Old-Time Religion
Encyclopedia
" Old-Time Religion" (and similar spellings) is a traditional
Gospel
song dating from 1873, when it was included in a list of Jubilee songs—or earlier. It has become a standard in many Protestant
hymnal
s and covered by many artists. Some scholars, such as Forrest Mason McCann, have asserted the possibility of an earlier stage of evolution of the song, in that "the tune may go back to English folk origins" (later dying out in the white repertoire but staying alive in the work songs of African Americans). In any event, it was by way of Charles Davis Tillman
that the song had incalculable influence on the confluence of black spiritual
and white gospel song traditions in forming the genre now known as southern gospel
. Tillman was largely responsible for publishing the song into the repertoire of white audiences. It was first heard sung by African-Americans and written down by Tillman when he attended a camp meeting in Lexington, South Carolina in 1889.
Most common lyrics performed are a repetition of the chorus:
The lyrics, however, as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers
are:
Following Tillman's nuanced changes which accommodated the song more toward the tastes of white southern church congregations, Elmer Leon Jorgenson and other editors preferred the more-formalized first line "'Tis the old-time religion" (likewise the repeated first line of the refrain).
musical arrangement popularized in the hymnals published by Charles Davis Tillman
is the background song in the 1941 Academy Award film Sergeant York
. It is featured prominently in the film Inherit the Wind
. It also appears in Russ Meyer
's penultimate movie Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens
and in HBO's Carnivàle
.
A popular version of “Old Time Religion” was done by 'The Caravans
' in 1954 with a young James Cleveland
singing lead. Vocals in the group also included Cassietta George
, Albertina Walker
, Louise McDowell, Johneron Davis. This version introduced a different lively upbeat and a new chorus all its own:
Give me that old time religion! (old time religion)
I'm looking for religion! (good religion, like it used to be!)
Give me that old time religion! (old time religion, Lord)
Hallelueh! (Hallelueh, good enough for me!)
This song is referenced in Captain Beefheart
's song "Moonlight on Vermont" on his 1969 album Trout Mask Replica
. Numerous parodic filk
verses for Old-Time Religion exist, some of the earliest of which were composed by Gordon R. Dickson
and made famous by Arlo Guthrie
and Pete Seeger
in live performances and on their live album Precious Friend
. The parody verses make reference to a very wide range of "old-time religions" that most Christians would deem pagan
.
The song is also sung in The Last Waltz
by Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko, with Danko playing the fiddle. Robbie finishes the scene, laughing, saying "Well it's not what it used to be" before The Band plays "The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down".
It was also sung by the crowd at the lynching of Leo Frank
.
The song is used at the end of an episode of Mad Men
, "The Hobo Code."
Traditional music
Traditional music is the term increasingly used for folk music that is not contemporary folk music. More on this is at the terminology section of the World music article...
Gospel
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
song dating from 1873, when it was included in a list of Jubilee songs—or earlier. It has become a standard in many Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
hymnal
Hymnal
Hymnal or hymnary or hymnbook is a collection of hymns, i.e. religious songs, usually in the form of a book. The earliest hand-written hymnals are known since Middle Ages in the context of European Christianity...
s and covered by many artists. Some scholars, such as Forrest Mason McCann, have asserted the possibility of an earlier stage of evolution of the song, in that "the tune may go back to English folk origins" (later dying out in the white repertoire but staying alive in the work songs of African Americans). In any event, it was by way of Charles Davis Tillman
Charles Davis Tillman
Charles Davis Tillman —also known as Charlie D. Tillman, Charles Tillman, Charlie Tillman, and C. D. Tillman—was a popularizer of the gospel song...
that the song had incalculable influence on the confluence of black spiritual
Spiritual (music)
Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...
and white gospel song traditions in forming the genre now known as southern gospel
Southern Gospel
Southern Gospel music—at one time also known as "quartet music"—is music whose lyrics are written to express either personal or a communal faith regarding biblical teachings and Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music...
. Tillman was largely responsible for publishing the song into the repertoire of white audiences. It was first heard sung by African-Americans and written down by Tillman when he attended a camp meeting in Lexington, South Carolina in 1889.
Most common lyrics performed are a repetition of the chorus:
- Give me that old-time religion,
- Give me that old-time religion,
- Give me that old-time religion,
- It's good enough for me.
The lyrics, however, as sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers
Fisk Jubilee Singers
The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American a cappella ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for their college. Their early repertoire consisted mostly of traditional spirituals, but included some Stephen Foster songs...
are:
- Oh! this old-time religion,
- This old-time religion,
- This old-time religion,
- It is good enough for me.
Following Tillman's nuanced changes which accommodated the song more toward the tastes of white southern church congregations, Elmer Leon Jorgenson and other editors preferred the more-formalized first line "'Tis the old-time religion" (likewise the repeated first line of the refrain).
