Jesse
Jackson’s speech at Wattstax in 1972 is sampled at the start of this song.
Wattstax was a music festival organised by Stax Records on the 7th
anniversary of the Watts Riots, which lasted for five days. The root cause of
the riots is still discussed today, but racism; discrimination; high
unemployment; poor schools and poor living conditions for African Americans
living in the Watts area of Los Angeles are regarded as being factors.
The
influence of politicised popular music and culture can be heard in many of
Primal Scream’s songs and interviews. In the autumn, the band condemned the
Tories when they were said to have used a Primal Scream song at their party
conference.
On Primal
Scream’s recent 20th anniversary tour of Screamadelica, singer Bobby
Gillespie added extra lyrics to Come Together relating to the economic and
political climate of today, repeating the refrain ‘Agitate, Educate, Organise’
at some of the latter shows.
Primal
Scream – Come Together (Live at T in the Park):
Jesse
Jackson – Wattstax:
Songs for Social Justice dance night
featuring guest DJ Jerry Dammers -
o
Thursday 26th January
o STUC Centre, 333 Woodlands Road, Glasgow
o 6.45pm – midnight
o
Tickets £8/£4
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