Precious Lord, Shake My Hand

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Haruo's picture

Kidding, but still... anyone have a good source for info on variants in the text of "Precious Lord, take my hand"?

I just posted, on FB: "Any idea why some hymnals use "let me stand" where most hymnals use "help me stand" in the first stanza of Thomas Dorsey's "Precious Lord, Take My Hand"? The "let" ones seem to be mostly, but not entirely, non-GIA Catholic books, but I did see it also in one Lutheran and one AME book, and I haven't finished culling. Seems strange. I learned the majority "help" version and it seems weird to see "let". Did Dorsey write both versions (and the fourth, "love your name" stanza that I've only run across in "One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism")?"


Comments

Shouldn't the be original be easy to find since the hymn is copyrighted?

One would think so, but I'm not sure it's true. In this case it looks like the evidence leans toward "let me stand" over "help me stand". It's conceivable that both are original. But I think, unlikely.