♫ Chain Gang ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, History, music

Keith and I have an ongoing contest to see who can plant an earworm in the other’s head!  This time, he got me … in response to a cartoon in my Jolly Monday post, he said the cartoon brought this song, Sam Cooke’s Chain Gang, to mind, and that mention was all it took for my foot to start tapping and the song to start looping endlessly through my head!  So, thanks Keith!  I owe you one!

The immortal Sam Cooke’s own life was filled with tragedy … the drowning death of his 18-month-old son in 1963, a divorce, and ultimately his own death by gunfire in a Los Angeles motel in 1964.  The story behind this song, according to SongFacts …

In 1959, while on tour through the South, Cooke’s tour bus happened upon a chain gang of prisoners in Georgia. There is no definitive way to know which prison, so for the purposes of this article, the Georgia State Prison – just outside Reidsville on Highway 147 – will stand in. At any rate, Cooke and his brother felt sorry for the prisoners, so they ordered the driver to pull over and, after shaking a few hands, passed out cartons of cigarettes before re-boarding to continue their trip. This chance meeting was the catalyst for Cooke’s second most popular hit on the US charts.

Chain gangs, groups of prisoners linked together while performing physical labor, existed mostly in the South until 1955, when the practice was phased out, except in Georgia where chain gangs continued through the 1960s. They were first used during the reconstruction of the south after the Civil War as a way to utilize prisoners as free labor in rebuilding Southern states’ infrastructure. In the ’90s, Alabama reintroduced them again. However, that brief experiment ended almost as quickly as it began with the media awarding it the moniker of “commercialized slavery.”

And from Wikipedia …

This was Cooke’s second-biggest American hit, his first hit single for RCA Victor after leaving Keen Records earlier in 1959, and was also his first top 10 hit since “You Send Me” from 1957, and his second-biggest pop single. The song was inspired after a chance meeting with an actual chain gang of prisoners on a highway, seen while Cooke was on tour.

Released in 1960, the song went to #2 in the U.S. and #9 in the UK.  In 1976, Jim Croce released his version that went to #29 in Canada and #63 in the U.S., but did not chart elsewhere.  Much as I love Jim Croce’s music, I’ll pass on this one and stick with Sam Cooke’s!

Chain Gang

Sam Cooke

(Hoh! Ah!) I hear something saying (Hoh! Ah!)

(Hoh! Ah!)(Well don’t you know)
That’s the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, ga-ang
That’s the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, gang

All day long they’re singing (Hoh! Ah!)

(Well don’t you know)
That’s the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, ga-ang
That’s the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, gang

All day long they work so hard till the sun is going down
Working on the highways and byways and wearing, wearing a frown
You hear they moaning their lives away
Then you hear somebody say

That’s the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, ga-ang
That’s the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, gang

Can’t you hear them singing, mmm (Hoh! Ah!)
I’m going home one of these days
I’m going home, see my woman
Whom I love so dear
But meanwhile I gotta work right here

(Well don’t you know)
That’s the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, ga-ang
That’s the sound of the men,
Working on the chain, gang

All day long they’re singing, mmm (Hoh! Ah!)
My work is so hard
Give me water
I’m thirsty, my work is so hard
Woah ooo
My work is so hard

Discover more from Filosofa's Word

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

37 thoughts on “♫ Chain Gang ♫”

      • I loved the song when it came out, and I still appreciate it. But I had no real idea whatva chsin fang was then. Now that I know, this is just a song…

        Like

  4. Sam Cooke had such a great voice and I’ve liked just about everything of his that I’ve heard. This song was partly the inspiration for The Pretenders’ Back On The Chain Gang.

    Liked by 3 people

    • No, it’s not one of my favourites of his, either, but he could just about sing the dictionary and I’d listen! Never heard of that one by the Pretenders before … I think I’ll stick with Sam Cooke 😉

      Like

  7. Jill, well at least it is a good ear worm sung by a velvety voice. Cooke’s voice rivaled Nat King Cole’s in terms of smoothness.

    By the way, during reconstruction and Jim Crow many former slaves were arrested for petty crimes and put on work gangs for, in essence, free or cheap labor. Of course, this would likely not be taught under the Florida governor’s education system.

    Keith

    Liked by 4 people

    • Oh yeah … I could listen to Sam Cooke all night long!

      Agreed … that could not be taught under Florida’s new laws, unless they could find some way to spin it so it appeared those Black people were benefiting. And speaking of that … I was thinking today … how will they spin the genocide of the Indigenous People … how will they say those people benefited by having their land stolen and ultimately being murdered?

      Like

  8. Pingback: ♫ Chain Gang ♫ | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  10. We saw a documentary about Sam’s life, You are right his life story is sad. But he was a talented singer/songwriter. My mom remembers seeing chain gangs along the highway when she was growing up. Now prisoners have it way too easy!

    Liked by 2 people

    • That is certainly a judgement statement. You have no idea what it is like in a prison to say something like that. The system is what the system is, but it is NEVER easy to be locked away from family, friends, and just people in general.
      Prison punishes, and makes people hate. It doesn’t matter why they got there, murder or trying to steal a loaf of bread, they are all treated like super-hardened criminals. Unless they have money or power, like Martha Stewart — no matter what they did they get sent to Club Med.
      I am giving you the easy description because I know you don’t know any better, but prison is not something to scoff at. It destroys people. Abd then it lets them back into the society you live in!

      Liked by 2 people

      • I am sorry. I realized after I said that at how it sounded. I shouldn’t have let some stories that I heard make me make a blanket statement. Yes, I agree that it would be Hell to be locked away from family and friends!!! And no, I don’t know how it is and I am sure I can’t begin to imagine , so I apologize.

        Liked by 3 people

        • No need to apologize, But I could not let the statement go uncontested. I wasn’t in prison for long, but I was forced to work my ass off for pennies a day. I was lucky, i made sure I was never caught again, and I went “straight” a short while after. But prison does nothing to rehabilitate anyone. It is pure punishment, and the guards treat you like the scum of the earth. And once you get out you are branded for life. (I was lucky. When records were put on computer somehow my record was lost, and I now pass a police check with flying colours. It changed my life!) But as much as I might have wanted to run for public office at one time, I can’t, because a deep dive might turn that record up, and that info could be used against me. I’m a senior citizen now, just happy to live out my life. But for that missing record, my life could have been much different. And a hekkuva lot harder.

          Liked by 4 people

          • I learned something about myself the first time I went to prison.
            Prisoners don’t have it easy for sure but most are deserving of the time out. 80% of the inmates at Lebanon Correctional here in Ohio paid for admission with murder. It is a very bad system and in desperate need of reform but it is unfortunately necessary human nature what it is. The American model might be the world’s worst, I’ll give you that.

            Liked by 2 people

            • I believe in reciprocal justice, the way my ancestors did things. You repay through action the person you wronged.
              Retributive justice, the way American and Canadian justice systems (don’t) work helps no one, especially not the victims of crime, and certainly not the perpetrators.
              “Time out” is a minor part of punishment!

              Liked by 2 people

                • Reciprocal justice is NOT an eye for an eye. That is Biblical justice, Christian justice.
                  Reciprocal justice involves the perpetrator working to help the person/persons who he/she offended directly, without rancor. I will put this is words that did not exist on Turtle Island — it is repaying karma directly in the lifetime during which the transgress happened.
                  Giving an eye for taking an eye hurts everyone. Becoming the eyes for the blinded person rewards both.

                  Liked by 2 people

Comments are closed.