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Can't You Live Humble
Spiritual and Gospel Hymn;
ARTIST: Folk songs of the American Negro- John Work 1907
CATEGORY: Traditional and Shape-Note Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; 1965
RECORDING INFO: Can't You Live Humble
Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p151b
OTHER NAMES: "Can't You Live A-Humble"
RELATED TO: "Live A-Humble" "Bell Done Rung"
SOURCES: Folk songs of the American Negro- John Work 1907
NOTES: "Can't You Live Humble" is an African-American spiritual that's related to the "Live A-Humble" and the "Bell Done Rung" songs. It was collected and published by
John Wesley Work, Jr. in 1907.
Biography John Wesley Work, Jr. 1871-1925
John Wesley Work is said to have been the first black collector of Negro folksongs, and was most likely born on August 6, 1871 in Nashville, Tennessee. His father, John Wesley Work, was a church choir director in Nashville, where he wrote and arranged music for his choirs. Some of his choristers were members of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers.
He attended Fisk University in Nashville where he studied Latin and history. Singing in the Mozart society while at school sparked an interest in Negro spirituals in Work. Following graduation, Work went on to teach for a year, studying for one year at Harvard University, and a year as a library assistant at Fisk University. In 1898, he received a Master’s degree from Fisk and took an appointment as a Latin and Greek instructor.
While teaching, Work became a leader in the movement to preserve, study, and perform Negro spirituals. He organized Fisk singing groups about 1889. With the help of his brother, Frederick Jerome Work ,John Wesley Work, Jr., collected, harmonized, and published a number of collections of slave songs and spirituals. The first of these collections was New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, in 1901.
Among the other solo songs he published, the spiritual, "Go, Tell It On The Mountain" was issued in 1907. In 1915, Work published "Folk Song of the American Negro."
For as many as eighteen years, Work trained and performed with professional and student groups of the Jubilee singers. His wife, Agnes Haynes Work, was a singer who helped train the Fisk group. Because of negative feelings toward Black folk music at Fisk, he was forced to resign in 1923.
John Wesley Work, Jr. then served as president of Roger Williams University in Nashville, until his death on September 7, 1925.
One son, Julian, became a professional musician and composer. Another son, John Wesley Work III became famous in his own right as a collector, composer and educator at Fisk. He wrote American Negro songs and spirituals; a comprehensive collection of 230 folk songs, religious and secular in 1940. Additional biographical materials on this son follow.
CAN’T YOU LIVE HUMBLE- John Wesley Work, Jr. 1907
http://books.google.com/books?output=html&id=T0dYAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22surely+he+died+on+calvary%22&jtp=63
CHORUS: Can’t you live humble?
Praise King Jesus!
Can’t you live humble
To the dying Lamb?
Lightning flashes
Thunders roll
Make me think
Of my poor soul
CHORUS:
Come here Jesus,
Come here, please,
See me, Jesus,
On my knees
CHORUS:
Everybody,
Come and see
A man's been here,
From Galilee.
CHORUS:
Came down here,
And talked to me
Went away,
And left me free
Live A-Humble; Folk songs of the American Negro- John Work 1907
http://books.google.com/books?lr=&cd=10&output=html&id=T0dYAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22live+a+humble%22+negro&jtp=50
Live a-humble, humble
Humble yourselves,
The bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
Watch the sun, how steady he runs
Don't let him catch you with your work undone
Live a-humble, humble
Humble yourselves, the bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
Ever see such a man as God?
He gave up His Son for to come and die
Gave up His Son for to come and die
Just to save my soul from a burning fire
Live a-humble, humble
Humble yourselves, the bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
See God and you see God in the morning
He'll come riding down the line of time
The fire'll be falling
He'll be calling, "Come to judgement, come".
Live a Humble- 1916 "Listening Lessons in Music, Graded for Schools" By Agnes Moore Fryberge
Chorus: Live a humble, humble, humble yourselves,
Humble yourselves, de bell done rung,
Glory and honor, praise de Lord,
Humble yourselves, de bell done rung.
Watch dat sun, how steady he run,
An' don't let him catch you with your work undone.
Did you ever see such a man as God ?
He gave up His Son for the coming time
Just to save a poor soul from a burnin' fire.
If you see God in de mornin'
He'll come ridin' down on a line of fire,
The fount is falling, He'll be callin',
Come an' join de Mizpah.
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