The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128053 Message #2862911
Posted By: Joe Offer
12-Mar-10 - 04:06 PM
Thread Name: Origi: Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round
Subject: ADD Version: Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round
AIN'T GONNA LET NOBODY TURN ME 'ROUND
Ain't gonna let nobody (Lordy) turn me 'round, turn me 'round, turn me 'round, Ain't gonna let nobody turn me 'round; I'm gonna keep on a-walkin' Keep on a-talkin', Marching up to freedom land.
Ain't gonna let Nervous Nelly turn me 'round.... (term applied to typical segregationist)
Ain't gonna let Chief Pritchett...
Ain't gonna let Mayor Kelly...
Ain't gonna let segregation...
Ain't gonna let Z.T.... (Z.T. Mathews, sheriff of Terrell County, Georgia)
Ain't gonna let no jail house...
Ain't gonna let no injunction... (after a federal injunction prohibiting further demonstations)
Source: Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement through its songs, edited and compiled by Guy and Candie Carawan (Sing Out Corporation, 1990, 1992) (pp. 62-63)
Notes:
This old spiritual was first introduced in Albany (Georgia) by Reverend Ralph Abernathy during the summer of 1962 when mass arrests and demonstrations erupted for the second time. He taught it one night to a mass meeting of the Negro community at Mount Zion Baptist Church. It immediately caught on and became widely used in the demonstrations. A nationally televised CBS documentary showed spirited students rhythmically clapping and singing "ain't gonna let chief Pritchett turn me 'round" while the policemen picked them up, two to a student, and carried them into the paddy wagons. "...anybody who thinks this town is going to settle back and be the same as it was, had got to be deaf, blind, and dumb." -a Negro woman in Albany, Georgia