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

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


  • Believe Absolutely Nothing the US Government and Media Say About ...Anything
    Glen Ford , BAR executive editor
    Believe Absolutely Nothing the US Government and Media Say About ...Anything
    02 Aug 2023
    It is true now just as when Glen Ford wrote these words in 2019. In any alliance with corporate oppression and militarism, Black America squanders reservoirs of respect among the Earth’s peoples.…
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    U.S.. Theft of CITGO and Venezuela’s Oil
    02 Aug 2023
    The U.S. has used its influence to steal another country’s oil revenues. Venezuela is in the crosshairs because it dares to be socialist in the hemisphere the U.S. claims as it’s “backyard.”
  • INTERVIEW: France’s Colonial Past and Blowback, Glen Ford, 2015
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    INTERVIEW: France’s Colonial Past and Blowback, Glen Ford, 2015
    02 Aug 2023
    The late Glen Ford would probably refer to events in Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and elsewhere as the “blowback” from France’s colonial past.        
  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    War in Africa and War in the Americas: Accelerating the End of White World Supremacy
    02 Aug 2023
    “The structural crisis of capitalism in its neoliberal form has created a legitimacy crisis for the capitalist rulers, making the use of force a permanent strategy for maintaining their dominance.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Kenya Offers to Put a Black Face on 'Intervention' in Haiti
    02 Aug 2023
    It would be a bad look for the U.S. or a European nation to be the public face of the impending occupation of Haiti. That's why Kenya was asked to help the make case for a new invasion.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us