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The Best Songs: Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimes by Blind Willie Johnson

Chuck Berry, Louis Armstrong, Bach, Beethoven and Blind Willie Johnson was included on the golden record that was sent into deep space in 1977 as part of the Voyager missions. What potential alien life forms might make of Johnson humming along to his slide guitar on “Dark Was The Night (Cold Was The Ground)” is anyone’s guess. The track moves me in a way that’s hard to explain, it’s the sound of pure emotion.

Steve Martin, the actor, once told a story about the golden record: “the first message from extraterrestrials has been received… ‘Send more Blind Willie Johnson’.”

Today we will give you more Blind Willie Johnson, we will present the fantastic,  “Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimes” (audio only):

Wikipedia:
“Blind” Willie Johnson (January 22, 1897 – September 18, 1945) was an American singer and guitarist, whose music straddled the border between blues and spirituals.

While the lyrics of all of his songs were religious, his music drew from both sacred and blues traditions. His music is distinguished by his powerful bass thumb-picking and gravelly false-bass voice, with occasional use of a tenor voice.

Johnson was not born blind, and, although it is not known how he lost his sight, Angeline Johnson told Samuel Charters that when Willie was seven his father beat his stepmother after catching her going out with another man. The stepmother then picked up a handful of lye and threw it, not at Willie’s father, but into the face of young Willie.

Johnson made 30 commercial recordings (29 songs) in five separate sessions for Columbia Records from 1927–1930.

“Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimes” is sung along with an as-yet-unidentified female singer. They complement each other, he sings in a gruffy voice, she shimmers above with a high pitched soft style of singing.

It is not his most covered song, that honor probably goes to “John the revelator”, but the versions of the song I’ve picked are all interesting and some of them are fantastic.

Let’s start with the one I recently discovered, The Barr Brothers version, or versions. Here are two lovely interpretations of the classic:

We’ll go on with a snippet from The White Stripes, it is not complete, but what a version!

Here is another favourite of mine, the song teacher Georgia Louise gives us a great verion:

Another version that I like is this Al Cooper take on the song:

Lyrics: Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimes

Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimes
Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimesWhen my heart’s full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears
Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimesMy mother often told me, angels bonded your life away
She said I would accomplish, but trust in God and pray

I’m on the King’s Highway, I’m travelin’ everyday’Cause I just can’t keep from crying sometimes
Well, I just can’t keep from crying sometimesWhen my heart’s full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears
Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimesMy mother, she’s in glory, thank God I’m on my way
Father, he’s gone too, and sister she could not stay
I’m trusting Him everyday, to bear my burdens away’Cause I just can’t keep from crying sometimes
Well, I just can’t keep from crying sometimes

When my heart’s full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears
Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimesI thought when she first left me, I’d pray
for a little while
Soon it all would be over, and I’d journey on with a smile
But the thought as I get older, I think of what I told her

And I just can’t keep from crying sometimes
Well, I just can’t keep from crying sometimes
When my heart’s full of sorrow and my eyes are filled with tears
Lord, I just can’t keep from crying sometimes
Well, well

Fantastic song, great cover versions!

– Hallgeir