield composition that displayed the growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing. Rolling Stone magazine named “People Get Ready” the 24th greatest song of all time and also placed it at number 20 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks. 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 2016, the song was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry due to its “cultural, historic, or artistic significance”. (More from Wikipedia)
One of the early songs that I remember with a Christian theme is “People Get Ready”, which was a #14 hit for the Impressions in 1965. The theme is likely the tumultuous changes that were roiling the nation in the mid-1960’s, like the Civil Rights Movement; but the “train” that is mentioned frequently in this song is basically the same one in the Peter, Paul and Mary song, “This Train” mentioned earlier, whose lyrics include: “This train is bound for Glory, this train”. The songwriter, Curtis Mayfield is quoted in Wikipedia as saying of “People Get Ready”: “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.”
“Are You Ready?” by Pacific, Gas and Electric is a long-time favorite of mine that is more of a straight rock song; it is sort of an analogue to “People Get Ready”.
(July 2014)
