Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round

Then and now

Apr 18, 2023

Hi all,

Thank you for joining me for this week’s song. I’ve included several versions of this song with an explanation of some of the more difficult lyrics. As with most everything, there are many ways to interpret things. I invite you to leave a question or comment at the end.

For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese near the bottom of the post.

The Song

(Part 1: 625 words)

A song went viral on Internet this week. It was a video of Joan Baez and U.S. Representative Justin Jones singing Ain’t* Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round. They met by accident in the airport in Nashville, Tennessee.

A little background is necessary before we look at the lyrics.

On March 27, 2023, there was a shooting at the Covenant School in which three children and three adults were killed.
On March 30, thousands of people went to the state capitol to protest loose gun laws in the state. The Tennessee government was going to vote to make it easier to buy guns.
During that protest, government state Representatives Justin Jones, Justin Pearson, and Gloria Johnson, shouted with the people, “no more silence” and “gun reform now.”
Members of the Tennessee government voted to expel Jones and Pearson (who are both black), but was one vote short to expel Johnson (who is white). Jones, Pearson, and Johnson became known as “The Tennessee Three.”
On April 10, Rep. Jones was reinstated. On April 13, Rep. Pearson was also reinstated.

Joan Baez is a singer who has been writing and singing songs - many on social issues - from the 1960s to today. She has been an activist for social justice causes around the world.

When they met in the airport, Ms. Baez and Rep. Jones sang a couple of songs a cappella, and someone captured it on video.

[Note: the video has been taken down from YouTube (21 Nov 2023)]

That song, Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round, has deep historical meaning. In the 1960s, the song was used during the civil rights movement. African Americans had been treated badly in so many areas of life. They were not allowed access to the things that whites took for granted such as good education and quality health care. There were laws in many states that did not allow blacks to travel between states on the same buses as whites, or even to sit anywhere they wanted on city buses (see the Montgomery Bus Boycott).

Black citizens and many whites worked together to try to change these laws and social rules. They organized boycotts, they marched in protests, and they sang.

Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round is an easy song to sing. The lyrics are simple, and it’s easy to change the lyrics depending on the situation.

In this version by the Freedom Singers, a group that formed in 1962, they include lyrics which are explained below the video.

Ain't gonna let nobody (lordy) turn me 'round,

Turn me 'round, turn me 'round,

Ain't gonna let nobody (lordy) turn me 'round

I'm gonna keep on a walkin', keep on a-talkin'

Marching up to freedom land

segregation is the forced separation of different groups based on race

jailhouse is where the people who were arrested were taken

Nervous Nelly is someone who was afraid of standing up to the people who were treating blacks as second-class citizens

Chief Pritchett was the police chief in Albany, Georgia. In the early 1960s, he tried to stop Civil Rights demonstrators from holding marches by arresting many of the protesters, including Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. The people were marching against segregation and for voting rights.

Mayor Kelly was the mayor of the city of Albany, Georgia. He supported Chief Pritchett’s plan to prevent any demonstrations in the city.

Uncle Tom was a black person who obeyed without questioning when he was around white people. The phrase comes from a character in the novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin[1], by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

To hear Joan Baez and Representative Justin Jones singing this song together brings to mind the challenges that people faced during the Civil Rights movement. We are still fighting for justice. Today that justice centers around sensible gun laws.

(Part 2: 197 words)

Joan Baez is no stranger to this song. She sings it on her 1976 album, From Every Stage.

In this powerful version, she includes the following lyrics:

Ain’t gonna let the administration turn me around

Ain’t gonna let no first-strike policy turn me around

Ain’t gonna let Indira Ghandi turn me around

Ain’t gonna let that Henry Kissenger turn me around

The administration - in 1976, the U.S. President was Gerald Ford. Under his leadership, the U.S. continued its “first-strike” policy which claimed the right of the U.S. to use nuclear weapons before other countries if a conflict occurred[2].

Indira Ghandi was the first female prime minister of India. During her controversial years in power, she jailed political opponents, and her government passed laws that limited people’s freedom.

Henry Kissenger was Secretary of State during the Nixon and Ford administrations. His policies during the 1960s and 1970s were highly controversial. He advised President Nixon to carry out a bombing campaign in Cambodia during the Vietnam War and, under Ford, the assassination of President Allende of Chile in 1973. His actions put U.S. national interests above human rights.

A version by Sweet Honey in the Rock with lyrics:

VOCABULARY

*ain’t is an informal word that is sometimes used to mean:

is not/are not/has not/have not/does not/do not

expel 追い出す

reinstate 復職

a capella ア・カペラ

second-class citizens 二級市民

demonstrators デモ隊

obey 従う

assassination 暗殺

national interests 国家にとって重要な事

Notes

[1] Uncle Tom’s Cabin You can listen to the entire audiobook free at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW_lyOBnBTo or read the book free at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/203 .

[2] “[T]he United States has never foreclosed the first use of either tactical or strategic nuclear weapons. President Eisenhower, President Kennedy, former Secretary of Defense McNamara and President Nixon have all declined to foreclose the potential first use of nuclear weapons and, in some instances, explicity (sic) expressed the willingness to use strategic or tactical nuclear weapons in the face of a major conventional defeat” (Lee, 1977).

Source

Lee, W.G. The United States' Nuclear First Strike Position. 1977. California Western School of Law. Found at https://scholarlycommons.law.cwsl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1830&context=cwilj. Accessed 18 April 2023.