Remember Me (II)

DESCRIPTION: "Remember days past, Remember me ... Oh Lord, remember me." "Remember dying days ... Oh Lord, remember me."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (USSeaIsland01)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
RECORDINGS:
Janie Hunter and the Moving Star Hall Singers, "Remember Me" (on USSeaIsland01)
Menhaden Fishermen, "Remember Me" (on USMenhaden01)
Southeast Alabama and Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing Convention, "Pisgah" (on USFlorida01)

NOTES [203 words]: The current description is based on the USSeaIsland01 text.
The humming is a form of "moan."
The USSeaIsland01 hymn is the first track on the album and was apparently the opener for the festival. That suits its place as a hymn. It is very slow, without clapping or acceleration. The words are followed by the tune, hummed. It is typical of the Devotion as opposed to the later Service. "[T]he relatively somber mood of Devotion yields to the Service, whose rhythmic songs and sermon bring down the Holy Spirit" [Walter F. Pitts, Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 24].
This may be a modified chorus of a version of Isaac Watts's "Alas And Did My Savior Bleed." See, for example, William Booth, Salvation Army Music (London: The Salvation Army Book Department, 1900 ("Digitized by Microsoft")) #58 p. 55, "Remember me." The chorus is "Remember me, remember me, O Lord, remember me; Remember Lord, Thy dying groans, And then remember me."
The Menhaden01 verse "I once was lost But now I am found Was blind But now I see" is shared with "Amazing Grace." As on USSeaIsland01, the hymn is very slow, and sung without clapping or acceleration.- BS
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcJHReMe

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.