Lyrics:
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
Washed my sins away (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When my Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
He washed my sins away
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la
He taught me how (oh, He taught me how)
To wash (to wash, to wash)
Fight and pray (to fight and pray)
Fight and pray
And he taught me how to live rejoicing yes, He did (and live rejoicing)
Oh yeah, every, every day (every, every day)
Every day!
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
Oh happy day, yeah (oh happy day)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When my Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
When Jesus washed (when Jesus washed)
My sins away (oh happy day)
I'm talking about that happy day (oh happy day)
He taught me how (oh yeah, how)
To wash (to wash)
Fight and pray (sing it, sing it, c'mon and sing it)
Fight and pray
And to live, yeah, yeah, c'mon everybody (and live rejoicing every, every day)
Sing it like you mean it, oh....
Oh happy day (oh happy day)
I'm talking about the happy days (oh happy day)
C'mon and talk about the happy days (oh happy day)
Oh, oh, oh happy days (oh happy day)
Ooh talking about happy day (oh happy day)
Oh yeah, I know I'm talking about happy days (oh happy day)
Oh yeah, sing it, sing it, sing it, yeah, yeah (oh happy day)
Oh, oh, oh
Oh happy day!
Click Here for video.
Source: youtube.com
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Miss Lucy Long
"Miss Lucy Long", also known as "Lucy Long" and other variants, is an American song that was popularized in the blackface minstrel show. A comic banjo tune, the lyrics, written in exaggerated Black Vernacular English, tell of the courtship or marriage of the male singer and the title character. The song is highly misogynistic;
the male character dominates Lucy and continues his sexually
promiscuous lifestyle despite his relationship with her. "Miss Lucy
Long" thus satirizes black concepts of beauty and courtship and American views of marriage in general.
After its introduction to the stage by the Virginia Minstrels in 1843, "Miss Lucy Long" was adopted by rival troupes. George Christy's cross-dressed interpretation standardized the portrayal of the title character and made the song a hit in the United States. "Miss Lucy Long" became the standard closing number for the minstrel show, where it was regularly expanded into a comic skit complete with dialogue. Versions were printed in more songsters and performed in more minstrel shows than any other popular song in the antebellum period. In blackface minstrelsy, the name Lucy came to signify any sexually promiscuous pervert.
Compare this later recorded version by Joe Ayers:
For nineteenth-century audiences, the comedy of "Lucy Long" came from several different quarters. Eric Lott argues that race is paramount. The lyrics are in an exaggerated form of Black Vernacular English, and the degrading and racist depictions of Lucy—often described as having "huge feet" or "corncob teeth"—make the male singer the butt of the joke for desiring someone whom white audiences would find so unattractive.
However, in many variants, Lucy is desirable—tall, with good teeth and "winning eyes". Musicologist William J. Mahar thus argues that, while the song does address race, its misogyny is in fact more important. "Miss Lucy Long" is a "'public expressions of male resentment toward a spouse or lover who will not be subservient, a woman's indecision, and the real or imagined constraints placed on male behaviors by law, custom, and religion." The song reaffirms a man's supposed right to sexual freedom and satirizes courtship and marriage. Still, the fact that the minstrel on stage would desire someone the audience knew to be another man was a source of comic dramatic irony.
The refrain is simple:
The verse makes Lucy out to be a "sexual aggressor who prefers 'tarrying' (casual sex, we may infer) to marrying . . . ." The singer for his part seems to be in agreement with the notion. Thus, Lucy is in some way in charge of their relationship. Of course, audiences could easily take "tarry" as either a sexual reference or an indication of a prim and reserved Lucy Long.
However, other verses put the power back in the male's hands. For example, this verse makes Lucy no better than a traded commodity:
"Miss Lucy Long and Her Answer", a version published in 1843 by the Charles H. Keith company of Boston, Massachusetts, separates the song into four stanzas from the point of view of Lucy's lover and four from Lucy herself. She ultimately shuns "de gemman Dat wrote dat little song, Who dare to make so public De name ob Lucy Long" and claims to prefer "De 'stinguished Jimmy Crow."
Nevertheless, the tune is well-suited to embellishment and improvisation. The verses and refrain use almost identical music, which enabled troupes to vary the verse/chorus structure and to add play-like segments. A repeated couplet binds the piece together and gives it a musical center around which these embellishments can occur.
Minstrels usually performed the song as part of a sketch in which one minstrel cross dressed to play Lucy Long. The blackface players danced and sang with regular interruptions of comic dialogue. The part of Lucy was probably not a speaking role and relied entirely on pantomime.
