Lyr Req: Devil's Ol' Red Shoe: No Hiding Place

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Devil's Ol' Red Shoe: No Hiding Place
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 02:49 PM

"Dere's (There's) No Hiding Place Down Here" is a Negro spiritual See Johnson, Book of American Negro Spirituals. The verse you quote is a floater, appearing in several Negro spirituals. The devil is often depicted as wearing red.
Like many of these songs, it also appears in white gospel versions.

Subject: Lyr Req: Devil's Ol' Red Shoe: No Hiding Place
From: wilco
Date: 18 Mar 03 - 01:53 PM

I'm in SE Tennessee (USA), and I often hear the song, "There is no hiding place down here" sung with the following line:

Yep, ol' devil wears the rid, red shoe.
devil wears them old red shoes.
That devil wears them rid red shoes,
if you don't watch, he'll slip it on you. There's no hidin' place down here.

The digitrad version reads, in the place of "rid, red shoe:" "hypocrite's shoe." What is the reference to red shoes mean? I have guessed that it's something in folklore, where witches were thought to wear shoes?