Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Day 300 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
A traditional black spiritual. My only comment is that is seems we are doing a pretty good job setting the world on fire by ourselves. Earliest date published/recorded: 1922 (recording, Florida Normal Quartet)
Sandburg writes: "The I. W. W. (Industrial Workers of the World) nailed the word “Solidarity” high and issued a call for “One Big Union.” It shouted, "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to win.” Those with red cards of membership were “wobblies.” They belonged in “jungles,” camps and hobo hangouts near railroads. They were outlaws, gypsies, vagrants. Several times they wrecked jails, tore the doors off hinges, twisted the bars, spoiled the plumbing, and defied all law and government.
"While in jail they often made the walls ring with a black spiritual given here. Their favorite verse was “God’s Goin’ to Set This World on Fire.” It suggests Fire wrecking the world as the I. W. W.’s wrecked jails . . .
"The text below is from Arthur Billings Hunt of Brooklyn, New York, who heard it from a group of blacks in a Virginia farm house five years ago (1922)."
ADDITIONAL NOTE: While the song seems to have originated in African-American tradition, it has spread to Anglo singers as well. (The Traditional Ballad Index)
Day 300 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
A traditional black spiritual. My only comment is that is seems we are doing a pretty good job setting the world on fire by ourselves. Earliest date published/recorded: 1922 (recording, Florida Normal Quartet)
Sandburg writes: "The I. W. W. (Industrial Workers of the World) nailed the word “Solidarity” high and issued a call for “One Big Union.” It shouted, "Workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to win.” Those with red cards of membership were “wobblies.” They belonged in “jungles,” camps and hobo hangouts near railroads. They were outlaws, gypsies, vagrants. Several times they wrecked jails, tore the doors off hinges, twisted the bars, spoiled the plumbing, and defied all law and government.
"While in jail they often made the walls ring with a black spiritual given here. Their favorite verse was “God’s Goin’ to Set This World on Fire.” It suggests Fire wrecking the world as the I. W. W.’s wrecked jails . . .
"The text below is from Arthur Billings Hunt of Brooklyn, New York, who heard it from a group of blacks in a Virginia farm house five years ago (1922)."
ADDITIONAL NOTE: While the song seems to have originated in African-American tradition, it has spread to Anglo singers as well. (The Traditional Ballad Index)
