The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #167719   Message #4048758
Posted By: Joe Offer
26-Apr-20 - 08:34 PM
Thread Name: ADD: If Anybody Asks You Who I Am-Mother's Child
Subject: ADD: Child of God (Mother's Child)
CHILD OF GOD (Mother's Child)

If anybody ask you who I am,
Who I am, who I am,
If anybody ask you who I am,
Tell him I'm a child of God (mother's child).

The little cradle rocks tonight in glory,
In glory, in glory,
The little cradle rocks tonight in glory,
The Christ child born in glory. [Jesus was a mother's child]

Peace on earth, Mary rock the cradle,
Mary rock the cradle, Mary rock the cradle,
Peace on earth, Mary rock the cradle,
The Christ child born in glory

The Christ Child passing, singing softly,
Singing softly, singing softly,
The Christ Child passing, singing softly,
Christ child born in glory

Don't you hear the foot on the tree top,
Foot on the tree top, foot on the tree top,
Don't you hear the foot on the tree top,
Soft like the south wind blow?

from American Folk Songs for Christmas, by Ruth Crawford Seeger (Doubleday) page 40

Verse 1 from Mellows, by R. Emmett Kennedy, 1925

Verses 2-5 from the Journal of American Folklore, Vol 12, 1899, p. 272, "Christmas Carols in Georgia," by Emma Backus (slightly altered by Ruth Crawford Seeger)

2013 Recording by Elizabeth Mitchell, Peggy Seeger from The Sounding Joy: Christmas Songs In and Out of the Ruth Crawford Seeger Songbook:

Lyrics in parentheses by Peggy Seeger - Peggy has other nice verses I'll transcribe later.