Cover Me: O Mary Don’t You Weep

Of all the traditional songs that Bruce Springsteen arranged and recorded for We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, none have proved more musically versatile than “O Mary Don’t You Weep.”

“O Mary Don’t You Weep” is a pre-Civil War African-American spiritual that draws heavily on biblical imagery from both testaments. Contrary to popular belief, the titular Mary is not the mother of Jesus; nor is it Mary Magdalene. The song refers to Mary of Bethany, who grieved with Jesus over the death of her brother Lazarus. (Many versions of the song refer to Mary’s sister Martha also.) Moved by Mary’s grief, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.

Blended with the story of Exodus and the tale of the Great Flood, “O Mary Don’t You Weep” is full of coded messages to an enslaved people: Don’t weep, don’t mourn, because God will help. Justice is coming (Pharoah’s army got drowned-ed. No more water but fire next time). You will be free: There’ll be good times by and by.

No one knows who first wrote it, but it almost doesn’t matter so often have its lyrics changed. No one knows who first sang it, and it’s almost impossible to catalog all the recordings.

African-American communities and congregations kept “O Mary Don’t You Weep” alive after the Civil War until the advent of recording technology. The first known recording dates to 1915 by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, which establishes the traditional melody and familiar lyrics.

More than a decade later, the Georgia Field Hands performed the first known version to be filmed and preserved. (This clip dates from 1929!)

When the Civil Rights movement picked up momentum in the late 1950s, “O Mary Don’t You Weep” found new relevance and resonance. Contemporary artists began interpreting and re-arranging the traditional spiritual. Two versions in particular captured popular attention. The first was a radically revamped gospel version by The Caravans in 1958.

The second and most famous recording was by The Swan Silvertones in 1959, who recast the spiritual in a catchy doo-wop arrangement that became a hit for the group and inspired Paul Simon to write “Bridge Over Troubled Water” with their improvised line, “I’ll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name, Mary.”

The floodgates were now open, and creative interpretations poured forth. The same year as the Swan Silvertones, Stonewall Jackson took some extreme liberties with the song, turning it into a Civil War ballad that peaked at #12 on the Billboard Country chart.

In 1965, Justin Hinds had a ska hit with it, retitling it “Jump Out of the Frying Pan.”

James Brown rewrote the lyrics entirely for his hit, “Oh Baby Don’t You Weep.”

Aretha Franklin went with the traditional lyrics (mostly) in her live recording for Amazing Grace in 1972.

And the arrangements kept coming well into the 1980s and beyond–most notably from Prince…

…and an a capella version by Take 6 that took the song back to its choral chant roots.

But it was Pete Seeger’s 1964 version of the song that most directly inspired Bruce’s arrangement. In the clip below we hear the exact lyrics that appear on We Shall Overcome along with an acoustic melody that informs Bruce’s full-band version.

“O Mary Don’t You Weep” wasn’t among the batch of songs Bruce first recorded for We Shall Overcome in 1997. Back then, he thought he was only recording a single song (the title track) for a Seeger tribute anthology project. But one song became six when he assembled a group of musicians at his house–not enough for an album but too much to throw away.

Those six folk songs lodged themselves in the back of Bruce’s mind for almost a decade after, until he recalled the same musicians for a second Seeger Session shortly before embarking on his 2005 solo acoustic tour.

The ensemble recorded nine songs that day, eight of which ended up on the album, including “O Mary Don’t You Weep.” The recording session was captured on video–unrehearsed and arranged on the fly by Bruce, who (like all of the players) looks like he’s having a blast. (The clip is edited, however, as both Bruce and Charlie contribute multiple instruments which almost certainly means overdubs were applied.)

The video is also a full minute longer than the abridged version on the album, which makes this (to my mind) the definitive version of the track. Brassy, loose, even a bit sloppy (it was unrehearsed, remember), Bruce’s arrangement of “O Mary Don’t You Weep” had a New Orleans feel to it, which made it the perfect number to kick off his instantly legendary Jazz Fest show (and the Seeger Sessions Tour itself) back in 2006.

It would lose its position as show opener before long, but it would remain one of a core group of songs that would be performed at every single Sessions Band show, right up until the last stand in Ireland.

It was also one of the few Seeger Sessions songs to make the leap to the E Street stage, making cameo appearances in encore Jazz Fest appearances in 2012 and 2014.

Bruce even performed it at a mini-reunion of the Sessions Band in 2015. (In actuality, he sat in with The Tribeca Playboys, the band that formed the core of the actual Seeger recording sessions.)

“O Mary Don’t You Weep” continued to be reinterpreted, re-arranged, recorded and released long after the Seeger Sessions Tour ended. Bruce was just one link in a long chain of artists who continue to keep an important American folk song alive and vibrant for generations to come.

O Mary Don’t You Weep
Recorded: March 19, 2005
Released: We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)
First performed: April 20, 2006 (Asbury Park, NJ)
Last performed: May 16, 2015 (New York City, NY)

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