<<<Back to page 1

“You read about Samson, told from his birth …”

Relative to many of the songs we consider here, surprisingly little in print exists concerning “Sampson and Delilah” or “If I Had My Way.”  (I’ll refer to the song generally as “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, but a cursory 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, as 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: Vocal Traditions on Race Records, wrote of an early 20th century printed ‘ballet’ broadside version called “Samson Tore The Building Down … reminiscent in some respects of Wasn’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 being related.  The quality of those recordings (take 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 Silver Leaf Quartette of Norfolk uses lyrics we hear in Davis’ recording, as well as in various different versions of “Samson” linked below.  Further, the more 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 suggest that “Witness” came first and morphed into “Samson.”  It’s just as likely those verses in the former 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 concurrently. As you’ll see below, there are multiple strains of lyrics for “Samson” as well, and they are fairly diverse.  All this strongly suggests the possibility of source material more deeply embedded in the 19th century.  It’s hard to imagine so much lyric variety developing in just the first two or three decades of the 20th century.

“The bees made honey in the lion’s head …”

So, can we trace it to the era of antebellum slavery?  Dr. Julius Lester, in his seminal 1968 work for young adults To Be a Slave, described “Samson” as “one of the greatest black religious songs,” wherein

Dr. Julius Lester – ca. 2015, photo by Jones Library

“… 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 mouth and expressed their deepest feelings.  ‘If I had my way … I’d tear this building down.’ “

In other words, Lester believes the song was coded by enslaved people – and the decryption key is obvious!  Knowing the historical context of traditional African-American folk music, it’s not hard to see his logic.  The singer is always saying “if I had MY way.”  There’s a personal target here – a building to destroy.  This isn’t just a Bible story.  It’s always here and now.

Samson was a flawed man but had incredible strength.  He killed a lion with his bare hands.  He broke his ropes and killed his enemies with nothing but an old jawbone.  They tricked him, bound him again, and even blinded him – but Samson tore down their temple and crushed his captors, at the cost of his own life.  Why would this song be simply a spiritual, while so many others in the tradition operated with layers of often aggressive lyrical meaning?  That code, that form of hyper-creative resistance to oppression, is indeed ‘making honey in the lion’s head.’

Lester’s conclusion is solid that way, then.  However, whether or not enslaved people originally gave voice to Samson will have to remain an open question for purposes of this post.  Perhaps it was their hard-pressed children or grandchildren.  I rather believe Lester is correct, but he provided no citation for his lyric source.

Nonetheless, uncertain chronology in provenance doesn’t change the power of the metaphor.  In this song, Samson is black.  The need to hide meaning from white folks didn’t end with slavery.  What does that make the lion?  Is the Philistine temple the master’s house, or slavery itself?  Is it Jim Crow, the high sheriff’s office, or the state penitentiary? Could it simply be the mortal sin that leads to Satan’s door?  Yes, it’s all that – and much more.  Just listen.

Continue to page 3>>>