Don't Call the Roll

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Don't call the roll (x4), "Till I get there." Verse: "Jacob's ladder slim and tall, Ain't got the faith surely you must fall." "Two white angels walking down, Long white robe and starry crown."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 119, "Don't Call de Roll" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 150 in the 1901 edition)
Arnold-FolkSongsofAlabama, p. 174, "Don't Call the Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang, pp. 300-301, "Tell John Don' Call duh Roll" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, p. 25, "Tell John Don' Call Duh Roll" (1 text, 1 tune -- an unusual instance of a song in this book but not reprinted in Tobitt-TheDittyBag)
JournalOfAmericanFolklore, Anna Kranz Odum, "Some Negro Folk-Songs from Tennessee," Vol. 27, No. 105 (Jul-Sep 1914), #12 p. 261, "O Sinner Man, You So Hard to Lead" (1 text)
Roud #15254
NOTES [55 words]: In Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute's verses, every alternate line is "Don't call the roll till I get there."
The last line of the verse in Odum is "O sinner man, you so hard to lead," and in Hutson/Pinckney/Rutledge-SomeSongsTheNegroSang it is "Oh, sinnuh man, yuh would not belebe." - BS
Last updated in version 6.3
File: Dett119

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