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Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More/I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More/Oh You Caint Go to Heaven/You Can't Get To Heaven/Ain't Going to Worry My Lord No More
Traditional Old-Time, Bluegrass Gospel and Spiritual;
ARTIST: From Mr. Charles McMahon, Joplin, MO, 1928. The last three verses uses in several songs (floaters). From Vance Randolph, "Ozark Folksongs," vol. 2, no. 300, p. 386 of revised edition. Randolph mentions a similar text under the title "I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" in the Aurora MO Advertiser, 1940.
YOUTUBE: Bob Dylan covers the song on his Witmark demo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8m6is2RB24
CATEGORY: Traditional Bluegrass Gospel Spiritual;
DATE: 1865 (public domain music); First Recorded in 1928 by Commonwealth Quartet, "I Ain't Gonna Grieve" (Conqueror 7079, 1928)
RECORDING INFO: You Can't/Caint Get to Heaven [Me III-C 49]
Leisy, James / Songs for Pickin' and Singin', Gold Medal Books, sof (1962), p150 (Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More)
Lynn, Frank (ed.) / Songs for Swinging Housemothers, Fearon, Sof (1963/1961), p332 (Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More)
Best, Dick & Beth (eds.) / New Song Fest Deluxe, Hansen, Sof (1971/1948), p145 (I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No/Any More)
Winds of the People, Sing Out, Sof (1982), p 83 (Preacher Went Down)
Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1992/1989), P 74 (Preacher Went Down)
Sandburg, Helga (ed.) / Sweet Music, Dial, Bk (1963), p137 [1960ca]
Allen, Ella Kate. Solomon, Jack & Olivia (eds.) / Sweet Bunch of Daisies, Colonial Press, Bk (1991), p 56 [1960ca] (O, You Can't Get to Heaven)
McMahon, Charles. Randolph, Vance / Ozark Folksongs. Volume II, Songs of the South and ..., Univ. of Missouri, Bk (1980/1946), p386/#300 [1928/04/03] (Oh You Can't Get to He
EARLY RECORDINGS:
Commonwealth Quartet, "I Ain't Gonna Grieve" (Conqueror 7079, 1928)
Walter "Kid" Smith & Norman Woodlief with Posey Rorer, "I Ain't Gonna' Grieve My Lord Anymore" (Champion 15812 [as by Jim Taylor and Bill Shelby]/Supertone 9494 [as by Jordan & Rupert]/Conqueror 7277, 1929)
Kentucky Coon Hunters, 1931 Louisville KY.
Canova Family 1933
OTHER NAMES: "I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More;" "Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More;" "You Cain't Get To Heaven"
SOURCES: Mudcat; Folk Index; Meade
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Randolph 300, "Oh You Caint Go to Heaven" (1 text)
BrownIII 549, "Ain't Goin' to Worry My Lord No More" (1 text, perhaps somewhat adapted (e.g. the second verse is "If you get there before I do... Punch a little hole and pull me through"), but too short and too similar to this to separate)
Silber-FSWB, p. 22, "Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" (1 text)
Pankake-PHCFSB, pp. 82-84, "I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" (1 text, 1 tune -- probably composite, though the conflation may be the work of the informant rather than the Pankakes)
NOTES: "Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" is a spiritual that has been traced back to the Civil War. It appears in the Brown Collection as "Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More." From its revivalist roots it has become a campfire song with numerous humorous verses.
The song has been collected by numerous sources and titles in the early 1900s. Here's a spiritual type verse with chorus.
I grieve my Lord From day to day
I'm off the straight And narrow way
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more,
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more,
I ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more.
The chorus is usually sung 3 or 4 times. The song was recorded by early country artists. Bob Dylan covers the song on his Witmark demo.
An Inventory of Spoken Word Audio Recordings in the Vincent Voice Library, Michigan State University, contains a sermon by Aimee Semple McPherson from 1931 in which the choir sings:
"Can you talk about me? Just as much as you please.
I talk about you down on my knees [unclear]
I ain't a-gonna grieve my Lord anymore."
Brown has a similar song under "Ain't Gonna Worry My Lord No More," vol. 3 no. 549, with music, coll. 1919-1920 from W. S. Sander, possibly Durham NC.
First verse:
O, down in the valley where I was told
The grace of God is better than gold.
Down in the valley where I was told
Grace of God is better than gold.
Ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more,
Ain't gonna grieve my Lord no more.
OH YOU CAIN'T GO HEAVEN/AIN'T GOIN' TO WORRY MY LORD NO MORE
Mr. Charles McMahon, Joplin, MO, 1928. The last three verses uses in several songs (floaters). From Vance Randolph, "Ozark Folksongs," vol. 2, no. 300, p. 386 of revised edition. Randolph mentions a similar text under the title "I Ain't Gonna Grieve My Lord No More" in the Aurora MO Advertiser, 1940.
Oh you cain't go to heaven
In a rockin' chair,
Git down on your knees
An' say a prayer.
Oh you cain't go to heaven
In them dancin' shoes,
An' you cain't go to heaven
With your belly full of booze.
An' you cain't go to heaven
On them roller skates,
You'll roll right by
The golden gates.
If you get there
Before I do
Just tell the Lord
I'm a-comin' too.
If you get there,
Before I do,
Just bore a hole
An' pull me through.
Oh the devil's mad
An' I am glad,
He lost a soul
That he thought he had.
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