Leadbelly - "Po' Howard" and "Green Corn" (examples & lyrics)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post presents a sound files of & lyrics to the Sukey Jump songs "Po' [Poor] Howard" and "Green Corn". This post also includes comments about several phrases and lines found in those two songs.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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INFORMATION ABOUT SUKEY JUMP SONGS
"Sukey Jump" is a long obsolete, Southern Black American colloquial referent for Black people's country dances. The term "sukey jumps" also referred to the fast paced music that itinerant musicians played at those dances. The word "sukey" rhymes with "LOOK ee".

Most of the information about sukey jumps comes from several 1939/1940 recordings of Folk/Blues singer/musician Huddie Ledbetter (Leadbelly) as well as interviews of Leadbelly that were conducted & recorded by folklorist/collector Alan Lomax. From Leadbelly's comments, it appears that the term "sukey jumps" was used in the Deep South (states such as Louisiana, Texas, & Mississippi) prior to the end of slavery in the United States (1865) and at least until 1940. In 1935 her book Mules To Men about life for Black people in rural Florida, Black folklorist Zora Neale Hurston also used the term "sukey Jump" as a referent for a dance attended by Black people which was held outdoors around a bonfire.

According to online sources who quoted Leadbelly or others, the music for Sukey Jumps was provided by musicians/vocalists who played the accordion, fiddle, and/or guitar and sang accompaniment. "Po Howard" and "Green Corn" are two of the songs mentioned in those articles.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES
Example #1: LEAD BELLY ~ Poor Howard (Po' Howard)


3006khz,, Published on Dec 30, 2012

Poor Howard (Green Corn). The audio is hard to hear, but, i think this is one of Lead Belly's coolest tunes.

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Example #2: Green Corn - Leadbelly (come along cholly)



songs1994, Uploaded on Mar 3, 2009
-snip-
"Cholly" is a nickname for "Charles" (similar to "Charlie").

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LYRICS TO PO' HOWARD/GREEN CORN
(as sung by Leadbelly)
From http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=4280 "Lyr Req/Add: Poor Howard / Green Corn"

Song lyric #1:
Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Poor Howard/Green Corn (from Leadbelly)
From:BrooklynJay
Date: 17 Dec 10 - 09:51 PM

Here are the lyrics and notes to Poor Howard, transcribed from page 53 of Lead Belly - No Stranger To The Blues:

Transcribed from 1940 Library of Congress sessions now available on Lead Belly/Gwine Dig A Hole To Put The Devil In, Rounder CD 1045. Other Lead Belly recordings: Lead Belly/In The Shadow Of The Gallows Pole, Tradition CD 1018, Lead Belly/Bourgeois Blues and Lead Belly Memorial Vols. 3 & 4, Collectables Cds 5183 and 5604 (1939 Musicraft sessions). Additional Library of Congress recordings are included in two monologues on square dances or sooky jumps: Lead Belly/Go Down Old Hannah, Rounder CD 1099 and Lead Belly/The Library of Congress Recordings, Elektra boxed LP set EKL-301/2.

He was the first fiddler after Negroes got freed in slavery times. Po' Howard was a Negro, used to play for 'em at the sooky jumps and the number he played it was "Po' Howard, Po' Boy." ...Because they dance so fast, the music was so fast and the people had to jump, so they always called them sooky jumps...Sooky, well that's a cow - sometimes when you tell it "sooky, sooky, sooky", you know, sookin' the cow away.
Huddie Ledbetter, 1940

Old Howard's poor boy.
Old Howard's dead and gone.
Left me here to sing this song.

Left me here to sing this song. (3)
Who's been here since I've been gone? (2)

Pretty little girl with a red dress on. (2)
Pretty little girl with a red dress on, old Howard's poor boy.
Left me here to shout for joy.
Old Howard's dead and gone.

Left me here to sing this song. (2)
Left me here to sing this song, old Howard's dead and gone.
Old Howard's poor boy, old Howard's poor boy.
Left me here to shout for joy, goodbye Howard, dead and gone.

