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At the Gate
Old-time spiritual, gospel song
ARTIST: Edna Gallmon Cooke
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3Ky44Ax7hw
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel Songs
DATE: 1900s;
RECORDING INFO: At the Gate
Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke Nashboro 883, Nashboro LP 7041 1966
Gerald Sisters At the Gate HSE c.1975
RELATED TO:
OTHER NAMES: "Somebody's Waiting At The Gate"
PRINT SOURCES: Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs By Guy Carawan 1966
NOTES: “At The Gate” or "Somebody's Waiting At The Gate" is a traditional spiritual covered by the great gosple singer, Edna Gallmon Cooke. She was backed by The Sensational Blind Boys on Nashboro 883, Nashboro LP 7041 in 1966.
Bio- Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke
Very little has been written about Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke. Most of the information on her are found in liner notes to various CD's and the notes on the back of various albums.
We do know that she was born in Columbia, South Carolina in 1917. She died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 4, 1967. She was 49 years old at the time of her death. She is probably best remembered for her recordings of "Stop Gambler" and "Heavy Load." The name Cooke was from her first marriage. It is our understanding that the marriage ended because of the death of her husband. To learn how she became known as "Madame" continue reading.
Madame Cooke "was a prolific recording artist she started in 1949 and recorded extensively (mainly for Nashboro) until her death in 1967. During her years with Nashboro she almost always recorded with a male vocal group but prior to that made a series of recordings with The Young People's Choir.
The liner notes to "Mother Smith and Her Children" describes Madame Cooke as "an exquisite stylist, with a sensuous appeal akin to Billie Holiday's." [She is referred to as] rap music's gospel progenitor; a penchant for rhymed, spoken chants produced her most famous recordings.
Though she was born in Columbia, South Carolina, the daughter of a shouting Baptist preacher, Reverend Eddie J. Gallmon, she was more educated and musically trained than most gospel singers. As a young adult, she lived and studied in Washington and Philadelphia, attending Temple University and briefly teaching elementary school. She had contemplated a career in semi-classics and show tunes when she underwent a twin conversion. In the late 1930s, she heard Willie Mae Ford Smith. "I was shocked. The woman sang with such finesse until I knew I had to be a gospel singer." Shortly after, she entered the Holiness Church and the would-be pop star became preeminently consecrated (the Holiness Church bestowed the honorific "Madame" to announce her devotion).
During the forties she toured the southeast, billed as the "Sweetheart of the Potomac," belting out hymns and gospel songs in Willie Mae Ford Smith fashion, although her mezzo-soprano was simply to petite to duplicate Smith's contralto blasts. So she elaborated on the style. Returning to home sources, she began using the sermonettes and spirituals Eddie Gallmon had performed in the twenties. She became a transcendent moaner and a mistress of that note-bending musicologists call melisma and church folks call "curlicues," "runs" and "flowers and frills."
She began recording in the late forties, accompanied usually by the choir of her father's Springfield Baptist Church of Washington, DC. Her switch in styles occurred after her marriage to Barney Parks, Jr., a former member of the Dixie Hummingbirds and a founder of The Nightingales. They had met in 1951 when Marie Knight, Rosetta Tharp's old partner, organized a tour featuring herself, Cooke, and The Nightingales. The tour's fruits included three marriages: Cooke's to Parks, the Nightingales' manager; her accompanist Marge's to Julius Cheeks, the quartet's lead; and Knight's sister Bernice's to the quartet's basso, Carl Henry.
Under Park's management and tutelage, Edna Gallmon Cooke became a household name in gospel. Her first records were uniformly brilliant.
AT THE GATE- Edna Gallmon Cooke
CHORUS: At the gate I know (at the gate I know)
Somebody's waiting at the gate I know
At the gate I know (at the gate I know)
Oh, somebody's waiting at the gate I know
[spoken]You know John said, "There are twelve gates to the city."
I don't know what gate were gonna enter in,
You see I've got friends and relatives that are waiting for me and I do believe,
My mother will be waiting (at the gate I know)
Mother will be waiting (at the gate I know)
Pappa said he be waiting (at the gate I know)
Oh, somebody's waiting at the gate I know
There's gonna be a great reunion (at the gate I know)
There's gonna be a great reunion (at the gate I know)
There's gonna be a great reunion (at the gate I know)
Oh, there's somebody's waiting at the gate I know
We gonna have a big time (at the gate I know)
There's gonna be a big time (at the gate I know)
We gonna have a big time (at the gate I know)
Oh, somebody's waiting at the gate I know
CHORUS: At the gate I know (at the gate I know)
Somebody's waiting at the gate I know
At the gate I know (at the gate I know)
Oh, somebody's waiting at the gate I know
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