Hank Williams - The Funeral Lyrics
I was walking in Savannah past a church decayed and dim
when slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn
With my sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew,
'til I found myself envired in a little colored pew.
On the altar was a casket and in the casket was a child.
I could picture him while living, curly hair protruding lips,
why I'd seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips.
Rose a sad, old colored preacher from his little wooden desk
with a manner sort of awkward and countenance grotesque.
The simplicity and shrewdness in his Ethiopian face, showed the wisdom and ignorance of a crushed, undying race.
And he said, "Now don't be weepin' for this pretty bit of clay,
for the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away.
but his shore 'nough father wanted him in the big house up above.
The Lord didn't give you that baby, by no hundred thousand miles,
he just thought you need some sunshine and he lent it for a while.
And he let you keep and love it til your hearts were bigger grown
and these silver tears you're shedding now, is just interest on the loan.
Just think my poor dear mourners creeping long on sorrow's way,
what a blessed picnic this here baby got today.
Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fella round
While the angels tend the garden of the big plantation ground.
And his eyes they brightly sparkle at the pretty things he view
but a tear came and he whispered, "I want my parents too".
Then the Angel's chief musicians teach that little boy a song
says if only they be faithful, they'll soon be comin' long.
And so my poor dear mourners let your hearts with Jesus rest
and don't go to criticizn' the one what knows the best.
He has give us many comforts, he's got the right to take away
To the Lord be praise and glory, forever, let us pray.
Other Lyrics by Artist
- Hank Williams - Time Has Proven I Was Wrong
- Hank Williams - Swing Wide Your Gate Of Love
- Hank Williams - Roly Poly
- Hank Williams - We Live In Two Different Worlds
- Hank Williams - Wait For The Light To Shine
- Hank Williams - My Main Trial Is Yet To Come
- Hank Williams - First Year Blues
- Hank Williams - Tennessee Border
- Hank Williams - Cool Water
- Hank Williams - Rockin' Chair Money
- Hank Williams - Dixie Cannonball
- Hank Williams - Sundown And Sorrow
- Hank Williams - Beneath A Cold Gray Tomb Of Stone
- Hank Williams - Dear Brother
- Hank Williams - Singing Waterfall
- Hank Williams - A House Of Gold
- Hank Williams - Lost On The River
- Hank Williams - Heaven Holds All My Treasures
Rand Lyrics
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Hank Williams The Funeral Comments
Lyrics by Will Carlton, arr. by Hank Williams.
Anyone who sees this record as racist, is a racist.
only a true poet with a heart that could feel every emotion of humanity could pen something this profound.
Let not us criticize HIM who knows best
My exwifes sister lost her son today. This song helps.
THIS SONG SO BEAUTIFUL' MAKE ME THINK OF MY GRANDMA THAT I LOVE SO THAT I LOST IN 2016.
I listened to this when I was just a child. We had this record. Love it yet.
This song was recorded January 9, 1950, Castle Studio, Nashville The first session of Hank singing as "Luke The Drifter" Produced by Fred Rose - Don Helms on Steel, Owen Bradley on Organ, Bass by Hillous Butrum. Guitarist Bob McNett, who attended the session, later recalled that both Williams and Don Helms had tears in their eyes after they had finished recording: "'The Funeral' really touched him. When he did it, he lost himself in it"... It may not be politically correct by today's standards but it's an emotional piece and for a white man to record a song sympathetic to the negro community at this time (1950) I think it really shows the kind of man Hank Williams was. I just bought this 78rpm record today (flip side Beyond The Sunset) and it will be a permanent record in my 1949 AMI Model C Jukebox.
Hank Williams was regarded by those of color as one of their own. You could not find many throughout the south that did not enjoy or support his music. He had a huge following within their community for many many years and this song was his way of paying tribute to them.
truly a man with a "broken heart" God bless his memory
Have been trying to find this song for years!!! Did not know the title and just happened on it by chance today....Beautiful!!
Hank as preacher. Yes, it's racist but not prejudiced. Judged by the standard of the times, this was a sermon of love and reconciliation.
+James Olcott Everything is racist & sexist! Brown paper bags are racist in Seattle.
James Olcott
He Had to be a Singer Sinner or a Preacher.
Regardless of what this recitation may have seemed, as the OP said, it’s a sermon of reconciliation. In light of the times (early 1950s), I don’t think it’s racist as much as simply the truth. And it’s that truth, from those times, that makes this all the more poignant and makes the mind wonder, how much of life this young man of 29 had experienced before he passed so tragically.
@Ron Kelley It is not racist. It sad was PC and SJW's have done to society.
@Dick Hedd He was all three, just like all of us.
That is so beautiful it made me cry !
Hank was not a racist. Sharpton and Jackson are, Yes I am white, We are all the same, so just become color blind. God bless America.