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Brother Jonah/Jonah And The Whale
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 Gordon cyl. A100, ms. NC145 from James G. Stikeleather
Asheville, North Carolina; November 11, 1925
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; 1921 Journal of American Folk-Lore
RECORDING INFO: Live Humble
Rt - Brother Jonah
At - Humble Yourself the Bell Done Rung
Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p184 (Live A-Humble)
Georgia Sea Island Singers. Georgia Sea Island Songs, New World NW 278, LP (1977), trk# A.04 [1960ca]
Georgia Sea Island Singers. Southern Journey. Vol. 13: Earliest Times, Rounder 1713, CD (1998), trk# 1 [1959/10]
Ian and Sylvia. Ian & Sylvia, Vanguard VSD 2113, LP (1962), trk# B.06 (Live A-Humble)
Wayside Trio. Winners. California State Fair Exposition, Ikon IER 106, LP (1964), trk# B.03a (Live A-Humble)
Live A-Humble (John Work 1915)
Can't You Live Humble (Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p151b)
Humble Yourself the Bell Done Rung (Fisk Jubilee Singers- Two versions)
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: "Lonesome Valley"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Ballad Index;
NOTES: "Better Live Humble" is a traditional African-American spiritual that was published in the 1921 JOAFL that is 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?"
Here's the Ballad Index info:
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 a typical "Live Humble" song from 1915:
"Live A Humble" from Folk song of the American Negro By John Wesley Work
Chorus: Live a humble, humble,
Humble yourself,
The bells done rung.
Live a humble, humble,
Humble yourself,
The bells done rung.
1. You see God, you see God,
You see God 'n the morning,
He'll come a-riding down the line of time,
Fire'll be falling,
He'll be calling,
Come to judg-a-ment-a-come.
Chorus: Live a humble, humble, etc.
2. Oh, the bells done rung,
And the songs done sung,
And-a don't let it catch you with your work undone.
Chorus: Live a humble, humble, etc.
Here's the Chorus of one version of "Jonah and the Whale":
Live humble, humble yo'self!
I got glory and honor, praise Jesus!
I got glory and honor, praise the Lamb!
BETTER LIVE HUMBLE- 1921 JOAFL Songs from Georgia — The first of the following song is one of my earliest childhood recollections on a Georgia plantation. There are many
more verses. This is all I remember.
Stop Steady, chillun, study yourselves!
Jest let me tell you 'bout God himself
When he was a-walkin' here below,
'Twixt de earth an' den de skies,
Eatin' of de honey an' drinkin' of de wine,
Somethin' like a Jerico, O Noah!
Chorus,
Better live humble.
Better live mil'.
Better live lak some heab'ly chil*. [Repeat indefinitely]
Water 'gins a-risin ' to de third story high.
Hear dem chillun when dey 'gins to cry,
O Noah! open unto us in de name of de Lord!
If you don't let us in, we's gwine to die,
O Noah!
When I gets to heaben, I 'spects to stop.
Choose my seat, an' den sit down,
Argue wid de Father, chatter wid de Son,
Talk about de world dat I jest come from.
Talk about de green tree well as de dry.
Green tree die jest as well as de dry.
Talk about de short grave well as de long.
Short grave die jest as well as de long,
ONoah!
*Simon Gyrene gwine dig my grave,
Dig my grave wid a silver spade.
Angel Gabriel gwine hold me down.
Hold me down wid a golden chain,
O Noah!
