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Clear The Line Before You Call
Traditional Spiritual
ARTIST: Olivia and Jack Solomon, eds., Honey in the Rock: The Ruby Pickens Tartt Collection of Religious Folk Songs from Sumter County, Alabama (Mercer University Press, 1991, p. 14)
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: Early 1900s; 1942 John Lomax
RECORDING INFO: Clear The Line Before You Call
John Lomax 1942; Alec Robertson; Fisk University Mississippi Delta Collection
Olivia and Jack Solomon, eds., Honey in the Rock: The Ruby Pickens Tartt Collection of Religious Folk Songs
OTHER NAMES: "Clear De Line Befo' You Call"
RELATED TO: Clear The Line Before You Call- Elder Beck -- There's a dead cat on the line
SOURCES: John Lomax 1942; Alec Robertson,
Pickens Tartt Collection of Religious Folk Songs
NOTES: "Clear The Line Before You Call" is a spiritual collected from the Pickens Tartt Collection of Religious Folk Songs. Another version was collected by John Lomax in 1942 from Alec Robertson (Silent Grove Baptist Church- Clarksdale, Mississippi) that appears in the Fisk University Mississippi Delta Collection. The Catalog of copyright entries at Library of Congress in 1915 shows (W.E.) Edminston copyrighted the song, "Clear the line before you call" 13736.
Joe Offer (Mudcat Discussion Forum) has been posting the song contents of school song books. The Music For Living Series, Book Three, "Now and Long Ago," Silver Burdett Co., has the basic melody for "Clear The Line" on p. 9, 1956 edition. The short version in the school song book lists the song as 'Folk Song, Alabama." All religious content is removed and the telephone is the object of the song.
You've got to clear the line before you call,
You've got to clear the line before you call,
If you ever want to get an answer,
You've got to clear the line before you call.
The school song book contents are going to be useful is several ways, first of all by providing a source of basic melodies for lyrics published elsewhere without music, as in the case here, or by providing the basic melody for those who have difficulty in reading full scores, or simply as a quick reference to a large body of songs.
The following skit from Elder Green on a 78 record titled "There's a Dead Cat on the Line" helps explain what "Clear The Line Before You Call" means:
Elder Beck -- There's a Dead Cat on the Line
Now give an "Amen."
Amen.
Clear the line before you talk.
Christ is set so far above.
If you expect to get an answer, you better clear the line before you talk.
And all the people said, "Amen."
Amen.
And my friends this morning I want to call your attention to Second Chronicles Chapter Seven verse Fourteen, and it reads, "If my people, which are called by my name, if they will humble themselves, and pray, then will I hear from heaven, and I will heal their land."
My subject is "There's a dead cat on the line."
My friends one time a cat went out and crawled up the telegram pole, went out on the wires and died from electrocution.
They couldn't get a message through.
They were trying very, very hard.
Well, well, well, well, we can't get this message through.
So finally they sent out the lineman.
The lineman went out and sent the message back, he said, "We've found a dead cat on the line."
... they took the dead cat off, then after a while the messages began to go on through.
Well, church, get that dead cat off the line.
If you're backsliding, you've got a dead cat on the line.
If you're backbiting, you've got a dead cat on the line.
Ah, Lordy, if you're whiskey drinking, you've got a dead cat on the line.
... your number playing, sitting up here with number slips in your pocketbook, there's a dead cat on the line.
Well, well, well, you better clear your line before you call.
... waiting on your pastor, can't get through, cause you've got a dead cat on the line.
Some of you sittin' up here, won't speak to your neighbor, mad at the preacher, mad at the teacher...get that dead cat off the line.
Now clear the line before you call.
Well, Christ is set so far above.
Well, if you expect to get an answer, well clear the line, well clear the line before you call.
Christ is set so far above.
Well, if you expect to get an answer, well clear the line before you call.
Now, give me, "Amen."
Amen.
Clear The Line Before You Call- Honey in the Rock: The Ruby Pickens Tartt Collection of Religious Folk Songs; By Olivia Solomon Notes: It has been suggested that the telephone metaphor could have evolved naturally, with origins in the work song; railroad tie tamping along the line, 'track lining' songs or calls. Also possible is clearing the line or chain of command before calling on a person of authority. In any case, the implication here is that grievances must be resolved before one may approach God.
CHORUS: You got ter clear de line befo'you call, 'fo' you call,
Cause God is angry wid us all, wid us all,
En ef you ever 'spects ter git to heaven,
You got ter clear de line befo'you call.
En ef you has a naught agenst yo' sister,
Take her to de Lord, Lord in prayer.
En ef you ever 'spects ter git to heaven,
You got ter clear de line befo'you call.
CHORUS:
En ef you has a *naught agenst yo' auntie,
Take her to de Lord, Lord in prayer.
En ef you ever 'spects ter git to heaven,
You got ter clear de line befo'you call.
CHORUS:
*naugnt- should be understood both as the indefinite pronoun, as in 'anything,' and as a specific noun, as in 'zero.'
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