GREATEST SONG EVER CAN BE FUN FOR ANYONE

On Oct 8th, 1963, even though on tour, Cooke and members of his entourage ended up arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, for disturbing the peace once they tried to register in a white motel — an incident mirrored in the song’s third verse. And Cooke’s mourning for his eighteen-month-old son, Vincent, who drowned that June, resonates in the last