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City Of Refuge/You Better Run
Traditional Spiritual
ARTIST: from the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, #564, Volume III from an anonymous contributor
YOUTUBE: Elivis live: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quTLf1QyLdM
Elvis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzdq7jAWTjE
LISTEN ONLINE: Rev. Flemming / Mt Carmel Baptist Church-"You Better Run" (To The City of Refuge) http://www.jambalayah.com/node/549
Dr. C. J. Johnson "You Better Run (To The City Of Refuge)
http://www.jambalayah.com/node/548
Wiseman Quartet 1923
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s; 1914 The Religious Development of the Negro in Virginia: A Dissertation by Joseph Brummell Earnest; First recording Wiseman Quartet 1923
RECORDING INFO: City Of Refuge
Rodeheaver, Homer (ed.) / Rodeheaver's Negro Spirituals, Rodeheaver, Fol (1923), #16/20 "You Better Run"
Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p 93
"You Better Run"
Presley, Elvis. /Peace In The Valley- You Better Run, 1:49,
Johnson, Blind Willie. Complete Blind Willie Johnson, Columbia Legacy C2K 52835, CD (1993), trk# 1.07 [1928/12/05] "I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge"
Flemming, Rev. / Mt Carmel Baptist Church- "You Better Run" (To The City of Refuge)
Johnson, Dr. C. J. / "You Better Run (To The City Of Refuge)
OTHER NAMES: "You Better Run (To The City Of Refuge)," "Run To The City Of Refuge" "You Better Run," "Run, Run, Run" (Chad Mitchell Trio)
RELATED TO: "Run Jimmy Run" or "Pateroller Song"
SOURCES: The Religious Development of the Negro in Virginia: A Dissertation by Joseph Brummell Earnest (Norfolk, Va.: University of Virginia, 1914)
NOTES: "City Of Refuge" or "You Better Run" is a spiritual collected from the Brown Collection of NC Folklore. The Brown collection has just a fragment (incomplete version) as does Dorothy Scarborough. The first version in print appears to be from The Religious Development of the Negro in Virginia: A Dissertation by Joseph Brummell Earnest (Norfolk, Va.: University of Virginia, 1914).
CITY OF REFUGE From The Religious Development of the Negro in Virginia: A Dissertation... by Joseph Brummell Earnest (Norfolk, Va.: University of Virginia, 1914), page 154:
[The text also has this interesting observation:] Anyone who will take the trouble to attend a Negro church during big meeting times will hear community authorship of hymns going on in his very presence. For instance, in certain songs the mere substitution of a different name enables them to sing again the whole stanza without feeling that they are repeating. The most ignorant kitchen servant might by such means contribute to the most beautiful songs. That this has often happened no student of Negro church music can deny.
[THE CITY OF REFUGE]
1. The decree was signed by Darius, and then,
Daniel was cast in the lion's den;
God sent an angel on his accord,
He came and locked the lion's jaw.
CHORUS. I am going to run, I am going to run,
I am going to run to the City of Refuge,
I am going to run.
2. Job was a man whom God did love.
God gave Job a home above.
The time came he had to die,
Then Job was taken up in the sky. CHORUS.
3. Elijah and Elisha they went together.
God took one and left the other.
Elijah looked and did aspire.
He saw the chariot and the horses of fire. CHORUS.
[Verses 4-8 omitted in the text.]
9. They put John in a kettle of oil.
God was with him and he never got soiled.
With hallowed power, the angel came,
Went into the kettle and cooled the flame. CHORUS.
In 1925 Dorothy Scarborough published a version titled, City of Refuge, in "On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs." Samuel Derieux of South Carolina remembered the lyrics to the chorus only (with tune):
You better run,
You better run,
You better run to the City of Refuge,
You better run.
Newman Ivey White gives the chorus of City of Refuge in his American Negro Folk-Songs:
They had to run,
They had to run,
They had to run to the City of Refuge,
They had to run.
The Originals book says: originally a gospel phrase "Run! Run! Run to the city of refuge, Run! Oh Run! Or else you'll be consumed" And then "You better run" (trad.)
First recording possibly in 1923 by the Wiseman Quartet or Sextet. Release information unknown, but reissued on the Document label. Other early recording on December 5, 1928 by Blind Willie Johnson as "I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge" released on Columbia 14391D. Also recorded on August 23, 1939 by The Norfolk Jubilee Singers as "You Better Run" and possibly released on Decca. This version was possibly the inspiration for Elvis Presley's version recorded March 31, 1972 (called "You Better Run").
In 1988, Nick Cave used similar lyrics in his song "City of Refuge", so I guess this would be a partial cover. In 2006, Grant Lee Phillips covered "City of Refuge" by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds.
Ballad Index-City of Refuge
DESCRIPTION: "There is coming a time and it won't be long, You will attend to your business and let mine alone." "You better run." ("Run to the city of refuge.") "Paul and Silas bound in jail."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BrownIII 560, "City of Refuge" (1 fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 208-209, "City of Refuge" (1 fragment of the chorus, 1 tune (which includes the verse even though the informant did not remember the words))
Roud #11828
RECORDINGS:
Blind Willie Johnson, "I'm Gonna Run to the City of Refuge" (Columbia 14391-D, 1929; on BWJ01)
Notes: Brown's version is not at all clear why this should be considered a "City of Refuge" text; it never mentions those words, and is a fragment. But there isn't much else to go on.
The mention in song of "cities of refuge" is strange in any case: The cities of refuge were for "the manslayer who kills any person without intent" (Numbers 35:11).
Nor is there any mention of the cities of refuge ever actually being used; they are not mentioned outside Exodus-Deuteronomy, and the few Biblical instances of people wanting sanctuary involve the criminal fleeing into the temple and seizing the horns of the altar (e.g. Joab in 1 Kings 2:28) - RBW
Another common title is "You'd better Run" and the song was adapted by Elvis Presley
and recorded. Elvis version does not use the words "City of Refuge." It was recorded on August 23, 1939 by The Norfolk Jubilee Singers as "You Better Run." Here is a version from the early 1900s collected by John Work:
YOU'D BETTER RUN- John W. Work, American Negro Songs, p 93.
You'd better (He had to) run, run, run-a-run
You'd better run, run, run-a-run
You'd better run to the city of refuge
You'd better run, run, run.
God sent ol' Jonah to the Nineveh land
He didn't obey my God's command
The wind blew the ship from the shore to shore
A whale swallowed Jonah and he wasn't no more.
He had to run....
Read about Samson from his birth
He was the strongest man on earth
He lived way back in ancient times
He killed about a thousand Philistines.
He had to run....
560 City Of Refuge Brown Collection:
White, in ANFS 90, prints a quite different version of this song, with notes. Stanza 3 of his text and the chorus of a song in Scarborough TNFS 256-7 allude to Paul and Silas in jail. White's version, too, has the refrain "He had to run." From an anonymous contributor; without date or address.
CITY OF REFUGE
There is coming a time and it won't be long,
You will attend to your business and let mine alone.
The time is coming, is coming very soon,
For the graveyard land is all in bloom.
You better run.
Old Paul he prayed and he did prevail.
They caught him in Jerusalem and put him in jail.
He stood his trial in the name of the Lord,
Because he had a building not made with hands.
But he had to run.
*Go on, I'll forgive you for what....
*the above fragment is all that was available of verse 3
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