Week 4: Spirituals II / Oh Mary Don't You Weep

Charles White, Love Letter II, 1971

READING. From last week, Leroi Jones' Blues People  still very much applies. Let's see some references to the reading in your Digital Notebook posts. And do take a closer look at W.E.B Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, see Sorrow Songs (the last chapter). Online text: Souls of Black Folk.
The new reading for this week: Biblical references in folk songs, particularly the Spirituals. See the passages below for Mary Don't You Weep. Read and consider these biblical passages carefully. Especially the way they draw on both Old and New Testament sources. How did Black people in the South come to know these passages? Read DuBois. Also: the concordance, and question of biblical translations. Also see notes on writer James Baldwin, below.

SONGS: Continue with songs on Week 3 download (Work Songs / Spirituals / Gospel). Focus on Mary Don't You Weep.

PROJECT. For the coming week I want you to concentrate on Oh Mary Don't You Weep, especially the way verses from both the New Testament (the story of Mary and Martha) are merged with verses from the Old Testament (the Hebrew Bible)--and what this merging might have to do with the lives of Black people in the American South in the time of slavery.  

Versions of Mary Don't You Weep. There are different ways of singing this song--indeed, almost two different songs. You'll hear the Black church version in the Swan Silvertones (also on our S&P CD--and Bob Dylan's favorite) and in the beautiful rendition by Inez Andrews (watch her face as she sings.) Leadbelly takes another approach--which I'm assuming became the basis for the Lomax's version in their songbooks. (You can find this in our S&P TAN Songset.) In any  case, the Lomaxes  arranged the lyrics. Mississippi John Hurt (we'll hear more of him later!) basically does this one. It's a beautiful, gentle, lyrical way of singing the song. A classic "folkie" version is the one by Pete Seeger. Then, a couple of wild cards--including Justin Hinds in a Ska version from Jamaica and a local Indy band on an Oakland rooftop...

▶ Swan Silvertones - Mary Don't You Weep - YouTube
  This is the version on S&P CD. Listen carefully to how the lyrics.
▶ Inez Andrews and The Andrewettes -Mary Don't You Weep (LIVE) - YouTube 
▶ Leadbelly - Mary don't you weep - YouTube  (Last Sessions, Folkways Records) with Martha Promise. (Hear the spoons in the background too.)
▶ Mississippi John Hurt - Oh Mary Don't You Weep.wmv - YouTube
John Hurt's versions are unmistakeable!
▶ Pete Seeger - "Oh Mary, Don't You Weep" - YouTube (Bruce Springsteen has covered this version,  more recently.)  This is a Pete Seeger classic, which influenced college kids your age all over the country in the 1960s...  

Here are some wild cards:
▶ Max Romeo - Don't You Weep - Pama Reggae - YouTube  (Kingston, Jamaica, 1971). Why does Max Romeo change the lyrics here--and how does this affect the meaning of the song?
▶ The Gomorrans - Mary Don't you Weep - on a Rooftop in East Oakland - YouTube
What the feeling--and meaning--in this version?

And this one, Trinite 6:7 for a heartfelt contemporary church version:
(▶ Trinitee 5:7 - Oh Mary, Don't You Weep - YouTube)

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James Baldwin

And finally, from a documentary on the writer James Baldwin, whose early book, Go Tell It On the Mountain (1953) is very much about the themes we're looking at--and listening to--this week:
▶ James Baldwin: the Price of the Ticket - YouTube
Also this, from 1965:
▶ James Baldwin vs. William F. Buckley - YouTube 
Ask yourself: have times changes?

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Charles White, Mary Don't You Weep, 1930's

OH MARY DON'T YOU WEEP--Biblical sources for the lyrics:
Here are two key passages on Mary and Martha from the New Testament. Consider how they entered into the meanings of "Oh Mary Don't You Weep." To find additional biblical references to Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus, make use of a concordance. Following, the verses from Exodus (Hebrew Bible) with the story of the Pharoah's Army at the Red Sea.

MARY & MARTHA.  "Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her" (Luke 10:38-42).

That's a modern translation. Here's the King James version:

 ³⁸ Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
⁴⁰ But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
⁴² But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

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"Then, six days before the Passover, Jesus [and the disciples] came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom He had raised from the dead. There they made Him a supper; and Martha served, but Lazarus was one of those who sat at the table with Him. Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil" (John 12:1-3)

...and again, the King James version:

12 Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

² There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.
³ Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. 
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PHAROAH'S ARMY at the RED SEA. Here's the source of "Pharoah's army got drownded...," from the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) in the  King James translation, EXODUS 14:20-3:

14:20 And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night. 14:21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. 14:22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 14:23 And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. 14:24 And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, 14:25 And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians. 14:26 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen. 14:27 And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. 14:28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. 14:29 But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. 14:30 Thus the LORD saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore. 14:31 And Israel saw that great work which the LORD did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses.

Note: This is reprised very beautifully in The Song of the Sea  (Exodus 15: 1-18), attributed to Miriam, sister of Moses: Sus v'rochvo ramah bayam... "The horse and his Chariot he cast into the sea...") It's one of the "oldest" layers in the Biblical text... Consider this, too. 

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And a note on the CONCORDANCE. A concordance is basically an elaborate index of biblical verses--one which allows you to look up key terms (names, places, particular words) and find the Biblical verses in which they occur. Before Google, the concordance was crucial to Biblical scholarship. For our purposes, it will help you understand the Biblical roots of many of the songs from the American Southern tradition--particularly those of the Black church--whether from reading the bible (as Mississippi John Hurt did, assiduously) or from hearing the verses repeated in a minister's sermons. Either way, they became a hidden but central part of people's lives. Also--we'll talk about how they work in "explanatory" terms... making meaning of peoples lives, both in the time of slavery and even today...

And remember the hapax legomenon--which is to say, each one of us! (Tony's interpretation.)