Lyr Req: I Saw a Sight All in a Dream

Subject: Lyr Add: I SAW A SIGHT ALL IN A DREAM
From: masato sakurai
Date: 10 Mar 04 - 09:44 AM

From Leonard Roberts, Sang Branch Settlers: Folksongs and Tales of a Kentucky Mountain Family (University of Texas Press, 1974, pp. 130-131; with music transcribed). The last stanza has three lines.

I SAW A SIGHT ALL IN A DREAM

1. I saw a sight , all in a dream,
    There's things before I never seen;
    I saw my companion trav'llin' on
    The way my blessed Redeemer's gone.

2. I saw my husband away behind,
    Him who I love so tender and kind,
    With seven little chillern around her bed
    Remending for their mother kind.

3. A mother kind indeed was she,
    A loving wife she's been to me,
    She called her companion to her bed,
    Ten thousand tears for her he shed.

4. "Companion dear, come pity me,
    Come take my two little babes away,
    Take both my twins all in your care,
    And teach them up in God to fear.

5. "And teach them both to sing and pray
    And to serve the Lord till endless day."
    The sharpest pain run through her breast,
    A-worrying for her two little babes.

6. Poor little babes must cry and weep,
    No breast to suck, cuddle them to sleep;
    It's come, great God, look down and view,
    See what a kind mother has went through.

7. She is paid the debt we all must pay,
    She's left this world to sleep in the clay;
    Come friends and neighbors from all around
    And see her laid in the cold ground.

8. A warning to the human race,
    A warning of the human race,
    We all must go to that cold place.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'I saw a sight all in a dream'
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Mar 04 - 09:00 AM

Couldn't find the song, but I found a bit of information about Leonard Roberts and the Couch family.

The University Press of Kentucky has reissued Up Cutshin And Down Greasy: Folkways of a Kentucky Mountain Family by Leonard W. Roberts, originally published in 1959.

Another book being offered for sale, used, is Sang Branch Settlers, by Leonard Roberts, 1980.

(One source referred to "Up Cutshin and Down Greasy" as an abridged version of "Sang Branch Settlers.")

--but maybe your librarian has already looked in those books.

The Appalachian accent can be a tough one to decipher. That may be your major obstacle. If it is not your native accent, you might try asking someone who is a native of that area to listen to the tape.

If all else fails, you might try making up new lyrics to go with the tune. Good luck.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'I saw a sight all in a dream'
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 08 Mar 04 - 04:37 PM

Or Q. Nada here too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'I saw a sight all in a dream'
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Mar 04 - 02:41 PM

I hope Whizzy or Jerry stops in....I'm having no luck at all.

Subject: Lyr Req: 'I saw a sight all in a dream'
From: GUEST,Lee Hunter
Date: 08 Mar 04 - 02:34 PM

I'm in search of lyrics for a song I heard on a field recording made by Leonard Roberts, Oct. 16, 1955 of Tom and Jim Couch, Harlan Co., KY singing the following first verse:

"I saw a sight all in a dream,
of things before I never seen,
I saw my companions traveling on,
a way my blessed redeemer's gone."

I am only able to understand the first verse. The rest is pretty unintelligible, at least to my ears. A friend has determined enough of the lyrics to be able to tell that a family is gathering around the death bed of a mother, something about "seven beautiful children", but that's about it.

The tune is similar to the tune of "So early in the Spring" performed by Pentangle on the recording entitled "sweet child".

I got the recording from the archive at Berea College. The librarian there was unable to find a copy of the lyrics. I would really like to know the lyrics because I'm interested in recording the song on our next CD. I would also like to know as much information about it as possible, and of course, who wrote it, so copyright requirements can be met if needed.

Thanks so much.
Lee