A poor speech can, like lyrics, can be mere background to the noise and imagery surrounding the words.

A great speech, like a great lyric, can live beyond the moment and last for generations.

Sam Cooke’s lyrics to ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ falls into the latter. My gut feel is that Barack Obama’s victory speech last night will join it.

One thing is for sure though. President-Elect Obama’s reference to Sam Cooke’s song was a brilliantly poignant and powerful piece of oratory:

It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.