(additional lyrics from Elektra Library of Congress recording)

Who's been here since I been gone?
Big black man with a derby on,

The day I left my mother's home
The day I left my home
The day I left my father's door
The day I left my home
The day I left my friends (4)
-snip-
Song lyrics #2:
Subject: RE: Lyric req: poor howard
From:Doctor John
Date: 19 Dec 00 - 02:16 PM

More...
Who's been here since I've been gone?
Pretty little girl with a red dress on - or -
Great big man with a Derby on. (X2)
Poor Howard was his mother's poor boy...etc
Left me here to shout for joy
Green Corn
Green corn, come along Charlie (X2)
Green corn, green corn, come along Charlie(X2)
All I want in this creation, Pretty little wife and a big plantation.
Two little kids to call me poppa, One named Slop and the other named Gravy. (x2)
One's gonna flop and the other's gonna save me.
Green corn...
Wake snake day's a breaking, Peas's in the pot and howcakes* a baking.
Green corn...
-snip-
*"howcakes="hoecakes"
-snip-
Song Lyric #3
Posted By: GUEST,Martin
17-Aug-06 - 12:07 PM
Thread Name: Req/ADD: Poor Howard/Green Corn (from Leadbelly)
Subject: ADD: Green Corn (from Leadbelly)
The version I've got sounds like this...

GREEN CORN
green corn come along charlie
green corn come along charlie
green corn go and tell Polly
green corn go and tell Polly

green corn
green corn
green corn
green corn

all I want in this creation
's a little bitty wife and big carnation

Two little boys to call me pappa
One named [Thomas?] another named Davey

One named [Thomas?] another named Davey
One's gonna put up, other's gonna save me

green corn come along charlie
green corn come along charlie
green corn go and tell Polly
green corn go and tell Polly

green corn
green corn
green corn
green corn

Wake Jake day's a breaking, Peas's in the pot and [?]cakes a baking

green corn
green corn

Stand around, stand around the demi-john [sounds like 'Jimmy John']
Stand around, stand around the demi-john
Stand around, stand around the demi-john
Stand around, stand around the demi-john

[Talks a bit about demi-johns]

Stand around, stand around the demi-john
Stand around, stand around the demi-john
Stand around, stand around the demi-john
Stand around, stand around the demi-john

green corn
green corn
green corn

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SONG SOURCES AND THE MEANING OF CERTAIN LINES
Comment #1: Regarding the line "Old Howard's Dead And Gone"
I believe that the line "Old Howard's dead and gone" is lifted from the "Pompey is dead" family of folk songs & children's game songs.

Those songs originated in Great Britain and were known to 19th century (and earlier?) African Americans by the name "Old Ponto Is Dead", "Poor Roger Is Dead" and other similar titles.
For an example of this rhyme http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=121468
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Comment #2: Regarding the phrase "jimmy-John" [This is an excerpt of a comment that I posted in 2009 on this Mudcat thread: http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=126099 "Origins: What a Jimmy-john is?"

"[Jimmy-John] is probably folk etymology for "demi-john". See this excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carboy

"A carboy is a container for fluids, typically used for in-home fermentation of beverages, often wine...

In brewing, a carboy is also known as a demijohn. It is a glass or plastic vessel used in fermenting beverages such as wine, mead, and beer. Usually it is fitted with a rubber stopper and a fermentation lock to prevent bacteria and Oxygen from entering during the fermentation process."
-snip-
Also, see this repost from another Mudcat thread:

Subject: RE: Req/ADD: Poor Howard (from Leadbelly)
From: MikeofNorthumbria - PM
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 09:50 AM

Justr a thought about "stand around the demi-john"

I remember reading somewhere (sorry, no reference available) that old-time dancers sometimes demonstrated their skill by stepping around - and over - a demi-john (a gallon liquor jar) without touching it (A bit like the bacca-pipes jig or the broom dance.)

Since "Green corn" is clearly a dance tune, this might be how the demi-john got in there."
**
Comment #3: Regarding the word "hoecakes"
"Hoecakes" are a type of "johnnycake".
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnycake
"Johnnycake (also jonnycake, johnny cake, journey cake, shawnee cake and johnny bread) is a cornmeal flatbread that was an early American staple food and is prepared on the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Jamaica...