*Simon LeGree
Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932
Band A4
Like Lunsford, James G. and Nancy Weaver Stikeleather were residents of Asheville who shared Gordon's interest in folksong. Gordon left no notes about the Stikeleathers, but in 1930 when Dorothy Scarborough was collecting the songs that were to appear in A Song Catcher in Southern Mountains, she was introduced to
Mr. And Mrs. J. G. Stikeleather, prominent in musical circles in Asheville, who were delightfully cooperative in my quest. They knew folk songs, mountain ballads, traditional folk songs, and Negro songs, and knew well how to sing them, so that the Dictaphone and I enjoyed some memorable sessions in their home. Mr. Stikeleather knew many songs he had learned from the Negroes employed by his family in his childhood -- some that I had not heard elsewhere -- which will appear in the book of Negro folk song which I hope to bring out soon. (Scarborough A, p. 73)
Jim Stikeleather (1872-1948) had an uncle who owned a livery stable; here Jim learned some songs from black singers. "Brother Jonah" he heard at "an old Negro camp meeting in Iredell county," to the east of Asheville in Piedmont, North Carolina, "some fifteen or twenty years ago" (1905-10). It is interesting that many of the collectors working in North Carolina in this period recorded "Negro songs" from whites who had learned them, as Stikeleather did, from association with blacks. Not only Gordon but Lunsford, Frank C. Brown, and Newman Ivey White followed this pattern. In fact, most of the American song scholars at this time tended to collect from educated folksong enthusiasts who sought out the traditional singers of their own neighborhoods and learned songs in order to perform them. Perhaps someday a historian of folklore studies will investigate this phenomenon.
Within six months of hearing J. D. Stikeleather's "Brother Jonah," Gordon had recorded another version of the sermon-spiritual from a black singer on the Georgia coast, J. A. S. Spencer, who titled his performance "Ninevah Land" (A561-2, GA343-4). Another of Gordon's Georgia coast informants, Henry Shaw, recorded a version under the title "The Bell Done Rung" for Lydia Parrish during the 1930s (pp. 164-65). The text she prints is shorter than the one given here; she explains that "it has been practically impossible to take down Henry's song as he sings it. When he recites it, he gives an entirely different version. If I ask the meaning of a line, he has to begin all over again -- and we never got very far." One surmises that the sermon portion of the text was improvised. Another and somewhat longer version of the song, from Georgia Sea Island singer John Davis, was collected in 1959-60 by Alan Lomax.
Several spiritual collections print versions under the title "Humble Yo' Self De Bell Done Rung" -- Johnson (pp. 183-89), Marsh (p.301) -- or other titles: Dett (pp. 12-13), Work (p.50). These versions retain the chorus heard here, but the verses do not carry the Jonah story. A version printed by Fenner (p. 87) presents the same chorus and has a chanted, sermon-like set of verses which do not, however, deal with the Jonah story.
Spoken by J. D. Stikeleather:
This song was heard at an old Negro camp meeting in Iredell county some fifteen or twenty years ago and is sung here tonight for the Harvard records by J. D. Stikeleather of Asheville, North Carolina, November eleventh, Nineteen twenty-five.
Mrs. Stikeleather (1887- 1945) was a formally trained musician. Notice how she ends the song by rising to a final note consistent with art music convention. Both she and Mr. Stikeleather sang in local choirs -- according to their family, that is where they met. Also according to family reports, she often sang informally around the house.
BROTHER JONAH
Gordon cyl. A100, ms. NC145; James G. Stikeleather; Asheville, North Carolina
November 11, 1925;
Spoken by J. D. Stikeleather:
This song was heard at an old Negro camp meeting in Iredell county some fifteen or twenty years ago and is sung here tonight for the Harvard records by J. D. Stikeleather of Asheville, North Carolina, November eleventh, Nineteen twenty-five.
Brother Jonah trying to go on board;
The ship went toddelin' down the shore.
The captain on deck got troubled in his mind,
And he searched that ship from the bottom to the top.
He found brother Jonah right fast asleep;
"A-wake up here you sleepy man;
You've gone contrary to de Lord's command."
He took brother Jonah and he cast him overboard;
Along come a whale and swallowed him whole.
The whale made out for the Ninevah land
And cast brother Jonah out on dry sand.
Up grow the gourdy vine over the crown;
Along come an earthy worm and cut him down,
Along came an earthy worm and cut him down,
And there left a cross on Jonah's crown
Chorus:
Lead it humble, humble,
Humble youself, the bell's done rung,
God, the glory, and the honor,
Praise my Jesus;
God, the glory and honor,
Praise the Lamb, praise the Lamb.
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