People Got To Be Free
The Rascals (1968)
Words by Felix Cavaliere and Music by Edward Brigati, Jr.
Album: The Ultimate Rascals
"People Got to Be Free" was an impassioned response to the assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy.
The band was formed in 1964 and signed with Atlantic Records in 1965 as the Rascals, but their early releases were as the Young Rascals, due to another band's similar name.
In 1968 the band was able to drop the "Young" from its name. In 1996 the Rascals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At the induction ceremony the band reunited on stage to play "Good Lovin'" , "Groovin'," "How Can I Be Sure" and "People Got To Be Free."
Lyrics:
All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
Listen, please listen, that's the way it should be
Deep in the valley, people got to be free
You should see what a lovely, lovely world this'd be
Everyone learned to live together, ah-hah-unh
Seems to me such an itty bitty thing should be
Why can't you and me learn to love one another?
All the world over, so easy to see
People everywhere just wanna be free
I can't understand it, so simple to me
People everywhere just got to be free
If there's a man who is down and needs a helpin' hand
All it takes is you to understand and to pull him through, ah-hah-unh
Seems to me we got to solve it individually, ah-hah-unh
And I'll do unto you what you do to me
Shout it from the mountain on out to the sea (out to the sea)
No two ways about it, people have to be free
Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be
Nat'ral situation for a man to be free
Git right on board now
Oh, what a feelin's just come over me
Love can move a mountain, make a blind man see
Everybody sing it now come on let's go see
Deep in the valley now, we ought to be free
SPOKEN
See that train over there?
That's the train of freedom
It's about to 'rrive any minute, now
You know it's been'a long, long overdue
Look out 'cause it's a'comin' right on through
