Lightfoot, Gordon - Black Day In July Lyrics

That bass though as it slides back into the chorus <3

Wow that shot of LBJ holding his head. Very heavy

Remember those days of the riots in Detroit. And they spread to other cities also. Some months later , I was in Detroit for a pre-draft physical for the Army and returning home on a bus going through the area in Detroit where the riots had taken place. I was shocked by the devastation and burned out buildings that still were there months later. Personally, I don't think Detroit ever recovered. Also this was year of the Summer of Love. Wasn't much love on that day.

this could have been written yesterday.  for the next hundred years, this will be written yesterday.

Gordon Lightfoot is one of my favs. Love his music and songs. Great folk teller.

A shame for an entire country. So dreadfully sad. So now we are in 2019 and it seems like things haven't changed that much. There's only ONE RACE on the planet earth - and it's the Human Race. We are still working on it.

So moving and thought provoking. The picture of the dead child really brought me to tears. Poor baby. Looked to be less than 16. Had his whole life ahead of him. I'm Sicilian and a little known fact about our culture is that we were considered white negros. We didn't gain our civil rights until 1968. We were not considered to be white Americans back in the day. As a so called white negro I can fully understand the pain and suffering these people went through as my culture went through the same. My own mother-in-law, a German, made it perfectly clear what she thought of my culture. Having one of my type marry her son was almost unbearable! It is damned high time this crap stops and everyone just accepts each other for who we are............humans!!

hogwash.

The event that changed Detroit forever. Lightfoot documents it very well. With this and Vietnam, the years 1967 & 1968 were not good years for the USA. A total change from just a few short years earlier.
There was a previous race riot in Detroit in 1943 which isn't talked about much as few people are alive now who remember it. 34 were killed (25 of those were blacks shot by police or National Guardsmen)

2019..??

Its Simple: There Are Creators ... There Are DESTROYERS

Remember it when it first came out. Loved it despite the haunting lyrics. While watching the Detroit movie some 50 years later, this song was very much on my mind.

You had to have lived the times.
It was bizarre.

Even as a young boy I loved Gordon`s music as it is very powerful with lots of meaning. Music these days has lost depth and meaning.

The relevance of this today is astounding.

52 years and that accomplished absolutely nothing.. My family settled in the Windsor Detroit area... It's a shame the majority of the problems was democratic governments and some people destroying the city like Fuckn parasites.. Guess when you get lazy Fuckn people that don't want to work or steal from city coffers then this is what you get.. Detroit will unfortunately never get better... Better to destroy the whole city with a bulldozer and maybe start again another day... Force poor people to get educations or force them out... Make people contributers to society... There is no way to fix detroit... Too bad

My parents home was on the river across from Belle Isle in Windsor. I remember watching the smoke rise . The border was closed in both directions.

Great job incorporating actual images of the riots with the song!

What a powerful song. Lightfoot doesn’t play it anymore and hasn’t for years. It would be too incendiary especially with the current administration.

Awesome.!!🍀

Sad thing is it was a Canadian who wrote this, not an American who would have been more affected. Tarn I agree fully, he also had a scene of social Justice. I love all his music.

Banned in US.Huge hit in Toronto.

Just drove past the intersection of 12 Street and Clairmount about two hours ago. That's where the Detroit riots of 1967 started.

This song is by far my favourite from Lightfoot and poingniant for me too. My Canadian aunt who is originally from Ottawa (my hometown too) has lived around Metro Detroit since July 1967. She married my American uncle from Detroit on Canada’s centennial in Canada’s Capital (not too shabby eh!).

However, talk about getting gobsmacked with the riots hitting a mere 3 weeks after getting married and moving to Detroit.

Detroit was never the same hitting absolute rock bottom in 2008. However, things are looking up. The Motor City is coming back to life one block at a time since 2008.

I was missing this song so much

People have forgotten that music was a way of passing down history and not a vessel for revenue props Gordon lightfoot

Lightfoot is a diamond.

Where can i find songs with similar guitar sounds?

reflect upon the waters.. yet no one is awake

Always wondered what this song was about loved it since 73 i was 4 years old and i had a gordon lightfoot album.... i remember this song...
Ya i know i was 4yrs old lol i doubt id have understood but i did wonder...i swear lol

GORD will not perform this song live. Ithink l know why

So much vivid imagery in the lyrics: "as the book of law and order/is taken in the hand/of the sons of the fathers/who were carried to this land". Says so much in a few words. This is an incredibly powerful song. That percussion really adds to the menace of the words.

