Do Lord Remember Me
Traditional Spiritual
ARTIST: Some Ballads Of North Carolina by Professor John A. Lomax, (Secretary University Of Texas And Assistant Director Of The Department Of Extention) 1911
SHEET MUSIC: (1863 version)http://books.google.com/books?id=uzEZAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA199&dq=dat+lonesome+valley&ie=ISO-8859-1&output=html
Do Lord, Remember Me- Ernest Phipps' Holiness Quartet- 1927
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcUVscX22W0
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel;
DATE: Early 1800s; 1863; Recorderd as "Do My Lord Remember Me" Deacon Leon Davis 1927 OKeh;
RECORDING INFO: Do Lord Remember Me [Me III-C 29]
Rt - Lights in the Valley [Outshine the Sun]; Gotta Travel On
Rm - Somebody Touched Me
Mf - Deadheads and Suckers
Lomax, J. A. & A. Lomax / American Ballads and Folk Songs, MacMillan, Bk (1934), p610 (When My Blood Runs Chilly and Cold)
Lomax, John A. & Alan Lomax / Folk Song USA, Signet, Sof (1966/1947), #104 (When My Blood Runs Chilly and Cold)
Blood, Peter; and Annie Patterson (eds.) / Rise Up Singing, Sing Out, Sof (1992/1989), p208 (Do Lord)
Work, John W. / American Negro Songs and Spirituals, Dover, Bk (1998/1940), p 82
Angola Choir. Angola Prison Spirituals, Arhoolie 9036, CD (2003), trk# 20 [1959/01/05] (I Take Jesus)
Fluharty, Russell. West Virginia Heritage, Page SLP 601, LP (197?), trk# B.01 (Glory Land March)
Gospel Supremes. Art of Field Recording, Vol. 1, Dust to Digital DTD 08, CD( (2007), trk# 2.23 [1977/11]
Hurt, Mississippi John. Mississippi John Hurt, Vol. 3. Sacred and Secular, Heritage (England) HT320, LP (1988), trk# 11 [1963/07/23]
Hurt, Mississippi John. Mississipi John Hurt, A Legacy, Piedmount CLPS-1068, LP (1975/1964), trk# A.07
Molton, Flora. Sisterfire!, Redwood RR 8507, LP (1985), trk# B.04
Taylor Chapel A.M.E. Church Congregation. I Kind of Believe It's A Gift, Meriweather Meri 1001-2, LP (198?), trk# 1.04 [1977]
West Maryland Highballers. West Maryland Highballers, Biograph RC 6001, LP (1963), trk# A.06 (Do Lawd Remember Me)
Deacon Leon Davis "Do My Lord Remember Me" 1927 OKeh;
OTHER NAMES: "Do Lord Remember Me" "Do Lord" "O Lord Remember Me" "Lights in the Valley" "Lord Remember Me" "When My Blood Runs Chiller and Cold" (Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip) "Do My Lord Remember Me" "Bright Lights in The Graveyard" "Far beyond The Blue Sky" "I've got a Home in Beulah Land" "I'll play My Harp in Beulah Land" 'Way Beyond The Blue"
RELATED TO: Same form as similar melody as the song group "Long Journey Home" with other titles "Deadheads and Suckers" and "Two Dollar Bill." A gospel version is "Lights in the Valley" recorded by J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers in 1935.
Also related to "Gotta Travel On" and "Done Laid Around"
SOURCES: Folk Index; Mudcat; The Continental monthly, Volume 4- 1867;
NOTES: "Do Lord Remember Me" is a traditional spiritual. This version is from Some Ballads Of North Carolina by Professor John A. Lomax, (Secretary University Of Texas And Assistant Director Of The Department Of Extention) 1911.
Perhaps the first printed version is from Port Royal in Beaufort County, SC. It appeared in The Continental monthly, Volume 4 1867 in the 16 page article "Under the Palmetto" by Henry George Spaulding. Written in 1863 it contains sketches of the freed slave population in Port Royal in Beaufort County, SC. The origin of this song seems to be from the early 1800s shape note song "Jesus, Thou Art the Sinner's Friend."
George Pullen Jackson says, "A negro spiritual inspired by this song [Jesus, Thou Art the Sinner's Friend in the Sacred Harp (1844), the Southern Harmony (1835), etc.] is 'Lord, Remember Me'." (Spiritual Folk-Songs of Early America, 1937; Dover, 1964, p. 144). The first stanza with refrain (2x) is:
Jesus, thou art the sinner's friend,
As such I look to thee;
Now in the bowels of thy love,
O Lord, remember me.
