My goodness! All this fuss, and no more lyrics posted! It's a regular feature with zipper and/or floating verses often seen in other spirituals.

The spirituals often contained verses or phrases that might or might not have been related to one another story-wise. The idea was to keep adding verses and sing it all day in the fields, so you'd throw in whatever you recalled or could make up-- like rap, today-- often going from person to person, spontaneously. So these were often created or re-created on the spot from whatever was on the singer's mind on any given day. You'd "zip" in a verse from another song, if it fit, and that's a zipper verse, or you'd grab one floating in the air, remembered or made up new, and that's a floating verse.

It was often the case that the first part of each verse was "called" by a leader (just one, or several in rotation), and then the people would sing back the set "response." This would give the leader a moment to frame the next verse before calling it.

There would also often be two distinct themes going on, sort of a tension between the verse and the chorus, or the call and response. It might be that they would contrast with one another. Or the response might resolve a question or issue in the call. Or the two themes might be bookends, two pieces of a theological truth or puzzle where you would need both to make sense of reality.

~S~

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First, as already in DT (I corrected typos):

OH, MARY DON'T YOU WEEP, I
Traditional


CHO:
Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't mourn;
Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't mourn;
Pharaoh's army got drowned,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.

If I could I surely would,
Stand on the rock where Moses stood.
Pharaoh's army got drowned,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.

Wonder what Satan's a-grumblin' 'bout,
Chained in Hell an' he can't git out.
Pharaoh's army got drowned,...

Ol' Satan's mad an' I am glad,
Missed that soul he thought he had.
Pharaoh's army got drowned,...

I went down in the valley to pray,
My soul got happy and stayed all day.
Pharaoh's army got drowned,...

@gospel
filename[ OHMARY
JK
apr97

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OH, MARY DON'T YOU WEEP, II
Traditional Negro Spiritual


REFRAIN:
Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn;
Oh, Mary, don't you weep, don't you mourn.
Pharaoh's army got drownded,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.

If I could I surely would,
Stand on the rock where Moses stood.
Pharaoh's army got drownded,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.

Moses stood on the Red Sea shore,
Smitin' that water with a two-by-four.
Pharaoh's army got drownded,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.

God gave Noah the rainbow sign,
"No more water, but fire next time!"
Pharaoh's army got drownded,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.

One of these nights, about twelve o'clock,
This old world's gonna reel and rock.
Pharaoh's army got drownded,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.

I may be right and I may be wrong,
I know you're gonna miss me when I'm gone!
Pharaoh's army got drownded,
Oh, Mary, don't you weep.


@gospel
@spiritual
@religious

SH