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Who knew? Gospel songs about the Titanic

E-mail|Link|Comments (5) Posted by Michael Paulson February 1, 2009 03:47 PM

I have to admit that country gospel is not a genre of music with which I can claim any familiarity, but last night I stopped by the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church in Somerville to hear the Sacred Shakers, a group of local roots musicians who get together every few months to play. Although their music has quite a bit of Christian content, they said last night was the first time they had played in a church. One song particularly struck me -- their cover of a Bessie Jones adaptation of a gospel song about the sinking of the Titanic. I had no idea that there was a set of religious songs about the Titanic, but, sure enough, the Encyclopedia of the Blues details (under the heading "Accidental Disasters") a number of songs about the Titanic, often with moralizing lyrics. The version popularized by Jones, and recorded by the Sacred Shakers on their album, goes like this:

God moves on the water, April the 14th day.
God moves on the water, everybody had to run and pray.
Now Titanic left Southampton, with all their sport and game.
But when they struck that iceberg, I know their mind was changed.

Their mothers told their daughters, on a pleasure trip they may go.
But when they struck that iceberg, they haven't been seen anymore.

Warned by a freight boat, Captain Smith did not take heed.
Instead of giving a warning, he ran with greater speed.

One John Jacob Astor, a man with pluck and brains,
While all this great ship was sinking, all the women he tried to save.

He kissed his wife one last time, when the boiler it did explode,
He helped her to the lifeboat, saying, “I won't see you anymore.”

The story of the shipwreck is almost too sad to tell.
One thousand and six hundred went down forever to dwell.

Well, the 14th day of April, it was in nineteen hundred and twelve.
The ship had a wreck by the iceberg; It went down forever to dwell.

Who knew?

(Photo by David Kamerman of the Globe staff.)

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5 comments so far...

I thought every Boy Scout in the country learned:

Oh, they built the ship Titanic
To sail the ocean blue,
And they thought they had a ship
That the water would never go through;
But the Lord's almighty hand,
Said that ship would never land.
It was sad when that great ship went down.

It was sad, It was sad,
It was sad when the great ship went down;
Husbands and wives, little children lost their lives,
It was sad when the great ship went down.

They set off from Eng-a-land
And not very far from shore,
When the rich refused
To associate with the poor;
So they sent them down below,
Where they'd be the first to go.
It was sad when that great ship went down.

Chorus

(At LEAST two more verses)

Posted by GF Mohn February 1, 09 06:12 PM

A music writer for the Globe didn't know what folk music fans have known for decades.

Who knew, indeed!

Posted by mrchuckhall February 1, 09 07:42 PM

I recommend reading "Down With the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the Titanic" by Stephen Biel (who I believe teaches at Brandeis)...and a CD collection of Titanic songs was released about 10 years ago, titled (of course) "Titanic Songs." And Harry Smith briefly cataloged the sub-genre in his Anthology of Folk Music...off the top of my head I think he included a Josh White recording.

Posted by hathead52 February 2, 09 04:45 AM

Yes, it was a great concert for many reasons, a lovely synchronicity of learning, experience and unbridled joy as well as sadness. Thanks for giving some press time to my beloved Shakers and the gorgeous Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church.

Posted by Cecily (Sam) Legg February 2, 09 11:50 AM

Michael Paulson isn't a music writer; he's a religion writer. So he can be cut some slack.

But not too much slack. 1912 was a time of deepening fissures within American Protestantism, when evangelicals railed against the arrogance of wealth. Read George Marsden's Fundamentalism and American Culture.

In the day camp I attended in 1957, we sang the song GF Mohn sang, though in keeping with the folk process the words were slightly different. And what the boys and the girls sang differed in one word. Here's how we girls sang the refrain:

It was sad, oh Lord!
It was sad, hallelujah!
It was sad when the great ship went down, to the bottom of the--
Uncles and aunties, little BOYS lost their panties!
It was sad when the great ship went down.

Posted by miminqueens February 15, 09 02:39 PM

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Michael Paulson covers religion for The Boston Globe. He shared in the Pulitzer Prize in 2003, won the Mike Berger, Templeton and Supple awards in 2008, and is a four-time winner of the Wilbur Award.
E-mail mpaulson@globe.com.

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Harvey Cox, the Hollis professor of divinity at Harvard University, marks his retirement by asserting a little-used right of his professorship -- to graze a cow in Harvard Yard. Photo, by Barry Chin of the Globe staff, taken on Sept. 10, 2009 in Cambridge, Mass.