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term hoecake first occurs in 1745, and the term is used by American writers such as Joel Barlow and Washington Irving.[12] The origin of the name is the method of preparation: field hands often cooked it on a shovel or hoe held to an open flame. Hoes designed for cotton fields were large and flat with a hole for the long handle to slide through; the blade would be removed and placed over a fire much like a griddle."[13]

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Comment #4: Regarding the phrase “shout for joy”:
In my opinion, the phrase "shout for joy" in Leadbelly's songs "Po' Howard"/"Green Corn" doesn't mean "exclaiming loudly", but refers to a type of religious dance that is done when people "feel the [Holy] Spirit (the Holy Ghost]. "Feeling the Spirit" is also referred to as "getting happy" and that involuntary religious dance is called "the holy dance". That "holy dance" is characterized by performing fast foot shuffling movements in time to uptempo religious music.

Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/05/black-church-praise-break-videos.html for video examples of praise breaks in African American churches.

Also click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/african-american-ring-shouts-origins.html for information about and reinactments of African American ring shouts.

Two other characteristic movements that occurs when people "get happy" in church ("shout for joy"; "feel the spirit") is when people spontaneously run down the aisle or run around the entire church sanctuary. These movements can be directly traced to the "ring shout".

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RELATED LINKS
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-sukey-jumps-means-information-song.html What "Sukey Jumps" Mean (information & song examples)

Also, click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID4PHKQYRto for a sound file of the Bluegrass song "Hot Corn Cold Corn" which I think is related to "Green Corn". There are earlier sound files of this song performed by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, but the lyrics of those song files are harder to understand.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to Leadbelly for his musical legacy. Thanks to those whose comments I quoted in this post, and thanks to the YouTube publishers of these sound files.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Read More

African American Ring Shouts (Origins & Examples)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post presents information about and examples of African American ring shouts.

The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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INFORMATION ABOUT RING SHOUTS
A ring shout is a religious song & movement form. Ring shouts are performed by persons who shuffle counterclockwise in a single file in a circle (ring). The ring shout participants may also perform imitative movements to the words that are sung (for instance, acting out picking up leaves to the song "Adam In The Garden"). The accompaniment is provided by persons who stand to the side of the ring, and sing while they clap their hands. Traditionally, the only instrumental accompaniment for ring shouts was one man rhythmically beating a long stick on the ground. Later, a tambourine might also be used as accompaniment for ring shouts.

Here's an excerpt from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_shout [hereafter given as Wikipedia: Ring Shout]
"...shout or ring shout is an ecstatic, transcendent religious ritual, first practiced by African slaves in the West Indies and the United States, in which worshipers move in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands. Despite the name, shouting aloud is not an essential part of the ritual.

The ring shout was practiced in some African American churches into the 20th century, and it continues to the present among the Gullah people of the Sea Islands."
-snip-
Some scholars such as Robert Farris Thompson indicate that the ring shout comes from the Bakongo peoples of Central Africa. Some information about the Kongo Cosmogram is found below after Video #1 of this post.

Another theory is that "The [ring shout] ritual may have originated among enslaved Muslims from West Africa as an imitation of tawaf, the mass procession around the Kaaba that is an essential part of the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. If so, the word "shout" may come from Arabic shawṭ, meaning "a single run", such as a single circumambulation of the Kaaba, or an open space of ground for running...

"According to musicologist Robert Palmer, the first written accounts of the ring shout date from the 1840s. The stamping and clapping in a circle was described as a kind of "drumming," and 19th-century observers associated it with the conversion of slaves to Christianity.[5] [Wikipedia: Ring Shout]
-snip-
In my opinion, given the way that various African traditions were combined during slavery in the West Indies and the Americas, both the Bakongo and the West African Muslim theories about the origin and meanings of the ring shout could be true.

While the ring shout continued in among some Christians in the United States well into the the 20th century, that tradition was vehemently frowned upon by Black ministers because of their opposition to dancing and because the ring shout was considered a form of dancing. [Source: Joseph E. Halloway's book Africanisms In American Culture, p. 238 for a description of ring shout and an example of minister's opposition to ring shouts]. Furthermore, the fixed pews of contemporary churches spelled the demise of the ring shout, which needs an open space for its performance. However, the custom in some Black churches in which a church member who "feel the spirit" would circle around the church sanctuary, running from the front of that space to the back, can be attributed to the ring shout tradition. It should also be mentioned that the phrase "to sing and shout" that is found in numerous African American Spirituals and Gospel songs probably referred to the ring shout rather than the usual meaning given to it of “exclaiming loudly”.

