Add: I'm Goin' Lay Down My Life For My Lord

Subject: I'm Goin' Lay Down My Life For My Lord
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 05:38 PM

I'M GOIN' LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR MY LORD

Well, my Lord, Lord, Lord,
For my Lord, Lord, Lord,
I'm gonna lay down my life for my Lord.

Oh, Satan is mad and I am glad,
'Cause he missed that soul that he thought he had.

Cho.
I'm gonna lay down my life for my Lord,
Den for my Lord, Lord, Lord,
For my Lord, Lord, Lord,
I'm gonna lay down my life for my Lord.

Satan is like a snake in de grass,
An' he's always in some Christian's path.
Cho.
Oh, Satan, where is de liar's shoes,
An' if you don't *mind, he's goin' slip dem on you.
Cho.
Henry Truvillion, Newton, Texas. *Mind: Southernism for Be Careful, or Watch Out!
John and Ruby Lomax Southern States Collecting Trip. Click on Links at top of page and go to Lomax Collection. Select Audio Subject and click on Spirituals for list.
@religion @gospel @spiritual

Subject: Add: I'M GONNA LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR MY LORD
From: masato sakurai
Date: 03 Dec 01 - 07:46 PM

Another version, functionally a worksong, sung by Bessie Jones and Group B in 1960, on St. Simons Island, Georgia, is on Lomax's Southern Journey, V. 12: Georgia Sea Islands -- Biblical Songs and Spirituals (Rounder CD 1712).

I'M GONNA LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR MY LORD
[Bessie Jones recreates with the group a favorite spiritual of her grandparents. She recollected that they often sang this song as they worked, and grew happy with its spirit of determination, shouting right out in the corn fields.]

Chorus:
I'm a-gonna lay down, lay down,
I'm a-gonna lay down, lay down,
I'm a-gonna lay down my life for my Lord.
Yes -- (Repeat.)

O when them gamblers ge together,
How they can gamble like one another,
But I'm a-gonna lay down my life for my Lord.
O when them drunkards get together,
How they can drink like one another
But I'm a-gonna lay down my life for my Lord.
(Chorus)

Then John said to lay down my life,
Yes, he said, "Lay down, lay down."
John said to lay down my life for my Lord.

Then Luke said to lay down, lay down,
O Luke said to lay down, lay down,
Yeah, Luke said to lay down my life for my Lord.

O when them dancers get together,
How they can dominize one another,
But I'm a-gonna lay down my life for my Lord.

O when them liars get together,
How they can lie like one another,
But I'm a-gonna lay down my life for my Lord.
(Chorus)

[Jones: Yes, that's way back, way in them old corn fields, pullin' fodder, Lawd. Lemme tell you, to hear 'em say they're gonna lay down they life!
Lomax: Did they sing that while they were working?
Jones: In them fields pullin' fodder and flowers, what not. It sound good, too.
Peter Davis: It's like they touched me.]

~Masato

Subject: RE: Add: I'm Goin' Lay Down My Life For My Lord
From: GUEST,Rosario
Date: 02 Dec 13 - 10:55 PM

Subject: RE: Add: I'm Goin' Lay Down My Life For My Lord
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 03 Dec 13 - 02:42 PM

Lyr. Add: GWINE LAY DOWN MY LIFE FOR MY LORD

De Lord giv' me mer trumpet an' tole me ter blow,
He giv' me mer commission an' tole me ter go.

   Fer my Lord, fer my Lord, fer my Lord,
   Gwine lay down my life fer my Lord.

You can hinder me here, but you can't hinder me dere,
For de Lord in Heaven gwine hear my prayer.

De enemy's great but my Cap'n is strong,
Um fightin' fer de city an' de time ain't long.

When I git dar I'll be able fer to tell,
How I whipped ole Satan at de door ob hell.

My head got wet wid de midnight dew,
Dat mornin' star was shinin' too.

No musical score, pp. 91-92; 1925, "The Negro and His Songs: A study of typical Negro songs in the South," Negro Universities Press (reprints).

Writing in the 1920s, the authors discuss the abundance of these songs and how few of them have been collected, "But this wealth of song will not continue indefinitely. Already the processes of civilization are operating to make the Negro ashamed of his old spirituals and to relegate the more naïve of his social songs to a rapidly diminishing lower class.
"Slowly but surely the folk creative urge will be dulled and this great body of folk song, perhaps the last of its kind, will pass away."