"Wade in the Water" (
Roud
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...
5439) is an African American jubilee song, a
spiritual—in reference to a genre of music "created and first sung by African Americans in slavery."
The lyrics to "Wade in the Water" were first co-published in 1901 in ''New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers'' by
Frederick J. Work and his brother,
John Wesley Work Jr.
John Wesley Work Jr. (August 6, 1871 – September 7, 1925) was the first African-American collector of folk songs and spirituals, and also a choral director, educationalist and songwriter. He is now sometimes known as John Wesley Work II, to d ...
, an educator at the
historically black college
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
in Nashville, Tennessee,
Fisk University
Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...
. Work Jr. (1871–1925)—who is also known as John Work II—spent thirty years collecting, promoting, and reviving the songcraft of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, which included being a member and director of the Fisk Jubilee Quartet. The Sunset Four Jubilee Singers made the first commercial recording of "Wade in the Water" in 1925—released by
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Early years
Paramount Records was formed in 19 ...
.
W. E. B. Du Bois called this genre of songs the Sorrow Songs. "Wade in the Water" is associated with
songs of the Underground Railroad
Songs of the Underground Railroad were spiritual and work songs used during the early-to-mid 19th century in the United States to encourage and convey coded information to escaping slaves as they moved along the various Underground Railroad rout ...
.
Fisk Jubilee Singers
John Wesley Work Jr.
John Wesley Work Jr. (August 6, 1871 – September 7, 1925) was the first African-American collector of folk songs and spirituals, and also a choral director, educationalist and songwriter. He is now sometimes known as John Wesley Work II, to d ...
(1871–1925)—also known as John Work II—spent three decades at the
historically black college
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. Mo ...
in Nashville, Tennessee,
Fisk University
Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...
, collecting and promulgating the "jubilee songcraft" of the original
Fisk Jubilee Singers
The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American ''a cappella'' ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for college. Their early repertoire consisted mostly of traditiona ...
—an African-American ''
a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
'' Fisk University student chorus (1871–1878),
known for introducing a wider audience to
spirituals.
[ This CD collection included the history by Doug Seroff which is "accompanied by the 43 extant selections recorded by the Fisk Quartet when Work led the group—including all nine ]Edison cylinder
Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1896–1916), these hollow cylindrical objects have an audio recording engra ...
s that feature Roland Hayes
Roland Wiltse Hayes (June 3, 1887 – January 1, 1977) was an American lyric tenor and composer. Critics lauded his abilities and linguistic skills demonstrated with songs in French, German, and Italian. Hayes's predecessors as well-known Afr ...
as second tenor and the four recitations of Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar (June 27, 1872 – February 9, 1906) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American C ...
's poetry by James A. Myers. The selections are introduced by spoken excerpts from Rev. Jerome I. Wright, one of the last living Fisk students to have sung under John Work's direction." In 1901, Work II co-published ''New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers'' with his brother, Frederick J. Work, which included "Wade in the Water."
Trademarks of the John Work II's Fisk singers included the "closing ritard that showcases the beauty and blending of the voices", the "solo call and unison response, overlapping layers, and spine-tingling falsetto humming."
Ella Sheppard
Ella Sheppard (February 4, 1851 – June 9, 1914) was an American soprano, pianist, composer, and arranger of Negro Spirituals. She was the matriarch of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers of Nashville, Tennessee. She also played the organ and the ...
, one of the original Fisk Jubilee Singers—who also composed and arranged music—explained how slave songs were not part of the Singers' repertoire at first because they, "were sacred to our parents, who used them in their religious worship and shouted over them." Shephard said that, "It was only after many months that gradually our hearts were opened to the influence of these friends and we began to appreciate the wonderful beauty and power of our songs."
Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1817 or 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became ...
described slave songs as telling a "tale which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones, loud, long and deep, breathing the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains… Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds." In his seminal 1903 book, ''
The Souls of Black Folk
''The Souls of Black Folk: Essays and Sketches'' is a 1903 work of American literature by W. E. B. Du Bois. It is a seminal work in the history of sociology and a cornerstone of African-American literature.
The book contains several essays on r ...
'',
W. E. B. Du Bois dedicated a chapter to what he called the "Sorrow Songs"—describing them as African America's "greatest gift" and the "singular spiritual heritage of the nation."
The original Fisk Jubilee Singers had toured to raise funds for the university, with its first tour taking place on what is now called Jubilee Day—October 6, 1871.