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FEATURED VIDEOS
(These videos are presented in chronological order based on the date of their YouTube posting, with the oldest dated videos posted first.)

Video #1 RIng Shout



AlovePhotog Uploaded on May 9, 2010
New Project
-snip-
The first slide for this video reads “Bakongo Cosmograph And The Ring Shout. The Continuance Of Culture Through Sacred Dance."

Here's some information about Kongo Cosmogram from http://www.webarchaeology.com/html/kongocos.htm for information about the Kongo cosmogram:
"The cosmogram is a symbol which is one of many manifestations of Kongo, or Bakongo, culture in the Americas. It is described and illustrated in detail in Flash of the Spirit: African and Afro-American Art and Philosophy by Robert Farris Thompson...

The Kongo yowa cross does not signify the crucifixion of Jesus for the salvation of mankind; it signifies the equally compelling vision of the circular motion of human souls about the circumference of its intersecting lines. The Kongo cross refers therefore to the everlasting community of all righteous men and women:
Nzungi! n'zungi-nzila.........Man turns in the path,
N'zungi! n'zungi-nzila........He merely turns in the path;
Banganga ban'e E ee!.......The priests, the same (49)

A fork in the road (or even a forked branch) can allude to this crucially important symbol of passage and communication between worlds. The "turn in the path", i.e., the crossroads, remains an indelible concept in the Kongo-Atlantic world, as the point of intersection between the ancestors and the living”...

Members of the [Bakongo] Lemba society of healers had initiates stand on a cross chalked on the ground, a variant of the cosmogram. "To stand upon this sign,: Fu-Kiau Bunseki tells us, "meant that a person was fully capable of governing people, that he knew the nature of the world, that he had mastered the meaning of life and death." He thenceforth could move about with the confidence of a seer, empowered with insights from both worlds, both halves of the cosmogram.(50)

Drawing a "point", invoking God and the ancestors, formed only a part of this most important Kongo ritual of mediation. The ritual also included "singing the point". In fact, the Bakongo summarize the full context of mediation with the phrase "singing and drawing [a point]: yimbila y sona. (51) They believe that the combined force of singing Ki-Kongo words and tracing in appropriate media the ritually designated "point" or "mark" of contact between the worlds will result in the descent of God's power upon that very point....

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Video #2: The Ringshout & the Birth of African-American Religion



Uploaded by newtimbuk2 on Jul 17, 2009

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Video #3: McIntosh County Shouters ORIGINAL GROUP.AVI



Uploaded by McIntoshCtyShouters on Feb 23, 2010
www.mcintoshcountyshouters.com Renowned Master Artists of the Ring Shout, THIS group is the real deal. Be educated and entertained by learning about Georgia Coastal History. The ORIGINAL McIntosh County Shouters was featured on 2009 Grammy winning "Best Historical Album" by Art Rosenbaum.
-snip-
Click http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxPU5517u8c&feature=related for a 57 minute YouTube video of a presentation by the McIntosh County Shouters.

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Video #4
Gullah Ringshout July 2011 Anacostia Museum

SterlingFlowMedia, Uploaded on Jul 25, 2011

Nearly 400 Participants break record for the largest Ring Shout ever recorded.
-snip-
This video begins with the song “Here Come The Line”. The group refrain is "here comes the line". The lyrics sung by the lead singer are:
Here come the line...
Oh you preachers...
Oh you children...
You better follow...
Cause here come the line...
-snip-
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/adam-in-garden-picking-up-leaves.html for a pancocojams post that includes the lyrics to the second song "Adam In The Garden" which is performed in this video.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks also to those who have studied & disseminated information about ring shouts. Thanks to the unknown composers of these songs and thanks to those who are featured in these videos, the producers of these videos, and the video's publishers on YouTube.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome

Read More

Adam In The Garden (Picking Up Leaves) Examples & Lyrics

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post features examples of the African American ring shout "Adam In The Garden" (Picking Up Leaves). Comments about and several versions of the lyrics to this religious song are also provided in this post.