This song is once again made relevant in context of the movie "Detroit", an exceptionally realistic recent film directed by Kathryn Bigelow. She might not even know this song exists. I was a teenager in the 70's when I first heard it and only had an ominous inkling of what really went down. So sad. Thank God for the relative  refuge that is Canada.

Detroit was once a great American city but that's when its population was overwhelmingly white.

It's going to Happen Again !!! To Any City !!! World Wide

you and the scorpion guy make me proud I'm not American.

@artdeco18 There are brainwashed leftist and Marxist Americans and then there are realist Americans. The truth often hurts but it remains the truth. Look at national crime statistics for a great eye opener about our 13% infestation. America's Bane.

Hello! my Gordon Lightfoot Black day in July remix; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKFWcIISG_Y&list=PLWJLryEpWJiEDjMeVt44qJFo0lYVv2ayE&t=0s&index=48

The Canadian Troubadour Saw him do the Sundown LP at Avery Fisher Hall Broadway Phenomenal that was the first of the 6 or 7 times I saw him I met him in the Back Alley at Kodaks Eastman theater in Rochester Easy to talk to his Wife was Stunning .
The third most memorable Concert was the Summertime Dream Tour at SPAC in Saratoga That may have been the Best show of his that I saw . Sound was great Band was perfect Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald was Great .Most underated Poet Writer ever IMO

Always a good idea to burn down your own houses, churches, stores, and places of employment. Now Detroit looks like Berlin did in 1945.

Listen to these lyrics... This man was a poet with few equals... Bob Dylan.. Joan Baez... Neil Young.... Who else after that?

I968 was looting and burning, police were getting killed, they finally called in the national guard

Gordon sounds so much like Ochs in this song ; I am surprised. His rendition of Chnages also sounded Ochs like. Gordon a much more versatile writer. Probably the cold winters with nothing to do .

No he doesn't Gord sounds like himself.

all these many years later this song still gives me goose bumps. It is like a look back into history and a possible look into \Americas future.

Comparisons with Cohen and Dylan should not devolve to who is greater.

This song really invoked a lot of discussion. I looked at the comments below. Most came from people who were old enough (or young enough) to remember what these lyrics described. This song was deemed "TOO CONTROVERSIAL" for the American public's conscious to be exposed to. Too truthful was the real reason. "It wasn't just the temperature & wasn't just the season!" Here in Canada we were mostly in shock & awe at the violence and destruction as was Gordon Lightfoot when he wrote this song. From a emerging performer's point of view he regretted writing this song, mostly because of the backlash from certain American sources.
As a teenager I never thought about the "abandonment" that Detroit and it's peoples experienced. To paraphrase that quote about history, "If we do not know our history we are doomed to repeat it!" History is full of repetition and we will repeat it even if we know it...

Summer of Love In San Francisco; Summer of War in Detroit; No one person or institution is to blame. Yes, white racism played a part, but, don't forget that a person is most likely to get screwed over by one of their own than an "outsider.." In other words, while minority leaders are getting their followers pumped up with anger and hatred, the "leadership" pockets the funding that was meant for those same minorities. That's why a white man of Irish descent, Keegan, ended up as a write-in candidate for Mayor of Detroit and WON... after Detroit got its first black mayor in the 1970s, the city had nothing but black mayors up until Keegan was a write-in candidate. What I mentioned above came into play; black mayors helping their "people" to blame whites for their problems, and at the same time, "helping" themselves to funding meant for schools, housing, services, etc. One of the oldest tricks in the book: get the people so riled up they won't realize what is really going on. What really went on and still goes on is corruption, graft becoming politics as usual.

By the way, the Detroit Riots of 1967 were not even started by those who were involved in the original arrest. The police officers were under orders by their chief, AND older members of the local black community, to raid after hours clubs, known as "Blind Pigs." The men arrested, while not exactly overjoyed, accepted the fact that they broke the law and were getting arrested. If some "looky loo," hanging outside the bar hadn't started throwing bottles at the cops, the cops just may have one of the men they were arresting was a military veteran and they, believe it or not, may have "lightened up" on their arrest. However, "hype" overrode "hope" and someone NOT EVEN INVOLVED IN EITHER SIDE OF THE ARREST, decided to take it upon themselves to dump gasoline on the fire...