The first audiences were small, local, and skeptical, but by 1872, they performed at Boston's World Peace Festival and at the White House, and in 1873 they toured Europe.
In 1878 the original Fisk Jubilee Singers had disbanded, but in 1890 their legacy was revived when Ella Sheppard Moore returned to Fisk and began to coach new jubilee vocalists, including Work II.
In 1899, Fisk University president E. M. Cravath put out a call for a mixed (male and female) jubilee singers ensemble that would tour on behalf of the university.
The full mixed choir became too expensive to tour, and was replaced by John Work II's male quartet. The quartet received "widespread acclaim" and eventually made a series of best-selling recordings for Victor in December 1909, February 1911, for Edison in December 1911, for Columbia is October 1915 and February 1916, and Starr in 1916.
In the year that Work died, 1925, the first commercial recording of the song—performed by the
Sunset Four Jubilee Singers—was released by
Paramount Records
Paramount Records was an American record label known for its recordings of jazz and blues in the 1920s and early 1930s, including such artists as Ma Rainey, Tommy Johnson and Blind Lemon Jefferson.
Early years
Paramount Records was formed in 19 ...
.
In his 1925 book, Crisis,
W. E. B. Du Bois mentioned "Wade in the Water" as performed by the
Norfolk Jubilee Quartet. DuBois wrote that "You'll never tire of the melodious rich blended voices of the Norfolk Jubilee Quartet, Sunset Four, and Harrod's Jubilee Singers."
Lyrics
The lyrics were first published in 1901 in ''New Jubilee Songs as Sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers''.
There have been a number of subsequent publications with variations on the lyrics. In James W. Johnson's 1926 ''The book of American Negro spirituals'', the song is entitled, "God's A-gwineter Trouble De Water" and the first line is "Wade in de water, children."
A 1956 version from Kentucky and Tennessee begins with "Oh see that man dressed in white", according to the
Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...
. According to Olivia and Jack Solomon's 1991 ''Honey in the Rock'' a 1930s version from Sumter County, Alabama, gives the title as "God Gonna Trouble the Water" and the first line as, "I'm er wading, I'm er wading in the water, chillun."
In
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax (; January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music of the 20th century. He was also a musician himself, as well as a folklorist, archivist, writer, sch ...
and Peggy Seeger's 1960 ''Folk Songs of North America'',the first line of the song is "'Member one thing an' it's certainly sho.'"
[Roud5439]
Roud Folk Song Index
The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...
Others include Marie Boette's 1971''Singa Hipsy Doodle: And Other Folk Songs of West Virginia'', Fred and Irwin Silber's 1973 ''Folksinger's Wordbook'', Patrick Ward Gainer's 1975 anthology ''Folk Songs from the West Virginia Hills'' which has been republished in 2017, Hazel Arnett's 1975 ''I hear America singing!: great folk songs from the revolution to rock'', the 1992 '' Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands'' under the title "Wade in nuh Watuh Childun", and Gwendolin Warren's 1998 ''Every Time I Feel The Spirit''.
Interpretations of the lyrics
Fisk University was founded by the
American Missionary Association. Many of the songs in the original Fisk Jubilee Singers songbooks dealt with themes from both the
Old
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
and
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
. According to a 2002 article written by Dave Watermulder, J. Amber Hudlin, and Ellie Kaufman at
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
, the song reflects the
Israelites
The Israelites (; , , ) were a group of Semitic-speaking tribes in the ancient Near East who, during the Iron Age, inhabited a part of Canaan.
The earliest recorded evidence of a people by the name of Israel appears in the Merneptah Stele o ...
' escape out of Egypt as found in
Exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* Ex ...
.
According to a 2007 anthology by California State University in Fresno, the singer "warns of the coming signs of the end" but says the "victory of Heaven over Hell" is assured, and "looks forward to future freedom."
Songs of the Underground Railroad
![Harriet Tubman](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Harriet_Tubman.jpg)
According the ''PBS Newshour''—while it "has not been proven, it is believed"—that "Wade in the Water" was one of the songs associated with the
Underground Railroad
The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...
—a network of secret routes and safe houses used by slaves in the United States to find freedom.
It is believed that
Harriet Tubman
Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross, March 10, 1913) was an American abolitionist and social activist. Born into slavery, Tubman escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 slaves, including family and friends, us ...
