No one was sitting on their hands when Blind Boys of Alabama sang Free At Last

Blind Boys of Alabama

Performers get subdued when they play for the President of the United States. Bob Dylan becomes Unplugged. Yolanda Adams smiles during A Change Is Gonna Come.

It was left to two older groups to show the spirit to the well dressed White House crew: The Freedom Singers and Blind Boys of Alabama. My pick for rocking it out goes to the Blind Boys of Alabama for this swinging version of Free At Last.

They were infectious. People had to smile, clap, sway, tap their feet. Watch the bass player who has been more or less subdued all night. The Boys have him dancing on the stage on one leg.

Like a true spiritual, Blind Boys of Alabama stray from the original words to improvise a church service call and answer version. The lead singer calls out to the audience “Are you with me? Do you want to be free?”

There wasn’t much hope of freedom for black slaves in America. Stripped of their human dignity and freedom they found solace in the gospel message of heavenly hope. Freedom might not come on earth but when the Lord took them into his arms they would be free at last.

Free at last, free at last
I thank God I’m free at last
Free at last, free at last
I thank God I’m free at last

Way down yonder in the graveyard walk
I thank God I’m free at last
Me and my Jesus going to meet and talk
I thank God I’m free at last

On my knees when the light pass’d by
I thank God I’m free at last
Tho’t my soul would rise and fly
I thank God I’m free at last

Some of these mornings, bright and fair
I thank God I’m free at last
Goin’ meet King Jesus in the air
I thank God I’m free at last

The song was well known as a black spiritual for more than 100 years when Dr. Martin Luther King quoted it in his famous “I have a dream” speech.

‘Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring—when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children—black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics—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!”‘

The song was first collected in print by J.W.Work III in “American Negro Songs and Spirituals”. The song credit is generally listed as “Traditional African American Spiritual.” I couldn’t find any reference earlier than Work, although it is said to have originated in the early chant spirituals which would place it somewhere between 1865 and 1925. Work also arranged and composed his own spirituals although no one claims he wrote “Free At Last.”