Reverend Dorsey - Father of Gospel Music

Tommy always loved music. Born in 1899, he displayed an early and keen interest in the songs he heard played in church, and even at home. Eventually he would make it to Chicago and study at the Chicago College of Composition and Arranging, but before that he was playing piano in a vaudeville act. After his graduation from the College, he became a fairly well known jazz pianist, playing under the name of Georgia Tom. This was prior to the 1920’s, when Tommy gave his life to Jesus. He was 22 years old at the time.

Leaving the jazz clubs behind him, he began his career as a composer, writing gospel songs. He also became a director of church music, meaning that he wielded great influence over which gospel songs were disseminated to the many churches across the country.

By the 1930’s; whether by design or co-incidence, Tommy had become the Reverend Dorsey; leading a flock of his own. It was during a service in 1932 when his life took a tragic turn. While preaching to the congregation he was approached in the pulpit by a church member who handed him a telegram informing the Reverend that his wife had died in childbirth. Within 24 hours he would also lose his newborn child. He began to doubt his faith in God and fell into a deep depression, vowing to never write another gospel song. But someone had other plans for Reverend Tommy.

Within a week of the events described above, the Reverend was seated at a friend’s piano, and realizing that he was now all alone in the world, wrote the song that would change his life, and influence gospel music in such a way that Tommy would someday become known as the “father” of modern gospel music. Finding his place on the keyboard, he began the familiar chords of an 1844 hymn by George N. Allen, titled “Maitland”. This melody would become the basis for the words of the song he was about to write.

Enveloped by what he would later term a “perfect peace”, he wrote the lyrics in a matter of minutes; with the words coming to him all at once. That song would become the iconic gospel hit “Precious Lord, Take My Hand”, which has been published in 40 languages and become a staple of the gospel music scene. It has been recorded by everyone from Mahalia Jackson, B.B. King, Little Jimmie Dickens, Al Green, Ike and Tina Turner, Merle Haggard, Elvis, and even Jimmy Durante. The song has also been featured in films such as “Cool Hand Luke.”

The song not only restored  the Reverends faith in God;  but it also prompted him to write many more gospel songs, including “Peace in the Valley”, which was recorded by the Sunshine Boys in 1951 and became the first gospel song to sell over one million copies.  

Precious Lord Take My Hand by Reverend Thomas A. Dorsey  (1932)

Precious Lord, take my hand,

Lead me on, let me stand,

I am tired, I am weak, I am worn;

Through the storm, through the night,

Lead me on to the light:

Take my hand, precious Lord,

Lead me home.

When my way grows drear,

Precious Lord, linger near,

When my life is almost gone,

Hear my cry, hear my call,

Hold my hand lest I fall:

When the darkness appears

And the night draws near,

And the day is past and gone,

At the river I stand,

Guide my feet, hold my hand.

The Ides of March

One of the most oft used and overly simplified phrases in the English language comes from “Julius Caesar”, the play by William Shakespeare. There has never, in my memory, been a March 15^th that has passed without someone making reference to the phrase “Beware the Ides of March!” We all know, or should know, that on this date in 44 B.C., Julius Caesar, the Emperor of the not yet “Holy” Roman Empire was assassinated by a group of Senators, including his trusted friend Brutus. But that’s about as far as the average person can tell you about the date, or the event; including me. So, I decided to google around a bit and see if I could come up with a more satisfactory explanation of the date and the phrase. Here is what I have found;

In Rome, before the advent of Christianity, there was a festival held each March 15^th to celebrate a woman named Anna Perenna. Just who she was, and whether she really existed is a bit of conjecture involving mythology and also the Roman poet Ovid. He wrote a book of Greek myths which he called “Metamorphoses.” She was also written about by the poet Virgil. In Ovid’s he tells 2 stories about her, which to my un-classically educated mind will require further study to fully comprehend. In his book there was a woman by that name who gave cakes to the Plebeians, who were driven from Carthage in 494 B.C. The Plebeians were the working class, subject to the whims of the more successful Patricians, who comprised the Ruling Class in Rome. Her act of mercy caused her to flee as well after the suicide of her sister Dido. Who Dido was and why she committed suicide is still a nystery to me, but something I will likely look into in the future.

According to Ovid, once Anna arrived in Latium, she ticked off the wife of Aeneas, and then fled, afterward being carried off by someone named Numicus, who was the god of a stream. When Aeneas' servants went to find her, they were able to track her as far as the river, where they found that she had been turned into a water nymph.

It is believed by some historians, that Caesar was killed on the Ides of March because on that day he would have been alone with his leading Senators, while the general populace was off celebrating the holiday. Ovid even wrote about this theory, opining "On the Ides of March the plebs celebrated the Annae festum geniale Perennae near the banks of the Tiber. Rome was, therefore, empty of the lower classes. Is this why the nobles chose the day for the assassination of Julius Caesar?" (Ovid, Fasti iii. 523-42, 675-96).

And then, of course, is the now famous exchange between Caesar and a soothsayer in Shakespeare's immortal play as he left the theater, bound for the Senate, where he was warned not to go;

Caesar:  Who is it in the press that calls on me?

I hear a tongue shriller than all the music

Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.

Caesar: What man is that?

Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

(Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15-19)

All of this has left me with more question than answers, and in the process, has left me doubly beware of the Ides of March!