Long John

     Long John is a very strong representation of the racism that was happening during the era it was written in. Through the lyrics we can hear that it is a story of someone they have lost from the cruelty they were suffering through. With it being written in the call and response style it gives a really strong connection to the listener. When I listen to this song I can easily picture the African Americans at work, with one singing the main and then everyone else responding. This also plays into the background of the song, because it sounds like they are all working on something that creates the beat of the song. So the song just by itself represents the hard work that these African Americans went through. But when you look more into the emotions of the song the more it shows you the true feeling of this time. When the song first starts of the main singer holds the same tone of voice through the first verse but then when he gets into the chorus his tone goes higher and more intense. Humans voice tend to go higher when they are more vulnerable and in pain, so as he goes into this higher pitch you can hear the pain in his voice. This results in the listener being able to somewhat feel or have an idea of the pain they felt. Every time I listen to this song I have felt chills because of this aspect of the song. 

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 21, 2021 at 5:02 PM

    I think this is a really good analysis of this song! Long John is packed with a heavy message and lots of emotions. I think it's amazing that music can help people express feelings that would otherwise be almost dangerous to express. I really liked that you talked about the way the lead singer’s voice changes. That’s pretty powerful because it definitely helped me be more emotionally connected to the song.

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