In January 1964, Sam Cooke recorded "A Change Is Gonna Come," an uncharacteristically weighty song for the man who wrote and recorded "Cupid," "Twisting the Night Away," and "You Send Me." Cooke was inspired to write the song by Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind." According to Rolling Stone, "What struck Cooke was the challenge implicit in Dylan's anthem. "Jeez," Cooke mused at the time, 'a white boy writing a song like that?'" The song became something of a civil rights anthem, and it garnered the No. 12 spot on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Songs of All Time." For a variety of reasons, it struck me as a good song for today. Here is how it begins:

I was born by the river in a little tent
And just like the river, I've been running ever since
It's been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die
I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come.

The full lyrics are available here.