sept212015

Read, in The Gospel Sound, Good News and Bad Times

From Part One, Building the Gospel Highway

*1. "Sallie Martin's Outta Sight"

pp. 3-19

*2. "I get these Special Vibrations" pp. 21-35

As it developed, due to popular demand, I showed the whole film (or at least the music parts of it) in class Monday or Wednesday. There was no time left over for any discussion of the book or the film. I'll begin to remedy that on Friday, using the time to discus the film, and to show some of the goodies in my resource folder (hopefully to inspire you to get more active in adding resources to yours. I'll use part of Friday class to give a demo of just how easy it is. Come Monday, we'll discuss the book, and I want you to be prepared to give your sense of these two chapters, and raise questions as necessary. I would also like to emphasize the importance of your task--to upload links or images, to your individual resource folders, not because I think you're making me work too hard, but because doing this is good training for you and also provides a wider variety of resources for everyone. We'll dig out some of your treasures today and throughout the week.

*The Bookstore sold more than one edition of Heilbut's book" The page numbers maybe slightly different

This chapter will introduce the idea of the Gospel Quartet, and especially the male Gospel Quartet. Among these, probably the earliest to have a national reputation were the Dixie Hummingbirds. Male Quartet singing goes back quite a ways--at least to the days of the barbershop quartet (see below). Contact with the Black community was first satirical--vaudeville singers in blackface. But the possibilities were quickly seen. If we look a bit ahead (say to the 1950s and 1960s, we'll see that white male quartets come to be very important in the popular music field. I suspect everyone has heard of the Beatles. How about the Lettermen? The popularity of quartets didn't necessarily limit small groups to groups of four. Sometimes trios and quintets formed as well, or the number in the group might change. Anyhow, we'll discuss this chapter, and look through some of your findings--make sure you have some in your resource folder.

How I got over

How did I make it over

You know my soul look back and wonder

How did I make it over

How I made it over

Going on over all these years

You know my soul look back and wonder

How did I make it over

Tell me how we got over Lord

Had a mighty hard time coming on over

You know my soul look back and wonder

How did we make it over

Tell me how we got over Lord

I've been falling and rising all these years

But you know my soul look back and wonder

How did I make it over

But, soon as I can see Jesus

The man that died for me

Man that bled and suffered

And he hung on Calvary

And I want to thank him for how he brought me

And I want to thank God for how he taught me

Oh thank my God how he kept me

I'm gonna thank him 'cause he never left me

Then I'm gonna thank God for 'ole time religion

And I'm gonna thank God for giving me a vision

One day, I'm gonna join the heavenly choir

I'm gonna sing and never get tired

And then I'm gonna sing somewhere 'round God alter

And I'm gonna shout all my trouble over

You know I've gotta thank God and thank him for being

So good to me, Lord yeah

How I made it over Lord

I had to cry in the midnight hour coming on over

But you know my soul look back and wonder

How did I make it over

Tell me how I made it over Lord God Lord

Falling and rising all these years

You know my soul look back and wonder

How did I make it over

I'm gonna wear a diamond garment

In that new Jerusalem

I'm gonna walk the streets of gold

It's the homeland of the soul

I'm gonna view the host in white

They've been traveling day and night

Coming up from every nation

They're on their way to the great Cognation

Coming from the north, south, east, and west

They're on their way to a land of rest

And they're gonna join the heavenly choir

You know we're gonna sing and never get tired

And then we're gonna sing somewhere 'round God alter

And then we're gonna shout all our troubles over

You know we gotta thank God

Thank him for being so good to me

You know I come to thank God this evening

I come to thank him this evening

You know all all night long God kept his angels watching over me

Early this morning, early this morning

God told his angel God said, "touch her in my name"

God said, "touch her in my name"

I 'rose this morning, I 'rose this morning, I 'rose this morning

I feel like shouting, I feel like shouting, I feel like shouting

I feel like shouting, I just gotta thank God, I just gotta thank God

I just gotta thank God, I just gotta thank him

Thank God for being so good, God been good to me

Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/mahalia-jackson/how-i-got-over-lyrics/#FRB1rT1JzHQGP5GE.99