Topic: Live versus Recorded Versions
Gilbert Rouget surveyed the use of music in possession cults in ancient Greece, the Middle East, and Africa in Music and Trance. [1] In an academic area fraught with overlapping and contradictory terminology, he made several useful distinctions.
First there were groups who used music and those who did not. He termed the second ecstatic. [2]
He then separated possession experiences from shamanism by noting shamans were in control of their trances, made their own music, and let their spirits leave their bodies. In possession, the entranced were not in control, professionals provided the music, and spirits entered their bodies. [3] Musicians were not active participants. Instead, they watched the progression of rituals, and modified their work to fit changes or to bring about climaxes. [4]
His definition of possession was narrow. It involved a god who chose to take over a human’s body for its own purpose. [5] Rouget quoted Jean Rouch, [6] who said of the Songai religion [7] in Mali and Niger: "A deity’s supreme requirement is that one among the faithful become his ‘horse’ by means of trance, so that he can come down among mankind and dance." [8] Rouch added, "‘playing horse’ for a god is not necessarily an agreeable role." [9]
Rouget only discussed shamanism cursorily, and did not discuss contemporary American Black religious services.
The nature of the Holy Spirit and how it manifests itself has led it sectarian splits in both Black and white churches in this country that obscure an underlying agreement on the possibility of contact with the Spirit. It is rather like the early Reformation, when theologians disagreed over the presence of Christ in the Eucharist; their disputes masked their shared separation from Huldrych Zwingli who wished to demystify the ritual. The differences between transubstantiation in which Christ’s body became the wafer and wine and consubstantiation in which the elements existed along side his body are probably a useful metaphor for the continuum of beliefs about what happens in religious services when the presence of the Lord is invoked. Everyone may use the term "possession," but the meanings vary from some like Rouget that posit the Spirit initiates the encounter to ones that imply humans begin the process. I try to avoid the term "possession" as a third-party observer, but use whatever term an individual uses to describe his or her personal experience.
Performers
Vocal: two soloists and a group. One person on YouTube wrote: "Jerome had it, but Freddy took it to another level, then Jerome had to bring it back down and go up even higher." [10] Jerome was Jerome Williams, and Freddy was his brother.
Instrumental accompaniment: one man played a solid-body electric guitar with a steel plate on it; a second played another solid-body electrified guitar.
Rhythm accompaniment: drum set. Hand claps by backup singers and members of the audience.
Notes on Lyrics
Prelude Section: The soloist, Jerome, opened with a testimony that identified him as "Sanctified with the Holy Ghost." He then paraphrased the prelude verses from the recorded version described in the last post.
Denouement: two soloists, Jerome and Freddy, took turns repeating phrases like "come by here." The phrases were interspersed with testimony.
Notes on Music
Prelude Section: the soloist, Jerome, spoke, rather than sang, with no musical accompaniment.
Denouement Section: instrumental accompaniment through both the sung and spoken parts.
Notes on Performance
The concert was in a park somewhere in Detroit. The band was on a low platform, with the area in front roped off. All members wore matching, three-piece, gold-brown suits with flared bottoms on their trouser legs and no ties.
Jerome Williams defied Roget’s convention performers were agents to bring the Holy Spirit to their audiences. In the 1984 performance, he was the one who was dancing. From the beginning he was on the ground in front of the platform. He began by testifying, with lines that summarized the first verses on the recording described in the last post:
"We gonna do something right now. We gonna ask the Lord to stop by here if you don’t stay long. Somebody needs a blessing. Somebody needs a miracle. Somebody’s got pain and it won’t go nowhere."
When the band began playing, the Spirit already had descended. The men on stage sang "Oh Lord" or "come by here" or "Jesus stop by" as Jerome sang phrases and stepped around. The men on stage were stepping, and Freddy and another backup singer were clapping. Then, Freddy jumped down and took over singing while Jerome continued dancing. Toward the end they traded phrases, most of which were impossible to understand, because they were not directed to the location where the microphone was positioned.
Notes on Movement
Jerome held his microphone in his right hand, and gestured with his left. When he was not gesturing, he placed it behind his back. If he switched the mike to his left hand, then his right hand went in back. Freddy held his microphone with his right hand and let his left arm move naturally.
All the steps were done with deliberately bent knees, as distinct from the natural bends that occur when one walks. Much of the variation came from changes in the degree of the bends and the location of the raised calves during the bends. In addition, both Jerome and Freddy moved their torsos forward or arched back from the hips.
