Michael Part 3: The Spiritual

(image courtesy of unc.edu)

There are books written about books on the topic of the Negro Spiritual and its influence on American Music, so I won't even attempt to rehash all of that information, except to say that the Call and Response element so common in Gospel and in early Rock and Roll is indebted to the Spiritual, more than any other genre. What strikes me, though, is the connection that the Spirituals made with Folk music in the '60s. 

Take this song, for example. The text of the song is about death, and passing over to the other side. Michael, the archangel, in this context acts as Anubis of the Egyptian mythology or Hermes of the Greeks, being the agent who ushers souls into the afterlife. The song is a prayer that Michael will come quickly and take away the tortured souls, the broken slaves who felt they must surely already be in hell, and take them on to Paradise.

For whatever reason, the lyrics of this song stuck with the grassroots sensibilities of the Folk artists. Although I don't have any research to back this up, I can only imagine that their connection with this song was similar to the connection with so many others, a connection to the longing for change. Whereas the slaves sought freedom through death, the Folk artist sought change through a return to the simple sensibilities and organic lifestyle that their fathers and grandfathers had clung to. With the space-age looming overhead, singing about rowing a boat ashore felt safe.

Then, of course, the poignancy of the song was lost, to some extent. It became a pop icon, a slow dance tune, something to pay a nickel in a jukebox to hear. The cry of the oppressed was lost, and the echoes gave rhythm for the teenagers of 1961 to dance to.