Mississippi Goddam by Nina Simone

1963

16th Street Baptist Church Bombing

Birmingham, Alabama

5th September, 1963

A bomb explodes on Sunday morning services, in Birmingham, Alabama, tragically killing four young school girls. This church was commonly used as a meeting place for civil rights leaders like MLK. A member of the Ku Klux Klan was charged with murder and burying the bombs.

The song Mississippi Goddam was Simones response to the racially motivated murders of Emmett Till and Medgars Evers in Mississippi as well as the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing.

Listen to Mississippi Goddam

By Nina Simone

Artist Nina Simone
Release Date 1964
Album Nina Simone in Concert
Label Philips Records
Genre R&B
Producer(s) Hal Mooney
Writer(s) Nina Simone
Duration 2:58
Language English
Country USA
Some notable versions:

Carole Alston (2007)

Check out more versions here


And I mean every word of it
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Alabama's gotten me so upset

And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
Can't you see it
Can't you feel it
It's all in the air
I can't stand the pressure much longer
Somebody say a prayer
Alabama's gotten me so upset
Tennessee made me lose my rest
And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
This is a show tune
But the show hasn't been written for it, yet
Hound dogs on my trail
School children sitting in jail
Black cat cross my path
I think every day's gonna be my last
Lord have mercy on this land of mine
We all gonna get it in due time
I don't belong here
I don't belong there
I've even stopped believing in prayer
Don't tell me
I tell you
Me and my people just about due
I've been there so I know
They keep on saying "Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
"Do it slow"
Washing the windows
"Do it slow"

"Do it slow"
You're just plain rotten
"Do it slow"
You're too damn lazy
"Do it slow"
The thinking's crazy
"Do it slow"
Where am I going
What am I doing
I don't know
I don't know
Just try to do your very best
Stand up be counted with all the rest
For everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
I made you thought I was kiddin'
Picket lines
School boy cots
They try to say it's a communist plot
All I want is equality
For my sister my brother my people and me
Yes you lied to me all these years
You told me to wash and clean my ears
And talk real fine just like a lady
And you'd stop calling me Sister Sadie
Oh but this whole country is full of lies
You're all gonna die and die like flies
I don't trust you any more
You keep on saying "Go slow!"
"Go slow!"
But that's just the trouble
Desegregation
"Do it slow"
Mass participation
"Do it slow"
Reunification
"Do it slow"
Do things gradually
"Do it slow"
But bring more tragedy
"Do it slow"
Why don't you see it
Why don't you feel it
I don't know
I don't know
You don't have to live next to me
Just give me my equality
Everybody knows about Mississippi
Everybody knows about Alabama
Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam
That's it!

About Mississippi Goddam:

Simone said that although there were people who protested the song, they missed the point. She believed an artists duty is to reflect the times and at that desperate time, she couldn't help but be involved.

Selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", 2019

Bibliography and more sources here