Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning

"Keep Your Lamp(s) Trimmed and Burning" is a traditional gospel blues song. It alludes to the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, found in the Gospel of Matthew at 25:1-13, and also to a verse in the Gospel of Luke, at 12:35.

The song has been attributed to Blind Willie Johnson, who recorded it in 1928; to Reverend Gary Davis, who recorded it in 1956; and to Mississippi Fred McDowell, who recorded it in 1959.

The song has been included in several hymnals.

Lyrics

The song is in call-and-response format. As is common with traditional songs, lyrics vary between performersin this instance, often very widely. A usual first verse is:

"The world" and "the time" relate to the apocalyptic prophecies of the New Testament. "The work" can do so also, but suggests that the song may derive from an African-American work song.

Recordings

Recordings by people with Wikipedia articles include:
* 1928 Blind Willie Johnson
* 1956Reverend Gary Davis
* 1959 Mississippi Fred McDowell
* 1967Skip James
* 1970 Hot Tuna, on the album '' Hot Tuna''
* 1970Wizz Jones, on the album '' The Legendary Me''
* 1971 Hot Tuna, on the album ''First Pull Up, Then Pull Down''
* 1975Pearly Brown, on the album '' It's a Mean Old World to Try to Live In''
* 1975John Fahey and his Orchestra, on the album '' Old Fashioned Love''
* 1978 Hot Tuna, on the album '' Double Dose''
* 1984Hot Tuna, on the album ''Splashdown''
* 1986Hot Rize, on the album '' Traditional Ties''
* 1993Wizz Jones, on the album '' Late Nights and Long Days''
* 1995Corey Harris, on the album ''Between Midnight and Day''
* 1996Hot Rize, on the 2002 album ''So Long of a Journey: Live at the Bouder Theater''
* 2001The Word, on the album '' The Word Album''
* 2002 Andrew Bird, on the album '' Fingerlings''
* 2008The 77s, on the album ''Holy Ghost Building''
* 2008 Catfish Keith, on the album ''Live at the Half Moon''
* 2011 Catfish Keith, on the album ''A True Friend is Hard To Hard: A Gospel Retrospective''
* 2013Luke Winslow-King on the album ''The Coming Tide''
* 2013Marisa Anderson on the album ''Traditional and Public Domain Songs''
* 2015Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, on the album ''Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams''
* 2016 Hugh and Katy Moffatt, on the album ''Now and Then''
* 2016Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, on the album ''God Don't Never Change: The Songs Of Blind Willie Johnson''

See also

* " The Man Comes Around", a song based on the same biblical passages

References

Blind Willie Johnson songs
Gospel songs
Year of song unknown
African-American spiritual songs

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