Gospel singing in Founders’ Park c. 2007. Paul Goldfinger photograph. ©
Gospel singing goes back to the early days of Ocean Grove. Here is an article that takes us to a raucous concert in the Great Auditorium in 1905. Listen to Sam Cook, check out the Gospel group in the park, not long ago, and Bruce with “O Mary Don’t You Weep.”
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
By Paul Goldfinger
In the newspaper article above, from the August 28, 1905 New York Times, we get an idea about how wild it could get at the old camp ground in Ocean Grove, only 36 years after the town’s founding. The event was called a “love feast,” and the article clearly describes what that term means. You might have imagined that services in the GA in 1905 were pretty staid affairs, but now we know that they were anything but.
Some parts of the description seem peculiar like singing three hymns all at once. I wonder what the orchestra did with that situation.
Amanda Berry Smith was a former slave who became an evangelical preacher. She was known for her beautiful voice. We don’t have any recordings of her, and I’m not sure that this was the song that she sang, but here is a Sam Cooke recording (with…
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