He Never Said A Mumblin' Word - Recorded Versions

Recorded Versions

Unidentified prisoners (1933)

Recorded by John and Alan Lomax on June at Angola prison, Louisiana, and on July at Parchman prison, Mississippi.

Roland Hayes

(Victor Records, 1927)

A Song Recital (Columbia Masterworks M-393, 1939). This unaccompanied piece was the included in a set mostly composed of selected classical tracks. Hayes published his arrangement of the song as part of the song cycle Life of Christ, and recorded it again in 1953 and other times. Later performers also often credit his arrangement.

Golden Gate Quartet

(Okeh, 1941)

Composition by J. Rosamond Johnson (1944)

Lead Belly

Folklorists Alan Lomax and John Lomax collected the song whilst on a visit to Camp C at Louisiana State Penetentiary in the 1933, where they also discovered blues musician, Lead Belly, who later recorded several versions of the song from 1945 onwards. According to Lead Belly, the song originated from "down south" and claimed to have learned it from his mother, Sallie Brown.

At least three versions of the song are known to have been recorded by Lead Belly. His earliest version was recorded on February 15, 1945 as part of the Standard Oil Company-sponsored radio show Let it Shine on Me in San Francisco, California. It was recorded as the final part of medley along with two other spiritual songs, "Every Time I Feel the Spirit" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot", featuring children singing along. The song was recorded under the title "They Hung Him on a Cross", whereas his final two recordings of the song, recorded during his last recording sessions ranging from September 27, 1948 to November 5, 1948 in New York with producer Frederic Ramsey, Jr., list the song as "He Never Said a Mumblin' Word." An accapella version of the song and a solo acoustic version of the song were recorded and are featured on Smithsonian Folkways 1994 box set Lead Belly's Last Sessions.

The Jury

Members of American alternative rock bands Nirvana and the Screaming Trees formed a side project known as The Jury in 1989, featuring Kurt Cobain on vocals and guitar, Mark Lanegan on vocals, Krist Novoselic on bass and Mark Pickerel on drums. Over two days of recording sessions, on August 20 and 28, 1989, the band recorded four songs also performed by Lead Belly; "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", an instrumental version of "Grey Goose", "Ain't It a Shame" and "They Hung Him on a Cross"; the latter of which featured Cobain solo. Cobain was inspired to record the songs after receiving a copy of Lead Belly's Last Sessions' from friend Slim Moon, after which hearing it he "felt a connection to Leadbelly's almost physical expressions of longing and desire."

Roger McGuinn

Byrds founder Roger McGuinn recorded two versions of the song. In 1996, he made an mp3 quality recording available for free via his Folk Den website. On the website, McGuinn uses the title "Easter" (from the opening line "On Easter morn he rose"). On the 1999 compact disc McGuinn's Folk Den Vol. 2., McGuinn released this same recording under the longer title "Easter Morn". In 2005, McGuinn released a more professional quality recording of the song, again with the title "Easter Morn", as part of his four-disc set "The Folk Den Project."