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Don't You Grieve After Me/ Don't Grieve After Me/Don't You Weep After Me
See Also: Don' You Grieve After Me/ Don't Grieve After Me
Traditional Spiritual and Old-time Bluegrass Gospel
ARTIST: From The Brown Collection of NC Folklore
Phipps- YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtaNhPqpZGc
SHEET MUSIC:
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 Grieve After Me" "Don't You Weep After Me"
RELATED TO: "Don't You Weep After Me" "Jacob's Ladder"
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 The Atlantic monthly, Volume 42; by Philip Gengembre Hubert 1878.
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.
DONT YOU GRIEVE OVER ME- 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."
"St. Michael and the dragon,
Don't you grieve after me;
St. Michael and the dragon,
Don't you grieve after me;
I don't want you to grieve after me."
"He put him in a dungeon,
Don't you grieve after me;
lie put him in a dungeon,
Don't you grieve after me;
I don't want you to grieve after me."
Some versions are associated with the lyrics from Jacob's Ladder:
Don't Your Grieve After Me- American Negro Folk-songs by Newman Ivey White
I am climbing up Jacob's ladder,
Don't you grieve after me;
I am climbing up Jacob's ladder,
Don't you grieve after me;
Fer I 'm climbing up Jacob's ladder.
Kase I don't want you to grieve after me.
Don't You Grieve after Me- Brown Collection of NC Folklore
Though related in A. and B. versions to 'Jacob's Ladder' (q.v.), this seems to be a different song. Cf. W. A. Fisher. Seventy Negro Spirituals (Boston. 1926). pp. 198-9; J. Rosamond Johnson, Rolling Along in Song (New York, 1937), pp. /10.
'Climbin" Up Jacob's Ladder.' From typescript copy of a MS copy contributed by Miss Mary Morrow. Greensboro, Guilford county. January 29, 1928. (The MS copy was returned.) A phonograph recording of the song was made at Greensboro in 1928.
1 Old Sister Susan, don't you grieve after me,
Old Sister Susan, don't you grieve after me.
Old Sister Susan, don't you grieve after me,
'Case I don't want you to grieve after me.
2. When I'm daid and buried, don't you grieve after me,
When I'm daid and buried. don't you grieve after me.
When I'm daid and buried, don't you grieve after me,
'Case I don't want you to grieve after me.
3. Climbin' up Jacob's ladder — don't you grieve after me;
Climbin' up Jacob's ladder — don't you grieve after me;
Climbin' up Jacob's ladder — don't you grieve after me;
'Case I don't want you to grieve after me.
4 Old Brother Ephraim, don't you grieve after me.
Old I brother Ephraim, don't you grieve after me,
Old Brother Ephraim, don't you grieve after me,
'Case I don't want you to grieve after me.
B. 'Jacob's Ladder.' Contributed by Julian P. Boyd, c. 1927-28, as collected from Catberine Bennett, a student in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county.
Climbin' up Jacob's ladder — don't you grieve after me ;
Climbin' up Jacob's ladder — don't you grieve after me.
I don't want you to have to grieve after me!
C. Contributed by William C. Cumming, Brunswick county (?); undated. "Another of Uncle Billie's songs, but one we didn't like nearly as well." The first line and refrain are repeated in stanzas 2 and 3 as in stanza 1.
1. Jonn on the island, don't you grieve after me,
John on the island, don't you grieve after me,
John on the island, don't you grieve after me,
For I don't want you to grieve after me.
2. Long neck bottle, don't you grieve after me, etc.
3. When I get married, don't you grieve after me, etc.
D. No title. From Julian L. Boyd, as collected from Cathorine Bennett, a pupil of the school at Alliance, Pamlico comity; undated, but about 1927-28. Dr. Brown marked it "Negro fragment."
Bye and bye, don't you grieve after me,
Bye and bye, don't you grieve after me.
Tote your witness, don' you grieve after me.
Bye and bye, don't you grieve after me.
When I'm gone don' you grieve after me.
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