The hymn entitled ‘The Sweet By and By‘ was originally inspired by a comment made by Joseph Webster (who composed the music) to S. Fillmore Bennett in 1868. It was well known that Webster was a sensitive man who was prone to bouts of depression. Bennett writes that Webster had come to his place of business in a melancholy mood one day. When asked what the matter was Webster responded by saying, ‘It’s no matter, it will be all right by and by’.

Immediately Bennett was inspired and penned the words to the hymn. There and then Webster created a melody and within thirty minutes they were singing it together. The famous refrain from the hymn is,

—

In the sweet by and by

We shall meet on that beautiful shore;

In the sweet by and by

We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

—

For a man like Webster this song was able to help him turn away from his current problems by enabling him to imagine a heavenly realm where everything would be fixed. He was able to console himself in this life with thoughts of another.

It was left to the labour activist and songwriter Joe Hill (pictured above) to expose the problem with this hymn in his parody entitled ‘The Preacher and the Slave‘, written in 1911. He composed this song in resonse to the fact that migrant workers would often be greeted by this song (sung by the Salvation Army) as they returned to the city each evening, after having worked all day in dire conditions.

Songs like ‘The Sweet By and By’ communicated to these oppressed people that their life would begin after death and consoled them with the notion that one day, in the sweet by and by, they would be happy and content. The song did reflect the peoples suffering and it was a response to it, but it was a response that prevented action which would address the suffering (this is one of the points Marx makes in the introduction to his A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right).

In ‘The Preacher and the Slave’ Hill parodied the idea that we just needed to wait for another life after this one (this song is were the now famous phrase, ‘pie in the sky when you die’ derives from). For Hill life is possible before death, but only as we put our shoulder to the plough of historical struggle and fight for equality here and now.  And so he wrote this,

—

Long-haired preachers come out every night,

Try to tell you what’s wrong and what’s right;

But when asked how ’bout something to eat

They will answer in voices so sweet

Chorus (sung as a call and response)

You will eat [You will eat] bye and bye [bye and bye]

In that glorious land above the sky [Way up high]

Work and pray [Work and pray] live on hay [live on hay]

You’ll get pie in the sky when you die [That's a lie!]

And the Starvation Army, they play,

And they sing and they clap and they pray,

Till they get all your coin on the drum,

Then they tell you when you’re on the bum

(Chorus)

Holy Rollers and Jumpers come out

And they holler, they jump and they shout

Give your money to Jesus, they say,

He will cure all diseases today

(Chorus)

If you fight hard for children and wife-

Try to get something good in this life-

You’re a sinner and bad man, they tell,

When you die you will sure go to hell.

(Chorus)

Workingmen of all countries, unite

Side by side we for freedom will fight

When the world and its wealth we have gained

To the grafters we’ll sing this refrain

Chorus (modified)

You will eat [You will eat] bye and bye [bye and bye]

When you’ve learned how to cook and how to fry [How to fry]

Chop some wood [Chop some wood], ’twill do you good [do you good]

Then you’ll eat in the sweet bye and bye [That's no lie]

—

Thanks to David Dark from pointing me in the direction of Joe Hill.

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