Regarding Gordon Lightfoot, excellent musician, singer/songwriter over the years. Perhaps one of the best Folk Rock musicians of the late 20th century....

He's a folk artist not a FR artist.

I believe he is to this day one of the world's greatest song WRITERS ever.....he was also an Important and Dear friend of mine as well in 1985-1987.....and still adore him. His concerts are still my favourites.🌐🌏💗

Detroit is coming back ! And my suggestion is to bring back the old Packard plant!!!!. Rise up!

I was There!!!

A great song about an event so destructive that Detroit still hasn't recovered. No other city in North America has been so damaged by such a event as the once-great Motor City. It has to be the scariest thing I can think of, no kidding.

He was the san francisco folk festival late 60s. Sang this song as an opening number. Crowd didn't know whether to clap or cry. Was about the Detroit riots. I can still remember it still. First time i saw him and a fan ever since.

50 years ago

50 years ago today

50 years ago!

This the first time I have listened to this song, July 20, 2017.

Powerful

Lived in Ontario for 10 years, people in the UK don't realise how big he is in Canada. Brilliant

Hope the movie is good.

I don't know of anyone who can weave together a story from start to finish, then put it to music better than Lightfoot.......

take a look at what is happening inUSA there  is ANARCY what is happening to DEMOCRACRY I do not say this lightly TO SAVE DEMOCRACY the following must happen IF U PROTEST OR DEMOSTRATE  AGAINST THE GOVT. U WILL BE ARRESTED ANY SYMPATHEIERS U  WILL BE ARRESTED NO RIGHTS NO BAIL NO PHONE CALLS  TO HELP  OUT THE POLICE CALL OUT THE ARMY TO ASSIST THE POLICE IF THAT MEANS CIVIL LIBERTIES WILL BE CANCELLED I AM FOR THAT UNTIL THE CRISES ARE OVER THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO SAVE DEMOCRACY IF IT MUST BE SUSPENDED TEN THAT THIS HOW WE CAN SAVE DEMOCRACY

The days my city died

soy el unico que habla español

ANARCHY was happening in Detroit CALL OUT THE ARMY STOP ANARCHY THE MEDIA WAS CENSORED Mr. Gordon Lightfoot called it well

the following must happen in the USA STOP THE ANARCHY SAVE DEMOCRACY ALL PROTESTING  ALL DEMOCTRATIONS MUST BE MADE ILLEGAL ILLEGAL  THE MEDIA MUST BE CENSORED TO HELP THE POLICE   CALL OUT THE ARMY  SAVE THE DEMOCRACY I  KNOW WHAT I AM SAYING  IS EXTERME BUT THE COUNTRY MUST BE PROTECTED  WHAT WOULD THE FOUNDING FATHERS WHEN THE ANARCHY IS OVER  THEN EVERYTHING MAY RETURN

I hate say but in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA  THERE IS ANARCHY CALL OUT THE ARMY STOP ALL PROTESTING THE IMPORTANT  THING IS TO SAVE THE COUNTRY AND THE PRESIDENT ALL PROTESTING  MUST BE MADE ILLEGAL SNY ONE CAUGHT PROTESTING AGAINST THE COUNTRY  AND PRESIDENT SHOULD BE  THROWN IN JAIL  NOW I DO NOT SAY THIS LIGHTLY IYT MUDT BE DONE THE MEDIA SHOULD BE CENSORED NO  I CAN TELL U THAT IF U DO THAT IN CANADA CANADIAN WARS ACT WOULD BE CALLLED OUT THIS NOW MUST HAPPEN IN USA STOP THE ANARCHY THROW THOSE IDOTS IN JAIL THE MEDIA MUST BE SENSORED

