{"id":4094,"date":"2018-11-03T01:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-11-03T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=4094"},"modified":"2025-09-17T22:29:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T02:29:31","slug":"wing-and-a-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wing-and-a-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Comin&#8217; In on a Wing and a Prayer (Joseph Spence)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Coming in on a Wing and a Prayer (Joseph Spence)\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uIMqjFW7jrU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>This is my favorite Joseph Spence piece to play &#8212; which is not the same as my favorite to hear. I love Spence&#8217;s singing, whether on his own or with his in-laws, the Pinder family, and if I had to take one Spence recording to the proverbial desert <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4096\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/spence2.jpg?resize=300%2C230&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"230\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/spence2.jpg?resize=300%2C230&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/spence2.jpg?w=400&amp;ssl=1 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>island it would more likely be a Bahamian anthem like &#8220;Out on the Rolling Sea.&#8221; But for playing&#8230; this is absolutely it.<\/p>\n<p>For a while I thought this was an anomaly in Spence&#8217;s repertoire, because all the other selections on his Folkways album were gospel songs, but when I mentioned that to Dave Van Ronk, he said, &#8220;I assume he thought it was a gospel song.&#8221; Which, of course, is right &#8212; especially since it became a hit in 1943, during the American Federation of Musicians recording strike, so the most popular recording was an a cappella choral arrangement by the Song Spinners, plus versions by the Golden Gate Quartet and the Four Vagabonds.<\/p>\n<p>Be that as it may, it was one of Spence&#8217;s favorites, which he extended with marvelous variations &#8212; not just improvisations on the standard A and B sections, but a two-chord interlude he added occasionally as a break. I always considered it his instrumental masterpiece, and only tackled it after working out a bunch of other pieces, some of which I&#8217;ve posted (&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/brownskin-girl\/\">Brownskin Girl<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/happy-meeting-in-glory\/\">Happy Meeting in Glory<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/glory-of-love\/\">Glory of Love,<\/a>&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sloop-johnb\/\">Sloop John B<\/a>,&#8221; a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/spence-medley\/\">medley of shorter tunes<\/a>, and &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/burma-road\/\">Burma Road<\/a>&#8220;) &#8212; and those posts also include my general recollections and thoughts about Spence, a front-runner for my all-time guitar hero.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-4098 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/wing-and-a-prayer-sheet-music-venuti2.jpg?resize=200%2C260&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/wing-and-a-prayer-sheet-music-venuti2.jpg?resize=231%2C300&amp;ssl=1 231w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/wing-and-a-prayer-sheet-music-venuti2.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>The song itself was a World War II hit, with a dozen sheet music covers testifying to all the famous bands and singers who featured it, from Tommy Dorsey to Eddie Cantor, to Joe Venuti and the unrelated Benay Venuta. I was never enthralled by the lyrics and just enjoyed Spence&#8217;s guitar versions&#8230; until I was preparing this post and heard the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/qgYIZG4xvY0?si=FqMQSv6uJJU2FiT9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Four Vagabonds&#8217; version<\/a>, which I&#8217;m going to my grave claiming was where he got it, just because.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is my favorite Joseph Spence piece to play &#8212; which is not the same as my favorite to hear. I love Spence&#8217;s singing, whether on his own or with his in-laws, the Pinder family, and if I had to take one Spence recording to the proverbial desert island it would more likely be a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wing-and-a-prayer\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Comin&#8217; In on a Wing and a Prayer (Joseph Spence)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Comin&#039; 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At the time I thought I was pretty close to his sound, and I played a couple of my versions of his arrangements to Ernie Hawkins, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Spence-dvd-cover.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5595,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/burma-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":4094,"position":1},"title":"Burma Road (Joseph Spence\/Ronnie Butler)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I first learned this when I was immersing myself in the guitar style of Joseph Spence, preparatory to making an instructional video on his playing -- but at the time I had no idea it was more than a charming little ditty with a bunch of sections and variations. On\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":170,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sloop-johnb\/","url_meta":{"origin":4094,"position":2},"title":"Sloop John B. (\u00e0 la Joseph Spence)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 20, 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"The most popular Bahamian fisherman's anthem, first printed in 1916, played in the style of the magnificent Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"john b sails","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/john-b-sails-232x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4448,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/spence-medley\/","url_meta":{"origin":4094,"position":3},"title":"Joseph Spence Medley","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"October 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone who has followed this project knows how much I love Joseph Spence's guitar style. I've already posted my versions of his\u00a0 \"Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer,\" \"Happy Meeting in Glory,\" \"Brownskin Girl,\" \"Sloop John B.,\" and \"Glory of Love,\" and written about how I fell in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Spence-Folkways-CD-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1828,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/glory-of-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":4094,"position":4},"title":"Glory of Love (Joseph Spence)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Before heading to Europe, I sat down with my records and made four or five cassettes that served as my music library for the next couple of years. I had various criteria for choosing the cuts, but most were songs or guitar parts I wanted to learn. It was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/annecy-005-300x223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3289,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/brownskin-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":4094,"position":5},"title":"Brownskin Girl (Joseph Spence)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"December 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been fascinated by the Bahamian genius Joseph Spence since I was a kid, and by 1986 I'd worked out rough and inaccurate approximations of a few of his pieces. This was one of my favorites off his Folkways album, and it came in handy when I hitchhiked down through\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Belize-300x205.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4094"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4094\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5960,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4094\/revisions\/5960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}