All God's Children Got Shoes

DESCRIPTION: "I got shoes, you got shoes, All got's children got shoes; When I get to heaven, gonna put on my shoes, Gonna (shout) all over God's heaven." Similarly with robes, crowns, wings, harps, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (recording, Fisk University Jubilee Quartet)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 126-127, "Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heav'n" (1 text, 1 tune; pp. 168-169 in the 1909 edition)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 550, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (2 texts plus 2 fragments)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 550, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, p. 67, "(Goin' to Shout All over God's Heaven)" (1 text)
Smith-SouthCarolinaBallads, p. 86, "Gonna Shout all over God's Heaven" (1 text)
Work-FolkSongOfTheAmericanNegro, p. 48, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 359, "All God's Children Got Shoes" (1 text)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, pp. 24-25, "All God's Chillun Got Shoes" (1 text, 1 tune)
Messerli-ListenToTheMockingbird, pp. 19-20, "All God's Chillun Got Wings" (1 text)
Harbin-Parodology, #345, p. 89, "Goin' to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 63, "Heab'n" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 13, "I Got Wings" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 11, "Heab'n" (1 text)
BoyScoutSongbook1997, p. 103, "I Got Shoes" (1 short text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Harold Courlander, _A Treasury of Afro-American Folklore_, Crown Publishers, 1976, p. 332, "(no title)" (1 text)
Roud #11826
RECORDINGS:
Louis Armstrong, "Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Decca 2085, 1938)
Big Bethel Choir #1 "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Columbia 14157-D, 1926)
Commonwealth Quartet, "I'm Going to Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Domino 0173, 1927)
Cotton Belt Quartet, "I'm Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Vocalion 15263, 1926)
Cotton Pickers Quartet, "All God's Children Got Wings" (OKeh 8917, 1931)
Elkins Payne Jubilee Singers, "Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Paramount 12071, 1923)
Lt. Jim Europe's Singing Serenaders, "Ev'rybody Dat Talks 'Bout Heaven Ain't Goin' There" (Pathe 22105, 1919)
Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Victor 16448, 1909)
Fisk University Male Quartet, "Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Columbia A1883, 1915)
Georgia Sea Island Singers, "Everybody Talking About Heaven" (on LomaxCD1713)
Mitchell's Christian Singers, "Gonna Shout All Over God's Heaven" (Melotone 6-04-64, 1936)
Dock Reed & Vera Hall Ward, "Everybody Talkin' About Heaven Ain't Goin' There" (on NFMAla5)
Southern Four: "Shout All Over God's Heaven" [medley w. "Standin' in the Need of Prayer"] (Edison 51364, 1924)
Edna Thomas, "I Got Shoes" (Columbia 1863-D, 1929; rec. 1928)
West Virginia Collegiate Institute Glee Club, "Shout All Over God's Heab'n" (Brunswick 3497, 1927)
NOTES [112 words]: Courlander believes this song to be based on the Revelation to John. It appears to me that it is simply an exuberant expression of a poor, oppressed Christian hope in the afterlife. The word shoe/shoes is used ten times in the King James version of the New Testament, but all are in the Gospels and Acts, not the Apocalypse -- and the word "hypodema" translated "shoe" in the King James Bible, is better translated "sandal," which is the word used in the Revised English Bible, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, and even (based on a quick check of Matthew 3:11) the conservative New International Version and the reactionary New King James Version. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: CNFM067A

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