THE  IMPORTANT THING IS TO SAVE THE COUNTRY.  IN MY COUNTRY  WHEN WE HAD CRISES LIKE IN 1980 MONTREAL FLQ CRISES KIPNAPPED  A BRITISH TRADE COMMISSIONER. THEN QUEBEBEC LABOUR MINISTER  THE PRIMIER OF QUEBEC CONTACTED OUR PRIME MINISTER ALL PARTIES  AGREEDED  AS PRIME MINISTER PIERRE ELLIOT TRUDEAU  took to the air  the army was on the street in Montreal to assist Police FLQ WAS NOW ILLEGAL ANYONE COULD BE ARRESTED. THE BILL OF RIGHTS was cancelled.  My dad said to me after he spoke as he fought for king/country ww2  R. C.A.F.  THE CANADIAN WAR MEASURES WAS INVOKED. HE SAID  THAT CANADIANS DO NOT HAVE CIVIL LIBERTIES. THIS LASTED FOR TWO WEEKS  THEN EVERYTHING CAME BACK  THE  BILL OF RIGHTS  SEE IN MY COUNTRY IN ORDER TO SAVE A DEMOCRACY ONE MUST BE SUSPENDED I RESPECT THE USA BUT ANARCHY MUST END

Anyone remember this?

I remember the riots of 1967, great song but many US stations would not play the song. Sure was a hit here in Canada though.

A Windsor radio station wouldn't play it because most of their listening audience as in Detroit as well as many advertisers. At the university of Windsor, some students would continually phone the radio station and request this song. They refused.

who is the youth at 1:00?

I would guess Jason Jones.

his first big hit--and only political song--

Hey, Gordon, I presume you've figured by now that true anarchy-- not the kind the legacy/old-line media have portrayed-- was/is what was/is required; and that coercive 'law and order' were a brainwash that helped established the glorified prison known as America in the Native genocides and slave trades that continue to this very day in illegitimate wars overseas and wage slavery back at home.

“If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” ~ Malcolm X

"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play." ~ Joseph Goebbels

Are you familiar with the muslim faith? I'm not.

Nevertheless, if activities like that contravene the faith, then anyone conducting such activities is not muslim, despite their claim.

IOW, just because one makes a declaration (i.e., 'I am a muslim.') doesn't make the declaration true.

Awesome video work

This may have been a US hit except so many radio stations refused to play it. Another awesome melody of a Lightfoot song.

I didn't know that. Speaks volumes for why the problems never have been addressed.

Yes I suppose I do. From reading your posts you seem to believe this criminal activity is either their fault by choice or their genetic disposition. The way you present yourself as a vulgar representation of your socio/economic group might be choice or genetics as well. Still I think there are deeper root causes and I'm not afraid or angry to explore them. They're never been explored and certainly not addressed in Detroit. Detroit was abandoned and still much of the suburbs harbor hatred for the city. I'm not so much interested in blame as I am addressing root causes and solving problems. The abandonment of Detroit has cause enormous problems for the entire State of Michugan, not the least of which is financial and political.

You need to understand the historical connection between Detroit and Windsor. Detroit is only major US Market that is North of Canadian Border, In Detroit we get as many Canadian Radio stations as Detroit area stations. CKLW in Windsor played Bob Seger (along with every Detroit station, and they played all Motown and funk as it was released, and through Windsor we got all the Canadian acts like Lightfoot, Cohen) and later FM rock in Canada because of content law played all the good Canadian Bands, Skinny Puppy, Tragically Hip, Sloan and so many others. The riots in other cities were hundreds and thousands of miles from Canada, but the 67 Detroit Riots were 1 mile away from Windsor, separated by Detroit River. Gordon Lightfoot has performed hundreds of times in Detroit and has a large fan base here.

Detroit had already slowed somewhat but the riots were the full scale start of the fall of Detroit. It would never be the same again. I've crossed into Windsor a few times. I used to run up to Buffalo, NY and would pick up Toronto stations which I thought was awesome. I've heard Gordon has also kept in touch with the relatives of those lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald. I lived just south in Ohio for 10 years and some of those crew were from there.

Most cities were experiencing urban sprawl so Detroit was not alone in slowing - BUT they were alone in the hatred and abandonment that followed.

Yes that's about the size of it & what came to be.

i well remember back in '68 several American AM stations refused to play this very important song.Even 50 years later, its current. Sadly.

The difference is, there is NO reason for it now. Only manufactured garbage. Ridiculous and sad.

Nothing changes. As relevant today as it was in 1968. Tragic

I remember those days and it's true not much has changed.

Nothing has changed! 2016 -1968

Dallas 2016

This was the first song that played in my head when I heard the news from Dallas. When will we ever learn?

