Format 10" 78rpm single Length 2:50 | Genre Gospel blues Label Columbia 14369-D | |
B-side "Paul and Silas in Jail" Recorded December 2, 1927; Dallas, TX | ||
"Mother's Last Word to Her Son" is a gospel blues song written by Washington Phillips (1880–1954) and recorded by him (vocals and zither) in 1927.
The song is in strophic form, and consists of five quatrains in rhyming couplets. The mother advises her son as he leaves home to always remember Jesus. The fourth verse contains the line, "And you have a burden, He'll make them light", alluding to Christ's words in the Gospel of Matthew at 11:30:
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
The same Biblical verse is alluded to in Phillips' song "Take Your Burden to the Lord and Leave It There", recorded on the same day; that song is a Christian hymn written in 1916 by Charles Albert Tindley.
As of 2015, it seems "Mother's Last Word to Her Son" has only been recorded, other than by Washington Phillips, by Stefano Blanca (http://www.soundcloud.com/stefanoblanca).
In 1929, Phillips recorded a companion song, "A Mother's Last Word to Her Daughter".