It blows my mind that such a simple song can mean so much to so many different people. Sam Cooke was able to adopt this song into his gospel-infused R&B and perform it at the heart of the folk revival and you can just hear how powerful that is in the recording, which is an interesting social commentary in itself.
Not to mention it rocks. Absolutely worth a listen.
This spin on this reminds me a lot of the Band's "The Weight" that they played on The Last Waltz with the Staple Singers, who were a huge innovator in this style. Beautiful link, thanks for the share.