Based on the title and the refrain, one might believe that the mood of the song is hopeful and optimistic. However, if one were to take a deeper look at what Cooke is saying, they would notice how morbid the song actually is. Near the beginning of the song, Cooke has an existential crisis when he discloses wistfully, “It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die/ 'Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky” (lines 5-6). In this verse, we are greeted with feelings of fear and confusion. Even the tone Cooke sings it in is mournful. Listening to this line alone, one would never guess that it was a protest song calling for reform. Instead, this song appears to be more aligned with the feelings of a blues song. In A Change Ain't Gonna Come: Sam Cooke and the Protest Song, Christopher Trigg explains the elements of a…show more content… However, the message quickly became outdated in the wake of a new response from people who were fed up with the injustice that was around them. This new way of thinking wasn’t in synch with Cooke’s song. At one point in the song he begs for help, but ends up being knocked “Back down on [his] knees” (21). The use of the words “back down” in that line implies that Cooke was already on his knees. This image alone was an adverse effect of what people were trying to set in motion. In "Fight the Power!" The Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, Leon Litwack talks about how people were angry with wasting their energy on the hope of change. Litwack reveals that there was a shift from songs “about love and Christianity” and how the “new breed of activists proposed to talk about power,” instead (Litwack 10). Artists like Nina Simone and Gil Scott Heron took this concept and ran with it. Songs about hope like Cooke’s were left in the past in favor of songs with action and a plan. This type of radicalism had a lasting effect, and the theme of power is still relevant in songs