For example, in 1846, Dan Emmett and Frank Brower added these lines to a "Miss Lucy Long" sketch:
[Dialogue.]
FRANK She had a ticklar gagement to go to camp me[e]tin wid dis child.
DAN hah! You went down to de fish Market to daunce arter eels. mity cureous kind ob camp meetin dat!
FRANK I[t] wasn't eels, it was a big cat fish.
DAN What chune did you dance?
Chorus [both singing].
FRANK I trade her off for bean soup.
DAN Well, you is hungryest n#$$@# eber I saw. You'r neber satisfied widout your tinken bout bean soup all de time.
Chorus [both singing].
Despite predating the minstrel show, "Miss Lucy Long" gained its fame there. The song was the first wench role in minstrelsy. The Virginia Minstrels performed it as their closing number from their earliest performances. Dan Gardner introduced what would become the standard Lucy Long costume, skirts and pantalettes. George Christy's interpretation for the Christy Minstrels became the standard for other troupes to follow. The New York Clipper ignored Gardner completely and wrote "George [Christy] was the first to do the wench business; he was the original Lucy Long."
By 1845, the song had become the standard minstrel show closing number, and it remained so through the antebellum period. Programs regularly ended with the note that "The concert will conclude with the Boston Favorite Extravaganza of LUCY LONG." The name Lucy came to signify a woman who was "sexy, somewhat grotesque, and of suspect virtue" in minstrelsy. Similar songs appeared, including "Lucy Neal".
In the late 1920's, a dance called the Sally Long became popular; the name may derive from the minstrel song.
Musicologist Robert B. Winans found versions of "Miss Lucy Long" in 34% of minstrel show programs he examined from the 1843–52 period and in 55% from 1843–47, more than any other song. Mahar's research found that "Miss Lucy Long" is the second most frequent song in popular songsters from this period, behind only "Mary Blane". The song enjoyed a resurgence in popularity from 1855–60, when minstrelsy entered a nostalgic phase under some companies.
There is also reference to "Miss Lucy Long" in Bobby Darin's version of the song "Mack the Knife" by Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill, from their play "The Threepenny Opera".
Source: Wikipedia
After its introduction to the stage by the Virginia Minstrels in 1843, "Miss Lucy Long" was adopted by rival troupes. George Christy's cross-dressed interpretation standardized the portrayal of the title character and made the song a hit in the United States. "Miss Lucy Long" became the standard closing number for the minstrel show, where it was regularly expanded into a comic skit complete with dialogue. Versions were printed in more songsters and performed in more minstrel shows than any other popular song in the antebellum period. In blackface minstrelsy, the name Lucy came to signify any sexually promiscuous pervert.
Lyrics:
Many different "Miss Lucy Long" texts are known. They all feature a male singer who describes his desire for the title character. In the style of many folk song narratives, most versions begin with the singer's introduction:Compare this later recorded version by Joe Ayers:
For nineteenth-century audiences, the comedy of "Lucy Long" came from several different quarters. Eric Lott argues that race is paramount. The lyrics are in an exaggerated form of Black Vernacular English, and the degrading and racist depictions of Lucy—often described as having "huge feet" or "corncob teeth"—make the male singer the butt of the joke for desiring someone whom white audiences would find so unattractive.
However, in many variants, Lucy is desirable—tall, with good teeth and "winning eyes". Musicologist William J. Mahar thus argues that, while the song does address race, its misogyny is in fact more important. "Miss Lucy Long" is a "'public expressions of male resentment toward a spouse or lover who will not be subservient, a woman's indecision, and the real or imagined constraints placed on male behaviors by law, custom, and religion." The song reaffirms a man's supposed right to sexual freedom and satirizes courtship and marriage. Still, the fact that the minstrel on stage would desire someone the audience knew to be another man was a source of comic dramatic irony.
The refrain is simple:
- Oh! Take your time Miss Lucy,
- Take your time Miss Lucy Long!
- Oh! Take your time Miss Lucy,
- Take your time Miss Lucy Long!
The verse makes Lucy out to be a "sexual aggressor who prefers 'tarrying' (casual sex, we may infer) to marrying . . . ." The singer for his part seems to be in agreement with the notion. Thus, Lucy is in some way in charge of their relationship. Of course, audiences could easily take "tarry" as either a sexual reference or an indication of a prim and reserved Lucy Long.
