Chased Old Satan: A Song History

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The earliest recording of "Chased Old Satan Through the Door" found in the sources consulted here was made by the Woodie Brothers, a vocal duet with guitar and harmonica, for Victor in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 29, 1931, with Ralph Peer supervising.[1] The discography lists the singers as Ephraim and William Woodie, credits the pair as its writers on the authority of the Victor ledgers, and logs an alternate title about wearing a starry crown.[1] Sources differ on the brothers' names, however: the Victor ledgers give Ephrim and William, while the Library of Congress name file gives Ephraim and Lawton.[2] Issued on Victor 23579 with "Likes Likker Better Than Me" on the other side, it sold 864 copies according to the company's history card.[3]

Early photograph of a small stone country church with a bell gable

Unknown photographer, [Country Church], salted paper print from paper negative, 1850s. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.

The Traditional Ballad Index treats it as a comic religious song, likening it to a "humorous take on a church hymn," and notes that several of its verses also turn up elsewhere.[4] It links the song to "I Never Will Turn Back Any More," a similar comic religious piece in the Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, but suggests the two rest on different hymns.[4][5] The Woodie Brothers' track was reissued on Musical Traditions' anthology Old Ship Sailing for the Promised Land: White Gospel Music 1926-38 (cassette 1994, CD 2003).[6]

A piece titled "Chased Old Satan" is among the thirty sacred songs and hymns in Don Pedi's Old-Time Sacred Music for Mountain Dulcimer, which gives tablature and notation with a companion recording.[7]

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Sources

  1. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-69375. Chased old Satan through the door / Woodie Brothers".
  2. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Woodie Brothers".
  3. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor 23579".
  4. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Chased Old Satan Through The Door".
  5. The Traditional Ballad Index: "I Never Will Turn Back Any More".
  6. Mainly Norfolk: "Various Artists: Old Ship Sailing for the Promised Land".
  7. Don Pedi: "Catalog: Don Pedi Recordings and Books".