The Two Killings of Sam Cooke Director: Kelly Duane 73 minutes 2019

This film and the others in our series are meant to go beyond music biographies and explore the sociocultural
tenor of the times of these artists. This film explores the 1950s and early 60s. Our second film is the 1960s and
early 70s, and the third is fully in the 21st century.

The Two Killings of Sam Cooke documentary is part of Netflix’s music

documentary series “ReMastered.” It examines the King of Soul’s music and is
more of a straight documentary on Cooke’s legacy than it is a true crime expose.
The somewhat-deceptive title is revealed to mean both his death and the end of his
career and legacy.

In the early years of rock and roll, Sam Cooke was a rising star on the gospel
circuit, emerging from Chicago. A preacher's son and member of the Soul Stirrers,
he toured the Northern big cities and the “Chitlin Circuit” in the South. He would
soon switch to popular music and become a smooth pop singer.

His success came from a large fan base that encompassed both African Americans and whites, despite the
segregation of 1950s society and of the music industry.

He was as savvy a businessman and started his own record label and music publishing company. This was at a
time when Black musicians were routinely ripped off by record labels and promoters.

He emerged at the start of the rock and roll era and with his hit “You Send Me” he was seen on the Ed Sullivan
Show and American Bandstand and topped the charts with Elvis.

Black audiences knew that he was also involved in civil rights activism. His music began to take on a tougher
edge. “Chain Gang” was a pop song that also talked about real struggle. His final hit, “A Change Is Gonna
Come” is about hopeful promise but also an indictment of America. He had been involed in the civil rights
movement that was strengthening in the early sixties. Cooke refused to play in segregated concert halls in the
South and used his music and celebrity as a way to lift up fellow African Americans. He was good friends with
Cassius Clay (who changed his name to Muhammad Ali the same year that Cooke died), Malcolm X, and
football star Jim Brown. This friendship was explored (and fictionalized) in the play and film One Night in
Miami. In the film, Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) uses the movie’s imagined conversations and conflicts of the
evening as inspiration to complete his “A Change Is Gonna Come.” Sam was also fully aware of white artists
like Bob Dylan who were singing protest songs and he recorded soul covers of those songs.

His singing, song choices and later his recording business connections made pioneering contributions to soul
music. Those artists influenced by Cooke include Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield,
Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and Billy Preston.

Cooke’s personal life had a negative shift after the death of his young son Vincent. His increased alcohol use,
affairs with multiple women didn’t help his personal life, but he also became extremely focused on his music
career.

During his brief eight-year career, Cooke released 29 singles that charted in the Top 40 of the Billboard Pop
Singles chart, as well as 20 singles in the Top Ten of Billboard's Black Singles chart. “A Change Is Going to
Come” was released after his death.
 QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION (contains some spoilers)

The Two Killings of Sam Cooke can be viewed as a

history lesson on a time and place in America as well
as music history. What did you learn about Sam
Cooke? Did you learn anything about music or
cultural history?
.
As the title suggests, besides his murder, the death
also killed his legacy which became lost until the mid-
1980s. What was your awareness of Cooke
throughout the years?

This film links the music to Cooke’s developing

political conscience and implies that the way Cooke
began to move from pop singer to political and
business power may have been connected to his murder. Cooke was shot to death in December
1964 by the manager of a Los Angeles hotel, who claimed Cooke had assaulted her. The LAPD
did not conduct a proper investigation and the courts ruled Cooke's death to be a justifiable
homicide. Many people including his family questioned the circumstances of his death and
continue to doubt the court’s ruling. Theories and conspiracies emerged almost
immediately. Do any of these 6 theories seem possible to you? 1) He was connected to
“dangerous people” and was a target of FBI surveillance. 2) He refused to play segregated
concerts, including one in Memphis in 1961 and his record label was starting to grow more
alarmed at his activism in the months leading to his death 3) He had been trying to start a
musicians’ union and had been warned to stop with an implied mob threat (from Sammy Davis,
Jr. and others). 4) Another theory was that his manager, Allen Klein (who Cooke had fired),
had him shot. 5) The LAPD’s reluctance to investigate was seen as a coverup desired by
someone powerful. 6) He had likely been robbed by a woman (later revealed to be a prostitute)
and her accomplice and then shot by the motel manager with possible “mob connections.”

Like many documentaries, this is a mix of archival footage and a range of talking heads that
explore his life and death. How does this rather short documentary blend the two and hold
up as a documentary?