“I Bid You Goodnight (The Christian's Good-Night)”

Description

Funeral hymn/spiritual, recognized by the chorus line, "And I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight." The hymn form describes a farewell and the afterlife. Other versions encourage repentance or sound almost like a lullaby

Supplemental text

I Bid You Goodnight (The Christian's Good-Night)
  Complete text(s)

          *** A ***

Sleep On, Mother, Sleep On

From Lonnie McIntorsh, as recorded on Victor 21271, 1928. Transcribed
by Bob Bovee:

Sleep on, Mother, sleep on
Lie down and take your rest
You got to lay your head
Upon your saviour's breast
I love you, Lord
My Saviour and my God
Sleep on, sleep on, sleep on.

Sleep on, Father, sleep on
Lie down and take your rest
You got to lay your head
Upon your saviour's breast
I love you, Lord
My Saviour and my God
Sleep on, sleep on, sleep on.

Sleep on, Auntie, sleep on
Lie down and take your rest
You got to lay your head
Upon your saviour's breast
I love you, Lord
My Saviour and my God
Sleep on, sleep on, sleep on.

Sleep on, Sister, sleep on
Lie down and take your rest
You got to lay your head
Upon your saviour's breast
I love you, Lord
My Saviour and my God
Sleep on, sleep on, sleep on.

(repeat verses)

          *** B ***

The Christian's Good-Night

As recorded by Tom, Brad and Alice on "Holly Ding." Their
text is described as a four-verse subset of the Sankey Brothers
version found in the 1938 Cokesbury Worship Hymnal.

Sleep on, beloved, sleep and take your rest;
Lay down your head upon the Savior s breast.
I love you well, but Jesus loves you best,
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
   Lord, I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.

Long is your slumber as an infant's sleep,
But you shall wake no more to toil and weep.
Thine is a perfect rest so pure and deep.
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
   Lord, I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.

Until the shadows from this earth are cast,
Until he gathers in his sheaves at last,
Until the twilight gloom be overpass'd,
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
   Lord, I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.

Until, made beautiful by love divine,
Thou in the lightness of the Lord shall shine
And he shall bring that golden crown of thine,
Goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.
   And I bid you goodnight, goodnight, goodnight.

          *** C ***

The Christian's "Good-Night"

From Hazel Felleman, ed., The Best Loved Poems of the American
People (1936), pp. 342-343. Compare to the preceding.

Sleep on, beloved, sleep and take thy rest;
Lay down thy head upon thy Savior s breast.
We love thee well, but Jesus loves thee best,
Good-night! Good-night! Good-night!.

Calm is thy slumber as an infant's sleep,
But thou shalt wake no more to toil and weep.
Thine is a perfect rest, secure and deep --
Good-night! Good-night! Good-night!.

Until the shadows from this earth are cast;
Until He gathers in His sheaves at last;
Until the twilight gloom be overpast --
Good-night! Good-night! Good-night!

Until the Easter glory lights the skies;
Until the dead in Jesus shall arise,
And He shall come, but not in lowly guise --
Good-night! Good-night! Good-night!

Until made beautiful by Love Divine,
Thou, in the likeness of thy Lord shall shine,
And he shall bring that golden crown of thine --
Good-night! Good-night! Good-night!

Only "Good-night," beloved -- not "Farewell!:
A little while, and all His saints shall dwell
In hallowed union, indivisible --
Good-night! Good-night! Good-night!

Until we meet again before His throne,
Clothed in the spotless robe He gives His own;
Until we known even as we are known --
Good-night! Good-night! Good-night!

Notes

This song has an incredibly tangled history. Bob Bovee tells me that he found a 78 of this song: "It's by Lonnie McIntorsh with the title 'Sleep On, Mother, Sleep On' (Victor 21271). He's [a] black gospel singer with guitar recorded in Memphis in 1928."

The Sankey Brothers version of the song appeared in the Cokesbury Worship Hymnal in 1928.

In 1936, Hazel Felleman's _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_ (pp. 342-343) lists a version as by Sarah Doudney. (Perhaps Doudney wrote the lyrics, with the Sankeys adding a tune?)

And then there is the recording by Joseph Spence, with what amounts to only a single verse, applied to different relatives. It's hardly even the same song.

This hymn thoroughly deserves a detailed research project. Did the Sankeys write it, or just adapt it? Which versions of the song are traditional, and where? Did Spence create his version, or did it exist before him? I can't answer any of these questions from my library. - RBW

Spence's version is quite similar to another, collected in the Bahamas in 1935 by Alan Lomax; both include traditional Bahamian "rhyming" -- improvised verses over a sung or chanted background. And to another, found in Virginia in 1980 among crabpickers, who sang it as they worked.

It's also found in Yorkshire, and interestingly enough it is used there as a lowering-down song at funerals, just as it is in the Bahamas. - PJS

Recordings

• Men from Andros Island, "I Bid You Goodnight" (on LomaxCD1822-2)
• Five Gospel Souls [pseud. for the Five Soul Stirrers] "Sleep On Darling Mother" (Ebony 137, rec. 1945)
• Lonnie McIntorsh, "Sleep On, Mother, Sleep On" (Victor 21271, 1928)
• Mound City Jubilee Quartette, "Sleep On, Darling Mother" (Decca 7158, 1936; rec. 1935)
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe, "Sleep On, Darling Mother" (Decca 8657, 1944; rec. 1943)
• Lena Thompson, Lucy Scott, & Lucy Smith, "Sleep On" (on VaWork)

References

1. DT, BIDGNITE
2. ST DTbidgni (Full)
3. Roud #15632
4. BI, DTbidgni