Me Teacher Help Me

DESCRIPTION: "Me teacher help me ... roll the chariot away ... roll him [the Devil] away ... roll the stone away Oh when the trumpet sound We all going home Going to roll that stone away."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (WITrinidadVillage02)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious Devil
FOUND IN: West Indies(Trinidad)
RECORDINGS:
Edna Wright, Margaret Wright, "Me Teacher Help Me" (on WITrinidadVillage02)
NOTES [202 words]: There are specific roles in the Spiritual Baptist church, including preacher, teacher, prover, leader, divine healer, healer, captain, pastor, shepherd, shepherdess, pumper, diver, prophet, apostle, queen, fortune-teller, surveyra [sic], judge, nurse (see Herskovits-Village: Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, Trinidad Village (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947), pp. 194-197; Wallace W. Zane, Journeys to the Spiritual Lands (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 198-203); "teacher -- one who teaches the meanings of dreams and visions, and 'sees things'" (Herskovits). The form of the verse is: one line repeated three times, "We going to roll the stone away," similar to "We'll Roll the Old Chariot Along." For the stone reference, see Mark 16:3-4, "And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great" (King James); see also Matthew 28:3, Luke 24:2, and John 20:1. - BS
(There is also a stone rolled away in the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den in chapter 6 of Daniel. I don't claim it is the source here, but it may have influenced things a bit. - RBW)
Last updated in version 6.7
File: RcMTHeMe

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