No. 158 Death Ain’t You Got No Shame
Pentachordal, cannot be classified (I II III IV V — —)
Death, ain’t you got no shame, shame?
Death, ain’t you got no shame, shame?
Death, ain’t you got no shame, shame?
Death, ain’t you got no shame?
Recorded by the compiler of this collection from the singing of Francis Arthur Robinson, Nashville, Tennessee, as he had heard it in the backwoods of Wayne County, Tennessee, in 1926. Mr. Robinson called it a “barefoot white” song. The tied notes are sung in a skid or scoop. Subsequent stanzas:
Left his pappy to moan, moan, etc.
Left his widder alone, lone, etc.
Left his mammy to weep, weep, etc.
and many more. In The Carolina Low-Country, page 249, a version of the song is given as sung by a negro congregation in Beaufort, South Carolina.
This song is one of the most primitive in the present collection. It is valuable, however, in that it exemplifies well a lyric level which suited both whites and blacks of a certain cultural status.