In popular culture
The SATBSATB
In music, SATB is an initialism for soprano, alto, tenor, bass, defining the voices required by a chorus or choir to perform a particular musical work...
musical arrangement popularized in the hymnals published by Charles Davis Tillman
Charles Davis Tillman
Charles Davis Tillman —also known as Charlie D. Tillman, Charles Tillman, Charlie Tillman, and C. D. Tillman—was a popularizer of the gospel song...
is the background song in the 1941 Academy Award film Sergeant York
Sergeant York
Sergeant York is a 1941 biographical film about the life of Alvin York, the most-decorated American soldier of World War I. It was directed by Howard Hawks and was the highest-grossing film of the year....
. It is featured prominently in the film Inherit the Wind
Inherit the Wind (1960 film)
Inherit the Wind is a 1960 Hollywood film adaptation of the play of the same name, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, directed by Stanley Kramer....
. It also appears in Russ Meyer
Russ Meyer
Russell Albion "Russ" Meyer was a U.S. motion picture director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, actor and photographer....
's penultimate movie Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens
Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens is a satirical sexploitation film starring Kitten Natividad and Ann Marie with a cameo by Uschi Digard. It was directed by American motion picture director Russ Meyer, and written by Roger Ebert and Meyer....
and in HBO's Carnivàle
Carnivàle
Carnivàle is an American television series set in the United States during the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. In tracing the lives of two disparate groups of people, its overarching story depicts the battle between good and evil and the struggle between free will and destiny; the storyline mixes...
.
A popular version of “Old Time Religion” was done by 'The Caravans
The Caravans
The Caravans is a Jubilee Gospel group that was started by Albertina Walker . The group reached its peak popularity during the 1950s and 1960s, launching the careers of a number of artists, including: Delores Washington, Albertina Walker, Bessie Griffin, Cassietta George, Dorothy Norwood, Inez...
' in 1954 with a young James Cleveland
James Cleveland
The Reverend Dr. James Cleveland was a gospel singer, arranger, composer and, most significantly, the driving force behind the creation of the modern gospel sound, bringing the stylistic daring of hard gospel and jazz and pop music influences to arrangements for mass choirs...
singing lead. Vocals in the group also included Cassietta George
Cassietta George
Cassietta George was an American gospel vocalist, and composer. George was a member of The Caravans, the most popular touring gospel group from the late '50s to the mid-'60s...
, Albertina Walker
Albertina Walker
-Early years:Walker was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Ruben and Camille Coleman Walker. Her mother was born in Houston County, Georgia, and her father in Bibb County, Georgia. They moved to Chicago between 1917-1920 where they lived out their lives. Albertina had four siblings born in Bibb County...
, Louise McDowell, Johneron Davis. This version introduced a different lively upbeat and a new chorus all its own:
Give me that old time religion! (old time religion)
I'm looking for religion! (good religion, like it used to be!)
Give me that old time religion! (old time religion, Lord)
Hallelueh! (Hallelueh, good enough for me!)
This song is referenced in Captain Beefheart
Captain Beefheart
Don Van Vliet January 15, 1941 December 17, 2010) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and artist best known by the stage name Captain Beefheart. His musical work was conducted with a rotating ensemble of musicians called The Magic Band, active between 1965 and 1982, with whom he recorded 12...
's song "Moonlight on Vermont" on his 1969 album Trout Mask Replica
Trout Mask Replica
Trout Mask Replica is the third album by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band, released in June 1969. Produced by Beefheart's friend and former schoolmate Frank Zappa, it was originally released as a double album on Zappa's Straight Records label...
. Numerous parodic filk
Filk music
Filk is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction/fantasy fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has been active since the early 1950s, and played primarily since the mid-1970s. The term predates 1955.-Definitions:As the Interfilk What Is Filk page demonstrates, there is...
verses for Old-Time Religion exist, some of the earliest of which were composed by Gordon R. Dickson
Gordon R. Dickson
Gordon Rupert Dickson was an American science fiction author.- Biography :Dickson was born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1923. After the death of his father, he moved with his mother to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1937...
and made famous by Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice...
and Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
in live performances and on their live album Precious Friend
Precious Friend
Precious Friend is a record by Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger with Shenandoah and a Warner Bros. recording.Precious Friend was recorded in 1981 at the Poplar Creek Music Theater, Pineknob Music Theater, Greek Theatre and Concord Pavilion. It is a compilation of songs from when Guthrie and Seeger...
. The parody verses make reference to a very wide range of "old-time religions" that most Christians would deem pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
.
The song is also sung in The Last Waltz
The Last Waltz
The Last Waltz was a concert by the rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco...
by Robbie Robertson and Rick Danko, with Danko playing the fiddle. Robbie finishes the scene, laughing, saying "Well it's not what it used to be" before The Band plays "The Night They Drove Ole Dixie Down".
It was also sung by the crowd at the lynching of Leo Frank
Leo Frank
Leo Max Frank was a Jewish-American factory superintendent whose hanging in 1915 by a lynch mob of prominent citizens in Marietta, Georgia drew attention to antisemitism in the United States....
.
The song is used at the end of an episode of Mad Men
Mad Men
Mad Men is an American dramatic television series created and produced by Matthew Weiner. The series premiered on Sunday evenings on the American cable network AMC and are produced by Lionsgate Television. It premiered on July 19, 2007, and completed its fourth season on October 17, 2010. Each...
, "The Hobo Code."