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Motherless Children

[ Roud 16113 ; Ballad Index BSoF761 ; DT MOTHRLSS ; Mudcat 41010 ; trad.]

Sandy Denny sang Motherless Children in a home demo recording of probably 1968.

Roscoe Holcomb sang Motherless Children to Mark Wilson in Cambridge, Massachussetts in autumn 1972. This recording was included in 2007 on the Musical Traditions anthology of folk fongs of the Upper South, Meeting’s a Pleasure Volume 3. Mark Wilson noted:

Gus Meade’s discography credits this to a turn of the century publication by S.C. Brown and Charles Dryscoll; this copyright claim presumably represents the reason why the song was omitted from the republication of Randolph’s Ozark Folksongs by a nervous publisher. I’ve never seen the sheet music Gus cites, but I would predict that it merely represents a reworking of a traditional form as heard here, for the piece’s appearances are too varied and widespread to explain easily otherwise. Of these, Blind Willie Johnson’s performance on Co 14343 is particularly well-known, but the Carter Family’s quite different performance on Vi 23641 can’t be far behind. Roscoe performs this song on guitar on SF 40104; his fingering technique there is essentially borrowed from the thumb lead banjo styling employed here.

Reliably tracing the histories of older gospel songs is difficult, due, inter alia, to the longstanding practice of altering older songs slightly to obtain copyright advantage or other purpose. This has particularly occurred with the evocative folk spirituals of the nineteenth century. For example, the Dixon Sisters sang me the venerable By and By, I’m Going to See the King (as recorded by Washington Phillips and others) as a more diffuse Soon and Very Soon. The latter represents a 1970s recasting by a celebrated black evangelist from Southern California named Andrae Crouch. The enormous popularity of his new setting has now effectively eradicated most memories of the original song.

Lyrics

Sandy Denny sings Motherless Children

Motherless children have a hard time when mother’s gone (×2)
Father will do the best he can, he don’t always understand
Motherless children have a hard time when mother’s gone

Mother told me I must obey when mother’s gone (×2)
Mother told me I must obey that religion have its way
Mother told me I must obey when mother’s gone

Mother told me I must prey when mother’s gone (×2)
Mother told me I must prey get my feet in Jesus’s way
Mother told me I must prey when mother’s gone

Roscoe Holcomb sings Motherless Children

It’s motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead and gone (×2)
They get hungry, they get cold, they go begging from door to door
It’s motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead and gone.

It’s father will do the best he can when the mother is dead and gone (×2)
Father will do the best he can, but he really don’t understand
It’s motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead and gone.

It’s sister will do the best he can when the mother is dead and gone (×2)
Sister will do the best she can, but she really don’t understand
It’s motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead and gone.

It’s brother will do the best he can when the mother is dead and gone (×2)
Brother will do the best he can, but he really don’t understand
It’s motherless children sees a hard time when their mother is dead and gone.