Fix Me, Jesus: A Song History
"Fix Me, Jesus" is an African American spiritual in which the singer asks Jesus to mend the soul and make it ready.[1] In each stanza a leader sings a line and the congregation answers with the plea of the title, the call-and-response form found in most spirituals.[1] Both stanzas look toward death and the end of time, and The United Methodist Hymnal places the song in its section for funerals and memorial services.[1]
Maxime Lalanne, Landscape, Evening (Returning Home), etching, 1866. An evening landscape, shown for atmosphere; it has no connection to the spiritual.
The Library of Congress holds a catalog card for a July 1941 field recording of the spiritual sung by Seabell Kennedy at Gee's Bend, Alabama, and recorded by Robert Sonkin.[2] Hall Johnson arranged the spiritual for mixed choir with soprano and baritone soloists, and G. Schirmer issued it in its Hall Johnson series of spirituals, in an edition that the Musica International choral database dates to 1955.[3] Alvin Ailey used music arranged by Hall Johnson for the song in "Pilgrim of Sorrow," the first section of his dance Revelations, which premiered at the 92nd Street Y in 1960.[4][5]
The song was later included on the soundtrack of Joyful Noise, released by Warner Bros.[1] Carol Crocker includes it in Songs Of The Spirit, her collection of African American spirituals arranged for solo mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, with lyrics included.[6]
Sources
- Discipleship Ministries: "History of Hymns: 'Fix Me, Jesus'".
- Library of Congress, American Folklife Center: catalog card for a 1941 recording by Seabell Kennedy, Gee's Bend, Alabama.
- Musica International: "Fix me, Jesus (Hall Johnson)".
- Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation: "Revelations".
- Carnegie Hall: "Perelman American Roots Music: Lesson 5".
- Carol Crocker: "Songs Of The Spirit".
- Image: Maxime Lalanne, Landscape, Evening (Returning Home), etching, 1866. The Cleveland Museum of Art.