John, John

DESCRIPTION: Chorus: "Talk about John but you will see John, Aye John (x2)." Verses: "When I get to Heaven going to walk around, Angel in Heaven can't order me down." "When I get to Heaven going to sit and tell Argue with the Father and chatter with the Son"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942 (Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands)
KEYWORDS: floatingverses nonballad religious Jesus
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands 31, pp. 145-147, "John, John" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES [119 words]: The current description is based on the Parrish-SlaveSongsOfTheGeorgiaSeaIslands text. In Parrish's text each verse line is followed by "Aye John."
Parrish's "Argue with the Father and chatter with the Son" is in Odum's "Dar's No One Lak' Jesus" (Howard W. Odum, Religious Folk-Songs of the Southern Negroes, (reprint from American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, July 1909, Vol.3 pp. 265-365 "Digitized by Internet Archive")), pp. 60-61), Redfearn's "Better Live Humble," and Barton's "I'll Be There" (Barton-OldPlantationHymns, p. 19). Barton writes, "'Argue,' as here employed, does not mean dispute, but only to converse learnedly; and 'chatter' does not imply frivolity, but only familiarity." - BS
Last updated in version 4.1
File: Parr031

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