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Dem Bones/Dry Bones/Them Bones
SEE: Bones, Bones, Bones (Ezekiel In the Valley)
Traditional Spiritual
ARTIST: spiritual collected by Lomax from No. 177. Group of African-Americans, Nashville, Tenn., 1933.
SHEET MUSIC: http://books.google.com/books?id=eHvdOA0yHdQC&pg=PA406&dq=funeral+ballads&as_brr=3&cd=5
#v=onepage&q=spiritual&f=false
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: 1800s;
RECORDING INFO: Dem Bones
Group of African-Americans. Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Our Singing Country, MacMillan, Sof (2000/1941), p 23 [1933]
RECORDING INFO: Dese Bones Gwine/Goin' to Rise Again [Laws I18/Me I-B125]
At - These Bones Going/Gonna to Rise Again
Lomax, J. A. & A. Lomax / American Ballads and Folk Songs, MacMillan, Bk (1934), p597
Laws, G. Malcolm / Native American Balladry, Amer. Folklore Society, Bk (1964/1950), p255
Sandburg, Carl (ed.) / American Songbag, Harcourt, Sof (1955/1928), p470
Lynn, Frank (ed.) / Songs for Swinging Housemothers, Fearon, Sof (1963/1961), p309 (These Bones Going/Gonna to Rise Again)
Best, Dick & Beth (eds.) / New Song Fest Deluxe, Hansen, Sof (1971/1948), p146
Lomax, Alan / Folksongs of North America, Doubleday Dolphin, Sof (1975/1960), p476/#249
Belleville A Cappella Choir. Southern Journey. Vol. 11: Honor the Lamb, Rounder 1711, CD (1998), trk# 12 [1960/04/28] (Creation)
Fairfield Four. I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray, Warner 46686-2, CD (1997), trk# 2 (These Bones)
Hudson, Ophelia. Solomon, Jack & Olivia (eds.) / Sweet Bunch of Daisies, Colonial Press, Bk (1991), p225 [1938ca] (Dry Bones Gonna/Gwiner Rise Again)
Seekers. Seekers, Pickwick SPC-3068, LP (197?), trk# A.05
Song Spinners. Johnson, Margaret & Travis (eds) / Early American Songs from ... the Spi, AMP, Fol (1943), #22
RECORDING INFO: Dry Bones [Me III-C 60]
Lloyd, A. L. & Isabel Arete de Ramon y Rivera (eds.) / Folk Songs of the, Oak, Sof (1966), # 63
Herder, Ronald (ed.) / 500 Best-Loved Song Lyrics, Dover dn500/500, Sof (1998), p 89
Cook, Judy. Far from the Lowlands, Cook CEI-JC02-0005, CD (2000), trk# 19
Hayes, Roland. My Songs, Vanguard VRS- 494, LP (1956), trk# A.05
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Anthology of American Folk Music, Smithsonian/Folkways SFW 40090, CD( (1997), trk# 51 [1928/02]
Lunsford, Bascom Lamar. Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Smithsonian SF 40082, CD (1996), trk# 11 [1928/02]
Redpath, Jean; and Lisa Neustadt. Angels Hovering Round, Fretless 138, LP (1978), trk# A.04
Rustical Quality String Band. Rustical Quality String Band, Red Dog RD 8312, LP (1983), trk# B.07
Dry Bones Gonna/Gwiner Rise Again
OTHER NAMES: "Dry Bones" "Dem Bones" "Dem Dry Bones" "Bones, Bones, Bones (Ezekiel In the Valley)"
RELATED TO: "Dem Bones Gonna Rise Again"
SOURCES: Folk index; [Me III-C 60] Our Singing Country- A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs By John A. Lomax
NOTES: "Dem Bones (Them Bones)" or "Dry Bones" was collected from a group of African-Americans, Nashville, Tenn., 1933 and published in Our Singing Country- A Second Volume of American Ballads and Folk Songs By John A. Lomax. It's also titled "Bones, Bones, Bones (Ezekiel In the Valley)."
"Dem Bones," "Dry Bones" or "Dem Dry Bones" is a well-known traditional spiritual song, used allegedly to teach basic anatomy to children (although its description is not anatomically correct). The melody was written by African-American author and songwriter James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938). Two versions of this traditional song are used widely, the second an abridgement of the first. The lyrics are based on Ezekiel 37:1-14, where the prophet visits the Valley of Dry Bones and causes them to become alive by God's command.
The chorus of the song is as follows:
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.
Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.
Now hear the word of the Lord.
Followed by the verses:
Toe bone connected to the foot bone
Foot bone connected to the leg bone
Leg bone connected to the knee bone...
Biblical passage: American Folk Songs of Black Origin: https://www.forumbiodiversity.com/showthread.php?p=55
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones.
And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and lo, they were very dry.
And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
Ezekiel, 37:1-4.
In which a bizarre vision of Jewish cultural resurrection becomes a song to teach children how human bones fit together, thanks to African-American preachers.
