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Bell Done Ring
See: Bell Da Ring (1867 version)
See also: Live A-Humble/Brother Jonah/Jonah And The Whale
See also: Bell Da Ring/Humble Yourself
Traditional Old-Time Gospel;
ARTIST: Collected in Georgia- Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands By Lydia Parrish, Art Rosenbaum, Olin Downes
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s;
RECORDING INFO: Bell Done Ring
Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands By Lydia Parrish, Art Rosenbaum, Olin Downes
RECORDING INFO: Brother Jonah
Rt - Live Humble; Ninevah Land; Bell Done Rung
Famous Blue Jay Singers. Birmingham Quartet Anthology. Jefferson County Alabama (1926-53), Clanka Lanka CL 144,001/002, LP (1980), trk# B.03 [1932/01]
Stikeleather, James G.. Folk Songs of America. The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection...., Library of Congress AFS L68, LP (1978), trk# 4a [1925/11/11]
RELATED TO: "Bell Da Ring;" "Wake Up Jonah" "Humble Yourself the Bell Done Rung"
OTHER NAMES: "Bell Done Ring" "De Bell Ring"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Ballad Index;
NOTES: "Bell Da Ring" is a traditional African-American spiritual that was published in the 1867 book, Slave Songs of the United States." It's related to a group of songs that use the word "humble":
"Live Humble," or "Live A-Humble" (John Work 1915)
"Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung"
"Bell Da Ring" or "Bell Done Rung"
"Brother Jonah" (Gordon)
"Jonah And The Whale" (Brown Collection)
"Can’t you live humble?"
Several spirituals use "Bell Done Ring" or"Bell Ring" or "Heaven-bell ring" and in this song the word, "humble" could replace the words "heaven-bell."
Laura Towne was a missionary that came to St. Helen's Island in SC during the Civil War. Early in her diary, April 1862, she writes:
“On Sunday I was much pleased with one of the hymns the negroes spontaneously set up, of which the refrain was—“No man can hinder me.” It was, I believe, saying that nothing could prevent access to Jesus…. Another song is, “The Bell done ring.” Another, “Bound to go.” Another, “Come to Jesus.” They sing the tune of “John Brown’s Body” to other words, and in church or out of it, whenever they begin one of these songs, they keep time with their feet and bodies. It sounded very strange in the church.”
Here's the Ballad Index info on the related song, Jonah:
BALLAD INDEX Jonah and the Whale (Living Humble)
DESCRIPTION: The story of Jonah in song, recognized by the chorus, "Living humble, humble, humble, Living humble all your days" or "Humble, humble, humble my soul." Unlike most Jonah songs, this appears to be "straight"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible whale
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 346, "Jonah and the Whale" (6 text and/or fragments, but only the "A" and "B" texts, both short, are this piece; "C" is "Hide Away" and "D"-"F" are "Who Did Swallow Jonah?")
Roud #15215
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hide Away (Jonah and the Whale)" (subject) and references there
Besides the above-mentioned songs there are other songs like "New Burying Ground" found in Barton's 1899 "Old plantation Hymns" that have a "Want you to live humble, humble; humble yourselves" section.
Here's typical lyrics for Live Humble/Humble Yourself, The Bell Done Rung:
Live humble, humble, humble yourselves,
De bell done ring,
Live humble, humble, humble yourselves,
De bell done ring.
BELL DONE RING-The song is about Jonah and his tribulations but was unable to be transcribed from Henry, an African-American. From Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands By Lydia Parrish, Art Rosenbaum, Olin Downes
CHORUS: Live humble, humble, humble your soul,
The bell done ring.
Live humble, little chil'ren,
The bell done ring.
Live humble, little soul,
The bell done ring.
Live humble, I say,
The bell done ring.
VERSE: Live humble,
The bell done ring.
Live humble,
The bell done ring.
Live humble,
The bell done ring.
Live humble,
The bell done ring.
CHORUS
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