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, cultural, religious, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

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COMMENTS ABOUT & LYRICS FOR THE SONG "ADAM IN THE GARDEN"
"Adam In The Garden" is an African American ring shout from the Georgia Sea Isles. "Adam In The Garden" recounts the story of Adam in the Garden Of Eden as found in the Old Testament Book Of Genesis. God creates Adam & Eve & places them in the Garden of Eden. He warns them not to eat from the Tree Of Knowledge of Good & Evil. A serpent tempts them. They disobeyed God, bit an apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Adam & Eve then realized that they were naked, and began to pick leaves to make some type of covering for themselves.

The second line for "Adam In The Garden" is usually given as "picking up leaves". However, other versions of "Adame In The Garden" give the second line as "pinning leaves" or "pinning up leaves." Those lines may be the earliest forms of that song.

Like other religious and non-religious folk songs, there are multiple versions of the lyrics for "Adam In The Garden". Here's one text example of that song:

chorus: Oh Eve, where's Adam? (3x)
Adam in the garden pinning leaves.
Well, I know my God is a man of war,
Adam in the garden pinning leaves.
He fought the battle at the Jericho wall,
Adam in the garden pinning leaves.
Well, the first time God called, Adam refused to answer,
Adam in the garden pinning leaves,
Well, the first time God called, Adam refused to answer,
Adam in the garden pinning leaves,
The next time God called, God hollered louder,
Adam in the garden pinning leaves,
The next time God called, God hollered louder,
Adam in the garden pinning leaves.

Source: http://www.metrolyrics.com/adam-in-the-garden-pinning-leaves-lyrics-unknown-artist.html.
-snip-
Click http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/240968 for a literary essay that includes comments about and another version of the lyrics for "Adam In The Garden".

Other lyrics for this song are found below selected videos.

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FEATURED EXAMPLES
Example #1: Adam in the Garden



John Melville Bishop, Uploaded on May 28, 2009

Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers from the DVD--The Films of Bess Lomax Hawes -- available from www.media-generation.com this was shot in the mid 1960s by Bess Hawes and Edmund Carpenter.
-snip-
Here’s a comment written in response to the question “What are they saying?”

“The refrain that is being sung here is "picking up leaves". In the opening verse, god asks-"Oh Eve, where is Adam?" and she responds, "Adam in the garden picking up leaves." “
- John Melville Bishop, 2012

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Example #2: Gullah Ringshout July 2011 Anacostia Museum



SterlingFlowMedia, Uploaded on Jul 25, 2011

Nearly 400 Participants break record for the largest Ring Shout ever recorded.
-snip-
This video clip begins with the song “Here Come The Line”. The lyrics to that song will be featured in an upcoming blog post on Ring Shouts.

The song “Adam in the Garden” begins at .35

The refrain for this song is "pickin up leaves". Here's the lead singer's lines:

Adam in the gaden*...
Eve and Adam...
They were pickin...
Pick and pickin...
Oh, Adam...
Adam shamed...
Worked in the gaden*...

[continue this pattern repeating whichever lines you want to]

*gaden=garden

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Example #3: Adam in the Garden, a Slave Song



Published on May 22, 2012 by TTGBlimp

"Adam in the Garden, a slave song by The McIntosh Country Shouters; Performers of slave era 'shout' songs"
-snip-
ADAM IN THE GARDEN
[unknown composer]

Soloist: Oh-o Eve, where is Adam?
Soloist: Oh-o Eve
Soloist and Group: Adam in the garden pinnin up leaves.
Soloist: God called Adam
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Eve and Adam
Group: Pinning up leaves
Soloist: My God call him
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Adam won't answer
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Oh, Adam
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Oh, Adam
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Adam ashamed
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Adam won't answer
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Oh, Adam
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Oh, Adam
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Why don't you answer
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Who told you, Adam
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: that you was naked
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: My God call you
Group: Pinnin up leaves
Soloist: Why don't you answer
Group: Pinnin up leaves
-snip-
Transcription by Azizi Powell from the video. Additions and corrections are welcome.

Notice that these videos includes a demonstration of the "ring shout" religious dance.

