[Music]
Death, ain't you got no shame, shame?
Death, ain't you got no shame, shame?
Death, ain't you got no shame, shame?
Death, ain't you got no shame?
Recorded by the compiler of this collection from the singing of
Francis Arthur Robinson, Nashville, Tennessee, as he had heard it in
the backwoods of Wayne County, Tennessee, in 1926. Mr. Robinson called
it a "barefoot white" song. The tied notes are sung in a skid or
scoop. Subsequent stanzas:
Left his pappy to moan, moan, _etc._
Left his widder alone, lone, _etc._
Left his mammy to weep, weep, _etc._
and many more. In _The Carolina Low-Country_, page 249, a version of
the song is given as sung by a negro congregation in Beaufort, South
Carolina.
This song is one of the most primitive in the present collection. It
is valuable, however, in that it exemplifies well a lyric level which
suited both whites and blacks of a certain cultural status.
No. 159
COME TO JESUS, REV 142
Hexatonic, 6th missing, cannot be classified but obviously ionian (I
II III IV V -- VII)
[Music]
Come to Jesus, come to Jesus,
Come to Jesus just now,
Just now come to Jesus,
Come to Jesus just now.
Subsequent verses are built up on: He will save you; O, believe him;
He is able; He is willing; He'll receive you; Call upon him; He will
hear you; Look unto him; He'll forgive you; He will cleanse you; He
will clothe you; Jesus loves you; Don't reject him; and, Only trust
him. A negro version of tune and text is in _Slave Songs_, No. 85.
Was 'Come to Jesus' a tune importation from Germany? Erk and Böhme
(_Deutscher Liederhort_, vol. iii., p. 735) bring several variants of
what is called an "altes Fastenlied." I reproduce one of them:
[Music]
Es sangen drei Engel einen süszen Gesang,
sie sangen, dasz es Gott in dem Himmel erklang.
The first part of the German tune is almost identical with the
corresponding part of the one, heard widely among American students,
with such texts as 'O My Darling Clementine' and 'Found a Horseshoe
Just Now'--evident parodies on the 'Come to Jesus' tune and words. The
second part of the German melody is strikingly like that of the above
mentioned negro version in _Slave Songs_.
No. 160
GLAD NEWS or WE'LL LAND ON SHORE, SOC 18