The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #39466   Message #560529
Posted By: Joe Offer
28-Sep-01 - 03:22 AM
Thread Name: Lyr/Chords Req: Trouble of the World
Subject: ADD: Soon-A Will Be Done / Soon I Will Be Done
You drive a hard bargain, Alex. It's hard to find collections of spirituals that old, other than Slave Songs of the United States. The best I can do is the 1940 book by John W. Work, American Negro Songs. It has two songs with that title. The second is almost like the one Sorcha posted above, and the first is the one that Susan posted above. Maybe they're in Work's 1915 book, Folk Songs of the American Negro - but I don't have that one.
-Joe Offer-

SOON A WILL BE DONE (second version)

CHORUS
Soon-a will be done with the troubles of the world,
Troubles of the world,
Troubles of the world,
Soon-a will be done with the troubles of the world,
Going home to live with God

1. No more weeping and a-wailing,
No more weeping and a-wailing,
No more weeping and a-wailing,
I'm going to live with God

2. I want t' meet my mother...(3 times)
I'm going to live with God

3. I want t' meet my Jesus...(3 times)
I'm going to live with God.

Source: John W. Work, "American Negro Folk Songs," 1940
There is an almost identical version called "Soon I Will Be Done" in "The Folk Songs of North America" (Alan Lomax, 1960)
JRO


Flash!

The UTK Song Index says "Soon-a will Be Done" is in a work called Folk Songs of the American Negro, published in 1907 by Frederick J. Work, with introduction by John W. Work, Jr.