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By An' By/Bye and Bye/Way By and By
Traditional Old-Time Gospel; Some versions are based on "We'll Understand It Better Bye and Bye" Tindley 1906
ARTIST: Collected The Southern Workman, Volumes 23-24 - Page 46; Hampton Institute - African Americans - 1894
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; 1914 Journal of American Folk-Lore
RECORDING INFO: By and By/Bye and Bye
Davis Sisters. Bye and Bye Davis Sisters 1949-1952 Gotham/Heritage CD 1950/2003
Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p 63 (Bye and Bye)
Givens, Fanny. Owens, William A. (ed.) / Texas Folk Songs. 2nd edition, SMU Press, Bk (1976/1950), p173 [1941]
By and By - Cory, Alicia May Alicia May. Skinnydipping in the Flowers, Golden Anchor GA 7777, LP (1976), trk# B.03
Dett, R. N., 1927, "Religious Folk Songs of the Negro," transcribed from the singing of the Hampton students, with music, p. 124-125.
The Southern Workman, Volumes 23-24 - Page 46; Hampton Institute - African Americans - 1894
By and By - Gibson, Bob/Camp, H.
Janie Hunter sang this song, clapping her hands, in the video Alan Lomax's American Patchwork: Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old (VEST13080; formerly PBS Home Video).
Gibson, Bob. Yes I See, Elektra EKL 197, LP (1960), trk# B.05
Way Bye and Bye- "Way Bye and Bye" was recorded in 1954 by the Silvertone Singers of Cincinnati, reissued on V.A., The Best of Excello Gospel: The Golden Era of the 1950s (Ace CDCHD 687).
RELATED TO: "We'll Understand It Better Bye and Bye" Tindley 1906
OTHER NAMES: "Way By and By" "We're gonna Have A Good Time Bye and Bye"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Ballad Index;
Dett, R. N., 1927, "Religious Folk Songs of the Negro," transcribed from the singing of the Hampton students, with music, p. 124-125.
The Southern Workman, Volumes 23-24 - Page 46; Hampton Institute - African Americans - 1894
NOTES ODUM 1909: Howard W. Odum, "Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern. Negroes " (American Journal of Psychology and Education, vol. iii, pp. 307, 364) 1909.
The American journal of religious psychology and education, Volume 3
One who has heard the song "Bye and bye we'll go and see them", rendered in an effective way must recognize its power and beauty. It is pre-eminently a song for the emotions, and suggests scenes of the past and of the future ; it brings back memories that have been forgotten and forms emotions and conceptions that have not before existed. To the negro it is all this—in so far as he is able to grasp the better emotions—but it is mostly a medium through which he can sing his rhythmic feeling off. And with the additional interpretations and additions both in words and in expression, it is scarcely surpassed by any of his spirituals. The simplest form is exactly the same as that of the regular song: "Bye and bye, we'11 go and see them", From this the negroes vary to " Bye and bye I'm a goin' to see him, them, her ". To this chorus they nearly always add in alternate lines " Well it's ", " Well", "An' " and such expressions, thus :
Bye an' bye I'm goin' to see them,
Bye an' bye I 'm goin' to see them,
Well, it 's bye an' bye I 'm goin' to see them,
On de oder shore.
These expressions inserted or omitted at pleasure, serve to give an additional rhythm to the song that seems otherwise to be lacking. The verses of the song, like many others, are practically unlimited. Each is repeated three or six times as the singers prefer, with the refrain " On the other shore " added at the end of each stanza. The negroes sing not only of a brother, sister, father, mother, auntie, preacher and friends, but they also sing of Paul and Silas and Daniel and Moses; they are at liberty to use any name that comes to mind. And they manifest as much feeling and emotion about meeting Moses or Noah or Abraham as they do about a dear old mother. Not only will they meet these loved ones but there will be scenes " over yonder."
I'm got a brother over yonder—on the other shore. I 'm goin' to meet ray brother over yonder. Tryin' time will soon be over, on the other shore. Well, it's mournin' time will soon be over, on the other shore. Cryin' time will soon be over.
Prayin' time will soon be over, etc.
Shoutin* time will soon be over, etc.
If necessary they then turn to the sinner and sing: " Sinnin' time, gambling time, etc., will soon be over." The old plantation song, instead of saying, "Brother Daniel over yonder," had it, "Wonder where is good ole Daniel? Bye an' bye we '11 go an' meet him, 'Way over in de promise Ian'. Wonder where's dem Hebrew children? Wonder where's doubtin* Thomas? Wonder where is sinkin' Peter?" This form is apparently not sung to-day.
NOTES: "By And By" is a traditional African-American spiritual and revival hymn. Several spiritual versions, adapted by African-Americans, were collected in the early 1900s. This one is from R. N. Dett, 1927, "Religious Folk Songs of the Negro," transcribed from the singing of the Hampton students, with music, p. 124-125.
Numerous modern versions including Brother Joe May (Bye and Bye After Awhile) and the Davis Sisters ("Bye and Bye" on Davis Sisters 1949-1952 Gotham/Heritage CD 1950/2003) have been made.
