The House of Delegates is close to passing a new state song for the Commonwealth of Virginia, “Our Great Virginia,” and it’s exactly as you would expect a state song composed in the modern era to be: bland, unpoetic, inclusive, and completely risk-free for legislators. Hence, it’s likely to pass.
What does it replace? Probably one of the most heartfelt and tender songs ever written.
James Bland, a free black in New York, wrote “Carry me back to old Virginny” as he witnessed the plight freed slaves, living homeless and in deplorable conditions.
Please do not construe my post as condoning slavery or saying “it was better when they were slaves.” What I am saying is the song was written out of pain and love – and you can hear it in the tune.
This is why I’m dumbfounded that a majority of the lyrics couldn’t be salvaged and the few that offended former Gov. Doug Wilder changed to be something more appropriate for the modern age.
As one who has traveled – frequently – from my Virginia home, and knowing how many from this state do find themselves in far flung areas of the country and the world, longing to come home, I was curious if talking about the “wanderer’s” wont to return might be more appropriate?
I’m sure someone can come up with something better, but in about five minutes, I’ve come up with this quick rendition:
Carry me back to old Virginia.
There’s where the cotton and corn and taters grow.
There’s where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There’s where this old wandrer’s heart am long’d to go.There’s where I labored so hard for my wages
Day after day by the shores of the bay;
No place on earth do I love more sincerely
Than old Virginia, the state where I was born.Carry me back to old Virginia.
There’s where the cotton and the corn and taters grow;
There’s where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There’s where this old wandrer’s heart am long’d to go.Carry me back to old Virginia,
There let me live till I wither and decay.
Long by the old Dismal Swamp have I wandered,
There’s where this old wandrer’s life will pass away.My loved ones have long since gone on now before me,
Soon we will meet on that bright and golden shore.
There we’ll be happy and free from all sorrow,
There’s where we’ll meet and we’ll never part no more.Carry me back to old Virginia.
There’s where the cotton and the corn and taters grow;
There’s where the birds warble sweet in the spring-time.
There’s where this old wandrer’s heart am long’d to go.
I’m sure there are some who will still be offended: the purists who would hate a change to the song at all and the perpetually outraged who will find even the tune reminiscent of the days of slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow.
That said, I’d rather modestly change a couple words and keep the tune as our state song; a song that has always had a passionate purpose and one that all Virginians feel – longing for and coming home.
Our Great Virginia:
Carry Me Back to Old Virginny:
After-thought: By revising the song, this will also pique some curiosity in the former song by some (perhaps even taught?) – meaning that the history is not likely to be forgotten…a history that needs to be remembered and not repeated.
