You Read About Samson You Read About His Birth
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"Y'all read about Samson, told from his nativity …"
Relative to many of the songs we consider here, surprisingly trivial in print exists concerning "Sampson and Delilah" or "If I Had My Way." (I'll refer to the song generally every bit "Samson" from here on out.) Our standard sources for traditional folk music are sketchy at best on this one. It's only cataloged in the Roud Folksong index as #6700, with very few citations.
I haven't done a truly thorough search of other academic sources, only a brief look reveals a few more clues in helping to understand the roots of "Samson." There's certainly more research to be done.
John Wesley Work published what could be described as a snippet of "Samson" in his 1915 Folk Song of the American Negro, equally part of the lyrics to the spiritual "Witness" or "My Soul is a Witness." Unfortunately, Work provided no citation regarding his source.
Paul Oliver, in his 1984 Songsters and Saints: Song Traditions on Race Records, wrote of an early on 20th century printed 'ballet' broadside version called "Samson Tore The Building Downwards …reminiscent in some respects ofWasn't That a Witness For My Lord …" While he doesn't provide the text of that broadside, Oliver cites a 1923 recording "under a similar title" by the Paramount Jubilee Singers as existence related. The quality of those recordings (accept 1, take 2) is low, but they do provide solid context.
Luckily, it's not hard to find other, higher quality, early recordings of that spiritual. This inter-war track from the Silverish Foliage Quartette of Norfolk uses lyrics nosotros hear in Davis' recording, as well as in various different versions of "Samson" linked below. Further, the more than you immerse yourself, the harder it is to deny the rhythmic and melodic similarities to a number of those versions.
None of this alone proves anything definitive, and I don't want to get lost in the weeds. I certainly don't mean to advise that "Witness" came first and morphed into "Samson." It's only as likely those verses in the old may have been 'folk processed' from the latter!
However, we can safely say that there were floating verses that we recognize as being part of "Samson" in at least one other well-known spiritual from the early 20th century, and likely as well in a broadside circulating meantime. As yous'll run across below, at that place are multiple strains of lyrics for "Samson" too, and they are adequately various. All this strongly suggests the possibility of source textile more than deeply embedded in the 19th century. It'southward hard to imagine so much lyric variety developing in just the first ii or three decades of the 20th century.
"The bees made honey in the lion's caput …"
So, tin can we trace information technology to the era of antebellum slavery? Dr. Julius Lester, in his seminal 1968 piece of work for young adults To Be a Slave, described "Samson" as "one of the greatest black religious songs," wherein
"… the slaves took the story of Samson, and with their genius for going to the core of an experience, they put these words into Samson's rima oris and expressed their deepest feelings. 'If I had my way … I'd tear this edifice downwardly.' "
In other words, Lester believes the song was coded by enslaved people – and the decryption primal is obvious! Knowing the historical context of traditional African-American folk music, it's non hard to see his logic. The vocalizer is e'er saying "if I had MY way." In that location's a personal target here – a building to destroy. This isn't simply a Bible story. It's always here and now.
Samson was a flawed man but had incredible strength. He killed a panthera leo with his bare hands. He bankrupt his ropes and killed his enemies with naught but an sometime jawbone. They tricked him, bound him again, and even blinded him – but Samson tore downwards their temple and crushed his captors, at the cost of his own life. Why would this song be merely a spiritual, while then many others in the tradition operated with layers of often aggressive lyrical pregnant? That code, that form of hyper-creative resistance to oppression, is indeed 'making honey in the lion'south head.'
Lester'south conclusion is solid that way, then. Still, whether or not enslaved people originally gave voice to Samson will have to remain an open up question for purposes of this mail service. Perhaps it was their hard-pressed children or grandchildren. I rather believe Lester is correct, but he provided no citation for his lyric source.
Notwithstanding, uncertain chronology in provenance doesn't modify the power of the metaphor. In this vocal, Samson is blackness. The demand to hide meaning from white folks didn't end with slavery. What does that make the lion? Is the Philistine temple the master's firm, or slavery itself? Is it Jim Crow, the high sheriff'southward office, or the state penitentiary? Could it but be the mortal sin that leads to Satan's door? Yes, information technology'southward all that – and much more than. Just listen.
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Source: https://singout.org/samson-and-delilah-if-i-had-my-way/2/
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