When The World's On Fire: A Song History

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This is a religious song in which the singer appeals to a loving father, and in further verses to a mother and other relatives, while longing for refuge in God when the world is on fire.[1] The earliest printing indexed by Hymnary.org is in National Jubilee Melodies (1916), where it appears as "Hide Me Over In The Rock of Ages."[2] That entry credits the text as collected by K. D. Reddick and the tune as arranged by Phil. V. S. Lindsley.[3] The book was issued in Nashville by the National Baptist Publishing Board.[4] Hymnary.org lists the song in 13 songbooks between 1916 and 1966, nearly all of them titling it "Fire Song," with one filing it as a children's song and another among short choruses.[2] The Traditional Ballad Index also finds it in Randolph's collection and in folk-song books from Texas and Alabama, alongside a "Fire Song" printing in Rodeheaver's Sociability Songs.[1]

A pale young woman reclines on a sofa while a man sits beside her and another woman plays an organ in the dim room behind

Thomas Hovenden, Jerusalem the Golden, oil on canvas, 1892–94. A family gathered at home while a hymn is played, painted by Thomas Hovenden in 1892-94, shown for the song's appeals to father, mother and other relatives; the painting has no connection to the song.

The Carter Family recorded "When the World's on Fire" for Victor on May 24, 1930, in a session supervised by Ralph Peer, as a duet for female and male voices over steel guitar and autoharp, with A. P. Carter named as its author.[5] Victor issued it on V-40293, backed with "When the Springtime Comes Again," and the company's records put sales of that disc at 30,837 copies.[5] The side was reissued on Bluebird and Montgomery Ward labels into the 1940s, and in 1938 Charlie Monroe's Boys recorded a version titled "(New) When the World's on Fire."[1]

The melody had a second life outside church: a Library of Congress essay on Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" says Guthrie's tune "seems to be drawn from" the Carter Family's song, and traces the Carters' melody in turn to an older gospel hymn, "Oh, My Loving Brother."[6] The Traditional Ballad Index likewise names the Carters' version, or a close relative of it, as the probable source of Guthrie's tune.[1] For dulcimer players, Don Pedi includes it, in DGD tuning, in Old-Time Sacred Music For Mountain Dulcimer, a collection of sacred tunes arranged for mountain dulcimer that he edited and published himself.[7]

Our book that contains the song "When The World's On Fire"

Sources

  1. Traditional Ballad Index: "My Lovin' Father (When the World's On Fire)".
  2. Hymnary.org: "Fire Song".
  3. Hymnary.org: "Hide Me Over In The Rock of Ages" (National Jubilee Melodies, no. 62).
  4. Hymnary.org: "National Jubilee Melodies".
  5. Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor V-40293 (10-in. double-faced)".
  6. Library of Congress: "'This Land Is Your Land'—Woody Guthrie (1944)," by Cary O'Dell.
  7. Don Pedi: "Old-Time Sacred Music For Mountain Dulcimer".
  8. Image: Thomas Hovenden, Jerusalem the Golden, oil on canvas, 1892–94. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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