SONGS OF SURRENDER
The New Yorker|October 09, 2023
The musical legacy of a notorious Mississippi prison.
HANIF ABDURRAQIB
SONGS OF SURRENDER

The best-known version of the gossong Give Myself Away," by Pastor William McDowell, is an opulent display of religious praise. For more than nine minutes, backed by swelling instrumentation and a full choir, McDowell sings of surrendering himself in lines such as "Lord, my life is in your hands." A stripped-down but equally powerful version of the song opens the new album "Some Mississippi Sunday Morning," which was recorded inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison also known as Parchman Farm. Around three minutes long, with piano as the lone accompaniment, the song begins with a single vocalist repeating the line "I give myself away/ so you can use me." Midway through, another singer joins in, and then another; the language doesn't change, but the vocals accumulate, stunning and imperfect. If you feel uncertain about the existence of God-and therefore about the meaning of words of surrender echoing through the halls of a place like Parchman-you may find the performance only heartbreaking.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 09, 2023 من The New Yorker.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 09, 2023 من The New Yorker.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.