Old-Time Religion Explained

Old Time Religion
Cover:ThisOldTimeReligion1873.jpg
Caption:Page from The Jubilee Singers, 1873
Artist:Fisk Jubilee Singers (earliest attested)
Genre:Negro spiritual

("Give Me That") "Old-Time Religion" (and similar spellings) is a traditional Gospel song dating from 1873, when it was included in a list of Jubilee songs,[1] or earlier. It has become a standard in many Protestant hymnals, though it says nothing about Jesus or the gospel, and covered by many artists. Some scholars, such as Forrest Mason McCann, have asserted the possibility of an earlier stage of evolution of the song, in that "the tune may go back to English folk origins"[2] (later dying out in the white repertoire but staying alive in the work songs of African Americans). In any event, it was by way of Charles Davis Tillman that the song had incalculable influence on the confluence of black spiritual and white gospel song traditions in forming the genre now known as southern gospel. Tillman was largely responsible for publishing the song into the repertoire of white audiences. It was first heard sung by African-Americans and written down by Tillman when he attended a camp meeting in Lexington, South Carolina in 1889. Popular versions of the song were recorded in the 1950s by singers including Tennessee Ernie Ford and Jim Reeves.

Lyrics

Most common lyrics performed are a repetition of the chorus:The lyrics, however, as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers are:

Following Tillman's nuanced changes[3] that accommodated the song more toward the tastes of white southern church congregations, Elmer Leon Jorgenson[4] and other editors preferred the more-formalized first line "'Tis the old-time religion" (likewise the repeated first line of the refrain).[5]

In popular culture

See also

References

Works cited

Notes and References

  1. Pike, The Jubilee Singers, Item 198. See inset.
  2. McCann, Hymns & History: An Annotated Survey of Sources (Abilene, TX: ACU Press, 1997),, p. 595.
  3. Tillman published his arrangement in his compilation Revival (Atlanta: Charlie D. Tillman, 1891), Item 223.
  4. Great Songs of the Church, Number Two Edition (Louisville: Word and Work, 1937), Item 275.
  5. See, e.g., Ruth Winsett Shelton, editor, Best Loved Songs and Hymns (Dayton, TN: R. E. Winsett Music Company, 1961), Item 347. Shelton rendered the song title as "Old-Time Religion" and credited it as an "Old melody" arranged by her first husband R. E. Winsett.
  6. http://www.hbo.com/carnivale/music/episode03.shtml Carnivale music, Episode 3.
  7. Fontana TL5390
  8. Web site: Internet Book of Shadows: Real Old Time Religion, That.