Artist: Blind Willie Johnson
Author: Willie Johnson
Label: Columbia
Year: 1927
Blind since age seven, when his stepmother spilled lye water in his eyes. Dark was the night indeed! And when his house burned down in Beaumont, TX he had nowhere else to go but sliep right there in a wet bed. Cold Was The Ground! Enough to get the blues for life. A version of this song circulates in outer space with the Voyager 1 & 2 mission.
Covers:
Ry Cooder [as Dark Is The Night on debut album; for his theme for Paris, Texas ('84) director Wim Wenders suggested a variation on this song]
Marc Ribot [in film Soul Of A Man]
Originally one of the 139 hymns from the Carmina Christo collection, compiled by Thomas Haweis in 1792. Dark Was The Night, Cold The Ground was also part of the Select Collection Of Hymns, compiled by the Countess of Huntingdon. Haweis was Lady Huntingdon's chaplain in her chapel in Bath and rector of the All Saints' Church in Aldwinkle, Northamptonshire.
If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:
Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)