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RELATED LINKS
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/african-american-ring-shouts-origins.html

**
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2012/06/biblical-references-in-african-american.html. This post includes a video performance of the ring shout "Adam In The Garden" that was performed by the McIntosh County Shouters.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND THANKS
Thanks to the unknown composers of this song. Thanks also to those who are featured in these videos, to the producers of these videos, and to the video's publishers on YouTube.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

Read More

Good Lord (Run Old Jeremiah) Ring Shout

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post includes a song file & lyrics of the ring shout "Good Lord" (also known as "Run Old Jeremiah").

The content of this post is presented for historical, educational, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

My thanks to the unknown composer/s of that song. My thanks also to the vocalists who sung this song & the collectors who recorded and published this song.

Thanks also to the producers of these featured sound files & videos.

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INFORMATION ABOUT RING SHOUTS
From http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5759/:
"“Run Old Jeremiah”: Echoes of the Ring Shout

Spirituals and work songs, rooted in both the slavery era and the West African societies from which most African-American slaves were originally taken, provided cultural sustenance to African Americans in the midst of intense racial oppression. Folklorists first began collecting traditional southern music in the late-19th century. By the 1920s and 1930s, John and Alan Lomax were recording southern musicians (African-American, white, and Mexican-American) for the Library of Congress. “Run, Old Jeremiah,” sung by Joe Washington Brown and Austin Coleman in Jennings, Louisiana, in 1934, was a ring-shout, a religious song using a West African dance pattern, where the performers shuffled single file, clapping out a complex counter-rhythm. The ring-shout was common during slavery and remained popular well into the 20th century as a means of emotional and physical release during religious worship. The lyrics of the ring-shout spoke of escape from the travails of the present."

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LYRICS OF "GOOD LORD" (RUN OLD JEREMIAH)
[composer/s unknown]

Likely lyrics:

By myself. (5)
You know I've got to go.
You got to run.
I've got to run.
You got to run.
By myself. (3)
I got a letter, (2)
Ol' brownskin.
Tell you what she say.
"Leavin' tomorrow,
Tell you goodbye."
O my Lordy. (6)
Well, well, well. (2)
O my Lord. (2)
O my Lordy. (2)
Well, well, well. (2 )
I've got a rock.
You got a rock.
Rock is death.
O my Lordy.
O my Lord.
Well, well, well.
Run here, Jeremiah. (2)
I must go
On my way. (4)
Who's that ridin' the chariot? (2)
Well, well, well . . .

(New Leader:)

One mornin'
Before the evening
Sun was goin' down (3)
Behind them western hills. (3)
Old number 12
Comin' down the track. (3)
See that black smoke.
See that old engineer.
See that engineer. (2)
Tol' that old fireman
Ring his ol' bell
With his hand.
Rung his engine bell. (2)
Well, well, well. (2 )
Jesus tell the man,
Say, I got your life
In My Hand;
I got your life
In My Hand. (2 )
Well, well, well.
0l' fireman told,
Told that engineer,
Ring your black bell,
Ding, ding, ding,
Ding, ding, ding, ding.
0l' fireman say
——?—- -
——?—- -
——?—- -
That mornin',
Well, well, well, (2)
0l' fireman say,
Well, well,
I'm gonna grab my
Old whistle too.
Wah, wah, ho,
Wah, wah, wah, wah, ho,
Wah, wah, ho,
Wah, wah, wah, ho. (etc.)
Mmmmmmm
Soon, soon, soon,
Wah——— -o.
Well, well, well,
0l' engineer,
I've got your life
In my hands. (2)
Tol' your father, (2)
Well, well, well,
I was travellin', (2)
I was ridin' (3)
Over there. (2)
Ol' engineer.
This is the chariot. (2)

Source: Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, and Ballads, ed. Alan Lomax (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress Archive of Folk Song, AFS L3). Sung by Joe Washington Brown and Austin Coleman at Jennings, Louisiana, 1934. Recorded by John A. and Alan Lomax.
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5759/:

FEATURED SOUND FILE

Ring Shout: Good Lord (Run Old Jeremiah)



Uploaded by reverendmeds on Mar 30, 2011

By Austin Coleman, Joe Washington Brown & Group.
Alan Lomax field recording, 1934

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RELATED LINK
http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2013/05/african-american-ring-shouts-origins.html

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Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are are welcome.

Read More