History of Hymns: 'Do, Lord, Remember Me'

“Do, Lord, Remember Me”
African American Spiritual
Songs of Zion, 119
The United Methodist Hymnal, 527

Do, Lord, do, Lord, Lord, remember me;
do, Lord, do, Lord, Lord, remember me;
do, Lord, do, Lord, Lord, remember me;
Do, Lord, remember me.

When I'm in trouble, Lord, remember me.
When I'm in trouble, Lord, remember me.
When I'm in trouble, Lord, remember me.
Do, Lord, remember me.

“And he said unto Jesus, ’Lord, remember me when Thou comest into thy kingdom.’” (Luke 23:42, KJV)

Scripture contains the words “remember me” numerous times, but perhaps none more poignant than when uttered by one of the two thieves crucified with Christ in Luke 23:42. Christ’s response in the following verse gives all hope, And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

African American Sources

Though the exact roots of this spiritual are lost in history, “Do, Lord, remember me” likely begins in the antebellum African American South. This spiritual should not be confused with a shorter traditional response, “Remember me,” that often appears in African American hymnals with a harmonization by J. Jefferson Cleveland. William McClain, late United Methodist professor of homiletics, identifies this spiritual with the experience of enslaved Africans:

The repetition of the initial phrase of the song indicates that it came out of oral tradition and had a significant pre-publication life. The earliest printed versions in the 1920s and 1930s reveal diverse melodic and textual variations, signifying that several local versions existed simultaneously though the core song was recognizable.

Though musically unrelated to the current version, the key phrase, “Do, Lord, remember me,” appears in “Lord, Remember Me” (No. 15) in the first collection of folksongs published in the United States, Slaves Songs of the United States (1867). The earliest printed version of the song that this author could locate in an African American source was in Spirituals Triumphant Old and New (No. 54, Nashville, 1927), edited by Edward Boatner (1898–1981), the grandson of enslaved grandparents. In this publication, the song is ascribed to Dr. A.M. Townsend, the husband of the collection’s musical editor, Willa A. Townsend (1880–1947), but Townsend was most likely the arranger. The refrain follows:

Do, Lord, do, Lord, do, Lord, remember me!
Do, Lord, do, Lord, do, Lord, remember me!
Do, Lord, do, Lord, do, Lord, remember me!
‘Way beyond the sun.

The text of the stanzas, sung to a melodic version of the refrain, follows:

1. I’ve got a home in the Beulah land,
Outshines the sun; outshines the sun;
I’ve got a home in the Beulah land,
Outshines the sun
‘Way beyond the sun.

2. I’ve got a robe, etc.
3. I’ve got a crown, etc.
4. I’ve got a mother, etc.
5. I’ve got a Savior, etc.

The Moses Hogan Singers preserve this text and the musical style of the spiritual tradition on the album La Magie des Plus Beaux Negro Spirituals (2002): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzhx8N3Zi1A&t=13s. The phrase, “‘Way beyond the sun,” appears to be a reference to “paradise” in Luke 23:43. Variations in white evangelical collections modified this eschatological reference to “‘Way beyond de moon” and “Way beyond the blue.”

Soon after Boatner, Mary Allen Grissom (1883–1963), a collector of spirituals and a teacher at a Kentucky women’s college for half a century, included the spiritual in The Negro Sings a New Heaven (Chapel Hill, NC, 1930, pp. 68–69). Grissom preserved the dialect of enslaved people in her versions. The refrain is almost identical to Boatner’s except for the final phrase, “Do Lawd, remembuh me.” The stanzas reflect various trials and tribulations:

1. When I’m sick ‘an by myself, / Do remembuh me, etc.
2. When I’m crossin’ Jordan, / Do remembuh me, etc.
3. If I ain’t got no frien’s at all, / Do remembuh me, etc.
4. Paul an’ Silas bound in jail, / Do remembuh me, etc.
5. One did sing while the other one prayed, / Do remembuh me, etc.
6. When I’m bound in trouble, / Do remembuh me, etc.
7. When I’m goin’ from do’ to do’*, / Do remembuh me, etc.
*door to door

This version draws upon familiar references in other spirituals, including “crossing Jordan” and “Paul and Silas.” The final stanza (“from ‘do’ to ‘do’”) seems to reflect a homeless traveler searching for assistance.

A third version soon appeared with a related, yet different, melody collected by Louisiana businessman and explorer Edward Avery McIlhenny (1872–1949) for Befo’ de War Spirituals: Words and Melodies (Boston, 1933, pp. 82-83). The text of the refrain is almost identical to that published by Grissom, though the melody is less complicated. The stanzas are not related to the earlier versions, however:

1. W’en ma enemies behin’ me / Do Lord ‘member me, etc.
2. W’en de hell-hounds behin’ me / Do Lord ‘member me, etc.
3. An’ w’en de sinner all aroun’ me / Do Lord ‘member me, etc.
4. W’en I’m dead an gone to judgment / Do Lord ‘member me, etc.

