Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a five part pancocojams series about the name "Michael".
Part II showcases the African American Spiritual/rowing song (work song) "Michael Row The Boat Ashore" (also given as "Michael Rowed The Boat Ashore").
Lyrics for certain versions of this song are included in this post along with some YouTube examples.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/information-about-name-michael-and.html for Part I of this series. Part I presents etymological information about the name "Michael" as well as information about that name's declining popularity.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2018/05/19651966-r-song-michael-lover-by-cod.html for Part III of this series. Part III showcases C.O.D.'s 1965 R&B song "Michael The Lover" and The Mad Lads' 1966 cover of that song.
Part IV showcases Dionne Warwick's 1966 R&B song "Message To Michael", and Michael Jackson's 1975 R&B song "Dear Michael".
Part V showcases the 1991 song "Be Like Mike" and the original Gatorade "Be like Mike" commercial. That song and commercial refers to professional basketball player Michael Jordan. A link to an online compilation of famous men named "Mike" is also included in that post.
It's my positions that these songs and that commercial reinforced the popularity of the name "Michael".
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The content of this post is presented for cultural, religious, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
Thanks to the unknown original composers of this song and thanks to those who collected this song and those who helped to bring it to the awareness of the general public. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post, to all those who are featured in these YouTube examples as well as the publishers on YouTube of those examples.
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INFORMATION ABOUT MICHAEL ROW[ED] THE BOAT ASHORE
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Row_the_Boat_Ashore
"Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" (or "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore", or "Michael, Row Your Boat Ashore", or "Michael Row That Gospel Boat") is a Negro spiritual. It was first noted during the American Civil War at St. Helena Island, one of the Sea Islands of South Carolina.[1] It is cataloged as Roud Folk Song Index No. 11975.
It was sung by former slaves whose owners had abandoned the island before the Union navy arrived to enforce a blockade. Charles Pickard Ware was an abolitionist and Harvard graduate who had come to supervise the plantations on St. Helena Island from 1862 to 1865, and he wrote down the song in music notation as he heard the freedmen sing it. Ware's cousin William Francis Allen reported in 1863 that the former slaves sang the song as they rowed him in a boat across Station Creek.[2]
The song was first published in 1867 in Slave Songs of the United States by Allen, Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison.[3]
Lyrics
The oldest published version of the song runs in a series of unrhymed couplets:[3]
Michael row de boat ashore, Hallelujah!
Michael boat a gospel boat, Hallelujah!
I wonder where my mudder deh. [there]
See my mudder on de rock gwine home.
On de rock gwine home in Jesus' name.
Michael boat a music boat.
Gabriel blow de trumpet horn.
O you mind your boastin' talk.
Boastin' talk will sink your soul.
Brudder, lend a helpin' hand.
Sister, help for trim dat boat.
Jordan stream is wide and deep.
Jesus stand on t' oder side.
I wonder if my maussa deh.
My fader gone to unknown land.
O de Lord he plant his garden deh.
He raise de fruit for you to eat.
He dat eat shall neber die.
When de riber overflow.
O poor sinner, how you land?
Riber run and darkness comin'.
Sinner row to save your soul.
or
Michel, row the boat a-shore
Hallelujah!
Then you'll hear the trumpet blow
Hallelujah!
Then you'll hear the trumpet sound,
Hallelujah!
Trumpet sound the world around
Hallelujah!
Trumpet sound the jubilee
Hallelujah!
Trumpet sound for you and me
Hallelujah!
This song originated in oral tradition, and there are many versions of the lyrics. It begins with the refrain, "Michael, row the boat ashore, Hallelujah." The lyrics describe crossing the River Jordan, as in these lines from Pete Seeger's version:
Jordan's river is deep and wide, hallelujah.
Meet my mother on the other side, hallelujah.
Jordan's river is chilly and cold, hallelujah.
Chills the body, but not the soul, hallelujah.[4]
The River Jordan was where Jesus was baptised and can be viewed as a metaphor for deliverance and salvation, but also as the boundary of the Promised Land, death, and the transition to Heaven.[5]
[...]
According to William Francis Allen, the song refers to the Archangel Michael.[7] In the Roman Catholic interpretation of Christian tradition, Michael is often regarded as a psychopomp or conductor of the souls of the dead.[8]
The spiritual was also recorded on Johns Island during the 1960s by American folk musician and musicologist Guy Carawan and his wife, Candie Carawan. Janie Hunter, former singer of the Moving Star Hall singers, noted that her father, son of former slaves, would sing the spiritual when he rowed his boat back to the shore after catching fish.[9]
Row, Michael, Row, Hallelujah,
Row, Michael, Row, Hallelujah,
Row the boat ashore, Hallelujah,
See how we (do) the row, Hallelujah,
See how we the row, Hallelujah,
Let me tries me chance, Hallelujah,
Let me tries me chance, Hallelujah,
Jump in the jolly boat, Hallelujah,
Jump in the jolly boat, Hallelujah,
Just row Michael, row, Hallelujah,
Row the boat ashore, Hallelujah.
(repeated thusly until end)
A similar version was collected by Guy Carawan on an unspecified Sea Island.