In the beginning, Jerome stood in one place and pivoted from diagonal to diagonal on his heels. Because he was in grass, he may have had to jump to complete the changes of direction.
Both Jerome and Freddy used march steps–that is walks with bent knees. Freddy especially kept his toe tips on the ground when he was marking time in place. When the two were sitting on the stage, one foot continued to keep the beat with the heel rising and falling.
The men on the stage stepped from side to side. At the end of phrases, they stepped back with one foot, stepped back with the other, shifted the weight to the other foot, stepped forward and resumed moving side to side.
Toward the end, the camera showed Jerome’s dance steps, which were done quickly. One combination involved changing from stepping forward by stepping sidewards, then shifting back, before resuming the forward movement. Several times, the right foot crossed in back of the left, then returned. These shifts were emphasized by bringing the raised feet higher in back, and occasionally a straight leg was thrust forward with the foot flexed.
Influences:
It is easy to say the group’s costumes and movements were influenced by Motown–after all The Evereadys lived in Detroit when the company was at the height of its influence. One can also point to specific things, like Jerome’s hair style or the way Freddy took off his jacket to sing.
As I watched the steps closely I detected another influence: high school marching bands. When I was in high school, our band went to Michigan State band days between 1958 and 1961. During the halftime show, the bands were massed, but in the parking lot before the game some bands demonstrated their skills. I especially remember the ones from Detroit and Flint.
The combination used by the backup artists on the stage with a bend forward as they stepped back evoked the tuba lines of those city bands. When marching, players would turn their bells from left to right, then bend forward at the end. Only someone who has tried to lift one of those instruments can appreciate the sheer athleticism of those moves.
I rewatched the section of the video where Freddy threw his jacket over his shoulder for Jerome to catch, and thought of majorettes trading batons. The way Jerome watched Freddy, and the way Freddy was aware of Jerome’s location recalled my attempt with another girl to imitate the city routines. As we quickly realized, the proper positioning took a great deal of practice.
Once I started thinking about Jerome’s moves as band moves, I saw that most of the steps he did, except when he was doing quick footwork in one place, were taken from skilled marching bands. The difference was the use of the feet. Members of high school bands stepped on every beat, did not raise their feet much, and kept them parallel to the ground. If one stepped less frequently, and that meant having a sense of multiple simultaneous rhythms, then one could execute the same moves, but with time to raise the feet higher, extend them from the legs, and bend the knees more. The other difference was most people in school bands put their weight on their heels when they stepped, not the balls of their feet. That change in balance made agility easier.
Audience Perceptions
The audience stayed outside the ropes. Several women near the rope on the stage-right side stepped from side to side and clapped by bringing their erect hands together. One man, who also moved from side to side, held one hand relatively steady, palm up, and brought his other hand down on it.
Viewers’ Perceptions
Several YouTube viewers commented on the group and their contact with the Holy Spirit.
In 2016, Rochelle wrote: "Go head Mr. Jerome with that Holy Ghost power dance." [11]
Two years before, Greg had said: "AWESOME!!! those boys got the Anointing!!" [12]
Harry made a similar comment in 2013: "The Fantastic Evereadys, taking off with the Holy Spirit !!!" [13]
And, in 2008, Tim observed: "Jerome and Freddy put a hurtin on this joint 4real !! LAWD !!!" [14]
Jeremiah made a comment on the song itself: "my church still sing dis very song...n its 2009...God is Good!!! dis is a ole song!" [15]
Availability
YouTube. Uploaded by dshock11, 7 May 2008.
End Notes
1. Gilbert Rouget. "La musique et la transe." PhD Diss. University of Paris, 1980. Translated by Brunhilde Biebuyck as Music and Trance: A Theory of the Relations Between Music and Possession. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
2. Rouget. 7.
3. Rouget. 18-19, 23.
4. Rouget. 103-104, 112.
5. Rouget. 34.
6. Jean Rouch. La Religion et la Magie Songhay. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1960. 2nd revised edition published by Brussels: Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles, 1989.
7. The Songhai religion is not the same thing as the Songhai Empire. It is a religion that developed in an area once controlled by the empire.
8. Rouget. 116.
9. Rouget. 166.
10. Shelton. YouTube. December 2016. Last names withheld for privacy.
11. Rochelle. YouTube. 2016.
12. Greg. YouTube. 2014.
13. Harry. YouTube. 2013
14. Tim. YouTube. 2008.
15. Jeremiah. YouTube. 2009.
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