Rabe Perkins Songbook (1972)

Rabe Perkins Songbook (1972)

Rabe Perkins Sings. 1972 songbook, Birmingham, Alabama.

In the 1940s and '50s, the duo Rebe and Rabe -- Revin "Rebe" Gosdin and Auburn J. C. "Rabe" Perkins -- established themselves as popular fixtures of Birmingham, Alabama, radio station WVOK.

Though not brothers themselves -- they met in an Alabama cotton mill in the 1930s -- Gosdin and Perkins successfully emulated the brother harmony style pioneered by the Delmore Brothers, Blue Sky Boys, Monroe Brothers, and others. When the Louvin Brothers, Charlie and Ira, tried to break into Birmingham radio in 1954, they found Rebe and Rabe had already locked down the market. "I had just come back from Korea," Charlie explained, "and we went to Birmingham, Alabama. There was a duet there called Rebe and Rabe. They sang nothing but Louvin Brothers songs on their radio program. So when Ira and I went to Birmingham, people thought we were impersonating Rebe and Rabe. We were doing our own songs but they had been there so long." After half a year, the Louvins left.

In the 1960s, Rebe relocated to Montgomery, but Rabe -- increasingly leaning into a country gospel repertoire -- continued making music on Birmingham airwaves, with performances on WVOK lasting into the 1980s.

This 1972 songbook reflects Rabe's gospel repertoire as he developed it through the years. "This book is not sold," the singer writes: "It is with a free will offering basis. To order write:

RABE PERKINS, P. O. Box 422, Bessemer, Ala. 35020."

This copy of the songbook, according to its inscription, belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Earl Wagaman of Fayetteville, Pennsylvania.

Songs include "I Prayed Through," "There Ain't No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down," "He Added One More to the Cross," "He's Alpha and Omega," "I Was There When It Happened," "Crooked Street," "Mother Prays Loud in Her Sleep," and others.

Some lyrics reflect the social events of their times. In "The Pretty Moon's No Stopping Place For Me," Rabe sings:

"I've been watching for the coming back of Jesus Christ our King,
I've been looking up toward Heaven singing glory to His name,
But I'm living in a busy world, space travel all in bloom,
How long, I hear them shout, and say before we reach the moon?"

In "Mr. D and Mr. K," Rabe sings about (without naming either outright) the devil and Nikita Khrushchev:

"There's a big breeze blowing from across the sea,
And there's nothing he's afraid to say
And as sure as you're born another set of horns,
Will be placed on Mr. K.

You better get out of the way Mr. K.
You're flirting with Mr. D.
He's been around much longer than you,
Knows every trick in the book you see
And the way you talk you're teaching them
To blot the pages of history. Instead of one
We've got two to watch,
Mr. K. and Mr. D.

Mr. K. just stated you were going to the moon
Mr. D. is throwing the switch
That's the story of the blind leading the blind
You gonna wind up in a ditch
And it always was a puzzle to me, it has been until this day How are you and Mr. D. gonna land on the moon?
When you're headed the other way."