Thomas A. Dorsey Kathy Twynam
A couple of weeks ago on April 12, the choir sang, as an anthem, hymn number 675, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand” – a beautiful hymn that is one of my favourites. If you look it up in your hymn books, you will notice the lyricist and the arranger – one Thomas A. Dorsey. When I first saw this years ago, I was surprised – was Tommy Dorsey, acclaimed trombonist and band leader that some of you may have danced to in the forties and fifties, a closet gospel writer? If so, I had never known this, and I wondered what other sacred songs he may have written.
So I did some research, and it’s amazing what you can find out if you just ask the folks at Google. The story goes that Tommy Dorsey wrote the song “Precious Lord” in response to the death of his wife and child. Here is an adapted version of the account of the writing of “Precious Lord”, by its author :
Back in 1932 I was 32 years old and a fairly new husband. My wife, Nettie, and I were living in a little apartment on Chicago’s South Side. One hot August afternoon I had to go to St. Louis, where I was to be the featured soloist at a large revival meeting. I didn’t want to go. Nettie was in the last month of pregnancy with our first child. But a lot of people were expecting me in St. Louis. So I kissed Nettie goodbye…Something was strongly telling me to stay. But eager to get on my way…I slipped out of the room…
The next night…the crowd called on me to sing again and again. When I finally sat down, a messenger boy ran up with a Western Union telegram. I ripped open the envelope. Pasted on the yellow sheet were the words: YOUR WIFE JUST DIED. People were happily singing and clapping around me, but I could hardly keep from crying out. I rushed to a phone and called home. All I could hear on the other end was, “Nettie is dead. Nettie is dead.”
When I got back, I learned that Nettie had given birth to a boy. I swung between grief and joy. Yet that night, the baby died. I buried Nettie and our little boy together, in the same casket. Then I fell apart. For days I closeted myself. I felt that God had done me an injustice. I didn’t want to serve Him any more…But then…I thought back to the afternoon I went to St. Louis. Something kept telling me to stay with Nettie. Was that something God? Oh, if I had paid more attention to Him that day I would have stayed and been with Nettie when she died. From that moment on I vowed to listen more closely to Him. But still I was lost in grief. (One quiet evening) I sat down at the piano and my hands began to browse over the keys. Something happened to me then. I felt at peace. I felt as though I could reach out and touch God. I found myself playing a melody, one I’d never heard or played before, and the words…just seemed to fall into place:
Precious Lord, take my hand
Lead me on, help me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn
Through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on, to the light
Take my hand, precious lord,
Lead me home.
The Lord gave me these words and melody. He also healed my spirit. I learned that when we are in our deepest grief, when we feel farthest from God, this is when he is closest, and when we are most open to His restoring power. And so I go on living for God willingly and joyfully, until that day comes when He will take me and gently lead me home. -Tommy Dorsey
Beautiful story, isn’t it? Bet you didn’t know that side of Tommy Dorsey. But is it true? Did Tommy Dorsey really write that beautiful hymn? The answer is yes…and no.
The hymn was NOT written by Tommy Dorsey, the American band leader who in 1939 hired Frank Sinatra away from rival bandleader Harry James, and who died by accidental choking on 26 November 1956, at the age of 51.
The song was written by gospel great Thomas Andrew Dorsey (aka Tommy), a contemporary of the other Tommy, who did indeed weather the deaths of his wife and newborn child. The song has since been translated into 32 languages, and was the Reverend Martin Luther King’s favourite, sung by Mahalia Jackson at his funeral. It was also sung by Leontyne Price at Lyndon B. Johnson’s funeral.
Thomas Andrew Dorsey was born in Villa Rica, Georgia, on 1 July 1899. He was a blues bandleader for singers, but after becoming a Christian he turned to writing gospel music, over the course of his lifetime writing more than a thousand gospel hymns. “Peace in the Valley” is one you may know – Johnny Cash and the Carter family used to like to sing it. This Tommy Dorsey died in Chicago on 23 January 1993, of complications arising from Alzheimer’s disease.
It is not hard to see how the two musicians could be confused – they had the same name and were on the music scene at the same time – but it would have been easy to tell them apart if they stood side by side. Tommy Dorsey the bandleader was Caucasian, and Tommy Dorsey the gospel singer and song-writer was African-American.