O Lord remember me,
O Lord remember me;
Now in the bowels of thy love,
O Lord remember me.
One of the earliest printed versions of the chorus is Day's "Revival Hymns" in 1842:
Remember me, remember me,
Dear Lord remember me;
Remember Lord thy dying groans,
Then Lord, remember me.
"Do Lord Remember Me" has the same form and similar melody as the song group "Long Journey Home" with other titles "Deadheads and Suckers" and "Two Dolar Bill." A gospel version is "Lights in the Valley" recorded by J. E. Mainer's Mountaineers in 1935.
The song is known by a number of different titles (see: OTHER NAMES above) and has been collected by John Work, Alan Lomax and others. "Do, Lord, Remember Me" is also in Grissom, The Negro Sings a New Heaven (1930; Dover, 1969, p. 68; with music)[quoted in Jackson, White and Negro Spirituals, p. 165], and Odum and Johnson, The Negro and His Songs (1925; Negro Universities Press, 1968, p. 92). The version sung by Jimmie Strothers and Joe Lee is in Various Artists, Negro Religious Songs and Services (Rounder CD 1514).
Mississippi John Hurt recorded two versions; one titled "Beulah Land" (See that version in this collection under Beulah Land) and the other the standard title, "Do Lord Remember Me."
Lomax collected two versions with similiar titles:
"When my Blood Runs Chilly and Col'" American Ballads and Folk Songs, John A. and Alan Lomax
"When My Blood Runs Chiller and Cold" (Alan Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip)
Curiously the untitled 1863 version of "Do Lord Remember Me" from Port Royal near Beaufort, SC was adapted and still in use with minor changes:
LORD, REMEMBER ME!
O do Lord, remember me!
O do, Lord, remember me!
O, do remember me, until de year roll round!
Do, Lord, remember me!
If you want to die like Jesus died,
Lay in de grave,
You would fold your arms and close your eyes
And die wid a free good will.
For Death is a simple ting,
And he go from door to door
And he knock down some, and he cripple up some,
And he leave some here to pray.
O do, Lord, remember me!
O do, Lord, remember me!
My old fader 's gone till de year roll round;
Do, Lord, remember me!
Do Lord, Remember Me- 1863 version "Under the Palmetto" by Henry George Spaulding:
What, for example, could be- more animated, and at the same time more expressive of the thought conveyed in the verse than the following chorus— the introduction to which is a sort of recitative or chant:
I'd like to die as Jesus die,
An' He die wid a freely good will.
He lay in de grabe, An' he stretchy out he arms,
O, Lord, remember me.
Chorus: O, Lord, remember me.
Do, Lord, remember me.
Remember me when de year rolls round,
O, Lord, remember me.
ADDITIONAL VERSE: O, Death he is a little man,
He goes from do' to do',
He kill some soul, an he wounded some,
An' he lef' some soul for to pray.
Do Remember Me- (untitled) Some Ballads Of North Carolina by Professor John A. Lomax, (Secretary University Of Texas And Assistant Director Of The Department Of Extention) 1911
Precisely similar in spirit and imagery are the religious songs yet popular among the darkies of the Brazos River bottom cotton plantations of Texas. One of the most moving of a large number of these songs in my possession, I heard sung not long ago with powerful effect by an *African-American congregation hid among the trees, just on the edge of one of the big fields of cotton in Brazos County, Texas.
I got a mother in de Beulah Land,
Outshine the sun, outshine the sun, outshine the sun;
I got a mother in de Beulah Land,
Outshine the sun, far beyond the sun.
Do Lord, do Lord, do remember me;
Do Lord, do Lord, do remember me;
Do Lord, do Lord, do remember me,
Do remember me.
When my blood run chilly and cold
I got to go, I got to go, I got to go;
When my blood run chilly and cold
I got to go, way beyond the sun.--Chorus.
Right under de cross, dere lies your crown,
Dere lies your crown, dere lies your crown;
Right under de cross, dere lies your crown,
Way beyond de sun.--Chorus.
The melody, the pathos, the vivid phrasing, and the touching faith of these old songs will finally win a place for them, in my judgment, in the future history of American literature.
|