Oh, Dem Golden Slippers
"O Dem Golden Slippers" is a popular song commonly sang by blackface performers in the 19th century. The song was penned by African-American James A. Bland in 1879.
A minstrel show song set in the style of a spiritual, the song's first stanza tells of the protagonist setting aside such fine clothes as golden slippers, a long-tailed coat and a white robe for a chariot ride in the morning to Heaven.
This leads to the refrain: Oh, dem golden slippers / Oh, dem golden slippers / Golden slippers I'se goin' to wear / Because they look so neat. / Oh, dem golden slippers / Oh, dem golden slippers / Golden slippers I'se goin' to wear / To walk the golden street.
The second stanza describes the protagonist meeting up with other family members in Heaven. In the third, the protagonist tells children to prepare themselves for their own chariot ride.
Cultural references
- The song is best known today as the theme song of the Philadelphia Mummers Parade.
- Also well known nowadays in the brass band movement as the classic cornet solo "Golden Slippers". Composed by Salvationist Norman Bearcroft, this solo has been made famous by virtuoso Salvation Army cornetist David Daws
- The song is used in a key scene in the 1948 John Ford film Fort Apache, in a dance at the fort shortly before the arrogant Colonel Thursday (Henry Fonda) leads his men into a senseless and tragic massacre. (Ironically, the song would likely not have been published at the time the movie's story takes place.)
- The song, by then long in public domain, was used in early American television commercials for Golden Grahams cereal in the 1970s, with the refrain reworked in various ways around the phrase "Oh, those Golden Grahams".
- In The Simpsons episode Deep Space Homer, during a dangerous reentry, Homer Simpson sings the reworked "Golden Grahams" theme to calm himself, while his fellow astronauts hum "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". (This is itself a reference to the movie version of Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff", and its John Glenn reentry sequence.)