Thursday, March 8, 2018

Rhoda Dakar Releases "A Change is Gonna Come (#Never Again)" in Support of the Parkland Student Activists and Gun Control!

Rhoda Dakar and her band have recorded a powerful version of Sam Cooke's 1964 track "A Change Is Gonna Come" (which became an anthem for the US Civil Rights movement) with new lyrics in support of the students who survived the Parkland school shooting and have banded together to lobby for sane gun control laws to be implemented in order to prevent future mass shootings at schools and elsewhere.

Here are Dakar's lyrics:

"I was born in a place where firearms were rife
and the right to those guns was worth more than my life
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will

I'm just a school student and I'm afraid to die
I demand politicians don't just walk on by
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will

So, I turn to the Congress
I say people, 'help me, please!'
But they wind up knocking me
Back down on my knees

I'm not safe at a movie, a nightclub, nor at school
These weapons they kill children, we must change the rules
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come
Oh, yes it will"

The video lists the death tolls from mass shootings in the US from 1984 to the present day and Parkland.

Here is Dakar's statement about the video: "After the latest mass shooting in the US, the surviving schoolchildren have found their collective voices and are calling for gun control to finally be implemented. For the first time I can remember, their campaign has gained traction and the NRA is losing corporate support. More power to them, I say! Anyway, I wasn't able to follow George and Amal Clooney and donate half a million dollars, but we did record a song for them. Hope it helps! #NeverAgain"



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Update from Rhoda Dakar (3/15/18):

"We will donate some of the money (if we make any) to the March For Our Lives--London. We can't donate it all, as the publishers have to be paid, which is as it should be. For now, the track is available to download from my Music Glue site. It will, however, go up on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, etc. Once again, not sure how long that will take, but iTunes will take longest. For now, you can get it from here: https://www.musicglue.com/rhoda-dakar/products/a-change-is-gonna-come-number-neveragain.

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