Little Black Train Is A-Comin'

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Little black train is a-comin', Get all your business right... For the train may be here tonight." King Hezekiah is offered as an example. A young man lives a sinful life; when death comes, he is surprised and vainly begs for mercy
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: death Bible train
FOUND IN: US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Cohen-LongSteelRail, pp. 625-628, "Little Black Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 46-47, "The Little Black Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 541, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
Botkin-TreasuryOfAmericanFolklore, pp. 914-915, "Little Black Train Is A-Comin'" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 41, "(Little Black Train)" (partial text)
Scarborough-OnTheTrailOfNegroFolkSongs, pp. 260-261, "The Little Black Train" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, pp. 305-306, "(no title)" (1 text)
ST BAF914 (Partial)
Roud #11594
RECORDINGS:
Emry Arthur, "The Little Black Train Is Coming" (Vocalion 5229, 1928)
Dock Boggs, "Little Black Train" (on Boggs2, BoggsCD1)
Carter Family, "The Little Black Train" (OKeh 03112/Vocalion 03112, 1935; ARC 7-07-62/Conqueror 8815, 1937; on CGospel1)
Rev. J. M. Gates, "Death's Black Train is Coming" (Columbia 14145-D,1926)
Harmon E. Helmick, "The Little Black Train" (Champion 16744, 1934)
Silver Leaf Quartet, "Gospel Train" (on LomaxCD1708)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "This Old World Ain't Going to Stand Much Longer" (subject)
NOTES [70 words]: The story of Hezekiah's bout with sickness, God's threat, Hezekiah's repentance, and Isaiah's promise of fifteen additional years of life is told in 2 Kings 20:1-11 (repeated almost verbatim inIsaiah 38) and briefly summarized in 2 Chronicles 32:24-26.
The version in Brown accidentally replaces "Hezekiah" with "Ezekiel," but the former name is clearly correct. It tacks on the story of the Wise Fool, Luke 12:16-20. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: BAF914

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