Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
  • omnibus

Sold Singers
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
17 Dec 2013
🖨️ Print Article

by Raymond Nat Turner

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

The battle is no longer in the streets

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

Now, we fightin’ for those leather seats

 

Sold Singers

by Raymond Nat Turner

 

Singing against backgrounds of crackling flames,

So low their bass reverberated Booker T,

Drowning out shouts and shots of the no-names

The big voices all crooned way, way off key

Mint-fresh faces of Franklin, Cleveland and Chase

Inspired their song with an “Amazing Grace”

Restricting our rhythm to a mellow pace:

 

“Black is beautiful, but green power

Sounds sweeter, not rocking the boat—

Being dutiful, seize the hour and

Let us lower our note…”

 

Singin’ shufflin’ ditties, once the 70s swung in

They rocked like Booker T and other sold men

Oh, so low they’d “Sing a Simple Song”

“The best things in life are free…”

“So What” “if loving you is wrong…”

“…You can’t prove that by me”

They’d even get down, like James Brown,

On bended knees, screamin’ and beggin’

“Baby, please, please…”

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

The battle is no longer in the streets

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

Now, we fightin’ for those leather seats

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

I-I-I-I…

I know the white man done you wrong

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

So vote for me, and make us strong

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

You’ve suffered enough, heaven knows

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

E-lect me, and I’ll heal your woes

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

I-I-I-I…

I wanna be you next Congressman

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

I promise to ban the Ku Klux Klan

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

And look into all racist attacks

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

From the hills, across the tracks

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

So don’t protest or demonstrate

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

E-lect me and I’ll negotiate

 

BABY, PLEASE GO VOTE

I-I-I-I…

 

“Promises, promises, promises…” and

Makers come and go…

‘Til we sing: “We Shall Overthrow!”

 

Raymond Nat Turner can be contacted at upsurgejazz.com.

 

Raymond Nat Turner © 2013 All Rights Reserved

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • My Wise Country Cousin: Dem Wanna be Lakked by Mike
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    My Wise Country Cousin: Dem Wanna be Lakked by Mike
    19 Feb 2020
    $elections comin’ an’ Massa Mike playin’ Negroz fo’ chumps— Tolt Dem he’d hab dey pockets lookin’ lak dey got de mumps!
  • Black America and the Presidents
    Kollibri terre Sonnenblume
    Black America and the Presidents
    19 Feb 2020
    Every single US president—regardless of party—actively upheld white supremacy in the US.
  • The Torture Machine, Racism and Violence in Chicago
    Jeff Haas and Dennis Cunningham
    The Torture Machine, Racism and Violence in Chicago
    19 Feb 2020
    Chicago’s torture machine was both a real mechanism to produce confessions through pain, and a racist political instrument.
  • Letters from Our Readers 
    Jahan Choudhry BAR Comments Editor
    Letters from Our Readers 
    19 Feb 2020
    This week readers discussed the Democratic Party’s theater and the new arms race in outer space.
  • BAR Book Forum: “Books I Teach”
    Ashlie Sandoval
    BAR Book Forum: “Books I Teach”
    19 Feb 2020
    An educator helps students navigate books that reveal Blackness as historicity, slavery as both obscured and ever-present, and the violence of race.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us