But one look in his eyes and ya knowed ya was wrong.
He was a mountain of a man and I want ya to know,
He could preach hot hell in the freezin' snow.
He carried a bible in a canvas sack,
And everybody called him the Reverend Mr. Black.
He was poor as a beggar but he rode like a king,
Sometimes in the evenin' I could hear him sing:
"I gotta walk that lonesome valley,
I gotta walk it by myself.
There aint nobody here can walk it for me,
I gotto walk it by myself."
If ever I could have thought this man in black,
Was soft and had any yellow up his back.
I gave that notion up the very day,
A lumberjack came in and it wasn't to pray.
He kicked open the meetin'house door,
And he cussed everybody up and down the floor.
Then when things got quiet all over the place,
He walked up and cussed in the preacher's face.
He hit that reverend like the kick of a mule,
And to my way of thinkin' it took a pure fool.
To turn the other cheek to that lumberjack,
But that's what he did, the Reverend Mr. Black.
He stood like a rock, a man among men,
And then he let that lumberjack hit him again.
And then with a voice as kind as could be,
He cut him down like a big oak tree when he said:
"You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta walk it by yourself.
There aint nobody here can walk it for you,
You gotta walk it by yourself."
Well, it's been many years since we've had to part,
And I guess I learned all his ways by heart.
Yes, I can still hear his sermons ring,
Down in the valley where he used to sing:
"You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta walk it by yourself.
There aint nobody here can walk it for you,
You gotta walk it by yourself.
You gotta walk that lonesome valley,
You gotta walk it by yourself.
There aint nobody here can walk it for you..."
"THE REVEREND MR. BLACK" WAS WRITTEN IN 1963
BY BILLY EDD WHEELER, JED PETERS, JERRY LIEBER, AND MIKE STOLLER. THE KINGSTON TRIO RECORDED THE SONG THAT SAME YEAR. THE SPIRITUAL STORY WAS A HIT ON ALL MUSIC CHARTS.
