The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #97273   Message #1911450
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
16-Dec-06 - 10:29 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Were You There (spiritual)
Subject: Lyr Add: Were You There (spiritual)
The usual form of this well-known spiritual is in the DT, but the following variant and the Hampton version are worth noting.

Lyr. Add: I WAS THERE WHEN HE WALKED IN GALILEE

1.
I uz dere win he walk'd in Galilee;
I uz dere win he walk'd in Galilee,
Oh, sometimes my trubbles make me trimble, trimble,
I uz dere win he walk'd in Galilee.
2.
I uz dere win dey nailed 'im to der cross.
I uz dere win dey nailed 'im to der cross,
Oh-o! how it makes me sadder, sadder,
win I think how dey nailed 'im to der cross.
3.
I uz dere win dey took 'im down, took 'im,
I uz dere win dey took 'im down,
Oh-o! how hit makes miah spiriat trimble,
win r'calls how dey took 'im down.

"Camp-meeting hymn,' sung by a laundress, Maryland. Coll. Mary Walker Finley Speers, MD. With score, 4/4.
JAFL, 1913, vol. 26, p. 190.

Lyr. Add: WERE YOU THERE WHEN THEY CRUCIFIED MY LORD?

Were you there when they crucufied my Lord?
Were you there?
Were you there when yhey crucified my Lord?
Were you there?
Oh! sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble,
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
2.
Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?
3.
Were you there when they pierced Him in the side?
4.
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
5.
Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

Transcribed by R. Nathaniel Dett, p. 106.
Dett, R. N., 1927, "Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro as Sung at Hampton Institute. (Version added to Fenner, T. P., Cabin and Plantation Songs as Sung by the Hampton Students, in the 1927 edition.