Kingdom Coming

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Cover of the 1862 sheet music for "Kingdom Coming"

"Kingdom Coming" or "The Year of Jubilo" is an American Civil War song, written and composed by Henry C. Work in 1862, prior to the Emancipation Proclamation.

The song celebrates promised freedom to slaves whose master has been frightened away by the Union military forces.

The lyrics are seldom heard nowadays. The song is usually played as a lively instrumental, as with the Ken Burns documentary on the Civil War.

Work also wrote the song Babylon is Fallen ("Don't you see the black clouds risin' ober yonder") which sees the Civil War from the perspective of the black soldiers fighting for the North.

Sample lyrics

Say, darkies, hab you seen de massa, wid de muffstash on his face,
Go long de road some time dis mornin', like he gwine to leab de place?
He seen a smoke way up de ribber, whar de Linkum gunboats lay;
He took his hat, and lef' berry sudden, and I spec' he's run away!

CHORUS:

De massa run, ha, ha! De darkey stay, ho, ho!
It mus' be now de kingdom coming, an' de year ob Jubilo!
He six foot one way, two foot tudder, and he weigh tree hundred pound,
His coat so big, he couldn't pay the tailor, an' it won't go halfway round.
He drill so much dey call him Cap'n, an' he got so drefful tanned,
I spec' he try an' fool dem Yankees for to tink he's contraband.

CHORUS

De darkeys feel so lonesome libbing in de loghouse on de lawn,
Dey move dar tings into massa's parlor for to keep it while he's gone.
Dar's wine an' cider in de kitchen, an' de darkeys dey'll have some;
I s'pose dey'll all be cornfiscated when de Linkum sojers come.

CHORUS

De obserseer he make us trouble, an' he dribe us round a spell;
We lock him up in de smokehouse cellar, wid de key trown in de well.
De whip is lost, de han'cuff broken, but de massa'll hab his pay;
He's ole enough, big enough, ought to known better dan to went an' run away.

CHORUS

In popular culture

"Kingdom Coming" appears in two MGM animated cartoons directed by Tex Avery, The Three Little Pups and Billy-Boy, as well as in Michael Lah's Blackboard Jumble and Sheep Wrecked. The piece is whistled throughout all four pictures by a dimwitted wolf character voiced by Daws Butler (using the same slow Southern drawl he would later employ for Huckleberry Hound). This wolf character has no official name, but is commonly referred to as "Jubilo Wolf", in reference to the alternate "Year of Jubilo" title.

It also occasionally appears in Warner Bros. cartoons, such as being used throughout the 1938 Porky Pig cartoon Injun Trouble and its 1945 remake Wagon Heels, and the closing scenes of the 1945 Bugs Bunny cartoons The Unruly Hare and Hare Trigger.

Used in Will Rogers 1932 movie, "Too Busy To Work".[ 1] Will Rogers character is named Jubilo and he sings the song to his characters daughter played by Marion Nixon.

In 1940 Viking Press published Ruth Sawyer's fictionalized autobiography titled The Year of Jubilo, a sequel to her Newbery Medalbook Roller Skates.[1]

In the 1940s, it was used as the opening theme for the NBC radio show The Chase and Sanborn Hour with Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.

John Wayne whistles this tune in the 1933 movie The Telegraph Trail and it is instrumental background music in another John Wayne film, John Ford's The Horse Soldiers (1959) (Hear the second piece in the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knQahiIpwYw).

In the 1993 movie Who's the Man?, a church choir sings Thomas Dorsey's classic gospel song "Precious Lord". At one point the lead singer sings the word "Jubilai." It was pronounced that way, and spelled that way in the Closed Caption text.

Notable recordings

  • The McGee Brothers and Todd recorded the song with lyrics in 1927 as "Old Master's Runaway"
  • Frank Crumit recorded "Kingdom Coming and the Year of Jubilo" on November 29, 1927. It was released on Victor 21108.
  • Guy Mitchell (backed by Mitch Miller's Orchestra and chorus) recorded "Day of Jubilo" on January 15, 1952. It was released on Columbia 39753.
  • The Holy Modal Rounders recorded the song in 1978 as "Year of Jubilo."
  • A solo piano rendition of the song is included on jazz pianist Bill Carrothers' album, The Blues and the Greys, which features popular music from the time of the Civil War.

External links

References

  1. ↑ Cech, John (editor), Dictionary of Literary Biographies: American Writers for Children, 1900-1960, Gale Research, 1983, volume 22, pp. 294-299;
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