Lyr Add: I Can't Stay Away

Subject: I Can't Stay Away
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 05:59 PM

I CAN'T STAY AWAY

Cho.
I can't stay away (4 times)

I've got to go to judgement to stand my trial (3 times)
I can't stay away.
Cho.

Liberty School Children, TX. Several spirituals have the refrain, I can't stay away, or I can't stay behind. This may be a fragment descended from one of them.
John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip. Click on Links at top of page and go to Lomax Collection. Click on audio subject and go to Spirituals listing for sound.
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: I Can't Stay Away
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 06:18 PM

I CAN'T STAY AWAY
(I WISH I HAD DIED IN EGYPT LAND)

Cho.
O, I can't stay away, I can't stay away,
I can't stay away, I wish I had died in the Egypt Land.

Children grumbled on the way,
"Wish I had died in the Egypt land;"
Children they forgot to pray,
"Wish I had died in the Egypt land."
Cho.
Now they wept and now they moaned,
"Wish I had died in the Egypt land;"
Then they turned around and groaned,
"Wish I had died in the Egypt land."
Cho.
Yes, the children, they did right,
"Wish I had died in the Egypt land;"
When they went and had that fight,
Wish I had died in the Egypt land."
Cho.

Work, John W., 1940, American Negro Songs and Spirituals, p. 157.
Cited in the Cleveland Index under I Can't Stay Away, I.
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Subject: Lyr Add: I NEVER INTEND TO DIE IN EGYPT LAND
From: masato sakurai
Date: 01 Dec 01 - 09:17 PM

There's a longer version with a different title in Emily Hallowell, ed., Calhoun Plantation Songs, 2nd ed. (1901, 1907; AMS, 1976, pp. 66-67):

I NEVER INTEND TO DIE IN EGYPT LAND

Chorus:
I cannot stay away,
I cannot stay away,
I cannot stay away,
I never intend to die in Egypt land.

Come all the world and you shall know
How you was save' from in this sword.
I strove indeed but I could not tell
How to shun the gates of Hell.
What to do I did not know,
I thought to Hell I would surely go;
I looke' this way and that to fly,
I trie' salvation fo' to buy it;
I praye' in the Eas' and praye' in the Wes'
Seeking for that eternal res'.

At las' I looke' to Calvary:
I saw my Jesus on the tree.
I felt the parting, I heard His voice.
My soul got happy an' I rejoice'.
If ever I reach the mountain top,
I will praise my Lord and never stop.
Go down to the water when you dry
An' then you'll get yo' full supply.
(Chorus)

You pray fo' me, an' I pray fo' you;
That is the way the Christians do.
Run up Christians an' get yo' crown,
An' by your Savior's side sit down.
You can't get los' in the wilderness
With a lighted candle in yo' breas'.
(Chorus)

I'm gwine down to Jordan to pray my fare:
Jesus' life-boat will meet me there.
Jesus calls: "Come unto Me
Poor sinner, I will set you free."
He called his bretheren on the sea,
Saying "Leave yo' nets an' follow Me."
On the cloud to Heaven He rode,
Now He dwells in the light with God.
Bye an' bye He will come fo' me,
When from sin I am wholly free.
(Chorus)

I am borned of God, indeed I am.
Sinner, deny me if you can.
While shepherd at their flock atten',
The Angel brought good news to them.
Over in Jerusalem, at the post,
See Simon filled with the Holy Ghost.
Lord, let thy servant go:
Jesus Christ is born, I know.
The widow of Aneril came to see,
Who should bleed an' die fo' me.
(Chorus)

O, there's a time when I must die
To stand befo' my God on high.
As I go down the stream ob time
I will leave this sinful world behin'.
There's no repentance in the grave.
Nor pardon offered fo' the dead.
Hell is ready to receive
The dying man who won't believe.
O, bless the Lord, I was born to die.
To stand befo' my God on high.
(Chorus)

Through heat and cold Christ had to go,
To institute His church below.
My father's fought the battle at las',
And all the days on earth are pas'.
My mother has broke de ice and gone,
And now she sings a heavenly song.
I hope to meet my mother there.
Who used to kneel with me in prayer.
Religion is like a blooming rose.
And none but them that fell it knows.
(Chorus)

Way over yonder in de harvest fiel'
The angel's working at de chariot wheel,
The chariot's down by the Jo'dan side,
In the chariot I expect to ride.
Some says I'll not make it so;
But I'll land my soul on Heaven sho'.
(Chorus)

De ol' ship a-coming jus' like a whirl
To take God's children safe out ob this worl'.
When I'm happy I'll shout an' sing
And make the heavenly welkin ring.
The very time I thought I was los'
The dungeon shook an' my chains fell off.
An' angel with bright wings ob gol'
Brought the glad tidings to my soul.
(Chorus)

Here we walk the golden streets
We tells to all the saints we meets,
The chariot runs to the mountain top,
My Lord bid the chariot stop.
My head was wet with the midnight dew.
The morning star was a witness too.
I never will give up the shield
Untilthe Devil has made to yield.
(Chorus)

Another version "I Wish I Had Died in Egypt Land" is in American Negro Spirituals: Jack Snyder's Collection (1926), which is quoted full in Peters, Lyrics of the Afro-American Spiritual (p.24). Marian Anderson sang this song ("Lord, I Can't Stay Away"; rec. 1936) on Marian Andrson Sings Spirituals (Flapped PAST CD 7073).

~Masato