I Got Shoes/All God's Children Got Shoes

Subject: I Got Shoes
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 10:29 AM

Short and sweet. My gospel quartet is doing a program for black history month for kindergarten through 4th grade kids. I thought that I Go Shoes would be a good song to involve them. I checked Digitrad and didn't find any lyrics there. A lot of people have to know this one.. here's what I remember from singing it as a kid:

I got shoes, you got shoes
All God's children got shoes
When I get to Heaven, going to put on my shoes
And walk all over God's Heaven
Heaven, Heaven
Everybody's talking 'bout Heaven, ain't goin' there
Heaven, Heaven, Heaven

I got a robe..
I got a crown..

Anything else anyone remembers? Someone mentioned it as their favorite spiritual in a thread, but didn't post any lyrics.

Thanks

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: masato sakurai
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 11:12 AM

CLICK HERE.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 11:37 AM

Thanks, Masato: I figured you'd be on this one right away.
Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: masato sakurai
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 12:45 PM

If the link doesn't work, try THIS.
~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Dani
Date: 31 Jan 02 - 11:42 PM

What else is on your program, Jerry? Curious -- it sounds like fun!

Dani

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 01 Feb 02 - 07:31 AM

Hi, Dani: I'm still thinking about it, as the program isn't until the end of February. It will be a half-hour special assembly for a private girl's school in a town where the only blacks to speak of are nannies or groundskeepers. How do you bring a sense of black history in a half hour, and make it entertaining, all the way down to five year old's? My best approach is to try to get the kids involved in singing and moving with the music, without too much "teaching" going on. I'll get the kids to join in on a song my quartet does called Who Built The Ark? I sing "Who built that ark? and then the tenor answers, "Brother Noahey." The next time I sing the question, the baritone joins in the answer, singing harmony, and the third time, the bass joins in. I'll try to split up the kids into three groups, with each group joining in with one of the guys on the answer. Then, I'll teach them the chorus. I thought that I Got Shoes was a good song because I remember singing it as a kid. It's quick and easy to learn. We'll do a couple of songs, showing how black gospel was often built around a call and response that was brought over from Africa. We'll do Roll Jordan, Roll for sure, and probably one other similar song. I'll get the kids up when they sing so that they can move in rhythm with us, get them clapping (it's amazing how un-coordinated kids can be, clapping...) and get one of our members to do some off-beat clapping to show another African rhythm. We'll get the kids to sing This Little Light Of Mine, because it's easy and repetitive, and some of them may even have heard it. There'll probably be time for a couple more songs, but I'll do as many as we can keep the kids involved in. What you can't teach the kids in that time (or perhaps at that age) is the horror of slavery. Two of the guys in my quartet grew up in the south, and still had living family members who were freed slaves. Oh, and I'll do Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Standing On Jesus, and get the kids to sing along, and then change it to "Staying on freedom," and talk briefly about how black gospel music was used in the civil rights movement.

We're also doing another program for kids in more of a workshop setting, so that will open up other possibilities.

Thanks for asking...

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Dani
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 11:17 AM

Jerry, that sounds like great stuff. How do you do this? What do you charge, and where do folks stay, etc.? If you're going anywhere near our town (and I suspect you'll drive right by), and we can afford it, I'd love for you to do that program. I work with our schools Cultural Arts committee (all both of us) and if we can work it out, let's do it!

Everyone ought to have an opportunity to hear a program like this.

Dani

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 02 Feb 02 - 02:37 PM

Hi, Dani: Yeah, I guess you must go through North Carolina to get to South Carolina. At least from Connecticut. I have no idea what schools pay for a program in your area. We were offered $600-700 here. We took the $600. Nobody ever accused me of being in it for the money. I imagine it depends on the school system and what they budget. I'll let you know when we have a firm date for our concert in Orangesburg, but the man who is organizing it is looking at next summer, when school most likely won't be in session. If it doesn't work out, the least I can do is toot our horn as we drive by...

We didn't seek out school bookings... we've had two come to us. Maybe I can tape the one that we do up here so that you can get some idea how it came out..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 04 Feb 02 - 11:25 AM

I've been walking around, singing this song, and the words are starting to hit me. I got shoes? Of course, I have shoes! Doesn't everyone? No, not even in America, today. When you think back to the days of slavery, getting a pair of shoes was certainly a big thing. I've talked to blacks who grew up as sons of sharecroppers in the South, and some of them didn't own a pair of shoes. If you've been around long enough and grew up in rural America, you can probably remember when summer was a time when you didn't wear shoes. Somewhere in April, my shoes got stuffed underneath my bed, and I went barefoot for most of the Summer. It would take a few days to toughen up the bottoms of your feet, but when you did, you could almost walk on glass. When it was time to go back to school, I'd get a new pair of shoes, and they'd have to last me through the school year. By the next April, they'd be pretty scuffed up and worn out, so I'm sure that my parents didn't mind if I went the summer barefoot. It got us through until the next pair of shoes in the fall. When my sons were growing up in the70's and 80's, they couldn't go out barefoot because they'd probably step on a piece of a broken beer bottle. We lived near a school, and the older, drinking-age kids would gather there on the weekend, and prove their masculinity by breaking their bottles on the sidewalk and road.

Singing this song puts me in a frame of mind where having shoes and a robe must have sounded like heaven to the little kids who sang it.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Haruo
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 01:34 AM

Sitting guard duty all night in front of the local mosque, gazing periodically at the sign above the door that says MOSQUES ARE FOR ALLAH (GOD) SO, INVOKE
NOT ANYONE ALONG WITH ALLAH (GOD) I came up with this:

I got wings; you got wings;
Allah (God)'s chilluns got wings!
When we get to hebben gonna

strap on our wings'n gonna

flap through Allah (God)'s hebben.

Hebben, hebben.

Everybody talkin' 'bout hebben ain't* goin' dere,

Hebben, hebben.

Gonna zoom through Allah (God)'s hebben.

I got wingtips; you got wingtips;
Allah (God)'s chilluns got wingtips!
When we get to hebben gonna

put on our wingtips, gonna

waltz through Allah (God)'s hebben.

Hebben, hebben.

Everybody talkin' 'bout hebben ain't* goin' dere,

Hebben, hebben.

Gonna prance through Allah (God)'s hebben

FWIW. Helped me pass the time of night.

Liland

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Haruo
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 01:36 AM

Oh yeah, the footnote. The asterisk in the lyrics above is supposed to refer to this:

* it's just a song; my personal belief is that, ultimately, heaven is for all. If you are uncomfortable with the exclusivity of the song as written, try substituting "be" for "ain't".

Liland

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I Got Shoes
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 05 Feb 02 - 09:16 AM

Or for our more afluent society, "I got a Ferrari, you got a Ferrari.."
Jerry