, who made thirteen trips to the South and helped free more than 70 people, used this song to warn slaves to get off the trail and into the water to prevent dogs—used by the slavers—from finding them.
In 1993, Arthur C. Jones—a
University of Denver
The University of Denver (DU) is a private university, private research university in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest independent private university in the Mountain States, Rocky Mountain Region of the United States. It is ...
Professor in the Musicology, Ethnomusicology and Theory Department, published the first edition of this book, ''Wade in the water: the wisdom of the spirituals''.
Jones established "The Spirituals Project" in 1998 at the university's Lamont School of Music, to preserve and revitalize the "music and teachings of the sacred folk songs called spirituals"—"created and first sung by African Americans in slavery."
Jones referenced "Wade in the water" in describing how Harriet Tubman and others improvised on "already existing spirituals", employing them "clandestinely in the multilayered struggle for freedom."
In 2002,
Maryland Public Television
Maryland Public Television (MPT) is the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member state network for the U.S. state of Maryland. It operates under the auspices of the Maryland Public Broadcasting Commission, an agency of the Maryland state govern ...
in collaboration with the
Maryland Historical Society
The Maryland Center for History and Culture (MCHC), formerly the Maryland Historical Society (MdHS), . founded on March 1, 1844, is the oldest cultural institution in the U.S. state of Maryland. The organization "collects, preserves, and inte ...
and
Maryland State Archives
The Maryland State Archives serves as the central depository for government records of permanent value. Its holdings date from Maryland's founding in 1634, and include colonial and state executive, legislative, and judicial records; county prob ...
, produced "Pathways to Freedom: Maryland and the Underground Railroad" as a teaching guide, which included a section on how songs that many slaves knew had "secret meanings" that they could be "used to signal many things." They cited the example of Harriet Tubman using "Wade in the Water" to "tell escaping slaves to get off the trail and into the water to make sure the dogs slavecatchers used couldn’t sniff out their trail. People walking through water did not leave a scent trail that dogs could follow." Certain songs were believed to have contained explicit instructions to fugitive slaves on how to avoid capture and the route to take to successfully make their way to freedom.
The song was included in the 1968 compilation, ''Freedom is a constant struggle: songs of the freedom movement''.
Performances and recordings
![Alvin Ailey - Revelations](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Alvin_Ailey_-_Revelations.jpg)
Parmount produced a commercial recording of the song by
Sunset Four Jubilee Singers in 1925,
another by the
Lincoln Four Quartette in 1928,
a third by
Birmingham Jubilee Quartet in 1930,
and a fourth by the
Famous Blue Jay Singers of Birmingham in 1932.
In 1929, the
Empire Jubilee Quartet recorded the song with Victor.
Fannie Lou Hamer
Fannie Lou Hamer (; Townsend; October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting rights, voting and women's rights activist, Community organizing, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the co-foun ...
,
and Timothy Hays and Group
also produced well-known versions of the song according to the University of Tennessee's Library of Music.
In 1960, the
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) is a modern dance company based in New York City. It was founded in 1958 by choreographer and dancer Alvin Ailey. It is made up of 32 dancers, led by artistic director Robert Battle and associate a ...
performed their signature ballet ''
Revelations'', in which "Take me to the Water" was partially set to the spiritual "Wade in the Water" .
The Staple Singers
The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group. Roebuck "Pops" Staples (December 28, 1914 – December 19, 2000), the patriarch of the family, formed the group with his children Cleotha (April 11, 1934 – February 21 ...
performed their version of song that became a part of the
civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
in the US.
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
's Minnesota Hotel Tape (December 22, 1961) performance of the song, likely based on the
Staples Singers' rendition, was released as part of the historic 1969
Great White Wonder
''Great White Wonder'', or ''GWW'', is the first notable rock bootleg album, released in July 1969, and containing unofficially released recordings by Bob Dylan. It is also the first release of the famous bootleg record label Trademark of Quality ...
bootleg.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKjkUPzui7A Folk singer Judy Henske (1937-4/27/2022) sings it in the 1963 film "Hootenanny Hoot" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057153/)
In 1966,
Ramsey Lewis Trio
Ramsey Emmanuel Lewis Jr. (May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and radio personality. Lewis recorded over 80 albums and received five gold records and three Grammy Awards in his career. His album '' T ...
's rendition of "Wade in the Water" was a popular
instrumental
An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...
hit,
reaching #19 on the
Hot 100
The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming ...
