Ain't You Got a Right To the Tree of Life

DESCRIPTION: Each verse has (the leader sing a line "Tell my father/Tell my children/Tell the world/Hey lord" a chorus replies "Ain't you got a right") (3x), and all sing "Ain't you got a right to the tree of life."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight, p. 170, "Ain't You Got a Right To the Tree of Life" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12352
NOTES [119 words]: The current description is based on the Carawan/Carawan-AintYouGotARight text. The Johnsons report a different hymn with a similar same title (James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson, The Books of American Negro Spirituals (New York: The Viking Press, 1953 (1925,1926)), vol. 1, pp. 183-184, "You Got a Right") which has a verse "You got a right, I got a right, We all got a right to the tree of life, Yes, tree of life." The Biblical reference is to Genesis 2.8-9, "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden .... the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil" [King James]. Also, see the notes to "The Storm Is Passing Over" and "All My Trials." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: CarCa170

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