Ride on, Jesus

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Ride on Jesus, Ride on, Ride on conquering King, I want to go to heaven in the morning (x2)." Verses: "If you see my mother (father, sister, brother), Tell her (him) for me, Meet me tomorrow in Galilee, Want to go to heaven in the morning (x2)"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, pp. 148-149, "Ride on, Jesus" (1 text) (1 tune)
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 43, pp. 182-184, "Ride On Conquering King" (1 text, 1 tune)
Curtis-Burlin-NegroFolkSongs-TheHamptonSeries (I), pp. 3-12, "O Ride On, Jesus" (1 text with variants, 1 tune with variants)
ADDITIONAL: Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson, The Negro and his Songs (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1925 ("Digitized by Internet Archive")), p. 100, "In the Morning" (1 text)
Roud #12110
NOTES [110 words]: The reference in the verses is to Mark 16:7 (or the parallel in Matthew 28:7), "go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you." The chorus is probably a reference to the entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:7 and parallels), where Jesus enters Jerusalem on a donkey (or, in Matthew 21:1-7, which interprets Zechariah 9:9 literally, riding on two donkeys at once. Which, if it actually happened, might explain why the crowd was cheering...).
Roud lumps "Ride On, Jesus" and "Ride on, King Jesus," for obvious reasons, but the form is different enough that I very tentatively keep them separate. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Dett148

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography