Our Generation

Annotation

Ernie Hines, a southern soul singer born in Mississippi in 1938, started out in the gospel field. He moved to Chicago, were he played his songs with an electric guitar and featured on local radio stations and Soul Train, a television program.1 He released the song "Our Generation" (We Produce Records # XPS-1902) which opposed the war in Vietnam. In the chorus he sung the overall theme of the song: "hope of the world is in our generation, it's all left up to us to change this present situation". He then went on to call for an end to the war, and specifically mentioned Vietnam in the final line. Hines did not have much crossover success, although this album did receive a mention in Billboard 16 June 1973: "artist vocals are magnetically convincing, his strong soul phrasings help put the listener in just the right groove". Released on a Stax Records subsidiary (Memphis, Tennessee), founded by Tom Nixon & Josephine Bridges.Sources1Jet, 17 June 1971↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Annotation — Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs

Ernie Hines, a southern soul singer born in Mississippi in 1938, started out in the gospel field. He moved to Chicago, were he played his songs with an electric guitar and featured on local radio stations and Soul Train, a television program.1 He released the song "Our Generation" (We Produce Records # XPS-1902) which opposed the war in Vietnam. In the chorus he sung the overall theme of the song: "hope of the world is in our generation, it's all left up to us to change this present situation". He then went on to call for an end to the war, and specifically mentioned Vietnam in the final line. Hines did not have much crossover success, although this album did receive a mention in Billboard 16 June 1973: "artist vocals are magnetically convincing, his strong soul phrasings help put the listener in just the right groove". Released on a Stax Records subsidiary (Memphis, Tennessee), founded by Tom Nixon & Josephine Bridges. Sources1Jet, 17 June 1971↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Let's fill the world with love, get rid of all the hate... / Our leaders make us fight, we don't know what for / If they want people killed, let them fight the war / It's gotta end somewhere, this killing's gotta cease / If no one went to fight, we could all live in peace / Straighten it out, we can straighten it out... / Got a world full of machines, poisoning the air / Want to go live on the moon, can hardly live down here... / In the USA, in Vietnam, everywhere, all over the world, in Washington D.C., lets straighten it out

About the artist

Ernie Hines (Earnest Lee Hines, born 1938 in Jackson, Mississippi) is an American soul and gospel singer and guitarist who recorded for USA Records, Stax and its We Produce subsidiary, and latterly his own Baby Blue label. 'Our Generation' (We Produce, 1971) is his best-known side, later sampled by Pete Rock & CL Smooth and covered by John Legend and the Roots. [Source: Wikipedia]

Themes

Anti-War

In collections

Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years] · Soul, Gospel, & Funk Songs