Texts
My friends, I am going a long and tedious journey
My friends, I am going a long and tedious journey,
Never to return; I am going a long journey, never to return.
I am going a long journey, Never to return.
(Repeat previous line).
Never to return, never to return, never to return;
Never, never never, never, to return;
Fare you well, my friends.
(Repeat previous line twice),
And God grant we may meet together in that world above,
Where trouble shall cease and harmony shall abound,
Hark! hark! my dear friends, for death hath called me,
And I must go, and lie down in the cold and silent grave,
Where the mourners cease from mourning, and the prisoner is set free;
Where the rich and poor are both alike;
Fare you well, fare you well, fare you well, fare you well,
Fare you well, my friends.
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Notes
Originally published in The New American Melody, 1789, pp. 97-100. Words first appearing in this book as well; they may be by Jacob French. Reprinted with some modifications in William Walker's Southern Harmony, 1835, and in The Sacred Harp, page 216 from 1844 to the present.
–Jones, Daniel C. L., Editor. 1998. Jacob French (1754-1817): The Collected Works. New York: Garland. 328 pp.
–Steel, David W., and Richard H. Hulan. 2010. The Makers of the Sacred Harp. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois. 321 pp.
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