It would appear that the connection between vicars and trains (one in which I must admit never to have indulged) goes back a very long way. “The Gospel Train (Get on Board)” is a traditional African American spiritual first published in 1872 as one of the songs of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. A standard gospel ong, it is found in the hymnals of many Protestant denominations and has been recorded by numerous artists.
The first verse, including the chorus is as follows:
The gospel train is coming
I hear it just at hand
I hear the car wheels moving
And rumbling thro’ the land
Get on board, children (3×)
For there’s room for many a more
The source for the melody and lyrics is unknown but developed out of a tradition which resulted in a number of similar songs about a “Gospel Train”. One of the earliest known is not from the United States, but from Scotland. In 1853, Scotsman John Lyon published a song in Liverpool titled “Be in Time”, the last verse of which mentions that the Gospel train is at hand. In 1857, an editor for Knickerbocker magazine wrote about visiting a “Colored Camp-Meeting” in New York where a song called “The Warning” was sung which featured an almost identical last verse. “The Warning” used the melody from an old dance song about captain William Kidd.
Although “The Gospel Train” is usually cited as traditional, several sources credit a Baptist minister from New Hampshire, John Chamberlain, with writing it. Captain Asa W. Bartlett, historian for the New Hampshire Twelfth Regiment, reported Chamberlain as singing the song in April 1863, during Sunday services for the regiment.
In 1948, the American born (British by marriage) jazz vocalist Adelaide Hall appeared in a British movie filmed in London called A World is Turning, intended to highlight the contribution of black men and women to British society at a time when they were struggling for visibility on our screens. Filming appears to have been halted due to the director’s illness and only six reels of rushes remain, including scenes of Hall rehearsing songs such as “The Gospel Train” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”. Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961).