However, other verses put the power back in the male's hands. For example, this verse makes Lucy no better than a traded commodity:
- If she makes a scolding wife,
- As sure as she was born,
- I'll tote her down to Georgia,
- And trade her off for corn.
- And now that we are married,
- I expect to have some fun,
- And if Lucy doesn't mind me,
- This fellow will cut and run.
"Miss Lucy Long and Her Answer", a version published in 1843 by the Charles H. Keith company of Boston, Massachusetts, separates the song into four stanzas from the point of view of Lucy's lover and four from Lucy herself. She ultimately shuns "de gemman Dat wrote dat little song, Who dare to make so public De name ob Lucy Long" and claims to prefer "De 'stinguished Jimmy Crow."
Structure and performance:
"Miss Lucy Long" is a comic banjo tune, and there is little melodic variation between published versions.Nevertheless, the tune is well-suited to embellishment and improvisation. The verses and refrain use almost identical music, which enabled troupes to vary the verse/chorus structure and to add play-like segments. A repeated couplet binds the piece together and gives it a musical center around which these embellishments can occur.
Minstrels usually performed the song as part of a sketch in which one minstrel cross dressed to play Lucy Long. The blackface players danced and sang with regular interruptions of comic dialogue. The part of Lucy was probably not a speaking role and relied entirely on pantomime.
For example, in 1846, Dan Emmett and Frank Brower added these lines to a "Miss Lucy Long" sketch:
[Dialogue.]
FRANK She had a ticklar gagement to go to camp me[e]tin wid dis child.
DAN hah! You went down to de fish Market to daunce arter eels. mity cureous kind ob camp meetin dat!
FRANK I[t] wasn't eels, it was a big cat fish.
DAN What chune did you dance?
Chorus [both singing].
-
- Take your time Miss Lucy
- Take your time Miss Lucy Long
- Rock de cradle Lucy
- Take your time my dear.
FRANK I trade her off for bean soup.
DAN Well, you is hungryest n#$$@# eber I saw. You'r neber satisfied widout your tinken bout bean soup all de time.
Chorus [both singing].
Popularity:
The first published edition of "Miss Lucy Long" is uncredited in an 1842 songster called Old American Songs. Billy Whitlock of the Virginia Minstrels later claimed the song in his autobiography: "I composed . . . 'Miss Lucy Long' (the words by T. G. Booth) in 1838."Despite predating the minstrel show, "Miss Lucy Long" gained its fame there. The song was the first wench role in minstrelsy. The Virginia Minstrels performed it as their closing number from their earliest performances. Dan Gardner introduced what would become the standard Lucy Long costume, skirts and pantalettes. George Christy's interpretation for the Christy Minstrels became the standard for other troupes to follow. The New York Clipper ignored Gardner completely and wrote "George [Christy] was the first to do the wench business; he was the original Lucy Long."
By 1845, the song had become the standard minstrel show closing number, and it remained so through the antebellum period. Programs regularly ended with the note that "The concert will conclude with the Boston Favorite Extravaganza of LUCY LONG." The name Lucy came to signify a woman who was "sexy, somewhat grotesque, and of suspect virtue" in minstrelsy. Similar songs appeared, including "Lucy Neal".
In the late 1920's, a dance called the Sally Long became popular; the name may derive from the minstrel song.
Musicologist Robert B. Winans found versions of "Miss Lucy Long" in 34% of minstrel show programs he examined from the 1843–52 period and in 55% from 1843–47, more than any other song. Mahar's research found that "Miss Lucy Long" is the second most frequent song in popular songsters from this period, behind only "Mary Blane". The song enjoyed a resurgence in popularity from 1855–60, when minstrelsy entered a nostalgic phase under some companies.
There is also reference to "Miss Lucy Long" in Bobby Darin's version of the song "Mack the Knife" by Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill, from their play "The Threepenny Opera".
Source: Wikipedia
Old Dan Tucker
| "Old Dan Tucker" | |
|---|---|
"Old Dan Tucker" was first published in 1843. Sheet music editions
from that year, such as this one from Charles H. Keith of Boston,
 Play (help·info) name no composer. |
|
| Written by | Usually attributed to Daniel Decatur Emmett |
| Published | 1843 |
| Language | English |
| Form | Minstrel |
| Original artist | Virginia Minstrels |
|---|
The first sheet music edition of "Old Dan Tucker", published in 1843, is a song of boasts and nonsense in the vein of previous minstrel hits such as "Jump Jim Crow" and "Gumbo Chaff". In exaggerated Black Vernacular English, the lyrics tell of Dan Tucker's exploits in a strange town, where he fights, gets drunk, overeats, and breaks other social taboos. Minstrel troupes freely added and removed verses, and folk singers have since added hundreds more. Parodies and political versions are also known.
