Dan Tate, Blind Willie Johnson & the Spanish Flu Pandemic.

At the end of World War 1 an epidemic (pandemic) of Spanish Flu spread rapidly across the world, killing hundreds of thousands of people. In 1979 I first met the Appalachian singer Dan Tate and Dan told me the following story about the epidemic. A large number of people died in the area around Dan’s home. People were very poor and were poorly clothed. However, there was one suit (matching jacket & trousers) in the area, and when somebody died their body would be dressed in the suit before a photograph of the deceased was taken. The suit was then removed before burial and placed on the body of the next person who died, so that a photograph of this person could be taken. And so the suit was taken around the mountains, to be used where needed. Dan developed the flu and became very ill. One morning he woke and saw ‘the suit’ hanging on the wall of his cabin. ‘Mike’, Dan told me, ‘that meant that the people hereabouts thought that I was about to die. And I thought , I’m not old enough to die yet. So I lived and here I am today to tell you what happened in those days.’
I recently mentioned this story to a friend who asked me if I knew Blind Willie Johnson’s song about the Spanish Flu. To be honest, I had forgotten about it. But I quickly found it – it is called ‘Jesus is Coming Soon’ and is on the double CD ‘The Complete Blind Willie Johnson’ (Columbia 472886 2). The parallels between this song and the current Corvid 19 pandemic are quite striking.

(Chorus) Well, we done told you,
I got some warning,
Jesus coming soon.
Well, I thought I got some warning,
Jesus coming soon.

In the year of 19 and 18 God sent a
mighty disease.
It killed men, many thousands (on the) land
and on the sea.

Great disease was mighty and the people
were sick everywhere.
It was an epidemic, it floated through the air.

The doctors they got troubled and they didn’t
know what to do.
They gathered themselves together,
they called it the Spanishin’ flu.

Soldiers died on the battlefield
died in the cities, too.
Captain said to the lieutenant,
‘I don’t know what to do’.

Well, God is warning the nation,
he’s warning them every way.
To turn away from evil and seek
the Lord and pray.

Well, the nobles said to the people,
you better close your public schools.
Until the (?) ending,
you better close your churches too.

Read the Book of Zacharias.
Bible plainly says,
Said the people in the cities dying,
‘count of their wicked ways.