LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,111)
  • Text Authors (19,486)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

Shadow of the blues

Song Cycle by John Musto (b. 1954)

1. Silhouette
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Southern gentle lady,
Do not swoon. 
They've just hung a black man
In the dark of the moon. 
They've hung a black man
To a roadside tree
In the dark of the moon
For the world to see
How Dixie protects
Its white womanhood. 
Southern gentle lady,
Be good! Be good!

Text Authorship:

  • by Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967), "Silhouette", appears in One-Way Ticket, first published 1949

See other settings of this text.

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this page: John Musto

2. Litany
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Gather up
In the arms of your pity
The sick, the depraved,
The desperate, the tired,
All the scum
Of our weary city
Gather up
In the arms of your pity.
Gather up
In the arms of your love --
Those who expect
No love from above.

Text Authorship:

  • by Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967), "Prayer", appears in Fields of Wonder, first published 1947

See other settings of this text.

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

3. Island
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Wave of sorrow
Do not drown me now:
I see the island
Still ahead somehow. 
I see the island
And its sands are fair:
Wave of sorrow
Take me there.

Text Authorship:

  • by Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)

Go to the general single-text view

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this page: John Musto

4. Could be
 (Sung text)

Language: English 
Could be Hastings Street,
Or Lenox Avenue,
Could be Eighteenth & Vine
And still be true. 
Could be Fifth & Mound,
Could be Rampart. 
When you pawned my watch
You pawned my heart. 
Could be you love me,
Could be [that] you don't. 
Might be that you'll come back,
Like as not you won't. 
Hastings Street is weary,
Also Lenox Avenue. 
Any place is dreary
Without my watch and you.

Text Authorship:

  • by Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)

Go to the general single-text view

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada, but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Researcher for this page: John Musto
Total word count: 197
Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris