Dead Songs in Depth

    
And We Bid You Goodnight  
w&m: traditional
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/ANDWEBID.HTM
  

    
And We Bid You Goodnight 
Lyrics: Traditional [Sarah Doudney]
Music: Traditional [Ira David Sankey]

Chorus:
Lay down my dear brothers, lay down and take your rest
Won't you lay your head upon your saviour's breast
I love you, oh but Jesus loves you the best
And I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight
And I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight

Tell "A" for the ark, that wonderful boat (goodnight, goodnight)
Sing "B" for the beast at the ending of the wood (goodnight,
goodnight)
Well it ate all the children that would not be good (goodnight,
goodnight)
I remember right well, I remember right well (goodnight, goodnight)
Walking in Jerusalem just like John (goodnight, goodnight)
I go walking in the valley of the shadow of death (goodnight,
goodnight)

[chorus]


Additional lyrics:
I never would ride, I never would ride (goodnight, goodnight)
But his rod and his staff they comfort me (goodnight, goodnight)
  

    

I just heard (on XM radio's "folk village" channel) a version of this song
titled "Sleep on Beloved," sung by Norma Waterson and Martin and Eliza
Carthy.  Via google, I learned that it's from their album "Waterson:Carthy"
(Topic Records, 1994).

Sleep on beloved sleep and take thy rest
Lay down thy head upon thy Saviour's breast
We love thee well but Jesus loves thee best
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight


Until our shadows from this earth are cast
Until He gathers in His sheaves at last
Until the twilight gloom is over past
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight


Until made beautiful by love divine
Thou in the likeness of thy Lord shalt shine
And He will bring that golden crown of thine
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight


Until we meet again before the throne
Clothed in the spotless robes He gives His own
Until we know as we have known
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight


Source:
http://www.informatik.uni-
hamburg.de/~zierke/watersons/songs/sleeponbeloved.html
  

    
Wow! I'll have to find that!
  

    
There's some interesting background in the liner notes to
Waterson:Carthy

"In the 1960s, the Incredible String Band renamed a song called 'I Bid
You Goodnight' which they learned from Jody Stecher's recordings of
the great Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence and his family, the Pindar
family, and the song became, for some folkies, one of those great
standards. A year or two ago, John Howson visited Staithes to record
the Fisherman's Choir, and was accompanied by Maggie Hunt who, at the
same time, was interviewing the individuals involved. During
conversations, Mr Willie Wright sung a snatch of the Sankey hymn 'Sleep
On Beloved' which he described as a lowering down song at funerals,
and which was clearly the same song as 'I Bid You Goodnight' but in an
earlier form, and when Norma [Waterson] heard it she went to see
Willie, who kindly provided her with the other verses. When we sang the
song to Jody Stecher, he was enormously pleased, not least because its
function as a funeral song in the Bahamian fishing community was
identical to that in its North Yorkshire counterpart."
  

    

Jody Stecher played his recording of the Pindar family for his ppals in Palo
Alto, a group that included Jerry Garcia, Eric Thompson, Robert Hunter, et
al.  That;s how the song got into the Grateful Dead's heads.
  

    
And my kids first heard it on a great Nicolette Larson children's tape
called Sleep Baby Sleep, so now when it comes on the stereo sung by the
Dead, they are really into it. Always loved the Any Old Time String Band's
version!
  

    


Tim White writes:


Hi

W:C love to sing hymns like "Sleep On Beloved" and it is still in their
repertoire. I saw them about a week before Christmas 2003 in a village
hall, they played their usual 2 sets then treated us to another 45 minutes
of unaccompanied Christmas songs, wish I had a tape of it to send you
guys!

Another GOGD connection is Norma Waterson's version of "Black Muddy River"
which will make you cry. It's on her self-titled album released on
Hannibal 1996 and features Eliza and Martin Carthy and incredible guitar
from Richard Thompson.

I always mean to ask them if they are Dead fans, I'll let you know
sometime.

Tim
  

    

(I've heard that Norma Waterson "Black Muddy River," and it is indeed a thing
of beauty.)

(I've also heard through mutual friends that Richard Thompson is no fan of
the GD; not sure abovut the Watersons and Carthys.)
  

    



Tim White writes:




Hi
The Incredible String Band (who are now incrediblestringband2004) still
perform AWBYG - I saw them do it last night! It's part of a long loose
suite of songs and tunes called "A Very Cellular Song". Some of the
harmonies were more enthusiastic than accurate but it was a lot of fun.
Peace
Tim
  

    
"more enthusiastic than accurate" has always been an apt description
of the wonderful Incredible String Band!
  

    
I sense that Richard Thompson has the "those folkies sold out and got
rich" take on the Dead, and most of his teasing seems gentle and
somewhat uninformed. I'ved often thought that Jerry might have been
happier with Richard's career.

When I was in Liverpool in a graveyard I saw some lines etched in a
headstone that were the bit about lay down and take your rest/we love
thee, but Jesus loves thee best, which I gather was from the same
source hymn that inspired the Bahamian variation ("Tell A for the Ark
that wonderful boat," etc.) that inspired the incredible string band
that inspired the dead, or whatever the provenance we just figured out
upthread.

One of my Dead show going highlights was the '89 bid you goodnight at
the Greek, nearly a capella and with Jerry singing all those Bahamian
verses.
  

    
I just stumbled across a 1935 Alan Lomax recording from the Bahamas of
"I Bid You Goodnight." It doesn't have the "Lay down my dear brother"
section, and the verses are almost incomprehensible. But it has the
same "I bid you goodnight, goonight" refrain after each line.

Of interest as an earlier Bahamas recording than the Joseph
Spence/Pindar Family one which the Dead learned their version from.