Lyr Req: Run, Run, Run (spiritual?)

Subject: Lyr Req: Run, Run, Run (spiritual?)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 03 Nov 03 - 11:53 AM

Heard this as a very short piece at VOICES ACROSS AMERICA. There must be more verses and other versions out there. It's listed in the Spirituals section at Voices Across America, where it indicates Long-Metered Hymns (spirituals) sung by the Reverend G.W. Temple and the Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church congregation, in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Found lots of running and king's highway references in the threads, but none seem to be related to this one... in fact this one kinda takes the bad taste out of the mouth on some of the RUN songs from slave times.

Not seeing it with this title in any my index, altho it does list several RUN songs. Any more info appreciated. Great tune.

~Susan


===========================================================

RUN, RUN, RUN!
Traditional
As sung by the Reverend G.W. Temple and the Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church congregation, in Tuskegee, Alabama


Run, run, run... [exclamation] I can't tarry,
Run, run, run... [exclamation] I can't tarry,
Run, run, run... [exclamation] I can't tarry,
Running up the King's highway.

If my mother don't run, I can't tarry,
If my mother don't run, I can't tarry,
If my mother don't run, I can't tarry,
I'm running up the King's highway.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Run, Run, Run (spiritual?)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Nov 03 - 11:26 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Run, Run, Run (spiritual?)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Nov 03 - 02:06 PM

The image of running goes back to the first spirituals collected. Higginson collected one, "Down in the Valley,"first verse:

We'll run and never tire (3x)
Jesus set poor sinners free
Way down in the valley,
Who will rise and go with me?
You've heern talk of Jesus,
Who set poor sinners free.

Run, Sinner, Run
1st verse (from N. I. White, American Negro Folk-Songs)
Run, sinner, run, yo' house on fire, (2X)
Den my little soul goin' to shine home (2x)

Combine with the songs about who is going and who is not, naming relatives and members of the congregation:

I Got a Mother
(third verse (from N. I. White; similar collected by Work in 1907))

I'se gotter brotha in the promised land,
I'se ask muh brotha does he wanta go long,
If he don't wanta go, I'll journey on
To the promised land.

The ideas are combined in the old spiritual style by Rev. Temple.

Also reminiscent of:
If the seeker won't go, I'll journey on (3x)
I'm on my way, God knows I'm on my way.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Run, Run, Run (spiritual?)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Nov 03 - 02:15 PM

Q, did you give the thing a listen-- does it sound like any you know?

~S~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Run, Run, Run (spiritual?)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Nov 03 - 02:34 PM

Done in the old gospel style that I could hear on the radio Sunday mornings many years ago while driving between cities along the Gulf. No fancy choir, no sophisticated arrangements, more of a chant; a strong lead, the congregation following, each member responding in his own way. Each of these preachers had a style of his own. The tune is not important but subjugated to the message. I have bookmarked the site and will try to tape before it disappears.

Can't argue with the traditional tags put to the songs; the style certainly is.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Run, Run, Run (spiritual?)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 06 Nov 03 - 03:15 PM

Q, it's downloadable as an MP3, the whole site is full of good stuff.

~S~