One group of "Bye and Bye" songs are titled "Way By and By" or "We're Gonna Have A Good Time Bye and Bye." Verses appear similarly:
Way bye and bye, way bye and bye,
We gonna have a good time, way bye and bye.
One version "By An' By" was collected and appears in the Journal of American Folklore, Volume 27 By American Folklore Society in 1914. This version is based on the chorus of the hymn by African-American Charles Albert Tindley in 1906.
SOME NEGRO FOLK-SONGS FROM TENNESSEE- COLLECTED AND EDITED BY ANNA KRANZ ODUM.
The following negro folk-songs were heard in Sumner County, Tennessee, and were all sung by the children of one family, sometimes two or three of the children singing "parts," but oftener by one girl of fifteen, who sang as she worked. These children could not read, and they sang only the songs they had heard from their elders at home, in the fields, or at church; and they represent a link in the perpetuation of the negro folk-songs. They live in a rural community of negroes whose inhabitants are somewhat stationary, but not isolated. A few of the songs which they sang have been published before; but the versions are different, and they are given here for the purpose of comparison with the same songs from other localities. The majority of the songs are religious, or "spirituals;" and it was with difficulty that the few secular songs were collected, for the singers were reticent about singing any but "church songs," because, they said, they "belonged to de church." Other singers from the same community were later heard singing some of these songs.
5. BY AN' BY.
By an' by when de mornin' come,
All the saints of God gatherin" home,
An' we'll tell in story
How we'll overcome,
An' we'll understand it better by an' by.
WE"LL UNDERSTAND IT BETTER, BYE AND BYE- Charles Albert Tindley 1906
We are tossed and driven
on the restless sea of time;
Somber skies and howling tempests
oft succeed a bright sunshine;
In that land of perfect day,
when the mists have rolled away,
We will understand it better by and by.
CHORUS: By and by, when the morning comes,
When the saints of God are gathered home,
We will tell the story how we've overcome,
For we'll understand it better by and by.
BY AND BY- R. N. Dett, 1927, "Religious Folk Songs of the Negro," transcribed from the singing of the Hampton students, with music, p. 124-125
CHORUS: O by and by, by and by,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load.
O by and by, by and by,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load.
I know my robe goin' to fit me well,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load,
For I tried it on at the gates of Hell,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load.
CHORUS:
O hell is a deep and dark despair,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load,
So stop, poor sinner, and don't go there,
I'm goin to lay down this heavy load.
CHORUS:
O when I get to heav'n goin' to sing and shout,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load.
For there's no one there for to turn me out,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load.
CHORUS:
O Christians, can't you rise and tell,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load,
That Jesus hath done all things well,
I'm goin' to lay down this heavy load.
CHORUS:
Here's some information from "The Southern Workman, Volumes 23-24 - Page 46; Hampton Institute - African Americans - 1894"
But it is in the last class, the Shouts or Spirituals, that we find the emotional expression of the Negro reaching its highest development. In the Spirituals the length and breadth and depth and height of the American slave's religious and historical experiences are laid bare. The faith that could endure present suffering in the steadfast hope of a good time coming in the future, the longing for deliverance, the shout of triumph when thaldeliveiance came at last, these are the great emotional utteranres of the race througu their religious music.
But the songs are adapted as well to the individual, and represent to the singers today the longing of the sinning soul for God and purity, the belief in a final righting of all wrongs, and the triumph ol the redeemed as they enter upon the 1 ew life. There is real poetry in the rude words, and harmony in the wild-trains, the poetry of simple souls posessed and carried away by great and wonderlul emotions which struggle (or expression through limited vocabularies and primitive harmonies. It is true; and the work in every case of the many rather than of the one, it is not art, it is life, —the life of the human soul itself, mani est in music and in words.
To one who has watched the worshippers at Negro revival meeting, who has seen the spoken prayer and half articulated groan or cry of assent, change by almost imperceptiole degr.es to the musical recitative of the leader followed by musical shouts, cries and responses from the worshipping assembly, there is no longer any mystery about the origin of the spiritual. Tney have broken forth from time to time under stress of great religious excitement from just such assemblies, they have been retained and repeated by a music loving people with few other means of expression, and they have been and are still, to millions of humble souls in our land, the noblest and holiest and most inspiring influence in their cramped and poveriystiicken lives. No truer iolk-imisic can be found in this or any other country, than the religious songs ol the black peasantry of the South.
At the close of the paper the quartet gave several of the well known plantation spirituals, ending with one that belong to the era of emancipation, but which has been only recently obtained by members of the Folk-Lore Society from some of the old people in the neighborhood.'
BY AND BY- The Southern Workman, Volumes 23-24 - Page 46; Hampton Institute - African Americans - 1894
Our bondage'll have an end,
By and by, by and by.
Our bondage'll have an end,
By and by.
Jehovah rules de tide
And the water he'll divide,
Oh, de way he'll open wide.
CHORUS: By and by, by and by
De way he'll open wide,
By and by.
From Egypt's yoke set free
Hail de glorious jubilee,
Oh now happy we will be.
Chorus
Our Lord will save his own
By de power from his throne,
An' ol' Pharaoh he will drown
Chorus
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