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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 Randolph/Cohen, Ozark Folksongs, p.220-222.
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 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 Ernest Phipps Holiness Quartet recorded by Ralph Peer and Victor Records at the famous Bristols Session in 1927.
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.
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- Randolph; Ozark Folksongs
I went to the river an' I couldn't git across
I paid five dollars for a old stable horse
I plunged him in an' his rump caved in
An' I told him not to grieve after me
When I'm gone, don't you, don't you grieve (3x)
An' I told him not to grieve after me.
I went down town a-feelin' funny
Picked up a pocketbook chuck full of money
Police come along, says "Drop that, sonny!"
An' I told him not to grieve after me.
I went to the hotel to stay all night
He says, "Fifty cents," an' I says "All right."
I jumped in bed an' covered up my head,
An' told him not to grieve after me.
Got up next mornin' an' washed my feet
Went down to the table an' you orter seen me eat;
Jumped up quick an' hollered, "Dead beat!"
An' told him not grieve after me.
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