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قراءة كتاب Some Current Folk-Songs of the Negro
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
first songs I shall read you are clearly not indigenous but are merely revamping the Biblical incidents and reflections of the sect disputes of the whites. The first song here presented is one that I heard twenty years ago as it was sung on the banks of a creek at a “big baptizing.” It is entitled:
TELL ALL THE MEMBERS I’M A NEW BORN.
I went to the valley on a cloudy day.
O good Lord!
My soul got so happy that I couldn’t get away.
Chorus.
Tell all the members I’m a new-born,
I’m a new-born, I’m a new-born,
O Lord!
I’m a new-born baby, born in the manger,
Tell all the members I’m a new-born.
Read the Scriptures, I am told,
Read about the garment Achan stole.
Chorus.
Away over yonder in the harvest fields,
O good Lord!
Angels working with the chariot wheels.
Chorus.
Away over yonder, got nothing to do,
O good Lord!
But to walk about Heaven and shout Halloo.
Chorus.
I’m so glad, I don’t know what about,
O good Lord!
Sprinkling and pourings done played out.
Chorus.
Here are two more of the same kind:
PREACHING IN THE WILDERNESS.
Daniel in that lion’s den,
He called God A’mighty for to be his friend;
Read a little further, ’bout the latter clause:
The angel locked them lions’ jaws.
Refrain.
Oh, Daniel, hallelujah;
Oh, Daniel, preaching in that wilderness.
Old man Adam, never been out;
Devil get in him, he’ll jump up and shout;
He’ll shout till he give a poor sister a blow,
Then he’ll stop right still and he’ll shout no more.
Refrain.
P’s for peter; in his word
He tells us all not to judge;
Read a little further and you’ll find it there,
I knows the tree by the fruit it bear.
Refrain.
SAVE ME FROM SINKING DOWN.
Seven stars in his right hand,
Save me from sinking down.
All stars move at his command,
Save me from sinking down.
Refrain.
Oh, my Lord, save me from sinking down.
John was a Baptist, so am I,
Save me from sinking down.
And he heard poor Israel’s cry,
Save us from sinking down.
The following is only a snatch, but it is enough to show that the economic factor was not yet predominant. In it we still see traces of the Bible’s influence:
O Lord, sinner, you got to die,
It may be to-day or to-morrow.
You can’t tell the minute or the hour,
But, sinner, you’ve got to die.
Refrain.
We now come to songs originated by the present generation of negroes. They all deal with work and love. The following might be entitled:
THE SONG OF THE FORTUNATE ONE.
The reason why I don’t work so hard,
I got a gal in the white folks’ yard;
And every night about half past eight,
I steps in through the white man’s gate;
And she