Keep On Pushing

Inspirational to both Bob Marley, who heard it in Jamaica, and Bob Dylan, who included the album from which it sprang on the cover of his own Bringing It All Back Home, Curtis Mayfield drew his own inspiration for his civil-rights-era soul song from church music. "All I needed to do was change 'God gave me strength…' to 'I’ve got my strength.' Nothing else needed to be changed," he said. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Mayfield's song was the walk-on music for the speech by then-Sen. Barack Obama, who brought the theme of change full circle with his presidential victory in 2008.