Hightower Brothers - Come By Here

Topic: Seminal Versions
The Hightower Brothers recorded a version of "Come by Here" in 1958 that defined the melody for many who followed. It began with three notes on the base note of a chord, followed by three on the fifth. The repetition of the one tone with the rhythm of a three-syllable word "somebody" propelled the melody.

Nick Hightower formed the group with his three sons and a relative. [1] The soloist, Robert, was ten at the time. They did not create the tune. It already was in tradition in 1926 when H. Wylie sang it for Robert Gordon somewhere in coastal Georgia. [2]

Nick’s father, also Nick Hightower, founded the House of God in Saints in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1927 where he met resistence from the white community:

"Bishop Hightower established the church in an era of excessive brutality toward Blacks. He persevered despite being jailed and later thrown off his property for preaching the gospel to ‘the poor...to heal the brokenhearted and preach deliverance to the captives.’ Bishop Hightower’s persistence helped spread the word to Georgia, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania." [3]

He then established New Bethel in Douglas, Georgia, in 1938, and remained there until he died in 1971. [4] Douglas was then a tobacco market on the Georgia and Florida Railway line. [5]

Nick the son was living in Deland, Florida when his youngest boy, Robert, was born in 1948. Robert died in Goldsboro, North Carolina, in 2010. [6] His birth and death places laid just beyond the outer limits of the Gullah-speaking territory that included Wylie’s part of Georgia.

Their version, with its piano-driven rhythms and high-pitched voiceless syllables no doubt drew on the style of Little Richard. Rolling Stone said he was known for "pounding the piano, howling his lyrics and screaming in a wild falsetto." [7] Richard Penniman was from Macon, [8] on the Georgia fall line bordering the coastal plain. [9] The Hightowers combination of his style with the Wylie melody produced a regional version steeped in the traditions of their grandfather’s Pentecostal church.

Performers
Solo: Robert Hightower

Vocal Accompaniment: Nick Hightower; Willie James Hightower, second tenor; William Martin Hightower, Johnny Hightower, and Reco Hightower. [10]

Instrumental Accompaniment: organ [11]

Rhythm Accompaniment: piano, drum set, one person clapping hands

Credits
Volunteer Music, BMI. [12]

Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: pronounced "come" tersely and emphasized "by"
Verse Phrases: come by here, need you, I’m singing

Vocabulary:
Pronoun: somebody, I
Term for Deity: Lord, Lordy

Lawyer: all the listed people who needed the Lord were family members except "my lawyer." I have no idea what significance that carried for a ten-year-old boy.

Theme:
Prelude: requested Lord to come
Transition: listed people who need Him

Denouement: continued to list people, then changed to define when the singer needed Him and ended with series of oh’s

Format: ritual prelude-denouement structure
Line Meter: iambic
Verse Form: repetitions of lines; number of repetitions varies
Line Meter: iambic

Prelude
Line Form: statement-refrain

Transition and Denouement
Rhetorical Devices: incremental repetition (listed members of family, then days of the week)

Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-5
Tempo: up tempo
Basic Structure: soloist supported by group singing rhythm

Singing Style:
Solo: young male voice chants more than sings. His voice got raspier in the transition, and turned into high, voiceless sounds in parts of the denouement.

Group: chordal harmony; last word sustained and went lower in harmony.

Solo-Group Dynamics: group sang rhythm. In the prelude they began "come by here" after he started singing. In the transition, they repeated "Lordy I need You" without pause. They changed to repeating "I need you" in the denouement during the list of family members, then only at the beginning of the lines that listed days of the week. In the last part, one with a low voice sometimes sang a word to emphasize what the soloist had just sung.

Vocal-Rhythm Dynamics: piano played the downbeats and the handclap came after. Before they singing started, the piano alternated high and low notes with hand claps. The claps were widely spaced in the prelude, and constant in the denouement. The last phrase was a capella.

Influence: Some Hightower’s fans pointed to Julius Cheeks of the Sensational Nightingales, rather than Little Richard. One said:

"He is singing in the style of Julius Cheeks and pulling it off amazingly, no easy feat for any man let alone a young boy." [13]

Another also mentioned Archie Brownlee of the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi:

"little sugar was something else as a kid. can’t deny the brownlee-cheeks influence." [14]

Viewers’ Perceptions
Most who commented in YouTube remarked on Robert’s singing style. On woman said:

"Those brothers were such a Inspiration to whom ever they sung too, the Holy Ghost were on them everytime , sooo amazing just how awesome our God is , but we won’t know it all until we get to HEAVEN . God’s will was done thanks to their father who allow his sons to be led by the holy spirit." [15]

When someone in the comments complained about the boy’s screaming, another woman answered:

"This guy was not yelling at all he was feeling the Holy Spirit and plus, he was singing with the anointing. When you are singing with the anointing you can yell, I should know because I am a gospel singer myself." [16]

A second, agreed

"he got the holy spirt." [17]

One person mentioned the song:

"My grandfather’s favorite song he passed away singing this song 4/8/13." [18]

Availability
45 rpm: Gospel 1008. New York City, 13 October 1958.

Reissue: Screaming Gospel Holy Rollers Vol. 2. Menstrie, UK: VeeTone Records 2016. Compiled by Mark Lamarr.

Reissued as: "I Need You Lord." The Best of the Hightower Brothers. Nashboro NASH4004. 1995.

YouTube: uploaded by P Low, 13 February 2011.

End Notes
1. William Martin Hightower did not appear in the list of Robert’s living or dead siblings. He either died so young he was omitted or was a cousin. See #6 obituary below.

2. H. Wylie. "Somebody Needs You, Lord, Come by Here." Collected by Robert Winslow Gordon, near Darien, Georgia, 1926. Deposited in Archives of American Folk Song. A transcription by Jennifer Cutting appeared in Stephen Winick. "The World’s First ‘Kumbaya’ Moment: New Evidence about an Old Song." Folklife Center News 34(3-4): 3-10:2010.

3. Lighthouse Faith Ministry website.

4. Hightower Memorial Temple, Douglas, Georgia, website.

5. Wikipedia. "Douglas, Georgia."

6. "Services Announced for Robert "Sugar" Hightower of the Supreme Angels." Goldsboro [North Carolina] News-Argus. 30 August 2010.

7. "Little Richard Bio." Rolling Stone website.

8. Rolling Stone.

9. Wikipedia. "Macon, Georgia."

10. Doubting Thomas Lamarr. Liner notes, Screaming.

11. Doubting Thomas.

12. Doubting Thomas. The liner notes reproduced the record label.

13. Howling Moon Records. Comment posted to YouTube, 2013.

14. Brooks Danner. Comment posted to YouTube, 2015.

15. Deniece Samuels. Comment posted to YouTube, 2012.

16. Jasmine SeabronSeabron. Comment posted to YouTube, July 2015.

17. T. T Welch. Comment posted to YouTube, 2013.

18. jb Smith. Comment posted to YouTube, 2013.