Tell My Mother

DESCRIPTION: "Tell my mother, Tell her for me, To meet me in the morning at Galilee, O, you better walk steady, Jesus (is) a-liestening, Oh, you better walk stead, Jesus died, Oh, you better walk steady, Jesus is a-listening, All day long."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious mother
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 765, "Tell My Mother" (1 short text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Twelve Gates to the City" (floating lyrics)
NOTES [109 words]: The current description is based on the Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 text.
The "Tell my mother" verse of this appears in some versions of "Twelve Gates to the City," but the rest of the song obviously looks different, so I've split them. Jesus's instruction to meet him in Galilee was not issued to his mother; in Mark 16:7, the women who visit Jesus's tomb are told to inform "the disciples and Peter" that Jesus will meet them in Galilee. But given that Jesus's mother was said to have been with some of those women at the foot of the cross, and some of the other women were named Mary, perhaps some confusion is understandable. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.1
File: BrS5765

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