120. Take My Hand, Precious Lord

composed by Thomas A. Dorsey

This may not be the premier gospel song of the previous century, but I doubt that there is any other that connects with so much of that century. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last written words were a request that this be played “real pretty” at a (then-)upcoming service. Mahalia Jackson sang it at his funeral. Its author composed it in part as a way of dealing with the deaths of his wife and son in 1932. Dorsey had only just recently returned to religious music after being half of Tampa Red and Georgia Tom, a great blues act of the 1920s, and key accompanist for Ma Rainey. Nitpickers point out the melody’s many antecedents, but more intriguing is that it does not really have a melody. The recordings of the song I know are all different, except for its trademark cadence – the rising uplift of its first three phrases: “Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on.” – a plea to the great unknown for divine influence. On its first commercial recording in 1937, the Heavenly Gospel Singers sang it as a shape note hymn with no melody at all. Mahalia barely departed from the tonic. Elvis Presley did nothing but.

Note: Secular (mostly) essays about individual songs, each one exactly 200 words long, appearing one per day through Advant and at least semi-regularly until Donald goes away.