And I want to go there too.

John G. McCurry, compiler of the Social Harp, recorded it, according to his note, in 1854. In the 1880’s in Monson, Maine, I heard almost precisely the same tune sung to the words:

Johnny Morgan played the organ,

His father beat the drum;

His sister played the tambourine

And his brother went bum-bum.

The text of the spiritual song is given more completely under ‘River of Jordan’. The tune is akin to ‘One Man Shall Mow my Meadow’ and ‘The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter’, in Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, Nos. 3 and 100.

No. 232
[O HE’S TAKEN MY FEET], REV 114

Hexatonic, mode 3 b (I II III IV V VI —)