NOBODY KNOWS THE TROUBLE I’VE SEEN
“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” is a spiritual song that originated during the period of slavery but was not published until 1867. The song is well known and many cover versions of it have been done by artists such as Marian Anderson, Lena Horne, Louis Armstrong, Harry James, Paul Robeson, and Sam Cooke among others. Anderson had her first successful recording with a version of this song on the Victor label in 1925. It is one of the five spirituals included in the oratorio A Child of Our Time, first performed in 1944, by the classical composer Michael Tippett (1905–98). (More from Wikipedia)
Other famous Negro spirituals include “Go Down Moses”, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”, and “Were You There (When They Crucified My Lord)”. Some modern songs have the distinct feel of Negro spirituals, such as Andraé Crouch’s “Soon and Very Soon” and James Cleveland’s “I Don’t Feel No-Ways Tired”.
(March 2015)
