I guess the best-known lyrics for this tune are the ones by William Arms Fisher, published in 1922. I posted several versions above. I felt uncomfortable using them because they were written in so-called "Negro dialect." Recently, I found a version of those lyrics in the New National Baptist Hymnal (above) - Jerry Rasmussen led me to that hymnal, which costs only ten bucks for the current edition.

I suppose that one could complain that somebody "sanitized" traditional lyrics and made them "politically correct." I don't think that's the case here. The original lyrics were in the fake "dialect" that came from blackface minstrel shows. I'm glad somebody came up with a rendition that does away with that without making the song sound too "sanitary."

-Joe Offer-