Alma Gluck - Carry Me Back To Old Virginny

recorded 11/13/1914

Lyrics to the song

Carry me back to old Virginny.
There's where the cotton and corn and taters grow.
There's where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

There's where I labored so hard for old Massa,
Day after day in the field of yellow corn;
No place on earth do I love more sincerely
Than old Virginny, the state where I was born.

Carry me back to old Virginny.
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow;
There's where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

Carry me back to old Virginny,
There let me live till I wither and decay.
Long by the old Dismal Swamp have I wandered,
There's where this old darkey's life will pass away.

Massa and Missis have long since gone before me,
Soon we will meet on that bright and golden shore.
There we'll be happy and free from all sorrow,
There's where we'll meet and we'll never part no more.

Carry me back to old Virginny.
There's where the cotton and the corn and taters grow;
There's where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• 1910's
• Alma
• Gluck
• James
• Bland
• Plantation
• Melody
• 78rpm

[preservationhall01]

Great to hear this old Alma Gluck number. Do you have the actual record? If so, I would like to get the number off the label. I have temporary use of an amazing record collection from the Groos Family descendents of San Antonio and found a Gluck single side Red Label "Tu" which was uploaded with no filtering or cleanup. This lady was one of the world's most famous singers Cirda 1910~recorded in Ukranian, Russian, Romanian, Yiddish, Hebrew, German, Italian, Spanish, Eng., etc.

[pax41]

@preservationhall01 The label number for this would be 15397 and yes I own the 78. Tu was Alma's first recording that was recorded in 3/22/1911. Thank you for sharing, as I have not heard that recording before, I own about 15 records made by Alma.

[Brace67]

A beautiful rendition by Alma Gluck of this classic old and poignant song of the South. Naturally the dunderheads have to start commenting about the Civil War and who won and lost. Thank you for this posting.

[pax41]

@Brace67 My pleasure to share this. I have several versions by other artists of the era recording this. I may post some of those too.

[MrRickywallace]

@Brace67 The pinko liberals hate state's rights.

[preservationhall01]

@MegaLink117 Fool. This was written by a slave by the name of James Bland. Had the war been about slavery, how is it that three Union states remained slave states until the wars end? Seems Union victory did not last. The north is a rust belt rotting away from high taxes and ever dininishing freedoms while the old south booms. The union should be covered in a black shroud of shame for the way in which states rights and the US Constitution were trashed.

[eslusser]

Alma was also the mother of Efrim Zimbalist Jr.

[Phaedragon]

@maybrook1 Good point.

[Phaedragon]

Don't be ridiculous - I guess you can't help it... who's "we", were you there?

This song has nothing to do with the "war" or "slave-loving ways". It has to do with the love of a place.

BTW, I was born and raised in New England. This is a lovely song, sung with great sentiment and artistry by a woman born in Bohemia...

[NoiseLTD]

@Brace67 First recording to sell one million copies. 

[Micelli1947]

BEAUTIFUL VOICE, ANGELIC. VERY NOSTALGIC SONG. tHANKS!!