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Band of Gideon/Gideon's Band/De Milk-white Horses
Traditional Old-Time, Gospel;
ARTIST: "The story of the Jubilee Singers, including their Songs" 1877
MP3: Listen to Fisk Jubille Singers 1912
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; 1877 "The story of the Jubilee Singers, including their Songs"
First Recorded in Fisk Jubilee Singers 1912
The band of Gideon. Fisk Jubilee Singers. Edison Amberol: 983. 1912.
RECORDING INFO: Gideon's Band [Me III-B 3]
Lloyd, A. L. & Isabel Arete de Ramon y Rivera (eds.) / Folk Songs of the, Oak, Sof (1966), # 57
Fisk Jubilee Singers. Marsh, J. B. T. / Story of the Jubilee Singers, Houghton Mifflin, Bk (1880), p238/#109
OTHER NAMES: "A Little More Faith In Jesus" "De Milk-white Horses"
SOURCES: JOAFL 1922; online
NOTES: "Band of Gideon" or "Gideon's Band" is found in "The story of the Jubilee Singers, including their Songs" (1903) by J. B. T. Marsh, which was first published in 1877. It was recorded under the title "Band of Gideon" by the Fisk Jubilee Singers on Edison Amberol: 983 in 1912. "Gideon's Band" refers to missionaries and to the missionaries that came from the north to the south after the Civil War in the United States.
It appears in Fenner's 1874 edition with the same lyrics and arrangement as "Gideon's Band; or, De milk-white Horses." African-America Cotter's best-known poem is his collection is "The Band of Gideon" from 1918 which is certainly loosely based on this spiritual.
A different comic song titled "Gideon's band" is referenced by Meade as arranged by Charles R. Dodworth in 1861.
Gideons Band- Circa 1861 from a traditional Minstrel and Camp Meeting song:
VERSE: Oh, keep your hat upon your head
For you may need it when you're dead,
Oh, keep your shoes upon your feet,
That you may walk the golden street.
CHORUS: If you belong to Gideons band,
Oh, here's my heart and here's my hand,
We're hunting for a home.
During that time it was very popular and is completely different than the spiritual- only the words Gideon's band are the same in the title. A version of the Dodworth song was recorded by Al Hopkins and his Bucklebusters in 1928 and is related to Old Uncle Noah.
BALLAD INDEX- Old Uncle Noah
DESCRIPTION: "Old Uncle Noah built him an ark / He built it out of hemlock bark... The animals went in two by two / The elephant and the kangaroo... Mrs. Noah she got drunk / She kicked old Noah out of his bunk..."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: Bible humorous nonballad flood
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 181, (no title) (1 text)
BrownIII 544, "Noah's Ark" (2 short texts, both of the "Gideon's Band" type)
Eddy 75, "Old Uncle Noah" (1 text)
Courlander-NFM, pp. 44-45, (no title) (partial text, which may go here or elsewhere); pp. 246-247, "Noah, Noah" (1 tune, partial text, same as the reference on p. 44)
ST E075 (Partial)
Roud #5355
RECORDINGS:
Al Hopkins & His Buckle Busters, "Gideon's Band" (Brunswick 295, 1929; rec. 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "One More River" (lyrics)
cf. "Who Built the Ark?" (subject)
cf. "Old Noah Built an Ark" (subject)
cf. "Noah Built the Ark" (subject)
cf. "In Frisco Bay (A Long Time Ago; Noah's Ark Shanty)" (subject)
Notes: The account of Noah and the ark occupies Genesis 6-8. One should perhaps note that, while Genesis 6:20 records that Noah took two of every animal, 7:2 tells Noah to take SEVEN pairs of all clean animals.
The Bible also records that Noah "was the first to plant a vineyard" (Gen. 9:20 -- after the flood, one might note). 9:21 records his first episode of drunkenness -- but there is no record of his wife ever drinking; indeed, she is never mentioned in the Bible except in references to Noah's whole family.
The "Gideon's Band" subfamily (marked by the chorus "Do you belong to Gideon's Band, Here's my heart and here's my hand") is quite distinct and may contain verses not about Noah (as, e.g., in the Buckle Busters recording), but since it seems always to include the Noah's Ark verses also, it can't really be split off. - RBW
Gideon's Band; or, De milk-white Horses- Fenner 1874; Same music in Fisk Jubilee Singers
The explanation which has been given us of the origin of this curious hymn is, we think, invaluable as an example of the manner in which external facts grew to have a strange symbolical meaning in the imaginative mind of the negro race.
In a little town in one of the Southern States, a Scriptural panorama was exhibited, in which Gideon's Band held a prominent place, the leader being conspicuously mounted upon a white horse. The black people of the neighborhood crowded to see it, and suddenly, and to themselves inexplicably, this swinging "Milk-White Horses" sprang up among them, establishing itself soon as a standard church and chimney-corner hymn.
[Solo joined by All] Oh, de band ob Gideon, band ob Gideon,
Band ob Gideon, ober in Jordan,
Band ob Gideon, Band ob Gideon,
How I long to see that day.
Oh, de milk-white horses, milk-white horses,
milk-white horses, ober in Jordan,
milk-white horses, milk-white horses,
How I long to see that day.
DUO--I hail to my sister, my sister she bow low,
Say, don't you want to go to hebben,
How I long to see that day.
CHORUS: Oh, de twelve white horses, twelve white horses,
twelve white horses, ober in Jordan,
Twelve white horses, twelve white horses,
How I long to see that day.
Oh, hitch'em to the chariot, hitch'em to de chariot,
hitch' em to de chariot, ober in Jordan,
Hitch'em to the chariot, hitch'em to de chariot,
How I long to see that day.
2. DUO--I hail to my brudder, my brudder he bow low,
Say, don't you want to go to hebben?--
How I long to see dat day!
CHORUS--Oh, ride up in de chariot, ride up in de chariot,
Ride up in de chariot ober in Jordan;
Ride up in de chariot, ride up in de chariot--
How I long to see dat day!
It's a golden chariot, a golden chariot,
Golden chariot ober in Jordan;
Golden chariot, a golden chariot--
How I long to see dat day!
3. DUO--I hail to de mourner, de mourner he bow low,
Say, don't you want to go to hebben?--
How I long to see dat day!
CHORUS--Oh, de milk an' honey, milk an' honey,
Milk an' honey ober in Jordan;
Milk an' honey, milk an' honey--
How I long to see dat day!
Oh, de healin' water, de healin' water,
Healin' water ober in Jordan
Healin' water, de healin' water--
How I long to see dat day!
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