She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain

"She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain" (also sometimes called simply "Coming 'Round the Mountain") is a traditional folk song often categorized as children's music.

The song is derived from a Christian song known as "When the Chariot Comes". The song's style is reminiscent of the call and response structure of many folk songs. Songs of similar verse-structure, with variant melodies, can be traced back to 17th-century British radical protestants and later commonly appeared in ballads as well as religious songs: examples include "What Wondrous Love Is This", "Brave Benbow", "The Ballad of Captain Kidd", "Sam Hall"[1] and "Ye Jacobites by Name".

Old spiritual

Although the first printed version of the song appeared in Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag in 1927, it is believed to have originated during the late 1800s, based on an old spiritual titled "When the Chariot Comes" sung to the same melody, which during the 19th century spread through Appalachia, where the lyrics were changed into their current form.

The song refers to the Second Coming of Christ and subsequent Rapture. The she refers to the chariot the returning Christ is imagined as driving.

O, who will drive the chariot When she comes? O, who will drive the chariot When she comes? O, who will drive the chariot, O, who will drive the chariot, O, who will drive the chariot When she comes?

King Jesus, he'll be driver when she comes, When she comes . . . .

She'll be loaded with bright Angels When she comes . . . .

She will neither rock nor totter, When she comes . . . .

She will run so level and steady, When she comes . . . .

She will take us to the portals, When she comes . . . .

Children's song

The secularized version was sung by railroad work gangs in the Midwestern United States in the 1890s.

Lyrics

She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes, (when she comes).
She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes, (when she comes).
She'll be coming 'round the mountain, she'll be coming 'round the mountain,
She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes, "toot toot.

She'll be driving six white horses when she comes, etc.

She'll be wearing red pajamas when she comes, etc.

Oh we'll all come out to meet her when she comes, etc.

She'll be carrying three white puppies when she comes etc.

We will kill the old red rooster when she comes, etc.

We will all have chicken and dumplings when she comes, etc.

We'll all be shouting' "Hallelujah" when she comes, etc.

She'll be comin' down a road that's five miles long, etc.

Currently the song is usually sung in collections of children's music with slightly different lyrics. The song has been recorded by musicians ranging from Tommy Tucker Time (78'inch) to Pete Seeger or Barney the Dinosaur.

Harking back to the original lyrics of "When the Chariot Comes", the song is sometimes referenced in relation to the end of the world, most notably in The Illuminatus! Trilogy and the comic book Promethea.

Variations

Oh ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus
No ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus
No ye cannae shove yer granny, 'cause she's yer mammy's mammy,
Ye cannae shove yer granny off a bus!
Ye can shove yer other granny off a bus
Oh ye can shove yer other granny off a bus
Oh ye can shove yer other granny, 'cause she's yer daddy's mammy,
Ye can shove yer other granny off a bus!
We'll be safe inside our fortress when they come.
We'll be safe from creeps and killers when they come.
Unless they have a blow-torch
Or a poison gas injector,
Then I don't know what will happen when they come!
Du må få min sofacykel, når jeg dør (når jeg dør)
Du må få min sofacykel, når jeg dør (når jeg dør)
Du skal ikke være bange, der er bade dæk og slange.
Du må få min sofacykel, når jeg dør.

Actor Roberts Blossom is seen whistling the melody of "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain," as he waits with other strangers on a hair pin curve of a road way pass outside of Muncie, Indiana, responding to a collective psychic calling to witness the arrival of a contingent of UFO's as depicted in Steven Spielberg's science fiction epic, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 1978.

Sources

  1. Bertrand Harris Bronson, The Ballad as Song, University of California Press, 1969, Chapter Two
  2. Simon, William L. (editor). The Reader's Digest Children's Songbook. Readers Digest Association, Pleasantville. p. 178. ISBN 0-89577-214-0 Retrieved on 21 September 2012.
  3. Let's Go London, Oxford & Cambridge: The Student Travel Guide. ISBN 1612370292.
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