My song today is ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’. This is an American Negro spiritual and the earliest known recording was in 1909, by the ‘Fisk Jubilee Singers of Fisk University’. In 2002, the ‘Library of Congress’ honoured the song as one of 50 recordings chosen that year to be added to the ‘National Recording Registry’. It was also included in the list of ‘Songs of the Century’ by the ‘Recording Industry Association of America’ and the ‘National Endowment for the Arts’.
‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ was written by Wallis Willis, a Choctaw free-man in the old Indian territory in what is now Choctaw County, near the County seat of Hugo, Oklahoma, sometime around 1865. He may have been inspired by the sight of the ‘Red River’, by which he was toiling, which reminded him of the River Jorden and of the Prophet Elijah being taken to heaven by a chariot (2 Kings 2:11). Some historical sources claim that this song and ‘Steal Away’ (also sung by Willis), had lyrics that referred to the ‘Underground Railroad’, the freedom movement that helped black people escape from Southern slavery to the North and Canada.
Alexander Reid, a minister at the Old Spencer Academy, a Choctaw boarding school, heard Willis singing these two songs and transcribed the words and melodies. He sent the music to the ‘Jubilee Singers of ‘Fisk University’ in Nashville, Tennessee. The Jubilee Singers popularized the songs during a tour of the United States and Europe. Other singers to have recorded the song are many and include Bing Crosby: Kenny Ball: Louis Armstrong: Sam Cooke: Peggy Lee and Paul Robeson.
In 1939, Nazi Germany's ‘Reich Music Examination Office’ added the song to a listing of ‘undesired and harmful’ musical works.
The song enjoyed a resurgence during the 1960s Civil Rights struggle and the folk revival; it was performed by several artists. Perhaps the most famous performance during this period was that of Joan Baez during the legendary 1969 ‘Woodstock Festival’.
Oklahoma State Senator Judy Eason McIntyre from Tulsa proposed a bill nominating ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot’ as the Oklahoma State official gospel song in 2011. The bill was co-sponsored by the Oklahoma State Black Congressional Caucus. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin signed the bill into law on May 5, 2011, at a ceremony at the Oklahoma Cowboy Hall of Fame; making the song the official Oklahoma State Gospel Song.
The song became the ‘England Rugby World Cup theme’ for 1991 and It reached Number 16 on the ‘UK Singles Chart’.
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During the 1970s after I first got married, half a dozen newly married couples moved into the same crescent of houses around the same time and we all became close friends. For around six years, before any children appeared on the scene, the group of us would socialise, party, go drinking, dancing, entertain each other in weekly rotation in our homes, and even holiday together.
One of the places we visited for around three years was a public house out in the wilder parts of Oxenhope. Although I only live about a good mile away from Oxenhope today, then, I lived in Mirfield, around twenty-five miles away. We frequented this Oxenhope drinking establishment every week because they always had a night of folk singing that we thoroughly enjoyed. One of the regular singers would always introduce his singing spot with ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’, which appeared to be his signature tune and all the pub joined in the singing. This was usually the one song that every patron knew by heart. I never realised at the time just how old this gospel song was.
Love and peace Bill xxx