The song falls into the idiom of previous minstrel music, relying on rhythm and text declamation as its primary motivation. Its melody is simple and the harmony little developed. Nevertheless, contemporary critics found the song more pleasant than previous minstrel fare. Musicologist Dale Cockrell argues that the song represents a transition between early minstrel music and the more European-style songs of minstrelsy's later years.
Source: Wikipedia
Just Before the Battle, Mother
Lyrics
Just before the battle, mother,I am thinking most of you,
While upon the field we're watching
With the enemy in view.
Comrades brave are 'round me lying,
Filled with thoughts of home and God
For well they know that on the morrow,
Some will sleep beneath the sod.
CHORUS:
Farewell, mother, you may never
Press me to your heart again,
But, oh, you'll not forget me, mother,
If I'm numbered with the slain.
Oh, I long to see you, mother,
And the loving ones at home,
But I'll never leave our banner,
Till in honor I can come.
Tell the traitors all around you
That their cruel words we know,
In every battle kill our soldiers
By the help they give the foe.
CHORUS:
Farewell, mother, you may never
Press me to your heart again,
But, oh, you'll not forget me, mother,
If I'm numbered with the slain.
Hark! I hear the bugles sounding,
'Tis the signal for the fight,
Now, may God protect us, mother,
As He ever does the right.
Hear the "Battle-Cry of Freedom,"
How it swells upon the air,
Oh, yes, we'll rally 'round the standard,
Or we'll perish nobly there.
CHORUS:
Farewell, mother, you may never
Press me to your heart again,
But, oh, you'll not forget me, mother,
If I'm numbered with the slain.
Lyrics are in the public domain.
External links:
- "Just Before the Battle, Mother", Stanley & Burr (Indestructible Record 1460, 1911).—Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.
- Lyrics and midi from Project Gutenberg
- Sheet music from Project Gutenberg
- Sheet Music from the library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
We Are Coming, Father Abra'am
| "We Are Coming, Father Abra'am" | ||
|---|---|---|
"We Are Coming, Father Abra'am" cover
| ||
| Poem by James S. Gibbons | ||
| Writer | James S. Gibbons | |
 A 2009 performance of "We Are Coming, Father Abra'am" by the United States Marine Band. | ||
Lyrics:
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore.
We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and children dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear.
We dare not look behind us but steadfastly before.
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!
We are coming, we are coming our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!
If you look across the hilltops that meet the northern sky,
Long moving lines of rising dust your vision may descry;
And now the wind, an instant, tears the cloudy veil aside,
And floats aloft our spangled flag in glory and in pride;
And bayonets in the sunlight gleam, and bands brave music pour,
We are coming, father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!
We are coming, we are coming our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!
If you look up all our valleys where the growing harvests shine,
You may see our sturdy farmer boys fast forming into line;
And children from their mother's knees are pulling at the weeds,
And learning how to reap and sow against their country's needs;
And a farewell group stands weeping at every cottage door,
We are coming, Father Abr'am, three hundred thousand more!
We are coming, we are coming our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!
You have called us, and we're coming by Richmond's bloody tide,
To lay us down for freedom's sake, our brothers' bones beside;
Or from foul treason's savage group, to wrench the murderous blade;
And in the face of foreign foes its fragments to parade.
Six hundred thousand loyal men and true have gone before,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!
We are coming, we are coming our Union to restore,
We are coming, Father Abraham, 300,000 more!
Source: Internet
Goober Peas
| "Goober Peas" | |
|---|---|
Cover, sheet music, 1866
| |
| Music by | P. Nutt |
| Lyrics by | A. Pindar |
| Published | 1866 |
| Language | English |
The lyrics of "Goober Peas" are a description of daily life during the last few years of the Civil War for Southerners. After being cut off from the rail lines and their farm land, they had little to eat aside from boiled peanuts (or "goober peas") which often served as an emergency ration. Peanuts were also known as pindars and goobers.
Publication date on the earliest sheet music is 1866, published by A. E. Blackmar in New Orleans. Blackmar humorously lists A. Pindar as the lyricist and P. Nutt as the composer.
Lyrics:
Verse 1- Sitting by the roadside on a summer's day
- Chatting with my mess-mates, passing time away
- Lying in the shadows underneath the trees
- Goodness, how delicious, eating goober peas.
