No. 231 Substantial Joys or I Want to Go There Too, Soc 28
Hexatonic, mode 3 b (I II III IV V VI —)
Jesus, my all, to heav’n is gone,
I want to go there too;
He whom I fix my hopes upon,
And I want to go there too.
Chorus
I want to go,
I want to go,
I want to go there too,
Substantial joys shall fill my soul,
And I want to go there too.
John G. McCurry, compiler of the Social Harp, recorded it, according to his note, in 1854. In the 1880’s in Monson, Maine, I heard almost precisely the same tune sung to the words:
Johnny Morgan played the organ,
His father beat the drum;
His sister played the tambourine
And his brother went bum-bum.
The text of the spiritual song is given more completely under ‘River of Jordan’. The tune is akin to ‘One Man Shall Mow my Meadow’ and ‘The Knight and the Shepherd’s Daughter’, in Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, Nos. 3 and 100.