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Cold Icy Hand/Death Is Going Cold Icy Hands On Me/Conversation With Death
Traditional Spiritual 1898
ARTIST: from William E. Barton, "Old Plantation Hymns"
SHEET MUSIC: http://books.google.com/books?id=ArEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA448&dq=measure.+the+surprise+of+
the+shock&cd=9#v=onepage&q=measure.%20the%20surprise%20of%20the%20shock&f=false
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel
DATE: probably 1700s; 1898
RECORDING INFO:
William E. Barton, "Old Plantation Hymns"
Johnson and Johnson, the Book of American Negro Spirituals, book 2, p. 93
OTHER NAMES: "Death Is Going To Lay His Cold Icy Hands On Me" "Conversation With Death"
RELATED TO: "Oh Death" songs
SOURCES: Folk Index; William E. Barton, "Old Plantation Hymns"
NOTES: "Cold Icy Hand" or "Death Is Going To Lay His Cold Icy Hands On Me" is a traditional spiritual collected from William E. Barton in his 1898 article "Old Plantation Hymns."
Notes by Barton: Cold Icy Hand
No classification of *African-American hymns is entirely satisfactory; but a very large class is made up of a refrain to which is sung a series of verses in variable order, often having no special relation to the refrain. Many of them are used with scores of different songs, and never twice in the same order. Some present a slight variation in the refrain, but have a uniform response. Of these I have a large number. One very rare one, and one that I count among the best, is "Cold Icy Hand." The burden of the song is the response, "Death goner lay his cold icy hand on me." An indescribable effect is given to the "cold icy hand" by a syncopation. The word "cold" has the accent on the down beat, and the first syllable of 'icy" takes a half-note in hte middle of the measure. The surprise of the shock which this gives to the nerves, together with the weird tune, which prepares fro any uncanny effect, is not unlike the touch of a cold hand.
DEATH IS GOING TO LAY HIS COLD ICY HANDS ON ME- Park New Choir from Johnson and Johnson, the Book of American Negro Spirituals, book 2, p. 93.
Death is going to lay his cold icy hands on me
Lord! on me
Death is going to lay his cold icy hands on me
One morning I was walking along
I heard a voice and saw no man
Said go in peace and sin no more
Your sins forgiven and your soul set free
One of these mornings I won't be long
You'll look for me and I'll be gone
Yes one of these mornings about twelve o'clock
This old world is going to reel and rock
DEATH'S GWINE-TER LAY HIS COLD ICY HANDS ON ME- Johnson and Johnson, the Book of American Negro Spirituals, book 2, p. 93. In the same volume, p. 96-99, is another quite different version with different music ("Rare version") which is from William E. Barton, "Old Plantation Hymns"
O, sinner, sinner, you better pray,
Death's gwine-ter lay his cold icy hands on me,
Or yo' soul will get lost at de judgement day,
Death's gwine-ter lay his cold icy hands on me.
Some o' dese mornin's bright an' fair,
Death's gwine-ter lay his cold icy hands on me,
I'll take-a my wings an' cleve de air,
Death's gwine-ter lay his cold icy hands on me.
Cryin', O, lord! Cryin' O my Lord, Cryin' O, Lord!
Death's gwine-ter lay his cold icy hands on me.
Yes, I'm so glad I've been redeemed,
Death's gwine-ter lay his cold icy hands on me,
I'm ready fo' to cross ol' Jordan's stream,
Death's gwine-ter lay his cold icy hands on me.
Cryin', O, Lord! Cryin' O my Lord! Cryin' O Lord!
Death's gwine-ter lay his cold icy hands on me, on me.
COLD, ICY HAND- William E. Barton, "Old Plantation Hymns" (New England Magazine, December 1898, reprinted in Bernard Katz, The Social Implications of Early Negro Music in The United States, Arno/The New York Times, 1969, p. 81; with substantially the same music
1. O sinner! Sinner! you better pray!
Death goner lay his cold, icy hand on me!
Or your soul be lost at de jedgment day!
Death goner lay his cold, icy hand on me!
REFRAIN: Cryin', O Lord! Cryin' O my Lord! Cryin', O Lord,
Death goner lay his cold, icy hand on me!
2. O, sinner, you be careful how you walk on de cross,--
Or your foot may slip an' you' soul be los'.
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