“We Shall Overcome”

Description

"We shall overcome (x3), Some day, Oh deep in my heart, (I know that) I do believe, We shall overcome some day." Verses about the troubles of life, and how (with help from God/brothers/etc.) they can be overcome/survived. Many modern verses known

Notes

The "common version" of this song was created by Zilphia Horton, Frank Hamilton, Guy Carawan, and Pete Seeger. In this form it became an anthem of the civil rights movement. Traces of the old spiritual survive, however, and it is of course very easy to make up new verses to fit a particular situation.

Fuld gives a detailed analysis of the musical and textual sources of the piece. Reading them, though, one cannot help but think that he has completely missed the actual sources of the black spiritual. - RBW

Isn't one of the sources "I'll Be All Right," a traditional spiritual? - PJS

It at least has associated texts, but is not mentioned as a source by Fuld, and is mentioned only tangentially in a footnote. Hence my comment. - RBW

The recent discovery that "We Will Overcome," the earlier form of the song (Pete Seeger changed "will" to "shall" because it was better for singing) was being sung as early as 1908, and in the context of a labor struggle no less, casts some ambiguity on the question of which song was the ancestor and which the descendant. See the entry for "I'll Be All Right." - PJS

Cross references

Recordings

  • Mississippi Bracy [pseud. for Ishmon Bracey?] "I'll Overcome Some Day" (Okeh 8904, 1931; rec. 1930)
  • Pete Seeger, "We Shall Overcome" (on PeteSeeger05) (on PeteSeeger38) (on PeteSeeger48)

References

  1. Scott-BoA, pp. 352-353, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune)
  2. Arnett, p. 216, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text, 1 tune)
  3. Silber-FSWB, p. 296, "We Shall Overcome" (1 text)
  4. Fuld-WFM, pp. 623-627+, "We Shall Overcome"
  5. DT, OVERCOM*
  6. BI, SBoA352

About

Author: unknown
Earliest date: 1908 (sung in miner's union meeting in Alabama, as reported in the United Mine Workers' journal)
Found in: US(So)