If you had been Cleavant Derricks in Alabama in 1937, what would you have been thinking as you wrote “Just a Little Talk with Jesus”? One particular source indicates he was in that state when he composed our subject-song.(See Petersen book reference below.) (Keith Lancaster also arranged a different version
of Derricks song, called “It’s All Right”, near the end of the 20th
Century.) What was his world like, and why was he praying? It was a time we know as the Great Depression, when physical needs -- to understate the obvious -- were pressing. In fact, although history tells us the economic catastrophe had eased some in the 1933-1937 period, and U.S. gross domestic product in early 1937 actually exceeded what it had been in 1929, many of the devastating effects of the national and world calamity lingered. Between mid-1937 and late 1938, the nation suffered a further downturn, a recession inside the Great Depression.
Some observers in the 1930s said Birmingham, Alabama was America’s hardest hit large city, so Alabamians had plenty of reason to complain, if we can assume the rest of the state was similarly struggling. If you had been in Alabama, where Cleavant Derricks was in the 1930s, names you might have called upon for help included Governor Bibb Graves, a supporter of President Roosevelt’s New Deal program, and Lister Hill and John Bankhead, your U.S senators. You might have clung to hopes for better times, because William Bankhead, another Alabamian, had just become the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1936, a powerful person you could solicit for help. Hugo Black had also just become a Supreme Court justice, and Jesse Owens from Lawrence County had won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, two reasons to make Alabama natives recover a little pride. Cleavant Derricks’ local newspapers told him all these things.
But, it’s safe to say Derricks really didn’t get his inspiration from a newspaper, nor from well-known Alabamians in 1937. Derricks song says talking with the Savior is a reliable endeavor. If you were to ask Derricks ‘Is God trustworthy?’, without hedging he says ‘Yes’. In the 1930s, that must have been a resonant theme for struggling people in the South. Despite our government’s alphabet soup of experimental programs (CCC, CWA, WPA, PWA, SEC, NRA, etc.), sometimes they failed, futile attempts at reviving hope. Derricks may have experienced this personally, and certainly felt the pinch of scant finances. It’s said that his church had no money to buy songbooks to replace the few tattered ones they had. Derricks took his only collateral – his songs – and traded a few of them, like “Just a Little Talk…”, for 50 songbooks. Is that why Derricks addresses his eternity – the most enduring and reliable state one can ever inhabit - in verse one of the song? The Great Depression may swirl about me, but so what? I’m dealing with my God, first and foremost, he says. Verses two and three hint that earthly worries intrude, yet Jesus is still dependable, he sings in defiance. My elected officials may be fallible, my government cannot always bail me out, but my Jesus is still there. It’s a theme that runs through Derricks’ three verses – just talk to Jesus.
Cleavant Derricks was a multi-tasker, whose world included church choirs, poetry, and song-writing. He reportedly wrote over 300 songs in his life, some like “Just a Little Talk…” that he sold to the Stamps-Baxter publishing company in Dallas, Texas. It’s said that Derricks did not think much of his own efforts in the 1930s, but times being what they were - no money in depression-era Alabama –this hard-working, black Baptist didn’t rely on FDR’s New Deal, nor his Alabama brothers in Washington to help him out. He didn’t call Jesse Owens, asking his neighbor-athlete for a few bucks. What did the Stamps-Baxter company see in Derricks’ tune? Perhaps they saw something that spoke of hope, hope in a timeless, Depression-proof God. It’s now 2009, some 70 or 80 years after the Great Depression, and soon there will be no one left who lived in that time. Have we learned from our parents and grandparents how to manage a flagging economy? How much has really changed here? More importantly, how much do you think He’s changed?
Information on Cleavant Derricks and the Great Depression obtained at following sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleavant_Derricks_(songwriter)
http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec48det.html
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/resources/team/lesson_1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
http://www.archives.state.al.us/timeline/al1901.html
A version of Cleavant Derricks’ song story is in “The Complete Book of Hymns: Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2006.
Some observers in the 1930s said Birmingham, Alabama was America’s hardest hit large city, so Alabamians had plenty of reason to complain, if we can assume the rest of the state was similarly struggling. If you had been in Alabama, where Cleavant Derricks was in the 1930s, names you might have called upon for help included Governor Bibb Graves, a supporter of President Roosevelt’s New Deal program, and Lister Hill and John Bankhead, your U.S senators. You might have clung to hopes for better times, because William Bankhead, another Alabamian, had just become the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1936, a powerful person you could solicit for help. Hugo Black had also just become a Supreme Court justice, and Jesse Owens from Lawrence County had won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics, two reasons to make Alabama natives recover a little pride. Cleavant Derricks’ local newspapers told him all these things.
But, it’s safe to say Derricks really didn’t get his inspiration from a newspaper, nor from well-known Alabamians in 1937. Derricks song says talking with the Savior is a reliable endeavor. If you were to ask Derricks ‘Is God trustworthy?’, without hedging he says ‘Yes’. In the 1930s, that must have been a resonant theme for struggling people in the South. Despite our government’s alphabet soup of experimental programs (CCC, CWA, WPA, PWA, SEC, NRA, etc.), sometimes they failed, futile attempts at reviving hope. Derricks may have experienced this personally, and certainly felt the pinch of scant finances. It’s said that his church had no money to buy songbooks to replace the few tattered ones they had. Derricks took his only collateral – his songs – and traded a few of them, like “Just a Little Talk…”, for 50 songbooks. Is that why Derricks addresses his eternity – the most enduring and reliable state one can ever inhabit - in verse one of the song? The Great Depression may swirl about me, but so what? I’m dealing with my God, first and foremost, he says. Verses two and three hint that earthly worries intrude, yet Jesus is still dependable, he sings in defiance. My elected officials may be fallible, my government cannot always bail me out, but my Jesus is still there. It’s a theme that runs through Derricks’ three verses – just talk to Jesus.
Cleavant Derricks was a multi-tasker, whose world included church choirs, poetry, and song-writing. He reportedly wrote over 300 songs in his life, some like “Just a Little Talk…” that he sold to the Stamps-Baxter publishing company in Dallas, Texas. It’s said that Derricks did not think much of his own efforts in the 1930s, but times being what they were - no money in depression-era Alabama –this hard-working, black Baptist didn’t rely on FDR’s New Deal, nor his Alabama brothers in Washington to help him out. He didn’t call Jesse Owens, asking his neighbor-athlete for a few bucks. What did the Stamps-Baxter company see in Derricks’ tune? Perhaps they saw something that spoke of hope, hope in a timeless, Depression-proof God. It’s now 2009, some 70 or 80 years after the Great Depression, and soon there will be no one left who lived in that time. Have we learned from our parents and grandparents how to manage a flagging economy? How much has really changed here? More importantly, how much do you think He’s changed?
Information on Cleavant Derricks and the Great Depression obtained at following sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleavant_Derricks_(songwriter)
http://www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec48det.html
http://www.edb.utexas.edu/resources/team/lesson_1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression
http://www.archives.state.al.us/timeline/al1901.html
A version of Cleavant Derricks’ song story is in “The Complete Book of Hymns: Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs”, by William J. and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2006.
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