Fun_People Archive
21 Apr
Can anyone help place this text?

Date: Fri, 21 Apr 95 19:20:28 PDT
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Can anyone help place this text?

Forwarded-by: lanih@info.berkeley.edu (Lani Herrmann)
_____________________________________________________________________________

From: RFWhatley@aol.com

Can anyone identify the following text?  I'm not sure of the exact date this
was written, nor the author's name.  I understand it to be a text often sung
to the tune we know as "Northfield" (Sacred Harp #155), usually at this time
of year, by the brethren at the local "Our Lady of the Blessed Refund".  My
sources indicate that this congregation belongs to a relatively unknown synod
know as the Primitive Middle Class.

Apparently, the Primitive Middle Class is an old established church which
left England sometime in the late 1700's to escape the oppressive tax rates,
claiming they were being taxed back into the stone age, only to come to the
United States where they have been taxed even more.  Church historians claim
this song was sung at the Boston Tea Party, but most musicologists disagree.

The song is common meter and obviously uses Jeremiah Ingalls' 1800 text as a
basis.  The tune appears in their very rarely seen four shape hymnal,
"Southern Parody", of which I may have the only copy in existence.  The tune
has obviously been renamed to fit the text.


                Potter's Field

 How long dear tax man, Oh how Long,
 Can this sad hour delay?
 Grind slow around ye wheels of time,
     Grind slow around ye wheels of time,
 Cause this year I must pay!

 From the white halls where Newt presides,
 A wholly happy sound.
 The new crowd's finally got it straight,
     The new crowd's finally got it straight,
 The tax rates.... are coming down!

Any clues to the date, origins, or additional missing verses would be
appreciated.

Richard Whatley
Center For Serious Indebtedness
Suwanee, Ga.
_____________________________________________________________________________

From: <sharona@giant.intranet.com>

Dear Richard at the Center for Serious Indebtedness,

You wrote:

>Can anyone identify the following text?  I'm not sure of the exact date this
>was written, nor the author's name.  I understand it to be a text often sung
>to the tune we know as "Northfield" (Sacred Harp #155), usually at this time
>of year, by the brethren at the local "Our Lady of the Blessed Refund".  My
>sources indicate that this congregation belongs to a relatively unknown synod
>know as the Primitive Middle Class.

Actually the Primitive Middle Class (PMC, which also stands for "Pay More
Constantly") and the revolt it represents is still in existence in some
isolated parts of the country, but sympathizers in Taxachusetts are rare.
I have located an additional verse to the song.  However, I have no clue
as to its origin or date.

Hope this helps your research.

Sharona Nelson

Additional verse to "Potter's Field:"

 From dawn to dusk it's true we toil,
 The Lord hath made it so;
 But even He did not design,
     But even He did not design,
 How far the IRS would go!

© 1995 Peter Langston