“The main lyric from this song has taken on a life of its own and is a phrase that means so much in the American context.
Johnson was from Mississippi and in a similar mould to the Chicago blues men like Junior Wells. You can hear that attitude and the grit in the vocal performance on this song. It’s like he’s giving a sermon in a church and he’s describing – in metaphor and similes – what it’s like to be black in America.
One of the lines that has always stuck with me was: ‘In this world of no pity, I was raised in the ghetto of the city.’ The song hit 11 on the Billboard charts in 1969, really giving you some insight into the pulse of the times.
I think people loved it then and now because the statement ‘because I’m black’ rings so true and is such a defiant and proud affirmation of African American identity. On Lemonade, Beyoncé was doing a similar thing 30 years later. It’s what people have to do when you’re on the outside looking in and trying to figure out your place in a society which doesn’t appear to want you.
It’s a classic now and was covered by Ken Boothe and Delroy Wilson in Jamaica in the 70sand sampled by hip-hop artists, including the Wu-Tang Clan, who put it in a 90s context, where it still resonated.”
Check back on the Guardian’s The Resistance Now for the next playlist suggestion next Monday.
