Thanks, Peace, brilliant work.

The words you have uncovered seem to be those of a field recording made in a Texas prison. I have copied them here in the hope that someone with a good ear for the African American idiom of 75 years ago will compare this version with the Elder Curry MP3 linked to in the first post above. The two versions are quite similar but the MP3 goes "if you don't turn away from your shame," for instance, not "from your sins".

A. S., who posted this version to DigiTrad, speculates that the song really refers to the famous Spanish Flu of 1918-19. However this article makes clear that the flu season of 1929 was the worst since 1919. The 1929 epidemic killed one out of every 200 cases; the 1919 epidemic killed 3 out of every 200 cases. Death rates were much higher in some districts, particularly the southern part of the Mississippi/Missouri watershed where Memphis is located.


INFLUENZA

1. In nineteen hundred and twenty-nine, men an' women sure was dyin',
From de disease what de doctors called de flu.
People was dyin' ev'ywhere; death was creepin' th'ough de air,
For de groans of de sick sure was sad.

CHORUS: It was God's almighty hand; he was judgin' this old land;
North an' South; East an' West could be seen,
Yes, he killed de rich an' poor, an' he's goin' to kill more
If you don't turn away from your sins.

2. In Memphis, Tennessee, doctors said it soon would be,
In a few days influenza will (we'll?) control.
But God showed that He was head, an' He put de doctor to bed,
And the nurse they broke down with de same.

3. Influenza is a disease, makes you weak all in your knees;
'Tis a fever ev'ybody sure does dread;
Puts a pain in ev'y bone, a few days an' you are gone
To a place in de groun' called de grave.

Sung by Ace Johnson, Clemens state farm, Brazoria, Texas, April 16, 1939.