Origins: I God Shoes/Shout All Over God's Heaven

Subject: Lyr Add: GOIN' TO SHOUT ALL OVER GOD'S HEAV'N
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 09:57 PM

GOIN' TO SHOUT ALL OVER GOD'S HEAV'N

Cho.
*Heav-n, heav'n,
Ev'ry-body talkin' 'bout heav'n ain't goin' there,
Heav'n, heav'n,
Goin' to shout all over God's heav'n, heav'n,
Goin' shout all over God's heav'n.

I've got a robe, you've got a robe,
All of God's children got a robe,
When I get to heaven goin' to put on my robe,
Goin' to shout all over God's heaven.
Cho.
I've got a crown, you've got a crown,
All God'd children got a crown,
When I get to Heaven goin' to put on my crown,
Goin' to shout all over God's heaven.
Cho.
I've got a shoes, you've got a shoes,
All God's children got a shoes,
When I get to heaven goin' to put on my shoes,
Goin' to walk all over God's heaven.
Cho.
I've got a harp, you've got a harp,
All God's children got a harp,
When I get to heaven goin' to **play on my harp,
Goin' to play all over God's heaven.
Cho.
I've got a song, you've got a song,
All of God's children got a song,
When I get to heaven goin' to sing a new song,
Goin' to sing all over God's heaven.

*Last syllable hummed rather than pronounced. Subject of verse sometimes carried over into chorus. **Take up my harp, in Johnson and Johnson.
R. N. Dett, Religious Folk Songs of the Negro, p. 126-127. Also in earlier Hampton Institute editions prefaced by H. W. Ludlow and by R. R. Moton but not in Fenner 1874.
@religion @spiritual

ALL GOD'S CHILLUN GOT WINGS

(Different verse only)
I got-a wings, you got-a wings,
All God's chillun got-a wings,
When I get to heab'n goin' to put on my wings,
I'm goin' to fly all over God's heab'n, heab'n,
Ev'ry body talkin' 'bout heab'n ain't goin' dere,
Heab'n, heab'n,
I'm goin' to fly all over God's heab'n.

Other differences minor. Johnson and Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals, I p. 71.

Everybody Talkin' About Heaven Ain't Gwine There.
Title of version collected by John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip; nothing new.
Other versions have been collected and may have verses worth posting.
@religion @spiritual

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heaven
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 10:07 PM

This title selected because it is the one used in the Cleveland Index of Negro Spirituals.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heaven
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Dec 01 - 01:03 AM

Other title variants are:

All God's Children [Chillun] Got Shoes
All God's Children [Chillun] Got Wings
Everybody Talking About Heaven
Everybody Talkin' About Heaven Ain't Goin' [Gwine] There
Goin' to Shout
I Got a Robe
I Got Shoes
I've Got a Robe
I've Got a Shoes [sic]
Heaven [Heab'n; Heav'n]
Heaven, Heaven [Heav'n, Heav'n]
Shout All Over
Shout All Over God's Heaven
Walk All Over God's Heaven
Walk Over God's Heaven

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heaven
From: GUEST,Cassandra
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 10:34 AM

Is everyone sure the lyric says "ain't goin there"? What does that mean when the whole song is about going to Heaven? I heard this song in a movie from sometime in the 30's or 40's called "The Blood of Jesus". Anyone who is interested in the old spirituals and style should see it. There is a beautiful joy and also deep sadness in their singing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heaven
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 10:54 AM

Lyrics accurate.
Everyone talks of heaven, but sinners and gamblers ain't goin' there.

Subject: Lyr. Add: Goin' to Shout
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 11:18 AM

Lyr. Add: Goin' to Shout
William Arms Fisher

(Joyfully but not too fast)
I got a robe, you got a robe,
All of God's children got a robe;
When I get to heav'n goin' to put on my robe,
Goin' to shout all over God's heav'n-

Refrain
Heav'n,- heav'n,-
Ev'rybody talkin' 'bout heav'n ain't goin' there-
Heav'n,- heav'n,-
Goin' to shout all over God's heav'n.