Me too. Tears here.

Hard to learn when you don't want to learn.

I've always wonder why he wrote about the Detroit situation considering this happened everywhere in the US?

@Richard Bodnaruk Shut up. 

Gordon spen't alot of time in Detroit early in his career. saw him and Joni MItchell alot in the folk clubs in the city. he considered Detroit a second home, he was well respected for his talent and Detroit helped support his career. Long live Gordon Lightfoot, and the home of Unions, and the birthplace of the middle class, Detroit City, Home Sweet Home.

MIKECNW because while we had 65 Watch riots prior to 1863 there had never been a race riot that escalated to so many people dead as the Detroit Riots did. the fact that the National Guard was brought in to patrol the streets was something that no one ever seen in the states like that either

Nothing has really changed up to 2016. Only getting worse for everyone.

In an interview many years ago he said he regretted writing this one because it was such a shameful time...

+blind51de Nice display of ignorance.

@D'Ascoyne Have you ever been to Detroit, and if so, ventured outside the downtown core? 

+blind51de Really? All because some brothers who came home from SERVING THIER MOTHERFUCKING COUNTRY IN NAM WITH PRIDE AND HONOR CAME HOME TO CELEBRATE AND HAD A PARTY THAT GOT A LITTLE ROWDY AND SOME RACIST FUCKIN COP SHOOTS HIM DEAD..Maybe someone should SPOOK YOUR IGNORANT ASS YOU PIECE OF RACIST SHIT. I THINK I WILL LOOK INTO YOUR CHANNEL HISTORY I HAVE A FEELING WHAT I WILL FIND.

@Trucker Kev The Paid Tourist
Did you find the video of your wife?

love from the stockfish family love the video good job, Brother!

Gordon Lightfoot is so awsome in his storyteller songs, better than Dylan today!!!!! love,love him.

Great yes, better than dylan... no

I have to agree with Joy Barry and michellecalling! Nothing has really changed much in the US. I was born and raised in Nova Scotia(Cape Breton Island)and I know of the segregation that finally ended in that province in the 1980's(mainly religious), yes I know, racism and segregation in Canada? Well for one look up the word Africville.

I am proud of the heritage that both The USA and Canada share, but our sibling countries seem to be growing apart. We do have strict and common sense weapons laws in this country, but living next door to the worlds' largest weapons arsenal is a bit of a challenge.

Please... I mean no offence by this post to anyone, so let's put the weapons back in the cabinet, unloaded of course and than go have ourselves a ceilidh... and now you will have to go look up the word ceilidh.

Ya... I know, dream on. And oh by the way, I've been a fan of Gordon Lightfoot from when I lived in Toronto in the 70's and continue to listen to his music to this day, I have all of his record albums, but no way to play them...techno sucks sometimes.

I'm from Cape breton awesome song

There was a problem whit the police but the welfare made it worst the liberals planned it to become a problem by taking 5he father out of the home ,the boys went to gang's and the grils become pregnant for every race white black Hispanic ,they wanted difuntional families and now the schools pass conforms in jr.high schools.

The liberal welfare system it the problem ,they pay Wemen to have children as long as There's no father at home

From 1968 to 2015...nothings changed in this awful country.

+regexRex Aren't you sweet. White racists need to go back to Europe where they came from and let us live in peace and harmony which is what they have prevented us from doing since 1492. And, if you want to talk about "rioting" that's exactly what white racists did when they came here from Europe in 1492, they "rioted" a territory and a land which wasn't THEIRS in the first place. And the only thing the white racist man has given non-whites has been oppression, hate, discrimination, exploitation, disease, death and destruction. Your post is ripe with ignorance and disinformation. Here, let me help you. Watch FREE SPEECH TV, an independent media network and learn some history about what really the white man gave the rest of us.

