The church bell a ringin’, how sweet I do declar’.
Why don’t you go to meetin’ an’ pray all day long?
I’m goin’ to church an’ pray all day long.
Of course I’m a sinner but prayin’ might do me good
An’ if I do succeed I sure will tell the news.
Another song that was composed spontaneously in the effort to dignify his conversation is the following. It will be seen that for the most part it is composed of phrases common to other songs, and it is only the combination that is new.
Walk right and do right an’ trust in the Lord—
Lay down all yo’ sinful ways an’ trust in the Lord.
I am goin’ to trust in the Lord,
I am goin’ to trust in the Lord,
I’m goin’ to trust in the Lord till I die.
My God he’s a wonderful God an’ trust in the Lord,
He will answer yo’ prayers don’t care wher’ you are,
An’ trust in the Lord.
The next example was composed by a negro man after he had recently “come through.” He always loved to talk of what he had seen, what he knew would happen and how he could get out of difficulties. Along with this he had an unusually imaginative mind and told many ingenious stories. Here is the song:
The devil come down to the worl’ one day
An’ I heard him holler, hoo-ray, hoo-ray!
Come out, I’m havin’ a holiday.
That was the word I heard him say,
But I knowed if I danced to his holiday,
There’d be something doing an’ the devil to play.
The above song is difficult to classify. It would seem to be very much like some rhymes that the negro had seen published in a newspaper but for all his purposes it was a good song and it mattered little where he had obtained the ideas. It was indeed his own song. One other example of an effort to compose a new song shows the tendency of the negro to mix his serious themes with ridiculous expressions.
There was a man by the name of Cy,
He never prayed an’ he never try,
So when ole Cy was come to die,
He hollow out, “in hell I’ll cry.”
In hell ole Cy did cry,
In hell ole Cy did cry,
In hell ole Cy did cry,
Now don’t you die like ole Cy die.
The song is a variation of two or three secular songs and becomes a religious song because of its chorus. It is actually sung in the churches. The “author” continued,
Ole Cy did lead a mighty bad life,
He was always after some other man’s wife,
which clearly showed the trace of the secular element; this phrase is applied to many of the notorious characters in the negro secular songs. Still there was an opportunity for the moral and the song represents the peculiar gratification which the negroes find in having composed something more or less original.