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Ain't You Glad (Blood Done Signed My Name)/Blood Done Signed My Name
SEE ALSO: Blood Done Signed My Name
Traditional Old-Time, Spiritual;
ARTIST: Leadbelly circa 1944; Leadbelly Vol. 4 1939-1947
Sonny Terry's Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZrTz_cBUjg
CATEGORY: Traditional Gospel Spiritual;
DATE: 1909 Odum;
RECORDING INFO: Blood Done Signed My Name
Simon Prager/ Ain't You Glad?
"De Blood Done Signed My Name" Sung by group of Negro convicts, with
guitar. Kilby prison, Montgomery, Ala., John A. Lomax, 1934.
Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs Of The Southern Negroes 1909
Sonny Terry in Summer 1943, Mdc 1151, Melodisc Co.
OTHER NAMES: "De Blood Done Signed My Name;" "Blood Done Signed My Name;"
"Ain't You Glad?" "Oh, The Blood Done Signed My Name"
SOURCES: Journal of American folklore, Volume 27 in 1914.
Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs Of The Southern Negroes 1909
NOTES: "Ain't You Glad (Blood Done Signed My Name)" is a spiritual that collected by Howard W. Odum under the title "Blood Done Signed My Name" and appears in his "Religious Folk-Songs Of The Southern Negroes" in 1909.
The two important versions of "Ain't You Glad" were made by Sonny Terry (1934) and by Leadbelly. The link above is to a good cover of the Sonny Terry version [Version 2]done by Simon Prager, Guitar and vocal with Rob Mason, Harmonic. Leadbelly's version is similar but slightly different chords and melody).
With Timothy Tyson's popular book, "Blood Done Sign My Name" now made into a movie (released Feb. 2010) the title has become associated with the civil rights movement.
Leadbelly's lyrics which are quoted in the movie promotions come directly from Journal of American folklore, Volume 27 in 1914. The spiritual was collected from African-American children in Tennessee:
4. OH THE BLOOD DONE SIGN MY NAME
This favorite song has been published in another form [in Odum 1909], but is given here to show the differences that may be found when the song is heard in different communities, and to show its widespread popularity. Each stanza is repeated three times [See: Blood Done Signed My Name- Version 2):
Oh the blood
Oh the blood
Oh the blood done sign my name.
Ain't you glad?
Ain't you glad?
The blood done sign my name.
The "Ain't you glad?" stanza is one of the seven stanzas.
AIN'T YOU GLAD- "Blood Done Sign My Name" (Leadbelly-Huddie Ledbetter 1944)
CHORUS: Ain't you glad, ain't you glad
That the blood done signed my name.
Aint you glad, ain't you glad
That the blood done signed my name.
Aint you glad, ain't you glad
That the blood done signed my name.
Oh the blood done signed my name. (spoken: they want to know where it's done)
1. In the *Heaven, in the Heaven,
Oh the blood done signed my name
In the heaven, in the heaven,
Oh the blood done signed my name
In the heaven, in the heaven,
Oh the blood done signed my name
Oh the blood done signed my name.
CHORUS
2. Over yonder, over yonder,
The blood done signed my name
Over yonder, over yonder,
The blood done signed my name
Over yonder, over yonder,
The blood done signed my name
CHORUS
* pronounced "Hea'en"
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