Lyr Add: Live A-Humble / Live Humble

Subject: Lyr Add: Live A-Humble
From: SouthernCelt
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 01:24 PM

As I stated in a post in this thread, I've researched the lyrics to Live A-Humble. Here are the lyrics as published on the internet at www.negrospirituals.com

LIVE A-HUMBLE

Live a-humble, humble
Humble yourselves, the bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
Watch the sun, how steady he runs
Don't let him catch you with your work undone

Live a-humble, humble
Humble yourselves, the bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
Ever see such a man as God?
He gave up His Son for to come and die
Gave up His Son for to come and die
Just to save my soul from a burning fire

Live a-humble, humble
Humble yourselves, the bells done ring
Glory and honor!
Praise King Jesus!
Glory and honor!
Praise the Lord!
See God and you see God in the morning
He'll come riding down the line of time
The fire'll be falling
He'll be calling, "Come to judgement, come".

Version is same as version done by Ian & Sylvia
(I've done some punctuation editing on the lyrics to remove commas that seemed out of place.)

SouthernCelt

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Live A-Humble lyrics
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 02:40 PM

There are several versions of the song.
The lyrics as you give them were published in John W. Work (Fisk Univ.), 1940, "American Negro Songs and Spirituals," p. 184 with music.
"Songs of Zion," Abingdon Press, has a version harmonized by J. Jefferson Cleveland, 1937, with the first two verses only.

Earlier versions vary.

LIVE HUMBLE
Hampton Institute, Dett, 1926

Refrain
Live humble, humble, humble yourselves, de bell done ring,
Live humble, humble, humble yorrselves, de bell done ring.
Talk de glory and honor,
Praise Jesus!
Talk de glory and honor,
Praise de Lam'!

1.
Oh, my young Christians, I got lots for to tell you all
Jesus Christ, speaking thro de organ of the clay,
judge ye not, for ye shall be judged false pretenders
gettin' in Christian band.
Refrain
2.
False pretenders wear sheep's clothin' on his back,
In his heart like a raving wolf one day, one day,
When God goin' to call dem children from de distant land.
Tombstones cra'king, graves bustin', hell and the seas gwine t' give up their dead.
Refrain

P. 12, with music, R. Nathaniel Dett, 1927, "Religious Folk-Songs of the Negro as Sung at the Hampton Institute," Hampton Institute Press. This may have been printed first in the edition of 1909 (Moton).

Variant- "Glory and Honor."

Subject: ADD: Live Humble
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 06:30 PM

Barry Finn posted this version of Live-A-Humble on this Mudcat thread:thread.cfm?threadid=58897

Subject: Lyr Add: LIVE HUMBLE (from St Simons Island)
From: Barry Finn - PM
Date: 29 Mar 06 - 11:33 AM

...Another intersting song about Jonah from St Simons Island, Georgia Sea Islands called;

LIVE HUMBLE

Chorus:
Leader: Live humble
Group: Humble
All:    Humble yourself; the bell done rung
       Live humble, humble
       Humble yourself, the bell done rung

The bell done rung, the angel done sung
The Lord done brought our hearts & tongue
I wonder what-uh Satan keep a-grumblin 'bout
He chained in Hell uh-where he can't get out
The Lord come along about the born a' day (break of day)
He took the little baby, put his soul away
You best live humble, you best live mild
You best live like-uh some true born child
The windin sheet is gonna win' us in
A coffin lid is gonna hold us fast
I was standin at the sea of glass
The sea of glass stood a magnifier
I'm gonna join God's heavenly choir
The lord's gonna raise my voice on higher

Cryin' humble-(chorus)

The bell done rung, the angel done sung
The Lord done brought our hearts & tongue
It was something like the Jericho Wall
Away on the island the water fall
Zion's children got trouble in mind
How long it rain now, can you tell
Forty long days & nights it fell
The water got 'long about the sill of the do' (sill of the door)
They all went up into the upper flo'
The water got 'long about the roof of the house
They heist the window an' they all pitch out

Cryin' Humble-(chorus)

well, the bell done rung, the angel done sung
The Lord done brought our hearts & tongue
God sent Jonah to Nineveh land
Jonah went a contrary course
The captain of the vessel got trouble in mind
He say, "Go down, sailors, and search the deck
See can't you find no sleepers there"
The sailors went down about the lower most deck there
They found the ol' Jonah there fast asleep
He said "Wake up Jonah, wake up man
My God-a-mighty gonna 'stroy the lan'

Cryin' humble-(chorus)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Live A-Humble lyrics
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 06:36 PM

In addition to those lyrics that Barry Finn shared, that "Lyr Add: Jonah and the Whale-2" thread has a number of other posts on the song Live A-Humble. Several of these comments were posted by you, Q.

That 'side bar' discussion about the Live Humble song occurs in that Jonah 2 thread after Barry's post here .

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Live A-Humble lyrics
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 08:40 PM

Some of these songs show how lines, choruses, and verses are borrowed or transferred from one to another. It becomes difficult to arrange the songs under particular names: the first lines of the refrain?, first lines of the first verse? The principal burden of the song as a whole?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Live A-Humble lyrics
From: Azizi
Date: 23 Mar 07 - 09:25 PM

Well it's been done all of these ways and more...

Life is messy, isn't it?

[that's a rhetorical question. I agree that there should be some system to how songs are titled or categorized. As to the 'principal burden of the song as a whole, I don't even know what that means... Is the burden the same as the riff ?]

Be that as it may, people have been doing their own thing when it comes to naming songs, and they are gonna keep on doing their own thing and there's probably nothing we can do about it but comment and then keep on keeping on.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Live A-Humble lyrics
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Mar 07 - 02:21 PM

The burden is the intent.

My comments were aimed at the first post, where it seemed to be implied that there is a 'best' version of the spiritual.

My question was largely rhetorical; I agree that the 'bookkeeping' will always be messy. Caging creativity ain't easy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Live A-Humble / Live Humble
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Oct 12 - 09:09 AM

Does anyone know the chords for this song by Ian & Sylvia?