three takes
“I Won’t Be Back” (AKA “Sweepin’ Through the City”)
Caravans (feat. Shirley Caesar, 1938-)
Live, Boston (Boston University), 1960s
***
Recording, 1962
*****
Shirley Caesar
Live, Tulsa, Okla., 2001
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lagniappe
reading table
They end their flight
one by one—
crows at dusk.—Yosa Buson, 1716-1784 (translated from Japanese by Robert Hass)
sounds of Chicago
Caravans, live (TV show), Chicago, 1963
In front, on the right, is the young Shirley Caesar.
sounds of Chicago
Caravans (feat. Shirley Caesar, lead vocals), “God Don’t Need No Coward Soldier” (J. Herndon), live (TV show), early ’60s
**********
lagniappe
reading table
You can live three days without bread—without poetry never.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867; quoted in Julian Bell, Van Gogh: A Power Seething)
five takes
“Mary Don’t You Weep” (AKA “O Mary Don’t You Weep”)
The Caravans (feat. Inez Andrews), 1958
***
The Swan Silvertones (feat. Claude Jeter), 1959
***
Claude Jeter & Shirley Caesar, 1969
***
The Caravans (feat. Inez Andrews), c. 2006
***
Bruce Springsteen, 2005