This is a question regarding a phrase, and doesn’t really belong in Cafe Society, but we all know how those mods are.
So, The above phrase (to me) has the sound and feel of something old, pre-dating the P, P, and M song. I googled and got a gazillion references to the song. No help there so I come to the vast knowledge base known far and wide as the SDMB.
Did the phrase “All my trials lord, soon be over” originate outside pop music? Or not. Did the writer(s) of the song wear this or see it written somewhere? Sounds like a spiritual person who knows that she/he’s knocking at heaven’s door.
Peace,
mangeorge
We sang “All My Trials” in my high school choir. It’s an old spiritual.
You sang this song, foxymoron?
I sang it in high school too… it’s an old so-called “negro spiritual.” PPM changed the lyrics slightly from the original version.
Now that’s nicer. The first verse stes up the whole song. PPM’s version leaves an otherwise beautiful phrase kinda hanging out there. I wonder why they did that?
Anyway, thanks. Both of you.
Joan Baez sang the original version, but there’s some verses in there that aren’t in the lyrics you linked to, NattoGuy. S’pretty.
Or, I should say, she has sung the original version. Or something.
Was one of them this?
The river Jordan is chilly and cold
It chills the body but not the soul
That’s in the version I’ve known since childhood, as sung by Harry Belafonte. I think he may have imported those lines from another song.
The Jordan River lyrics are from Ev’ry Time I Feel the Spirit", which my high school choir director had us sing.