Ezekiel, priest from a long line of high priests and possible epileptic, was part of the Babylonian Captivity--when, after the kingdom of Judah had been conquered by the Babylonian Empire, the Jews had been deported en masse to Babylon. Around 595 BC, Ezekiel began having prophetic visions, often filled with lurid, strange imagery, that went on for some twenty years and at times left him paralyzed and, some have argued, psychotic; the Book of Ezekiel is a compendium of them.
Ezekiel believed that the Judeans' calamity was a just punishment by God upon a morally wayward people, but he prophesized that a remnant of the true Chosen People, now exiled in Babylon and their kingdom lost, would one day return and reunite, if not as a political nation, then as a religious fraternity.
So in one vision, Ezekiel wanders a valley strewn with ancient corpses. God asks him whether the bones that he sees on the ground could live again, then makes the bones stir in the wind, rise and link together. He drapes them in sinew and flesh, and at last breathes life into them. So Israel is resurrected, if only for a moment.
Some 2500 years pass. The Jews return from Babylon, are conquered again; Babylonia falls to the Persians. The Romans rise and collapse, bequeathing in death a new religion (in which the book of Ezekiel is shelved in the Old Testament) to their barbarian successors. Barbarians become kings, aristocrats, priests. Their kingdoms send ships to America, found colonies; Africans are shipped over as slaves, converted to Christianity.
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By the late 19th Century, Ezekiel's vision had become a popular sermon topic for black ministers in the U.S., particularly in the South. In God's Trombones the writer James Weldon Johnson recounted
"I remember hearing in my boyhood sermons that were current, sermons that passed with only slight modifications from preacher to preacher and from locality to locality. Such sermons [included] "The Valley of Dry Bones," which was based on the vision of the prophet in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel..."
Black ministers took the Bible as a starting point for long, improvised sermons, favoring great dramatic passages that could serve as cogent metaphors for a people living under Jim Crow--the parting of the Red Sea, the fall of Jericho and the walk through the valley of dry bones. The ministers would extravagantly riff off of the actual verse, so while Ezekiel only wrote one line about the bones assembling ("there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone"), the ministers broke the image down and drew it out: Listen! On the day of resurrection, the leg bone! will be connected to the thigh bone! The arm bone...will be connected to the elbow bone! The back bone...will be connected to the neck bone!
The Rev. J.M. Gates' sermon on the valley of dry bones, from 1926, shows how it was done
Dry Bones In The Valley
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The sermon lent itself naturally to musical accompaniment (James Weldon Johnson and his brother, J. Rosmond Johnson, have been credited with the most well-known melody), and recordings by the Famous Myers Jubilee Singers, from 1928, (Black Vocal Groups Vol. 4.) and the Four Gospel Singers (Charlotte, N.C. Gospel), from 1931, show the richness of the musical variations in this period.
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It was the Delta Rhythm Boys who developed "Dry Bones" as most people know it, introducing the song's major hook--the use of half-step increases for each bone connection, and half-step decreases with each bone unlinked, a simple trick that added suspense and, above all, catchiness to the song.
"Dry Bones" devolved into a pop novelty (here's Herman Munster's version), akin to "Davy Crockett" or "Purple People Eater," with "now hear the word of the Lord" sometimes replaced by the generic "and that's the way of the world.". And ultimately, "Dry Bones" became a standard of American childhood, sung in student musicals, on bus rides, in summer camp, on field trips. And true to the theory that kids can and will make any song's lyrics dirty, I recall my friends and I would crack each other up with lines like "the leg bone is connected to the ass bone" and many other worse variations.
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Popkiss paused, looked up from his Testament, stretched out his arms on either side. The men were very silent in their pitch-pine pews.
"Oh my brethren, think on that open valley, think on it with me...a valley, do I picture it, by the shaft of a shut-down mine, where, under the dark mountain side, the slag heaps lift their heads to the sky, a valley such as those valleys in which you yourself abide...Know you not those same dry bones?...You know them well...Bones without flesh and sinew, bones without skin and breath...
Must we not come together, my brethren, everyone of us, as did the bones of that ancient valley, quickened with breath, bone to bone, sinew to sinew, skin to skin...Unless I speak falsely, an exceeding great army."
Ballad Index- Saw the Light from Heaven (Dry Bones (I))
DESCRIPTION: "Enoch lived to be Three hundred and sixty-five And the Lord came down And took him up to heaven alive. I saw, I saw, I saw the light from heaven come shining all around." Other assorted Bible stories, such as the dry bones in the valley
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (recording, Bascom Lamar Lunsford)
KEYWORDS: religious Bible
FOUND IN: US(SE)
Roud #17922
RECORDINGS:
Bascom Lamar Lunsford, "Dry Bones" (Brunswick 231, 1928; Brunswick 314, 1929; on AAFM2, BLLunsford01, Babylon)
Notes: Among the incidents outlined here:
* Enoch's disappearance at age 365: Gen. 5:21-24
* Paul (and Silas) in prison during an earthquake: Acts 16:25-26
* Moses and the Burning Bush: Exodus 3:2ff.
