Let Freedom Sing! Music of the Civil Rights Movement Box Set (2009) by Various Artists - Audio CD | Civil Rights Era Songs for History Buffs & Music Collectors

Pete Seeger often quotes Dr Martin Luther King Jr as saying that the civil rights movement was sustained by its song. Recordings such as these help to explain why: the best of them remain highly moving decades after the context in which they were born. Any three-disc overview of a theme that stretches across six decades is bound to be open to debate about what else could have been included and how many of the tracks could have been substituted with others, but it would be very hard to deny that this is overall a brilliant collection, extending across every genre from gospel and folk to reggae, soul and hip-hop, and accompanied by excellent liner notes. Many of the selections will be familiar to folks acquainted with this crucial aspect of American history, but the CDs are also peppered with rarities - such as "We Are Americans Too": a fairly mild remonstration compared with most of the other songs, but intriguing because it was recorded by an ostensibly apolitical crooner, Nat King Cole. What's more, Capitol refused to release it in 1956. I have a few quibbles - I would have preferred Sam Cooke's original version of A Change Is Gonna Come rather than Otis Redding's (undoubtedly rather good) cover; at the same time, it might have made sense to pick something slightly less familiar than Blowing In The Wind from Bob Dylan's prodigious early '60s output (or perhaps even a song such as George Jackson or Hurricane). None of that seriously compromises the musical, political or historical value of this treasure chest. I do, however, have a slightly more serious complaint: the failure to include anything by Paul Robeson, who possessed one of greatest voices of the 20th century, and used it to great effect.