I Am On the Battlefield for My Lord
DESCRIPTION: Singer promises to serve the Lord "till I die." "I was just like you." "I heard a voice ... saying Christ has work for you." The singer left "friends and kindred" to roam crying "sinner come back home" Christ will "appoint my soul a place" by his throne.
AUTHOR: unknown (credited to Sylvana Bell and E. V. Banks in Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit)
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (sung by Rev. D.C. Rice on AAFM2)
KEYWORDS: religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE) West Indies(Trinidad,Tobago)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Elder-FolkSongAndFolkLifeInCharlotteville, p. 62, "On the Battle Field" (1 text, 1 tune)
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 42, "I'm On the Battlefield" (1 text, 1 tune)
Warren-EveryTimeIFeelTheSpirit, "I Am on the Battlefield for My Lord" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Lorna McDaniel, "Memory Spirituals of the Ex-Slave American Soldiers in Trinidad's 'Company Villages'" in _Black Music Research Journal_, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Autumn 1994 (available online by JSTOR)), p. 142, "On the Battlefield" (1 text fragment) (1 tune)
Roud #21386
RECORDINGS:
Gullah Kinfolk, "On de Battlefiel" (on USSeaIsland04)
Sister Fleeta Mitchell, Rev. Nathaniel Mitchell and Lucy Barnes, "I Am On the Battlefield for My Lord" (2007, on "Art of Field Recording" Vol. 1, Dust to Dust CD DTD-08, recorded 1987 in Georgia)
Rev. D. C. Rice and his Sanctified Congregation, "I'm in the Battlefield for my Lord" (Vocalion 1262; on AAFM2)
NOTES [11 words]: The current description is based on the Rev. D. C. Rice recording. - BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: ElCh062B
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
The Ballad Index Copyright 2024 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.