Your post is ripe with ignorance of history. You know NOTHING about the true history of the monstrous white man atrocities he has committed all over this planet. Research, statistics and studies have all PROVED the evil monstrousity of the white man. What I offer is information and wisdom. what you offer is stupidity and LIES to suit your racist ideology. You know nothing about the Native NAtions and their wisdom for the respect of MOther Nature which the white racist man has destroyed. This land was pure and pristine until the WHITE MAN began destroying her with train tracks, fracking, nuclear plants, oil refineries and vehicles. The FBI database and other statistics have concrete proof that most crimes such as serial killers, serial rapists, and mass shooters are WHITE CHRISTIAN MALES BETWEEN THE AGES OF 25 TO 35. Whites did NOT build anything. The white man is the laziest creature on earth and always sends non-whites to do their dirty work for them. You know nothing about history. Let me assist you further. Read the book titled Ebony & Ivy by Craig Steven Wilder, and read this other book titled Empire of Necessity, by, Greg Grandin. Stop watching the racist propaganda that has brainwashed and bamboozled you into the stupidity you're basking on. The Native Americans were a very productive society. They lived in homes, did agriculture and they lived in a socialist system of EQUALITY AND FAIRNESS something you know thing about, apparently. You sound like an individual who is NOT mentally stable and you should seek help. Your last line "I offer hope to all." is an oxymoron after you post all that cesspool of evil hatred racist bile from your fingers onto this page. YOU have NO hope to offer NO ONE. All you have inside you is evil, hate, and detestation for humanity. I hope you don't have children and I hope you don't hurt anyone. I do offer YOU LOVE, PEACE, COMPASSION, HUMANITY, and RESPECT for you're going to need those if you want to become a human being.

your husband should kik ur ass out the door to get a part time job

and you should get some LOVE PEACE COMPASSION HUMANITY AND CARE FOR YOUR FELLOW HUMAN BEING and stop pretending you know me. I don't have a husband, you moron.

Joy, On the other hand, a white guy wrote the song which brought us all here!

Nothing's really changed all that much now hasn't it?

No it hasn't really. Doesn't take a whole lot to pull the trigger and start another riot.

I don't know, I think the police in Detroit are much better today to all groups of people.

this montage is brilliant!!

If supported the use of hot buttered corn...from local farmers, and didn't let harper mow us under and down; I hope we don't have a Black day in October' 19th.

after this was cairo ,ill.

Hey Fox News--more police on the ground is not the answer to this problem.  Those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

@fek2000 So what do you expect? Allow rioters to do their thing?

@MIKECNW No--just saying that the root problem is not being addressed and is actually getting worse in this country. The problem is these youth don't have any prospect of a decent job or decent life like many middle-class whites do. And recent decade "zero-tolerance" police practices and a failed drug war make the problem worse. But the Fox folks are saying the problem is street crime that can be addressed simply with more police and tougher sentences. No...street crime is merely the side effect of having the bitter pill of hopelessness shoved down their throats.

What makes  you think they're doubting what you're saying or even disagreeing with it?

There is no one like Gordon Lightfoot
He rhymes the truth
And catches tbe rhymn..

Gordon Lightfoot is a brilliant songwriter, and this song is one of my favorites. I saw him in concert in Madison, WI a few years ago, and it was fantastic!

That was very likely where I saw him--in the smaller theatre inside the Overture Center on State, ~2007. I happenned to be walking by the building not quite an hour later when Mr. L & two accompaniest came out the door w/ a slough of guitars on a cart, so I got to exchange a few words w/ him (though he turned down my offer to help them stow their gear--they probably prefer more skilled labor for that).

Gordon should not be singing about this Canada had no negro experience at the time , this is very misleading

+ryan miller Mr Lightfoot lived had in the US and has traveled the US extensively during his career and in some ways would know the country better than some Americans. Besides if you followed this type of reasoning it would eliminate 90% of human literature given that the majority of it is created by people who haven't personally lived it or their subject.

+ryan miller Canada DID have blacks in Canada in 1967. My first experience of a black man was when a black man tried to pick up a white teenager on a side street where I lived. When she refused to get in his car he got out a baseball bat and was hitting her in the head with it. Her boyfriend saw what was happening, grabbed a 2 by 4 out of a truck and chased the black guy down the street. That was around 1969. I do not think that all blacks are like that, in fact, I recently met a black guy that I would have gone out with if I was able to. Canada has had a lot of blacks and we have co-existed peacefully so Gordon Lightfoot had every right to be singing about the 1967 race riots in Detroit.

Oh really?Well back in 67 what percentage of Canadian blacks were well off with an education, good job compared to those who didn't?

Black people have been in Canada for almost half a Millennium you blithering idiot. Theres this amazing new invention called the internet. Try and check it out.

