(Mary wore) three links of chain
RA, Western, 2008
Mary wore three links of chain
Mary wore three links of chain
Mary wore three links of chain,
Every link was in Jesus' name
All my sins taken away
Taken away
There's a secret, I've been told
Streets of heaven paved with gold
Can't you hear them horses' feet
Slippin and a-slidin on the golden street
I was bathed in the morning dew
Morning star was a witness to
From I don't know.
None of us were religious at that time. Quite the opposite in fact, but negro spirituals were so far from our experiences of Protestant church-going that we thought of it more as black folk-lore - on the lines of Saturday Night. A lot of spirituals are protest songs (I'm gonna sit at the welcome table, Broonzy); this one not, apparently.