Two Wings: A Song History
"Two Wings" is an African American spiritual in which the singer prays for wings, both to veil the face and to fly away.[1] The earliest printing found in the sources consulted here is in R. Emmet Kennedy's Mellows: A Chronicle of Unknown Singers (New York: Albert & Charles Boni, 1925), a book of sketches and songs collected among Black Louisianans; Kennedy prints it as "I Got Two Wings" and pictures a washerwoman, Hattie Sparks, singing it over her Monday tubs.[2] Mary Allen Grissom included it as "Lawd I Want Two Wings" in The Negro Sings a New Heaven (University of North Carolina Press, 1930), whose foreword says most of its songs were taken down at Black church services near Louisville, Kentucky, and in parts of rural Adair County.[1]
Martin Schongauer, The Angel of the Annunciation, engraving, c. 1470–75. A winged angel engraved around 1470, shown for the spiritual's prayer for wings; the engraving has no connection to the song.
On July 30, 1929, in Chicago, the Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers, with the vocalist Frankie "Half Pint" Jaxon, cut "I Want Two Wings to Veil My Face" for Brunswick, which issued it as Brunswick 7100.[3] The Heavenly Gospel Singers, an unaccompanied male quartet, recorded "Two Wings" in Charlotte, North Carolina, on February 16, 1937, and it was issued on Bluebird B-6846.[4] The Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers followed for Decca in New York on November 8, 1939.[5] The Southern Sons recorded it in New York on February 23, 1944, for Bluebird 34-0712; the discography, drawing on Victor's ledgers, gives the composer as traditional but marks that credit unverified.[6]
The Traditional Ballad Index cites two songbook printings, one of them from 1946, and assigns the song Roud number 12139.[7] Hymnary.org lists it as No. 121 in The Chapbook (1959), a youth songbook.[8] "Two Wings" is one of the DAD-tuning arrangements in Larry Conger's American Spirituals Tab Book, published by Fingers Of Steel, where just one song on the list calls for a capo.[9]
Sources
- Internet Archive: "The Negro Sings a New Heaven" (Mary Allen Grissom, 1930).
- Internet Archive: "Mellows: A Chronicle of Unknown Singers" (R. Emmet Kennedy, 1925).
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Brunswick matrix C3970. I want two wings to veil my face / Cotton Top Mountain Sanctified Singers".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BS-07060. Two wings / Heavenly Gospel Singers".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Decca matrix 66848. I want two wings / Belmont Silvertone Jubilee Singers".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix D4AB-0058. I want two wings / Southern Sons".
- The Traditional Ballad Index: "Two Wings".
- Hymnary.org: "Two Wings" (The Chapbook, 1959, No. 121).
- Fingers Of Steel: "Larry Conger, American Spirituals Tab Book".
- Image: Martin Schongauer, The Angel of the Annunciation, engraving, c. 1470–75. The Cleveland Museum of Art.