* Dry bones walking: Ezek. 37:1-10
Other incidents, such as Eve's account of "Satan a-tempting me," are not directly Biblical (e.g. in Gen. 3:13, Eve blamed the Serpent for her behavior, but Satan is not named). - RBW
Zek'l Weep
DESCRIPTION: "Zek'l weep, Zek'l moan, Flesh come a-creepin' off o' Zek'l bones... I know you goin' to miss me when I'm gone." "Star in the east, star in the west, Wish that star was on my breast" "Hush little baby don't you cry, Know that your mother was born to die"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Scarborough)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
BrownIII 657, "'Zekiel'll Weep and 'Zekiel'll Moan" (1 fragment)
Sandburg, pp. 449-450, "Zek'l Weep" (1 text, 1 tune)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 209-210, (no title) (1 text)
ST San449 (Full)
Roud #12174
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "All My Trials" (floating lyrics) and references there
Notes: Sandburg's first verse here may be a backward telling of the Valley of Dry Bones in Ezek. 37:1-14. Or, again, it may not.
Scarborough's text never mentions Ezekiel, but the rest seems to belong here. I think. - RBW
DRY BONES- Roland Hayes, My Favorite Spirituals [original title: My Songs] (1948; Dover, 2001, pp. 34-37; with music, arranged by Roland Hayes)
God called Ezekiel by His word,
"Go down and prophesy!"
"Yes, Lord!"
Ezekiel prophesied by the power of God;
Commanded the bones to rise.
Dey gonna walk aroun'.
Dry bones, dey gonna wal aroun' wid de
Dry bones, dey gonna walk aroun'.
Dry bones, why don't you rise an' hear de word of de Lord.
"Tell me, how did de bones get together wid de leg bone?
Prophesy!"
"Ah, well, de toe bone connected wid de foot bone;
De foot bone connected wid de ankle bone;
De ankle bone connected wid de leg bone;
De leg bone connected wid de knee bone;
De knee bone connected wid de thigh bone;
Rise and hear de word of de Lord!"
BONES, BONES, BONES- Golden Gate Quartet
Ezekiel was in the valley, it was all the Lord's days,
Well then God told Ezekiel to prophesize
And "Hear ye the word of the Lord."
Ezekiel was in the valley, it was all the Lord's days,
Well then, God told Ezekiel to prophesize
And "Hear ye the word of the Lord."
God told Ezekiel as the son of man
Go preach the Gospel to the sinful man.
But the people of Israel, they got so wicked
my God stops I'll call Ezekiel,
"Hey Ezekiel come prophesize.
The children of Isreal were gonna die."
Ezekiel in the valley to prophesize
And "Hear ye the word of the Lord."
Then the toe and the foot bone,
join together
The foot and the ankle bone
join together
Then the ankle and leg bone
join together
Then the leg and knee bone
join together
Then theknee and thigh bone
join together
Then the thigh and hip bone
join together
Then the hip and backbone
join together
Then the back and the rib bone
join together
Hear ye the word of the Lord.
The fingers and the hand bone
join together
The hand and the wrist bone
join together
The wrist and the arm bone
join together
The arm and elbow bone
join together
The elbow and the muscle bone
join together
The muscle and the shoulder bone
The shoulder and the collar bone
join together
The collar and the neck bone
join together
the neck and the jaw bone
join together
The jaw and the skull bone
join together
Then Hear ye the word of the Lord.
Then the foot bone began to walk
The jawbone began to talk
They all got together under God's command
Walkin' and a talkin' like a nat'ral man.
Dem bones, dry bones
DEM BONES- No. 177. Collected Lomax from group of African-Americans, Nashville, Tenn., 1933.
1. Dem bones, dem bones, dem jee-umpin' bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem jee-umpin' bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem jee-umpin' bo-o-ones.
Chorus: Bones, bones, won't you tell me the word of God?
My Lawd, down in the valley one day,
2. Well, de toe bone jump to de foot bone.
And de foot bone jump to de ankle bone.
And de ankle bone jump to de leg bone.
3. Well, de leg bone jump to de knee bone,
And de knee bone jump to de thigh bone,
And de thigh bone jump to de hip bone.
4. Well, de hip bone jump to de back bone,
And de back bone jump to de neck bone,
And de neck bone jump to de head bone.
5. Well, de finger bone jump to de hand bone,
And de hand bone jump to de wrist bone,
And de wrist bone jump to de arm bone.
6. Well, de arm bone jump to de elbone,
And de elbone jump to de muscle bone,
And de muscle bone jump to de shoulder bone.
7. Well, de shoulder bone jump to de back bone,
And de back bone jump to de neck bone,
And de neck bone jump to de head bone.
8. Dem bones, dem bones, dem jee-umpin' bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem jee-umpin' bones,
Dem bones, dem bones, dem jee-umpin' bo-o-ones.
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