526. Dark Was the Night

526. Dark Was the Night

[Three versions of "Dark Was the Night" were collected in the Brown Collection of NC Folklore. Version C was recorded but the recording was lost.
 
Two African-American versions appear on Folkways 2656 Music from the South, Vol. 7: Elder Songsters, 2:

1) From the singing of John and Lovie Griffins; Near Cahaba River, Perry County, Alabama; April 10, 1954.
2) From the singing of Mary Price. Near Angola, Louisiana, June 22, 1954. Recorded by Frederic Ramsey, Jr.


This public domain hymn "Gethsemane" or "Dark Was the Night" by English physician and clergyman Thomas Haweis was printed in Carmina Christo, first edition in 1792. It's a long and winding road from the Carmina Christo to slide guitar and moaning of Blind Willie Johnson whose version "Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground" was included on the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space with the Voyager spacecraft in 1977 - Johnson’s music left the solar system on December 16, 2004.

Ry Cooder once said Johnson's "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" was the most soulful, transcendental piece of American music recorded in the 20th Century.

The song is also used in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Gospel According to St Matthew; Walk the Line, a biopic of country singer Johnny Cash; The Devil’s Rejects, a serial killer film by rocker Rob Zombie; and Public Enemies, a Michael Mann’s movie about John Dillinger, a famous criminal from ’30s. --Matteson 2011] 


526. Dark Was the Night


The original hymn, of which there are three traditional versions in our collection, has been ascribed to Thomas Haweis. The first three stanzas appear in A Collection of Hymns for Public, Social, Olid Domestic Worship (Nashville, Tenn., 1859), P- 88; the whole, in Basil Manly and B. Manly's The Baptist Psalmody (Charleston,  S. C, 1850 J, p. 124. White ANFS 105-6 prints songs containing the first stanza, with other references. Cf. Jackson WNS 199 (No. Ixxiv). A Negro version of this song, from Alabama, appears in Emily Hallowell, Calhoun Plantation Songs (Boston, 1901), p. 31.

A. No title. Contributed by Julian P. Boyd, from Mary Price, a student in the school at Alliance, Pamlico county; c. 1927-28. The copy of the song bears this note by Dr. Brown : "Many of the white people along the coast write and speak as do the Negroes : notice 'de' for 'the'; hence one cannot conclude that the songs are of Negro origin just because of the idioms." But see text B.

1. Dark was the night and cold was the ground
On which de Lord was laid;
De sweat like drops of blood run down;
In agony he prayed.

2. 'Father, remove this bitter cup.
If 'tis thy sacred will.
If not, content I'll drink it up.
Thy pleasure I'll fulfill.'

3. Go to the garden, sinner, see
Those precious drops that flow.
The heavy load he bore for thee.
For thee he laid so low.

4. Then learn of him the cross to bear.
Thy Father's will obey.
And when temptations press too near,
Awake to watch and pray.

B. 'Dark Is the Night.' Provenience the same as that of the A text, except that it was olitained from Rosebud West. It is described as "Negro fragment."

Dark is the night,
And cold is the day
On which my Lord was laid.
He sweat drops of blood,
But never told a soul.

Father will remove
This bead of blood from you
If you will hear His call.

Oh, God will remove his bead of blood,
Oh, God will remove his bead of blood,
If you will hear is call.

Oh, go to God and be saved
From this bead of blood.
Oh, yes, God will remove this bead of blood!

C. No title. From Miss Jennie Melvin, Durham ; notdated, Init probably 1920-21. Phonograph recording, undated.

1.The sweat like drops of blood run down;
In agony he prayed,
In agony he prayed.

2. I heard my blessed Savior say,
'Come unto me and rest,
Come unto me and rest.'

3. He bid me come to Him and rest.
My head upon his breast,
My head upon his breast.
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526
Dark Was the Night

III 585 says : "Phonograph recording," but none has been found.