(New York: William A Pond & Co., 1860) Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay, Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away, Gone from the earth to a better land I know, I hear their gentle voices calling, "Old Black Joe." CHORUS: I'm coming, I'm coming, For my head is bending low; I hear those gentle voices calling, "Old Black Joe." Why do I weep when my heart should feel no pain? Why do I sigh that my friends come not again, Grieving for forms now departed long ago? I hear their gentle voices calling, "Old Black Joe." Where are the hearts once so happy and so free? The children so dear, that I hold upon my knee, Gone to the shore where my soul has long'd to go. I hear their gentle voices calling, "Old Black Joe." |
 ARTISTS: Fisk University Jubilee Singers 1ST TENOR: John Wesley Work II; 2ND TENOR: James Andrew Myers; 1ST BASS: Alfred Garfield King; 2ND BASS: Noah Walker Ryder. RECORDED: 9 December 1909 Swing Low, Sweet Chariot © 1997 Document Records, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Audio encoding by Michael Tuite at the Digital Media Lab, Clemons Library, Univ. of Virginia |