"All My Trials" was a folk song during the social protest movements of the 1950s and 1960s. It is based on a Bahamian lullaby that tells the story of a mother on her death bed, comforting her children, "Hush little baby, don't you cry./You know your mama's bound to die," because, as she explains, "All my trials, Lord,/Soon be over." The message - that no matter how bleak the situation seemed, the struggle would "soon be over" - propelled the song to the status of an anthem, recorded by many of the leading artists of the era.

The song is usually classified as a Spiritual because of its biblical and religious imagery. There are references to the "Lord", "a little book" with a message of "liberty", "brothers", "religion", "paradise", "pilgrims" and the "tree of life" awaiting her after her hardships, referred to as "trials". There is an allegory of the river Jordan, the crossing thereof representing the Christian experience of death as something which "...chills the body but not the soul." The river/death allegory was popularised by John Bunyan in his classic, "The Pilgrim's Progress" and the wording echoes the teaching of Jesus, to "...fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." (Matthew 10:28)

One version of lines six and seven, "I had a little book, was given to me,/And every page spelled liberty", [ [http://www.peterpaulandmary.com/music/f-03-08.htm All My Trials] Peter, Paul and Mary] could be seen as ambiguous about the identity of the "little book", particularly if read apart from the rest of the song, and it may be taken to mean that "liberty" is both a political and a religious liberty. Irrespective of this, the ultimate hope of liberty, whether heavenly or earthly, is seen by the writer as something that cannot be taken from people, no matter how poor or oppressed they are. There is a specific reference to class divisions and that death is an equalizer: "If religion was a thing that money could buy,/The rich would live and the poor would die".

The song was recorded numerous times by folk artists, including Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, The Seekers, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Ray Stevens. Nick Drake and Gabrielle Drake sang it as a duet. Another version of the song, "All My Sorrows," was made popular by the Kingston Trio. A version was also recorded by The Shadows in 1961. A fragment of the song is used in the Elvis Presley anthem "An American Trilogy". More recently it was sung by Cerys Matthews on her album "Cockahoop". A version of the song was released as a single by Paul McCartney in 1990 and made into top 40 in UK, reaching as high as #35.

Lyrics

Lyrics to Joan Baez's version of "All My Trials":

Hush little baby don't you cry
You know your mama was born to die.
All my trials Lord soon be over

The river of Jordan is muddy and cold
Well it chills the body but not the soul.
All my trials Lord soon be over

I've got a little book with pages three
And every page spells liberty.
All my trials Lord soon be over

Too late my brothers
Too late but never mind.
All my trials Lord soon be over

If religion were a thing that money could buy
You know the rich would live and the poor would die.
All my trials Lord soon be over

There grows a tree in paradise
and the pilgrims call it the tree of life.
All my trials Lord soon be over

Too late my brothers
Too late but never mind.
All my trials Lord soon be over

All my trials Lord soon be over(fading)

References