Trouble of the World, The

DESCRIPTION: "I want to be my Father's children (x3), Roll, Jordan, roll." "Ah, say, ain't you done with the trouble of the world (x3), Roll, Jordan, roll." "I ask my father how long I held them (x3), held them to the end." "My sins are so heavy I can't get along...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1867 (Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sin
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Allen/Ware/Garrison-SlaveSongsUnitedStates, p. 8, "The Trouble of the World" (1 text, 1 tune plus a (partial?) variant)
ADDITIONAL: Robert Winslow Gordon, "Negro 'Shouts' from Georgia" in Alan Dundes, editor, _Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel_ (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1990) ("tell me now how long you goin' to hold um") pp. 448-449 (1 text)
Roud #11855
NOTES [145 words]: Allen, Ware, and Garrison admit that it is "impossible to represent in notes" the strange timing of this piece. I suspect it is sort of a patter song inspired by "Roll, Jordan, Roll." - RBW
The Gordon text, from the Georgia Sea Islands, describes this as a ring shout song with the pattern of one "walk" verse -- "slow and dignified" -- and four shout verses in "a double-quick tripping measure." Each verse repeats a line three times and ends "Roll, Jordan, Roll." The pattern varies only in the first line of the walk verse: "True believer/Brudder Tember/Sister Lucy/..." ("tell me how long you goin' to hold 'um "(3x) "Roll, Jordan, Roll." The repeated lines in the shout verses are "My sin so heavy I can't get across," "I throw my sin in the middle of the sea," "True believer done with the trouble of the world" and "Just begin with the trouble of the world." - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: AWG008

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