R U Fucking kidding me..Ontario got same papers they had if wanted..Just as Detroit Free Press like a New York Times Etc..So the riots were worldwide in press

i listenedn to this song in history of social movements in St thomas university fredericton canada it's a reflection of social economic segregation in american cities

My Ex Sister in Law Janice George is from Michigan she lived in Troy she was not quite 7 years old when this broke out in Detroit

I was on the wrong side of the river that day

Riot, 1968

@Gregory Bell 67.

I remember only too well.. The minute I heard about it starting (on the car radio),  I was with my girlfriend who later became my wife.  She lived inside the Detroit city limits and I lived in Redford Township.  When they put the first curfew on at 6pm that night we were visiting my Mom at the Fenton/Glendale house.  We had to call her parents and explain to them why Joyce had to spend the night with me.
They didn't care for the idea until we explained what was happening (they hadn't yet heard about it).. her Dad turned on the TV and, after realizing the riots had started, told me just to take care of her while she was there.  They loved her very much!  Kind of funny and very sad all at the same time.
And if my Son Steve sees this... you were born the next year. That may be why I had
n't shared it with you yet. When you were born it erased all the bad things from the past.. and the same for your brother and sisters.  Being a father really changes your life in more ways than one!  You simply can't think of bad stuff when something so good happens to you.

Also.. after living in California for 25 years, I came back to Michgan August 2014.  I was very happy to realize that now I can talk to blacks like a brother instead of an enemy.  My parents brought me up to respect people for who they are, not what color or race they are, and that came pretty natural to me. I cannot apologize to anyone for me being caucasion or white, but consider this an apology for what "my kind" did to them.
WE ARE ALL BROTHERS WHETHER WE REALIZE IT OR NOT!  LETS START ACTING LIKE IT!

c'mon people!
are we going to
raise more problems by
letting all this hype get to us?
,
really,
even if we
absolutely try really hard to be nice to someone
different 
than us
history shows us 
if we REALLY try to reach more,
surely it would be much better.

+Don Gladden Thanks for sharing.

+canuckgal no problem. I could never forget that.

The cancer to which you refer to are the offense and ignorant who pretend to knowledgeable. The offense is used to make up for the fact that there gaps in your knowledge you do not want to address because doing so would not support the narrative you hold to so tightly. One can only assume you hold tight to that narrative because it fills some need, something that is creating profound upset and you have no intention of addressing the issue. Instead you use offensive ranting to push forth ignorance. Nothing I or anyone can say can make a difference to you, but it might to those that actually want to address personal and social issues. The fact is Detroit was ruined by racism that segregated a great city and when a revolt occurred racial segregation turned to hatred and abandonment. Because we did not address these issues the entire state has suffered and many are still to ignorant to realize it.

@Don Gladden - I grew up in Redford, too. I was too young to know the riots were happening, but I grew up knowing about them, of course.

Gordon Lightfoot, the only man that can rival Bob Dylan in poetry.

Um, Joni Mitchell people? Greatest of them all.

Lightfoot is exceptional ... but I'd still give an edge to John Prine.

I'd add John Prine, but GL is a genius

They are actually quite good friends.

Elvis recorded Gordon Lightfoots In the Early Morning Rain. And Bob was also a fan. Both folkies

I've been a Gordon Lightfoot fan for a long time, but I'd never heard this before. Great song.

Unforgettable words and images..and today, history repeats itself in Ferguson, Missouri..very sad, and so unnecessary.  Racism is alive and well it seems.

2:56 I swear I saw this EXACT scene in video from #Ferguson  that's just eerie 

I find this song could be eerily similar to what is happening now in Ferguson, Missouri.

Michael Alexander yah thanks but no

Read about the 1967 riots in Detroit before making that statement next time

@Shawn McRoberts Sadly we Americans are experiencing the repercussions of Children not learning from history, growing up to support Trump. Particularly in the States where most of Trump's base comes from. Poor education leads to uninformed voters electing uninformed leaders like Trump. This can't end well for America.

@N Mar spot on.

@ExPorted CapeR To be honest this is the first time I heard this song and I tell you I did not hear about these riots I was like 4 or so in '67 I am sure it was crazy. Riots were all over the country, in the south, at Kent State etc.

These are the most poignant photographs....  Thank you.