Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)

Subject: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 06:58 AM

Kenneth Morris wrote 'Yes God is Real" "click to listen" I can find info on Morris, but I need to find more about the song, if possible. There must be a good "gospel encyclopedia" or something. Any recommendations?

Subject: RE: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 09:00 AM

YES GOD IS REAL    BMI Work #1703159
Songwriter/Composer Current Affiliation CAE/IPI
MORRIS KENNETH            NA                  0
Publishers MARTIN AND MORRIS MUSIC STUDIO BMI19836071

Written in 1944, BMI lists Sandi Patty and Kathy Myers as artists, though I know there are more.

Address for publisher

MARTIN AND MORRIS MUSIC STUDIO INC
7400 SO EUCLID AVE CHICAGO, IL 60649-3626

Not a lot of help there, but it's a start.

Subject: RE: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From: Margret RoadKnight
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 09:11 AM

Definitely recorded by the Queen, Mahalia Jackson

Subject: RE: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 10:21 AM

Quoted from Horace Clarence Boyer, "Kenneth Morris: Composer and Dean of Black Gospel Music Publishers," in We'll Undestand It Better By and By: Pioneering African American Gospel Composers, edited by Bernice Johnson Reagon (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992, pp. 318-23):

In that same year [i.e., 1944], Morris produced the most popular of his compositions, "Yes, God Is Real". African American church congregations know this song so well that they need neither the score nor the text to sing it. It opens with a declaration of the inability of the mortal person to understand the universe and to survey all of its wonders:

There are some things I may not know,
There are some places I can't go

However, it quickly shifts to a statement of confidence proclaiming that which the person can understand and his or her joy in such knowledge:

But I am sure of this one thing
That God is real
For I can feel Him deep within.

According to Morris, "Yes, God Is Real" was his most commercially successful composition. It has been translated into twenty-four languages and is sung all over the world. Although "Just a Closer Walk" has been translated into eleven languages, "Yes, Gos Is Real" is the only song to reach this ststure.

Subject: RE: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 12:38 PM

Thanks! That helps a lot!

Subject: RE: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 01:18 PM

Other titles includes "God Is Real" and "There Are Some Things." Little Richard sang this too (Click here).

Subject: RE: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From:
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 01:42 PM

What's the chances of someone posting the words in this thread to complete it?

Subject: RE: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 02:11 PM

YES, GOD IS REAL
          (Kenneth Morris, 1944)

1. There are some things I may not know
    There are some places I can't go,
    But I am sure of this one thing,
    My God is real for I can feel Him deep within.

    CHORUS:
    My God is real,
    Real in my soul,
    My God is real for He has washed and made me whole,
    His love for me
    Is like pure gold,
    My God is real for I can feel Him in my soul.

2. Some folk may doubt
    Some folk may scorn
    All can desert and leave me 'lone,
    But as for me I'll take God's part,
    For God is real for I can feel Him in my heart.

3. I cannot tell
    Just how I felt
    When Jesus took my sins away,
    But since that day
    Yes since that hour,
    God has been real for I can feel His holy pow'r.

A present-day version (as in African American Heritage Hymnal) often is:
1. .....
    But I am sure of this one thing,
    That God is real for I can feel Him deep within.

    CHORUS:
    Yes, my God is real,
    He's real in my soul,
    Yes, God is real for He has washed and made me whole,
    His love for me is like pure gold.
    Yes, God is real for I can feel Him in my soul.

2. Some folks may doubt, some folks may scorn,

3. I cannot tell just how you felt
    When Jesus took your sins away,

Subject: RE: Origins: Req: Yes, God is Real (gospel)
From:
Date: 06 Aug 03 - 02:15 PM

Thanks, Masato. Looks like a very nice song.