- Chorus
- Peas, peas, peas, peas
- Eating goober peas
- Goodness, how delicious,
- Eating goober peas.
- When a horse-man passes, the soldiers have a rule
- To cry out their loudest, "Mister, here's your mule!"
- But another custom, enchanting-er than these
- Is wearing out your grinders, eating goober peas.
- Chorus
- Just before the battle, the General hears a row
- He says "The Yanks are coming, I hear their rifles now."
- He turns around in wonder, and what d'ya think he sees?
- The Georgia Militia, eating goober peas.
- Chorus
-
- (Note: There sat the Georgia Militia, is reported in contemporary accounts as underlying the battle of Griswoldville where they fought fiercely. "The Tennessee Militia" is sung instead in some versions. Tennessee in the American Civil War was the last of the Southern states to declare secession. Tennessee politicians John Bell supported it with reluctance, while Andrew Johnson fought it.
- I think my song has lasted almost long enough.
- The subject's interesting, but the rhymes are mighty tough.
- I wish the war was over, so free from rags and fleas
- We'd kiss our wives and sweethearts, and gobble goober peas.
- Chorus
- But now we are in prison and likely long to stay,
- The Yankees they are guarding us, no hope to get away;
- Our rations they are scanty, 'tis cold enough to freeze,—
- I wish I was in Georgia, eating goober peas.
- Peas, peas, peas, peas,
- Eating goober peas;
- I wish I was in Georgia, eating goober peas.
Mary Don't You Weep
| "Mary Don't You Weep" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Fisk Jubilee Singers | |
| Released | 1915 |
| Genre | Christian music |
| Cover versions | |
|
|
The song tells the Biblical story of Mary of Bethany and her distraught pleas to Jesus to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. Other narratives relate to The Exodus and the Passage of the Red Sea, with the chorus proclaiming Pharaoh's army got drown-ded!, and to God's rainbow covenant to Noah after the Great Flood. With liberation thus one of its themes, the song again become popular during the 1950's and 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. Additionally, a song that explicitly chronicles the victories of the Civil Rights Movement, "If You Miss Me from the Back of the Bus", written by Charles Neblett of The Freedom Singers, was sung to this tune and became one of the most well-known songs of that movement.
The first recording of the song was by the Fisk Jubilee Singers in 1915. The best known recordings were made by the vocal gospel group The Caravans in 1958, with Inez Andrews as the lead singer, and The Swan Silvertones in 1959. "Mary Don't You Weep" became The Swan Silvertones' greatest hit, and lead singer Claude Jeter's interpolation "I'll be a bridge over deep water if you trust in my name" served as Paul Simon's inspiration to write his 1970 song "Bridge over Troubled Water". The spiritual's lyric God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water the fire next time inspired the title for The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin's 1963 account of race relations in America.
Many other recordings have been made, by artists ranging from The Soul Stirrers to Burl Ives. Pete Seeger gave it additional folk music visibility by performing it at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, and played it many times throughout his career, adapting the lyrics and stating the song's relevance as an American song, not just a spiritual. In 1960, Stonewall Jackson recorded a country version of the song, where Mary is a young woman left by her lover on the wedding day to fight in the civil war, and he died in the burning of Atlanta; the song became a hit when it peaked at #12 in Country charts and #41 in Pop charts. In the 1960s, Jamaican artist Justin Hinds had a ska hit with "Jump Out Of The Frying Pan", whose lyrics borrowed heavily from the spiritual. Paul Clayton's version "Pharaoh's Army" appears in "Home-Made Songs & Ballads", which was released in 1961. James Brown rewrote the lyrics of the original spiritual for his 1964 soul hit "Oh Baby Don't You Weep". Aretha Franklin recorded a live version of the song for her 1972 album Amazing Grace. An a cappella version by Take 6, simply called "Mary", received wide airplay after appearing on the group's eponymous debut album in 1988. The song is sung briefly at the beginning of the music video for Bone Thugs N Harmony's 1996 "Tha Crossroads". In a pounding big group folk arrangement, it was one of the highlights of the 2006 Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour. The song also appeared on Mike Farris' 2007 album Salvation in Lights. Entitled as "Don't You Weep, Mary", this song is on The Kingston Trio compact disc Two Classic Albums.
There was also an adaptation of this song recorded in the Greek language. The title was "Mairi Mi Lypasai Pia", and was written and recorded by the Greek songwriter, Manos Xydous, on his 2010 album Otan tha fygo ena vrady apo 'do as well as on the collection Epityhies 2011.
Source: Internet
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