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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)
Artist: Norfolk Jubilee Quartet
Author: traditional
Label: Decca
Year: 1937
Even Abraham Lincoln was once very moved hearing this spiritual, performed by a group led by a former White House employee (Aunt Mary Dines).
Covers:
Southern Sons [as I'm Free At Last]
Sons Of Heaven [als I'm Free At Last]
Dock Reed & Vera Hall [John A. Lomax held them among his main discoveries; Courtlander/Tartt recording for lp Negro Folk Music of Alabama, Vol. 2: Religious Music; reissued on Every Tone A Testimony (Smithsonian Folkways)]
Soul Stirrers [with Sam Cooke]
Dr. Martin Luther King [at the end of his famous Lincoln Memorial speech in Washington, D.C. with the words of this spiritual (see footnote); Free at last is also his gravemark]
Roberta Flack [outtake Quiet Fire album]
Simon [hit UK]
"...From every mountainside let freedom ring. And when this happens (...) we will be able to (...) join hands and sing in the words of the old negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty we are free at last."
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)