Let me try my chance, Hallelujah,
Let me try my chance, Hallelujah,
Sister Mary try her chance, Hallelujah,
Sister Mary try her chance, Hallelujah,
Just let me try my chance, Hallelujah,
Just let me try my chance, Hallelujah,
Michael row your boat ashore, Hallelujah,
Michael row your boat ashore, Hallelujah,
Sister Mary row your boat, Hallelujah,
Sister Mary row your boat, Hallelujah,
Everybody try a chance, Hallelujah
Everybody try a chance, Hallelujah
Oh just let me try my chance, Hallelujah
Oh just let me try my chance, Hallelujah
(repeated thusly until end)
Recordings
The version of "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" that is widely known today was adapted by Boston folksinger and teacher Tony Saletan, who taught it to Pete Seeger in 1954.[10][11] Saletan, however, never recorded it. Seeger taught it to the Weavers, who performed it at their 1955 reunion concert.[12] One of the earliest recordings of the song is by folksinger Bob Gibson, who included it on his 1957 Carnegie Concert album.[13] The Weavers included an arrangement in The Weavers' Song Book, published in 1960. Similarly, Seeger included it in his 1961 songbook, American Favorite Ballads, with an attribution to Saletan.[14] The American folk quintet the Highwaymen had a #1 hit in 1961 on both the pop and easy listening charts in the U.S. with their version (under the simpler title of "Michael"), first recorded and released in 1960; this recording also went to #1 in the United Kingdom.[15] Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song of 1961.[16]
The Highwaymen version that went to #1 on the Billboard charts had these lyrics:
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Sister help to trim the sail, hallelujah.
Sister help to trim the sail, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
The River Jordan is chilly and cold, hallelujah.
Chills the body but not the soul, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
The river is deep and the river is wide, hallelujah.
Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.”
[...]
-snip-
Since the referent "Negro" was changed to "African American" in the late 1960s, early 1970s, I use the term "African American Spirituals" rather "Negro Spirituals". Furthermore, I strongly believe that, when singing African American Spirituals or 19th century secular songs, contemporary singers shouldn't use 19th century dialect (such as these words, among others, that are found in the earliest version of this song given above: "gwine" for "gone", "dat" for "that" and "neber" for "never").
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Excerpt #2:
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=31019
Dubject: RE: Michael Row the Boat Ashore
From: raredance
Date: 19 Feb 01 - 12:34 AM
"Indeed Michael can be found in "Slave Songs of the United States" by William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison. They include two versions with a total of 29 "verses" . W. F. Allen wrote in the introductory text:
"The same songs are used for rowing as for shouting . I know only one pure boat-song, the fine lyric, "Michael row the boat ashore"; and this I have no doubt is a real spiritual - it being the archangel Michael that is addressed... "As I have written these tune," says Mr. Ware, "two measures are to be sung to each stroke,the first being accented by the beginning of the stroke, the second by the rattle of the oars in the row-locks. On the passenger boat at the [Beaufort] ferry, they rowed from sixteen to thirty strokes a minute; twenty-four was the average. Of the tunes I have heard....'Lay this body down', 'Religion so sweet', and 'Michael row', were used when the load was heavy or the tide was against us."
-snip-
In this comment the word "shouting" doesn't mean "yelling; speaking in a loud voice". Instead, in the context of this comment "shouting" refers to religious services that enslaved Black people had in the antebellum South (USA); i.e. "ring shouts".
-snip-
Click http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.htmlhttp://docsouth.unc.edu/church/allen/allen.html for a digital version of Slave Songs of the United States by William Francis Allen, etl.
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SHOWCASE EXAMPLES
Example #1: Pete Seeger - Michael Row The Boat Ashore
Evan, Published on Mar 12, 2010
Live in 1963. Melbourne. Very well known song. Note that at this time Pete was being looked down on back home in America
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Example #2: Max Romeo - Michael Row the Boat Ashore
Orestis, Published on Jan 16, 2010
Romeo's version of this folk song [1969]
artist
Max Romeo & The Hippy Boys
Album
The Coming of Jah: Max Romeo Anthology 1967-76
-snip-
This is a Jamaican Reggae version of the African American Spiritual and rowing song "Michael Row The Boat Ashore".
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Example #3: Brothers Four - Michael Row The Boat Ashore
Marcelo San Miguel, Published on Jul 12, 2013
-snip-
Here's the lyrics to this version that were posted in this YouTube sound file's discussion thread by debuyadebuo(2015)
"Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Michael's boat is the gospel boat, hallelujah
Michael's boat is the gospel boat, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
The river Jordan is chilly and cold, hallelujah
Chills the body but warms the soul, hallelujah
Jordon's water is deep and wide, hallelujah
Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Trumpets sounds for you and me, hallelyjah
Trumpets sounds for you and me, hallelyjah
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah
Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah..."
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Example #4: Harry Belafonte - Michael Row The Boat Ashore (1962) [Digitally Remastered]
Classic Mood Experience, Published on Sep 28, 2013
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Example #5: "Michael Row the Boat Ashore" by Ella Jenkins and Friends
Smithsonian Folkways, Published on Jul 20, 2017
...Ella Jenkins performs the spiritual "Michael Row the Boat Ashore” with members of the Old Town School of Folk Music and Tony & Kate Seeger of Camp Killooleet. Find this track and other classic camp songs, rounds, silly songs, and campfire sing-alongs on Camp Songs with Ella Jenkins and Friends, available now
About 'Camp Songs':
Renowned children’s performer Ella Jenkins has vivid memories of singing at summer camps, and if you were a camper, you must too! She and her friends invite you to share those experiences and celebrate her 60 years as a Folkways artist with this recording. Ella assembled a group of children, parents, and teachers from the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, along with Tony and Kate Seeger from Camp Killooleet, to sing these classic camp songs, rounds, silly songs, and campfire sing-alongs...
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This concludes Part II of this series.
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