- David Sellnow
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| Thomas A. Dorsey Image credit: BlackArtDepot.com |
Thomas Dorsey’s father was a preacher and a sharecropper. His mother was a church organist. Already from the time he was a boy, Thomas wanted
a career in music. At age eleven, he
left school to take a job in a local vaudeville theater in Atlanta, Georgia –
where the family was living. From ages
twelve to fourteen he was earning a living playing piano in bars and brothels
and for house parties. By the time he
was seventeen, he headed to Chicago to pursue his music further. After working for a time in a steel mill in Gary,
Indiana, Dorsey studied music at the Chicago School of Composing and Arranging. He found success in the music business
in Chicago as a composer and arranger and piano player. He was known as “The Whispering Piano Player”
from playing after-hours parties where the music had to be kept quiet enough so
as not to attract the attention of the police.
Dorsey was so frantically engaged in his musical life that at
age 21, he suffered a nervous breakdown.
He went back home to Atlanta to recuperate. His mother wanted him to stop playing the blues; he should
“serve the Lord,” she said. He didn’t listen.
He went back to Chicago. Coming to be
known as “Georgia Tom,” he amassed even greater musical success as a
sought-after band leader or accompanist for blues performers such as Ma Rainey,
Tampa Red Whittaker, Scrapper Blackwell, Big Bill Broonzy, Frankie Jaxson,
Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie, and Victoria Spivey.
In 1925, Dorsey married his sweetheart, Nettie Harper, who
was Ma Rainey’s wardrobe manager. But Dorsey
continued to struggle with depression and mental stress and suffered a second
major breakdown in 1926. He was suicidal
and unable to compose or perform music. Doctors didn’t seem to help. Taking time off didn’t fix things. His sister-in-law urged him to come to church,
and he did. He even visited a faith-healer,
who told him, “Brother Dorsey, there is no reason for you to be looking so
poorly and feeling so badly. The Lord has too much work for you to let you die.” From then on, Dorsey began to do what his
mother had always wanted – write and play music for the Lord. He saw connections between the blues and
gospel music. He once said, "If a woman has lost a man, a man has lost a woman, his feeling reacts to the blues; he feels like expressing it. The same thing acts for a gospel song. Now you're not singing the blues; you're singing gospel, good news song, singing about the Creator. But it's the same feeling, a grasping of the heart."
But most churches
didn’t want his music. From 1928-1931, as Dorsey tried to sell his gospel music
to churches, he was rebuffed. The churches didn’t like how he infused sacred
music with blues and jazz. His music didn’t align with the conservative culture
preachers were trying to promote. Dorsey
had to return to composing and playing the blues in order to make a
living. But he kept working on his gospel-based
music at the same time.
In August, 1932,
Thomas Dorsey had gone to St. Louis where he was to be the featured soloist at
a large church revival meeting. His wife
was in the last month of pregnancy with their first child. While he was in St. Louis, he received a
telegram. Nettie had gone into labor and
had died in childbirth … and the baby died too.
The man was overcome with grief. It
took many days before he could to pull himself together at all. When he did, it was by playing piano. And at the piano, about a month later, in the
midst of all that grief, he wrote the most famous song of his musical career:
“Precious Lord, Take My Hand.” In the
years to come, Dorsey continued writing songs for the church and influencing
church music. Writer of around 800 songs
in his career, he became known as the father of gospel music in America.
The circumstances of our lives don’t always go in the
direction we envision. We have hopes. We have dreams. We have plans and ambitions. And then things don’t go as we plan. Life takes turns in directions we didn’t
expect. Sometimes everything comes
crashing down around us. Our lives collapse in on top of us. Problems pile up to where we can’t see past
them. We find ourselves shaken,
confused, wondering what happened, wondering where was God. We so often don’t see what God plans to do
for us and with us as he shepherds us through the valley of the shadow of death
or whatever turmoil he lets us go through.
What we do know is that God intends always what is good for us, that in
all things he is working for our good – for our eternal good, in line with his
eternal purposes (cf. Romans 8:28). God never abandons
those whom he has called as his children.
Our precious Lord is always working to bring us home to himself, bring
us back to his promises, to anchor us in the love and hope that are never in
doubt – in the Messiah, in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Thomas Dorsey wanted a career in popular music. The Lord chastened him severely, and turned
him toward a deepness of faith and toward writing songs that convey the comfort of the gospel
– songs that have greatly benefited Christ’s church.
In the end, when Joseph’s brothers found themselves in a
desperate position—coming to Egypt for food because Egypt was the only place
that had food—Joseph tested them to see that God had been working on their
hearts and souls too. They didn’t
recognize him after all those years and in his Egyptian appearance. When Joseph revealed to them who he was, he
made it clear he held no grudges against them.
He saw how God had guided the path of all their lives up to that point,
and trusted that God would be the hope of their people (and all people) for the
future.
Today’s Bible reading is Genesis 50:15-21 – from the years
in Egypt after Joseph had revealed himself to his brothers and the whole clan
of Israel had moved down to Egypt.
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they
said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all
the wrongs we did to him?” So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your
father left these instructions before he died: ‘This is what you are
to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the
wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the
sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to
him, Joseph wept.
His brothers then came and threw themselves down before
him. “We are your slaves,” they said.
But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the
place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for
good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So
then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he
reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
- Prayer:
Heavenly Father, teach us to trust you through the whole course of our lives – not only when things are going well or in ways we hoped or planned, but also when life is a struggle, when things go horribly wrong, when tragedies strike us. You hold us in your hand. You guide us by your Spirit through your Word. Keep us in your care, and help us to confess that whatever happens, you will be working in all things to bring about good for us as your children – with the ultimate good being that we join you in life eternal. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
You can hear Thomas Dorsey tell about writing the hymn, "Precious Lord," at this recording of the song.
Sources:
African American Lives (Oxford, 2004)
Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music (Psychology Press, 2005)
Precious Lord: Recordings of the Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey (Sony, 1973)
Encyclopedia of American Gospel Music (Psychology Press, 2005)
Precious Lord: Recordings of the Great Gospel Songs of Thomas A. Dorsey (Sony, 1973)
"This Far by Faith," PBS (2003)
History of Hymns (United Methodist Church)Biography.YourDictonary.com
Encyclopedia.com
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