Don't Grieve After Me/ Don't You Grieve After Me
Public Domain/Traditional Spiritual and Old-time Bluegrass Gospel
ARTIST: From Songs of victory By Charles Cullis, Willard Tract Repository by E. E. Nickerson in 1889
Ernest Phipps; YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtaNhPqpZGc
SHEET MUSIC: http://books.google.com/books?id=6kXkdmsHeAwC&pg=PA59&dq=%22Don't+Grieve+after+me%22&hl=en&ei=UoIuTL3rE8H-8Ab5l5m2Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0
CDYQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Don't%20Grieve%20after%20me%22&f=false
CATEGORY: Traditional and Public Domain Gospel
DATE: 1878; Recorded 1925 Carson Brothers- Smith
RECORDING INFO: Don't Grieve After Me [Me III-C 28]
Rt - Don't You Weep After Me
Fisk Jubilee Singers. Marsh, J. B. T. / Story of the Jubilee Singers, Houghton Mifflin, Bk (1880), p216/# 95 (Don't You Grieve After Me)
Phipps, Ernest; and his Holiness Quartet. Mountain Sacred Songs, County 508, LP (196?), trk# A.04 [1927/07/26]
Ballad Index: Don't You Grieve After Me (I)
DESCRIPTION: The singer describes various adventures: Being found by the police with a wallet not his own, sleeping in a hotel and being declared a deadbeat. Chorus: When I'm gone, Don't you, don't you grieve (x3), An' I told him not to grieve after me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: rambling crime travel floatingverses
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 257, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 220-222, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 257)
BrownIII 556, "Bye and Bye" (1 fragment, possibly not this but too short to classify as anything else)
Roud #6698
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "I Told 'em Not to Grieve After Me" (on Cansler1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Don't You Weep After Me" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Told Him Not to Grieve After Me
Notes: Alan Lomax claims -- on the basis of a few words in the chorus -- that this is the same as "When I'm Gone." I don't buy it. - RBW
Ballad Index: Don't You Weep After Me
DESCRIPTION: "When I'm dead and buried don't you weep after me (x3).... I don't want you to weep after me." Unrelated verses about death: "On the good ship of Zion"; "King Peter is my Captain"; "Bright angels are the sailors"; "When I do cross over"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: death nonballad Bible funeral
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 262, "Jacob's Ladder" (1 text, 1 tune -- a fragment so short that it can only tentatively be classified with this piece; see also "Jacob's Ladder")
BrownIII 527, "Don't You Grieve After Me" (2 texts plus a fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, p. 9, (no title) (1 fragment)
Silber-FSWB, p. 350, "Don't You Weep After Me" (1 text)
ST R262 (Full)
Roud #2286
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Don't You Weep after Me" (on PeteSeeger26)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Jacob's Ladder" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Don't You Grieve After Me (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Oh, They Put John on the Island" (floating lyrics)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
On My Journey
Don't You Grieve After Me
When I'm Dead and Buried
Notes: Both the Randolph fragment and Brown's "A" text and "B" fragment are linked to "Jacob's Ladder." It is not clear whether this link is original or coincidental. - RBW
OTHER NAMES: "Don't You Grieve After Me" "Don't You Weep After Me"
RELATED TO: "Don't You Weep After Me"
SOURCES: Meade; Folk Index; Ballad Index
NOTES: "Don't Grieve After Me" or "Don't You Grieve After Me" is a traditional spiritual and old-time/bluegrass gospel song. This version is from Songs of victory By Charles Cullis, Willard Tract Repository by E. E. Nickerson in 1889. It is a composed hymn based on the chorus of the spiritual.
CHORUS: I'm going to be with Jesus, Don't you grieve after me,
Going to be with Jesus, Don't you grieve after me,
Going to be with Jesus, Don't you grieve after me,
I pray you, don't grieve after me.
There are many related songs, titles and versions. Meade lists three early country
recordings under the title "Don't You Grieve After Me":
Carson Brothers- Smith 1925
Ernest Phipps Holiness Quartet 1927
George Stevens 1930.
Several versions of the spiritual date back to the 1800s:
No. 95. Don't You Grieve After Me (excerpt) The Fisk Jubilee Singers circa 1880
1. Oh, who is that a coming? Don't you grieve after me,
Oh, who is that a coming? Don't you grieve after me,
Oh, who is that a coming? Don't you grieve after me,
Lord, I don't want you to grieve after me.
Don't You Grieve After Me (excerpt)- The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 42 By Philip Gengembre Hubert 1878
These real "negro minstrels " are as fond of refrains as any poet of the modern mediaeval school, and even more ingenious in their misapplication. For instance, how would it be possible to show a loftier indifference to the logical connection of ideas than is found in that first poem of collection No. 1: —
A mighty war in heaven, Don't you grieve after me;
A mighty war in heaven, Don't you grieve after me;
I don't want you to grieve after me.
DON'T GRIEVE AFTER ME- E. E. Nickerson 1889 (se link for complete lyrics)
My rest is in heaven, my rest is not here,
Why should I murmer when trials are near?
Be hushed my spirit the worst that can come
But shortens my journey and hastens me home.
CHORUS: I'm going to be with Jesus, Don't you grieve after me,
Going to be with Jesus, Don't you grieve after me,
Going to be with Jesus, Don't you grieve after me,
I pray you, don't grieve after me.
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