I got a harp, you got a harp,
All of God's children got a harp;
When I get to heav'n goin' to play on my harp,
Goin' to play all over God's heavn-

Refrain
Heav'n,- heav'n,-
Ev'rybody talkin' 'bout heav'n ain't goin' there,
Heav'n,- heav'n,-
Goin' to play all over God's heav'n.

I got a shoes, you got a shoes,
All of God's children got a shoes;
When I get to heav'n goin' to put on my shoes,
Goin' to walk all over God's heav'n.-

Refrain
Ev'rybody talkin', etc.
Goin' to walk all over God's heav'n.

Complete musical score for voice and piano, pp. 41-45.

William Arms Fisher, 1926, "Seventy Negro Spirituals edited by William Arms Fisher for Low Voice," Boston, Oliver Ditson Company.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heaven
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 29 Jun 10 - 11:40 AM

Additional verses- from Clarence Cameron White.

I got a crown, you got a crown,
All a God's children got a crown;
When I get to heaven goin' to put on my crown,
Goin' to shout all over God's heaven,-

Refrain
Heaven,- heaven;-
Ev'rybody talkin' 'bout heav'n ain't goin' there;
Heaven,- heaven,-
Gwine to shout all over God's heaven!

I got a song, you got a song,
All a God's children got a song;
When I get to heaven goin' to sing a my song,
Goin' to sing all over God's heaven,-
etc.

Pp. 20-23; musical score.
Clarence Cameron White, 1927, "Forty Negro Spirituals," Compiled and arranged for solo voice with piano accompaniment, Theodore Presser Co. Philadelphia.

Subject: RE: Origins: I God Shoes/Shout All Over God's Heaven
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Apr 17 - 01:01 AM

Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

All God's Children Got Shoes

DESCRIPTION: "I got shoes, you got shoes, All got's children got shoes; When I get to heaven, gonna put on my shoes, Gonna (shout) all over God's heaven." Similarly with robes, crowns, wings, harps, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Dett, pp. 126-127, "Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heav'n" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 168-169 in the 1909 edition)
BrownIII 550, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
BrownSchinhanV 550, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Courlander-NFM, p. 67, "(Goin' to Shout All over God's Heaven)" (1 text)
ReedSmith, p. 86, "Gonna Shout all over God's Heaven" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 359, "All God's Children Got Shoes" (1 text)
Warren-Spirit, pp. 24-25, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 332, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #11826
RECORDINGS:
Louis Armstrong, "Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Decca 2085, 1938)
Big Bethel Choir #1 "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Columbia 14157-D, 1926)
Commonwealth Quartet, "I'm Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Domino 0173, 1927)
Cotton Belt Quartet, "I'm Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Vocalion 15263, 1926)
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "All God's Children Got Wings" (OKeh 8917, 1931)
Elkins Payne Jubilee Singers, "Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Paramount 12071, 1923)
Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Ev'rybody Dat Talks 'Bout Heaven Ain't Goin' There" (Pathe 22105, 1919)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartet, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Columbia A1883, 1915)
Mitchell's Christian Singers, "Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Melotone 6-04-64, 1936)
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Everybody Talkin' About Heaven Ain't Goin' There" (on NFMAla5)
Southern Four: "Shout All Over God's Heaven" [medley w. "Standin' in the Need of Prayer"] (Edison 51364, 1924)
Edna Thomas, "I Got Shoes" (Columbia 1863-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
West Virginia Collegiate Institute Glee Club, "Shout All Over God's Heab'n" (Brunswick 3497, 1927)
NOTES: Courlander believes this song to be based on the Revelation to John. It appears to me that it is simply an exuberant expression of a poor, oppressed Christian hope in the afterlife. The word shoe/shoes is used ten times in the King James version of the New Testament, but all are in the Gospels and Acts, not the Apocalypse -- and the word "hypodema" translated "shoe" in the King James Bible, is better translated "sandal," which is the word used in the Revised English Bible, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, and even (based on a quick check of Matthew 3:11) the conservative New International Version and the reactionary New King James Version. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: CNFM067A

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