These stanzas may reflect the plight of the enslaved runaway. Though these three versions have different stanzas, they are bound together by a similar refrain and stanzas that focus on persecution and final judgment. A country blues recording by Mississippi John Hurt (1893–1966) reflects the style and stanzas from the African American tradition of this era (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suoadq0TqPA&t=5s).

White Evangelical Collections and Convention Songbooks

Another strand of the song appeared in the mid-twentieth century in disposable convention collections and songsters for children and youth. These publications were aimed at white evangelicals. Exemplary of these was Jubilee Spirituals (Dallas, 1945), published by the Stamps-Baxter Music and Printing Company. The music of the refrain remains similar to those sung in the African American community, including Boatner’s “‘Way beyond the sun.” The five stanzas are identical to Boatner’s version.

Publisher and musical evangelist Homer A. Rodeheaver (1880–1955) may have brought the song into the Northern evangelical circuit. His Plantation Melodies (Chicago, 1918) included a variant that plays on the familial trope found in many spirituals:

1. I’ve got a mother in de heaven,
Outshines the sun, Outshines the sun, Outshines the sun;
I’ve got a mother in de heaven,
Outshines the sun,
‘Way beyond de moon.

2. I’ve got a father in de heaven, etc.
3. I’ve got a sister in de heaven, etc.
4. When we get to heaven, we will outshine the sun, etc.

A posthumous collection prepared by Rodeheaver, Hymns for Praise and Service (Winona Lake, IN, 1956), includes a version similar to that sung by children in evangelical Sunday schools during the 1950s and 1960s:

1. I’ve got a home in glory land
That outshines the sun, etc.
Way beyond the blue.

2. I took Jesus as my Saviour,
You take Him too
Way beyond the blue.

Refrain:
Do Lord, O do Lord, O Lord remember me, etc.
Way beyond the blue.

In other collections, a second stanza appeared around this time: “I took Jesus as my Savior, / You take Him too, etc. / Way beyond the blue.” In this iteration, the emphasis shifts from a song of remembrance in the face of suffering and persecution to an evangelical eschatological chorus focusing on personal salvation. This rendering remains in use informally, usually transmitted orally, often as a children’s song. It influenced the version published recently in Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New (Suffolk, UK, 2000). Perhaps the most popular rendition of this version was a country gospel recording by Johnny Cash on the compact disc My Mother’s Hymn Book (2004): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plA2vi7mWc0.

'Do, Lord, remember me' in Recent Hymnals

More recent hymnals generally return to the song’s African American origins, though the stanzas differ. Songs of Zion (Nashville, 1981) appears to have standardized the stanzas for most recent publications with a version in the spirit of the earlier twentieth-century African American collections. This melody-only rendition has four stanzas with no refrain:

1. Do, Lord, do, Lord, Lord, remember me, etc.
2. When I’m in trouble, Lord, remember me, etc.
3. When I’m dyin’, Lord, remember me, etc.
4. When this world’s on fire, Lord, remember me, etc.

The words draw on this trouble and tribulation theme of earlier versions with the addition of a final apocalyptic stanza. The original refrain becomes Stanza 1. Other recent African American hymnals draw upon this version, including the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) hymnal Yes, Lord! (1982), the Episcopal Lift Every Voice and Sing II (1993), The A.M.E. Zion Hymnal (1999), the Lutheran This Far By Faith (1999), and The New National Baptist Hymnal (21^st Century Edition) (2001). William Farley Smith (1941–97) provides an arrangement for The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) that is more choral than congregational. He entitles the tune DITMUS named after St. Ditmas, the “good thief” crucified with Christ (Young, 1993, p. 322).

SOURCES

Edward Boatner, ed., Spirituals Triumphant Old and New (Nashville: Sunday School Publishing Board, 1927): https://www.google.com/books/edition/Spirituals_Triumphant_Old_and_New/X5w7AQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 (accessed April 1, 2023).

Mary Allen Grissom, The Negro Sings of a New Heaven (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1930; New York: Dover Publications Reprint, 1969).

William B. McClain, Come Sunday: The Liturgy of Zion (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1990).

Edward Avery McIlhenny, Befo’ de War Spirituals: Words and Melodies (Boston: Christopher Publishing House, 1933).

Homer F. Morris, ed., Jubilee Spirituals (Dallas: Stamps-Baxter Music & Printing Co., 1945): https://archive.org/details/jubileespiritualmorr/page/n101/mode/2up (accessed April 1, 2023).

Carlton R. Young, Companion to The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989).