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Didn't It Rain My Elder/Didn't It Rain?
Traditional Spiritual;
ARTIST: from Bahama Songs and Stories: Volume 3 By Charles Lincoln Edwards
YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIEvmwiRiIg Mahalia Jackson
SHEET MUSIC: http://books.google.com/books?id=3cw-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA110&dq=Bahama+songs+and+stories:+A+contribution+to+folk-lore,+Volume&lr=&as_brr=3&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: early 1900s;
RECORDING INFO: Didn't It Rain [Me III-C 47]
Belafonte Folk Singers LPM-2309, LSO-6007, MFCD-782, CD12518
Edwards, Charles Lincoln Bahama Songs and Stories: Volume 3
Lomax, Alan / Folksongs of North America, Doubleday Dolphin, Sof (1975/1960), p477/#250
Houston, Cisco. I Ain't Got No Home, Vanguard VRS 9107, LP (1962?), trk# 16b
Pringle, Valentine. I Hear America Singing, RCA (Victor) LSP 2689, LP (1963), trk# A.05
Van Ronk, Dave. Just Dave Van Ronk, Mercury SR 60908, LP (196?), trk# A.05
Golden Gate Quartet SOL512,
Mahalia Jackson CBS 29789,
Nana Mouskouri Philips 848 108-2,
Phoenix Singers Warner W1485,
Margret Roadknight MC3009.
OTHER NAMES: "Didn't It Rain" "Didn't It Rain Children"
RELATED TO:
SOURCES: Folk index; Bahama Songs and Stories: Volume 3 by Charles Lincoln Edwards 1895;
NOTES: "Didn't It Rain My Elder" is a traditional spiritual that is a version of "Didn't It Rain". This version is from Bahama Songs and Stories: Volume 3 By Charles Lincoln Edwards and is the first version I've found (see complete lyrics below). These songs were brought to the Bahamas from African-Americans and are quite old.
Didn't It Rain My Elder (excerpt)
VERSE: Didn't it rain, my elder,
Didn't it rain, good Lord,
Didn't it rain forty days.
CHORUS: Forty days an' forty nights,
Lord, didn't it rain forty days.
The first recording is from Deacon Len Davis in 1926. The song became established as a black quartet or jubilee quartet song with early recordings by Biddeville Quintette (1929) and Fairview Jubilee Quartet (1930). Several white groups recorded the song including Vaughan Happy Two (1928) and Lily May Ledford of the Coon Creek Girls who heard the song sung at the White House by a black gospel group in 1939.
The song was collected by Howard Odum in 1909 and appears in White (ANFS) and the Brown Collection of NC Folklore [see other versions in this collection].
Didn't It Rain My Elder- Bahama Songs and Stories: Volume 3 By Charles Lincoln Edwards
VERSE: Didn't it rain, my elder,
Didn't it rain, good Lord,
Didn't it rain forty days.
CHORUS: Forty days an' forty nights,
Lord, didn't it rain forty days.
VERSE: Didn't it rain, Great Sestern,
Didn't it rain to Key West too,
Didn't it rain forty days.
CHORUS: Forty days an' forty nights,
Lord, didn't it rain forty days.
VERSE: Didn't it rain, my leady,
Didn't it rain, Rocky Bay too,
Didn't it rain forty days.
CHORUS: Forty days an' forty nights,
Lord, didn't it rain forty days.
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