I’ve featured this song before, in a version from the 1980s that I wasn’t aware was a cover at the time. It’s one of my favorite versions of any song, ever. It’s People Get Ready, performed by Rod Stewart and guitar virtuoso Jeff Beck.
But as I note above, it was actually quite a few years before I learned that the Beck-Stewart People Get Ready was a cover. The original was by the brilliant black musician Curtis Mayfield. Here he is, performing his own song.
Covers are great, but we shouldn’t erase original artists. Doubly so, if they are black.