A 1988 Song "Lord, I'm Out Here On Your Word" That Is A Gospelized Version Of Two Spirituals: "Lord I'm Out Here..." & "Fix Me"

gospelvinyl, March 1, 2019

lead: Dorothy Wheeler, track B2 on I'll Never Turn Back Again (Faith 1525)

Atlanta, GA gospel
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I'll Never Turn Back Again is the album name.

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This pancocojams post showcases the 1988 recording "Lord, I'm Out Here On Your Word" sung by Rev. R.L. White, Jr. & Mount Ephraim Baptist Church Choir with lead singer, Dorothy Wheeler. 

This song is a gospelized Spiritual that actually combines two Spirituals: "Lord, I'm Out Here On Your Word" and "Fix Me".  It's possible that there are earlier Gospel songs tha combine these two Spirituals, but I'm not aware of them.

"Gospelized Spiritual" is my term for a Spiritual that is performed in a Gospel style.

A YouTube video of "Fix Me" is included in this post along with some lyrics for that song.

My partial transcription of Rev. R.L. White, Jr. & Mount Ephraim Baptist Church Choir's rendition of "Lord, I'm Out Here On Your Word" is also included in this post.

The context of this post is presented for religious, historical, cultural, and aesthetic purposes. 

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Rev. R.L. White, Jr. & Mount Ephraim Baptist Church Choir and lead singer, Dorothy Wheeler for their musical legacy. Thanks also to Alfred Street Baptist Church Male Choir for their musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these sound files on YouTube.
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Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/10/fisk-jubilee-singers-lord-im-out-here.html for the closely related pancocojams post entitled "Fisk Jubilee Singers - "Lord, I'm Out Here On Your Word" (two sound files, information, & partial lyrics)". That post provides information about the Fisk Jubilee Singers who sung "Lord, I'm Out Here On Your Word" in the United States and in Europe in the late 19th century.

Some Jamaican Apostolic choirs sing versions of "Lord, I'm Out Here On Your Word" that combine that Spiritual with the "Fix Me" Spiritual. A pancocojams post that showcased videos of several of these choirs singing this song during church choir collection marches will be published ASAP and that link will be added here.
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LYRICS - LORD, I'M OUT HERE ON YOUR WORD [partial lyrics)* 
(as sung by Rev. R.L. White, Jr. & Mount Ephraim Baptist Church Choir)

Well, I’m out here on Your word
I’m out here on Your word
If I should die right on the battlefield
I’m out here on Your word.

I’m out here on your word
Oh yes
I’m out here on your word.
If I should die right on the battlefield
I’m out here on Your word.

I’m out here on Your word
Oh yes I am
I’m out here on your word.
If I should die right on the battlefield
I’m out here on Your word.

Well, I’m out here on Your word.
I’m out here on your word.
If I should die right on the battlefield
I’m out here on Your word.

Well, I can’t talk till you fix me right
I can’t walk till you fix me right
I can't sing til you fix me right
Fix me, Jesus!
You know how.
I’m out here on Your word.
I’m out here on Your word
I’m out here on Your word
If I should die right on the battlefield
I’m out here on Your word.

Fix me Jesus!
Fix me Lord.
Fix me Jesus!
You know how.

Fix my eyes so I can see, Lord
Fix my voice so I can talk right
Fix my hands so I can ? right.
Fix me!
Fix me!"...
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This is my partial transcription from this YouTube sound file. The question mark means that I wasn't sure of that word. I stopped transcribing around 1:47 in this sound file because the words were difficult for me to decipher. However, most of the words that I could understand appeared to follow the "Fix me!" / "fix my__ so I can __ right" pattern.

Additions and corrections are welcome.

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WHAT DOES 'OUT HERE ON YOUR WORD' MEAN IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS SONG?

The words "out here" means "being out in the world"

In the context of this Gospel song, "out here" can mean living  speaking, singing, etc. and , perhaps particularly proselytizing

"On your word" is a seldom used colloquial phrase. In the religious sense, "on your word" means based on my faith in Your Word". "Your" in that song means Jesus and "word" means what Jesus said (His teachings). 

The line "trusting in your holy word" that is found in the African American Gospel song "We've Come This Far By Faith" is another way of saying "on Your word" in its religious context. 

*The compositon date for the song "Lord, I'm Out Here On Your Word" is unknown and the composers are unknown. However, the song was sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers when the toured the United States and Europe in the late 19th century.

In non-religious contexts, the phrase "at your word" has the similar meaning. Here's information about that phrase from https://www.dictionary.com/browse/take-someone-at-his-or-her-word :

"take someone at his or her word
Also, take someone's word for. Accept what someone says on trust, as in Since he said he'd agree to any of my ideas, I'll take him at his word, or She said she wanted to help out and I took her word for it. This idiom appeared in Miles Coverdale's translation of the Bible: “He said ... he is my brother. And the men took him shortly at his word” (I Kings 22:33). It is still so used. [1535]"

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SHOWCASE SONG #2: Fix Me Jesus - ASBC Male Chorus

  

majcpw, May 25, 2008

Alfred Street Baptist Church Male Chorus at their 43rd anniversary program "There's A Meeting Here Tonight, A Presentation About the History of the Negro Spiritual", presented on March 18th, 2007. The ASBC Drama and Liturgical Dance Ministries augmented the ASBC Male Chorus. The program featured traditional negro spirituals interspersed with historical narration and interpretive dance. This particular video is the Altar Call from the program and althrough it can stand by itself, it makes more sense when viewed after any of the videos that precede it, which can be found at the following playlist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8j4et...

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LYRICS- FIX ME
From https://hymnary.org/text/fix_me_for_my_long_white_robe
"Representative Text

Refrain:

Oh, fix me; Oh, fix me;
Oh, fix me. Fix me, Jesus, fix me.

1 Fix me for my long, white robe;
Fix me, Jesus, fix me.
Fix me for my starry crown;
Fix me, Jesus, fix me. [Refrain]

2 Fix me for my journey home;
Fix me, Jesus, fix me.
Fix me for my dying bed;
Fix me, Jesus, fix me. [Refrain]

Source: One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism: an African American ecumenical hymnal #143"
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"Refrain" means the same thing as the word "chorus".

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WHAT DOES THE PHRASE "FIX ME" MEAN IN THE CONTEXT OF THIS AFRICAN AMERICAN SPIRITUAL

In the context of the African American Spiritual "Fix Me", those words mean "heal me", "make me whole."

From https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-fix-me-jesus

History of Hymns: "Fix Me, Jesus"

Fix Me, Jesus

African-American Spiritual

The United Methodist Hymnal, No. 655.

[article published Feb. 9, 2017, no author cited]

..." This spiritual begins with the refrain, followed by two stanzas. ...The refrain is a plea to Jesus to repair one’s soul...

William Farley Smith, who arranged the setting of “Fix Me, Jesus” in The United Methodist Hymnal, suggests that the glides [Oh] should be performed as “moaning prayers” (Young, 336). “Fix me” is a cry to Jesus for healing.

Richard Newman in his collection of spirituals, Go Down, Moses: Celebrating the African-American Spiritual, provides this variant refrain:

O, fix me, Jesus, fix me right.
Fix me right, fix me right;
O, fix me, Jesus, fix me right,
Fix me so I can stand.

Newman offers this insight: “‘Fix Me, Jesus’ is a powerful African-American image, both poetically and religiously. However oppressed and cast down, the slaves sang songs of faith, confident that Jesus could ‘fix me so I can stand’” (Newman, 41)”…

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