{"id":43061,"date":"2024-05-07T19:36:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/8d69f556-3491-49c3-ba7a-dab64cb54ef1"},"modified":"2024-05-07T19:40:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:40:00","slug":"wade-in-the-water-lyrics","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/wade-in-the-water-lyrics\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Wade in the Water’ lyrics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By <\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 07 May 2024 at 17:36 PM<\/p>

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Let’s take a look at the lyrics, and briefly the history, of the<\/strong> evocative American-African spiritual ‘Wade in the Water<\/strong>‘. <\/p>

This rousing tune draws on themes from the Old Testament, and is one of a number of songs associated with the Underground Railroad. This was a network of secret routes and\u00a0safe houses\u00a0established in the United States during the 19th century, and used by\u00a0enslaved African Americans\u00a0to escape into\u00a0free states\u00a0(i.e. those that did not allow slavery) and from there to Canada.<\/p>

‘Wade in the water’ lyrics<\/strong><\/h2>
<\/div><\/figure><p>Refrain: <\/p><p>Wade in the water; wade in the water, children; wade in the water<br\/>God’s gonna trouble the water<br\/>God’s gonna trouble the water<br\/>Wade, wade, wade, wade, wade, wade,<br\/>in the water.<\/p><p>See that host all dressed in white, God\u2019s gonna trouble the water. The leader looks like the Israelite. God\u2019s gonna trouble the water. <\/p><p>[Refrain]<\/p><p>See that band all dressed in red, <\/p><p>Looks like the band that Moses led.<\/p><p>If you don\u2019t believe I\u2019ve been redeemed,<\/p><p>Just follow me down to Jordan\u2019s stream.<\/p><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-do-the-lyrics-to-wade-in-the-water-mean\">What do the lyrics to ‘Wade in the Water’ mean?<\/h2><p>The song’s earliest performers were the Fisk Jubilee Singers, based at Fisk University, a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee, USA. <\/p><p>The University was founded by the American Missionary Association, and many of the songs performed by the original Fisk Jubilee Singers took their themes from the Bible – both the New and Old Testaments. The lyrics to ‘Wade in the Water’ evoke the Israelites’ escape out of Egypt, as narrated in the Old Testament’s second book, Exodus.<\/p><div class=\"wp-block-group highlight-box is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\"><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-more-famous-hymn-lyrics\"><strong>More famous hymn lyrics<\/strong><\/h2><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/lord-i-want-to-be-a-christian-lyrics\/\">‘Lord, I Want to Be a Christian’ lyrics<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/were-you-there-when-they-crucified-my-lord-lyrics\/\">‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ lyrics<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/fairest-lord-jesus-lyrics\/\">‘Fairest Lord Jesus’ lyrics<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/have-thine-own-way-lord-lyrics\/\">‘Have thine own way, Lord!’ lyrics<\/a><\/strong><\/li><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/o-happy-day-lyrics\/\">‘O happy day’ lyrics<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-who-wrote-wade-in-the-water\"><strong>Who wrote ‘Wade in the Water’?<\/strong><\/h2><p>It is unknown who wrote and composed the song, but it was first co-published in 1901 by Frederick J. Work and his brother, John Wesley Work Jr.<\/p><p>‘Wade in the Water is one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Songs_of_the_Underground_Railroad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>songs of the Underground Railroad<\/strong><\/a>. This was a network of secret routes and safe houses in America that slaves used for escaping. In this way, the parallels with the flight out of Egypt alluded to in the lyrics to ‘Wade in the Water’ is evident. <\/p><div class=\"wp-block-group highlight-box is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container\"><ul><li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/gospel-music-guide\/\">Gospel music: what it is, how it evolved and some of the best gospel performers to listen to<\/a><\/strong><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><p>Main image \u00a9 Getty Images<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Published: Tuesday, 07 May 2024 at 17:36 PM Let’s take a look at the lyrics, and briefly the history, of the evocative American-African spiritual ‘Wade in the Water‘. This rousing tune draws on themes from the Old Testament, and is one of a number of songs associated with the Underground Railroad. This was a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":43062,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/05\/wade-in-the-water-lyrics.jpg",1890,1260,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/05\/wade-in-the-water-lyrics-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/05\/wade-in-the-water-lyrics-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/05\/wade-in-the-water-lyrics-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/05\/wade-in-the-water-lyrics-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/05\/wade-in-the-water-lyrics-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/05\/wade-in-the-water-lyrics.jpg",1890,1260,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Tuesday, 07 May 2024 at 17:36 PM Let’s take a look at the lyrics, and briefly the history, of the evocative American-African spiritual ‘Wade in the Water‘. This rousing tune draws on themes from the Old Testament, and is one of a number of songs associated with the Underground Railroad. This was a…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/43061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}