King Jesus Is a Listening

DESCRIPTION: Jesus listens all night (day) to hear some sinner pray. I've been converted, my soul is anchored in Jesus and the Devil can do me no harm. Gospel train is coming, rumbling through the land: get ready. John the Baptist was a preacher.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1874 (Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Dett/Fenner/Rathbun/Cleveland-ReligiousFolkSongsOfTheNegro-HamptonInstitute, p. 170, "I've Been a-List'ning All de Night Long" (1 text, 1 tune; p. 247 in the 1874 edition)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 171-172, "I've Been Listenin' All Day Long" (1 text, 1 tune)
MidwestFolklore, W. L. McAtee, "Some Folklore of Grant County, Indiana, in the Nineties," Volume 1, Number 4 (WInter 1951), p. 260, "(Some say that John the Baptist)" (1 short text, with the "John the Baptist" verse and a reference to Pharaoh; there is no real way to say what it is a fragment of, but it might be this)
RECORDINGS:
Bryant's Jubilee Quartet/Quintette, "King Jesus Is Listening" (on Bryant's Jubilee Quartet/Quintette Vol. 1 (1928-1931) Document Records DOCD-5437 (1996))
Goodwill Male Chorus, "King Jesus Is A-Listening" (1937)(on "Black Vocal Groups Vol. 5 (1923-1941), Document Records DOCD-5553(1997))
Rust College Quartet "King Jesus Is a Listening" (1927-1928) (on "Vocal Quartets Vol. 5 M/NB/)/R (1924-1928), Document Records DOCD-5541 (1997))
Virginia Female Jubilee Singers, "King Jesus Is a Listening" (1921) (on "The Earliest Negro Vocal Groups Vol. 4 (1921-1924)," Document Records DOCD-5531 (1997))
NOTES [92 words]: This shares in the following floater: "Some say that John the Baptist Was nothin' but a Jew, But the Holy Bible tells us That John was a preacher too" (see "Wait on the Lord," Randolph 622 and Monroe Brothers' "You've Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley" indexed here as "Lonesome Valley (I)," and "Roll Jordan Roll" by Topsy Chapman in the movie "12 Years a Slave"). It is consistent in the text and recordings I have heard.
The recordings, but not Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, shares "The gospel train is coming...." with "Get on Board Little Children" - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: Ow2E171

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