The Death of Emmett Till
"The Death of Emmett Till", also known as "The Ballad of Emmett Till", is a song by American musician and Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan about the murder of Emmett Till. Till, a 14-year-old African American, was killed on August 28, 1955, by two white men, after a white women lied to the men claiming he flirted her. In the song's lyrics, Dylan recounts the murder and trial. Background. While the song never appeared on any of Dylan's studio albums, it did appear on a number of bootlegs. One bootlegged performance, which  was recorded from Cynthia Gooding's radio show called "Folksinger's Choice" sometime in early 1962, starts with Dylan saying that the melody is based on chords he heard from folk musician Len Chandler. The melody is quite similar to "The House of the Rising Sun" from the album "Bob Dylan". Dylan's performance of the song was released on the 1972 album "Broadside Ballads, Vol. 6: Broadside Reunion", under the artist name Blind Boy Grunt. Another recording, taped as a demo for music publisher M. Witmark & Sons and also bootlegged for many years, was released on "" in October 2010 . Reception. Stephen J. Whitfield calls the lyrics "mawkish" but describes "the ballad" as "a precocious attempt to continue the tradition of the folk protest song."