music clip of the day

Here are a couple more takes on a song we heard the other day.

“I Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray”

Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, 1909 (first known recording)

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Wiley College A Cappella Choir, live, 2010
The Shores at Wesley Manor, Ocean City, New Jersey

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

“Couldn’t Hear Nobody Pray; couldn’t hear nobody pray; way down yonder by myself; couldn’t hear nobody pray.” This “spiritual” was sung as part of a brilliant system of signals devised by men and women attempting an escape from the clutches of American slavery. The song’s coded meaning was, “An escape attempt has failed. We’re all trying to re-group, emotionally and spiritually.”
(http://ctl.du.edu/spirituals/freedom/coded.cfm).
The unfortunate persons singing this lament found themselves in imminent danger. Their best plans toward freedom had not worked; and there existed an immediate need for help, for direction, for protection, for divine intervention. They needed to hear somebody pray!

—Vivian M. Lucas