Dip Me in de Golden Sea

DESCRIPTION: "Oh, I long for to reach dat hebenly shore, To dip in de golden sea; To meet old Peter a standing in de door, To dip in de golden sea." "Den dip me, bathe me, sisters, you and me, Come get in de boat, for we all gwine float," and meet only Baptists
AUTHOR: Words: Edward Harrigan / Music: Harrigan and/or David Braham (?)
EARLIEST DATE: 1881
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad sea
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Finson-Edward-Harrigan-David-Braham, vol. I, #68, pp. 251-252, "Dip Me in de Golden Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #V40163 and 20892
RECORDINGS:
Frank and Jame McCravy (The McCravy Brothers), "Dip Me in the Golden Sea" (VIctor V-40026, 1928?)
NOTES [220 words]: For background on Harrigan and Braham, see the notes to "The Babies on Our Block."
I would never have guessed that this would turn traditional -- Edward Harrigan was certainly not a Baptist, and may well have been an atheist, so he wasn't writing a heart-felt religious song! -- but the McCravy Brothers song looks as if it at least borrowed some of Harrigan and Braham's words. And it did well enough to have sheet music published in Canada as well as the United States.
The Braham/Harrigan song is Roud V40163; the McCravy song is Roud 20892,
John Franceschina, David Braham: The American Offenbach, Routledge, 2003, p. 154, calls this David Braham's "first pseudo-spiritual... a nonsense jubilee song and chorus set to words by Edward Harrigan and published in 1881." He adds that the Braham spirituals "Anticipat[ed] the twentieth-century variety of 'white' spirituals ('Blow, Gabriel, Blow,' 'Hallelujah,' "Great Day')."
Jon. W. Finson, editor, Edward Harrigan and David Braham: Collected Songs, 2 volumes (Volume I: 1873-1882; Volume II: 1883-1896), being Volumes 7.1 and 7.2 of the Music of America Series, A-R Editions, 1997, Volume I, p. xxix, seems to say that the call-and-response pattern of this song is derived from the style of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, although he lists an intermediate song. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: HaBrDMGS

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