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


  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EXCERPT: Die Nigger, Die! H. Rap Brown, 1969
    26 Nov 2025
    “Blackness alone is not revolutionary.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    The United Arab Emirates Use a Black Sport to Whitewash a Genocide in Africa
    26 Nov 2025
    National Basketball Association (NBA) players are 70-75% Black, so the game is commonly referred to as “a Black sport.” Now the United Arab Emirates are using it to whitewash a genocide in Africa.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Blues for belligerent blonde Lil Eva Braun
    26 Nov 2025
    "Blues for belligerent blonde Lil Eva Braun" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Black Alliance For Peace
    Imam Jamil Al-Amin, Presente!
    26 Nov 2025
    From the front lines of the Black Power movement to a Georgia prison cell, the life of Imam Jamil Al-Amin represents a continuous thread of resistance and the state's relentless retaliation against…
  • Jon Jeter
    Unable to Squeeze Another Dime From Black People, a Subprime Economy Runs Aground
    26 Nov 2025
    America's financial overlords are hooked on a subprime lending model that preys on the poor, and now this unsustainable system is crashing down.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us