Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning explained

"Keep Your Lamp(s) Trimmed and Burning" is a traditional gospel blues song. It alludes to the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins, found in the Gospel of Matthew at 25:1-13, and also to a verse in the Gospel of Luke, at 12:35.

The song has been attributed to Blind Willie Johnson, who recorded it in 1928; to Reverend Gary Davis, who recorded it in 1956; and to Mississippi Fred McDowell, who recorded it in 1959.

The song has been included in several hymnals.^[1]

Lyrics

The song is in call-and-response format. As is common with traditional songs, lyrics vary between performersin this instance, often very widely. A usual first verse is:

"The world" and "the time" relate to the apocalyptic prophecies of the New Testament. "The work" can do so also, but suggests that the song may derive from an African-American work song.

Recordings

Recordings by people with Wikipedia articles include:

• 1928Blind Willie Johnson
• 1956Reverend Gary Davis
• 1959Mississippi Fred McDowell
• 1967Skip James
• 1970Hot Tuna, on the album Hot Tuna
• 1970Wizz Jones, on the album The Legendary Me
• 1971Hot Tuna, on the album First Pull Up, Then Pull Down
• 1975Pearly Brown, on the album It's a Mean Old World to Try to Live In
• 1975John Fahey and his Orchestra, on the album Old Fashioned Love
• 1978Hot Tuna, on the album Double Dose
• 1984Hot Tuna, on the album Splashdown
• 1986Hot Rize, on the album Traditional Ties
• 1990Kaiser/Mansfield, on the 1990 album Trimmed & Burnin
• 1993Wizz Jones, on the album Late Nights and Long Days
• 1995Corey Harris, on the album Between Midnight and Day
• 1996Hot Rize, on the 2002 album So Long of a Journey: Live at the Bouder Theater
• 2001The Word, on the album The Word
• 2002Andrew Bird, on the album Fingerlings
• 2008The 77s, on the album Holy Ghost Building
• 2008Catfish Keith, on the album Live at the Half Moon
• 2011Catfish Keith, on the album A True Friend is Hard To Hard: A Gospel Retrospective
• 2013Luke Winslow-King on the album The Coming Tide
• 2013Marisa Anderson on the album Traditional and Public Domain Songs
• 2015Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams, on the album Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams
• 2016 Hugh and Katy Moffatt, on the album Now and Then
• 2016Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, on the album God Don't Never Change: The Songs Of Blind Willie Johnson
• 2016Red Molly, on the album Love and Other Tragedies
• 2023Nefesh Mountain

See also

• "The Man Comes Around", a song based on the same biblical passages

Notes and References

1. Web site: Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning . Hymnary.org . January 28, 2015.