Talk:The Fire Next Time/Archive 1

This article sucks
I'll fix it, but not for a few days. Diocles 10:57, 26 May 2006 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the title of the spiritual song isn't 'God gave Noah the rainbow sign...' (although those lyrics are in the song) theres a video of Pete Seeger playing it on youtube and I think its name has 'Mary' (as in the virgin) in the title. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.11.198.174 (talk) 09:58, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Well, Diocles said it right...four years ago. The second paragraph reads like the book's back-cover promo -- perhaps it is. And unfortunately there is nothing in the article about the reception Baldwin's work received, particularly by the white mainstream. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 204.14.155.124 (talk) 06:40, 23 November 2010 (UTC)

Title song
The line is definitely "God gave Noah the rainbow sign: no more water but fire next time." It's not clear that this is really, originally, from a song called "Mary Don't You Weep"; there's another song called "Home in that Rock" and indeed another song called "Fire Next Time", all of which share bits and pieces. Maybe there are some good scholarly sources on the origin(s) of Baldwin's title and of the song itself, but until then it's probably enough to cite just the line. groupuscule (talk) 07:51, 24 October 2012 (UTC)

Elijah Muhammed
Identifying Elijah Muhammed as "... a popular and charismatic Negro leader...." undermines the part of this article that addresses Baldwin's motives and influences in writing these essays. Muhammed was influential and highly controversial, a leader of the Black Nationalist movement of the mid-20th century, at the very least a thorn in the side of the establishment (white and black) of the time, and a mentor to, among others, Malcolm X, Muhammed Ali, and Louis Farrakhan. (Check the Wikipedia entry on him.) The reference to him in this section makes it sound like an avuncular preacher doing a bit of pastoral counseling. I strongly recommend a more helpful description. --Witcoheibn (talk) 23:56, 13 February 2017 (UTC)