The Pain And Joy Of Black Gospel Music Lyrics
The roots of black gospel music lyrics lie in the suffering endured by slaves working in the cotton fields of the deep South. They were allowed to sing while working especially when they had to coordinate efforts to lift a heavy load. Many of course tried to run away and they sang about going "home" to "Sweet Canaan" or the "Promised Land." Free country was north of the Ohio River, so slaves would sing about crossing the "River Jordan" from the song "Swing Low Sweet Chariot."
The Underground Railroad assisted thousands of slaves in gaining their freedom, and they often walked at night using hand lights and crossed creeks and rivers to help avoid dogs smelling their tracks. This gave rise to such songs as "The Gospel Train" and "Wade in the Water."
Thomas Dorsey is considered to be the "Father of Gospel Music." After starting out writing and arranging more rhythm and blues type music, he later wrote more religious lyrics but set them to jazzy tunes. Two of his best known songs are "There Will be Peace in the Valley" and "If You See My Savior."
As gospel music became more mainstream in the 1950s, there was a conscious effort to "take God's words to His people wherever they were - even in night clubs," according to the great recording artist, Clara Ward. Her "Surely God is Able" was the first million seller gospel record after the second World War.
When the civil rights movement began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, demonstrators sang old Negro spirituals before and during protest marches. These include "We Shall Overcome" and "This Little Light of Mine." These songs further influenced black gospel music becoming popular with mainstream audiences.
Black gospel music lyrics now encompass all types of music genres including the contemporary Christian of Kirk Franklin, traditional by Daryl Coley and urban contemporary by BeBe and CeCe Winans and Shirley Caesar. Ms. Caesar tries to "sing about current events: drugs, black on black crime, a lot of hurting women who have been abused, and young girls who have had children out of wedlock. I want to let them know about Jesus so that they just get up and straighten out their lives."
The main messages have remained the same throughout the decades since slaves first started singing about being in a better place, but the goal of spreading the Good News remains the same.