. In Canada, it reached #32.
In 1967
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass
Herb Alpert (born March 31, 1935) is an American trumpeter who led the band Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass in the 1960s. During the same decade, he co-founded A&M Records with Jerry Moss. Alpert has recorded 28 albums that have landed on the ...
and
Billy Preston
William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, during which he ba ...
published their instrumental versions of the song.
The melody was used for the 1988
Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné! was an American soul/ R&B band from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq ...
hit "
Little Walter
Marion Walter Jacobs (May 1, 1930 – February 15, 1968), known as Little Walter, was an American blues musician, singer, and songwriter, whose revolutionary approach to the harmonica had a strong impact on succeeding generations, earning him ...
."
In a 1996 album "Steal Away" by
Charlie Haden
Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...
and
Hank Jones
Henry Jones Jr. (July 31, 1918 – May 16, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored ...
, which was reviewed by the ''New Yorker'', Whitney Balliett as the best of the CDs at that time, Balliett said that—while, most of the numbers were "played straight but with the harmonic and rhythmic inflections that separate jazz from the rest of music"—on "Wade in the Water", however, Jones improvise
delicately."
The Fisk Jubilee Singers performed at the
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater is a music hall at 253 West 125th Street between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard (Seventh Avenue) and Frederick Douglass Boulevard (Eighth Avenue) in the Harlem neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City. It is a not ...
in New York—a well-known venue for African-American musicians—to a group of high school students in 2000. Normally the choir, use "few blues inflections or modern gospel melismas", but when they "did allow some in ''Wade in the Water,'' there was applause."
''Wade in the Water, Children'' is a 2008 American documentary film directed and produced by
Elizabeth Wood and Gabriel Nussbaum. It was filmed by a group of 8th grade students at the first school to reopen in
in the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
. The film offers a look into life as a child in the ruined city. The film was praised as "scalding stuff" by ''
Newsday
''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
'', and won the audience award at the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival.
The version by
Golden Gate Quartet
The Golden Gate Quartet (a.k.a. The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet) is an American vocal group. It was formed in 1934 and, with changes in membership, remains active.
Origins and early career
The group was founded as the Golden Gate Jubilee Singe ...
appears on the 2009 compilation album ''
Bad Seeds – Nick Cave: Roots & Collaborations''.
On May 3, 2019, the Fisk Jubilee Singers sang "Wade In the Water" in a live performance at the
Grand Ole Opry House
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...
in Nashville, Tennessee during the
Barbershop Harmony Society
The Barbershop Harmony Society, legally and historically named the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc. (SPEBSQSA), is the first of several organizations to promote and preserve barbershop ...
Midwinter Convention.
In 2019 Tazewell Thompson presented an cappella musical entitled, ''Jubilee'', that is a tribute to the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The song "Wade in the Water" underscores a scene against the backdrop of a ship returning to America.
''
Stand Up
Stand Up may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Stand-up comedy, a comic style in which a comedian performs in front of a live audience
Film
* ''Stand Up'' (2007 film), a film featuring Modi Rosenfeld
* ''Stand Up'' (2008 film), a Brit ...
'' is a song from the 2019 motion picture
Harriet, that references the song in the line "I'm wading through muddy waters." That line could also be a reference to
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield (April 4, 1913 April 30, 1983), known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer and musician who was an important figure in the post-war blues scene, and is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago b ...
, one of the most famous blues singers.
In February 2020, the ''Trouble the Water'' album was released—a full-length album of civil-rights themed music which included "Wade in the Water" performed by
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
composer/performer
Woody Lissauer
Woody Lissauer (born July 9, 1959, in Baltimore, Maryland) is a musical artist, with a large body of work going back to the 1970s.
Early musical career
Lissauer was deeply involved in music from an early age. He played in a number bands in scho ...
, who was at Ground zero during the
2015 Baltimore protests
On April 12, 2015, Baltimore Police Department officers arrested Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American resident of Baltimore, Maryland. Gray's neck and spine were injured while he was in a police vehicle and he went into a coma. On Ap ...
.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Lyrics at Negrospirituals.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wade In The Water
Songs about rivers
Bob Dylan songs
African-American spiritual songs
Eva Cassidy songs
Ramsey Lewis songs
1966 singles
1967 singles
Year of song unknown
Songs based on American history
Songwriter unknown
Underground Railroad