A "traditional" American song, nowadays often performed in a preaching style and cataloged with gospel tunes. In origin the song is almost certainly a minstrel piece, created for the 19th century tradition of blackface theatre. An early (1905 or 1908) Arthur Collins recording available at loc.gov1 strikes one as being particular authentic to the song's historical roots, making use of a coon character, a now-outdated racial term connoting an African-descended country bumpkin type. Although now considered as a slur, the song's use of race is to the end of slapstick humor, implying a racial dynamic which is playful in character rather than outright derogatory.
The Collins version includes dramatic interludes of conversation and growling effects, which are a delight. Because records were produced in limited quantities and early recording technology was not conducive to extensive production of copies (we're talking Edisonian wax cylinders, here), many original takes were made out of necessity, each with their own unique differences. Although the lyrics are generally consistent between the versions, I have taken the liberty of combining the loc.gov take with a user-submitted YouTube digitization2 of the same song. The YouTube version is indicated to be a 1912 session, a claim substantiated by the fact that it is nearly twice as long as the earlier recording -- and ironically, of higher clarity than the archival version (no point in funding the digitization for items of American heritage, after all) -- indicating an increase in the possible duration enabled by the rapidly-developing technology of cylinder recording.
This transcription is not perfect. As indicated in the text, in some portions I was unable to make out the vocabulary with certainty. Some of the lyrics I have been able to ascertain from printed sheet music for the piece, published in 1905, available via Duke university and lov.gov. All in all, it's a fun song to sing with friends, if you can explain to them why you've suddenly caught on to old blackface minstrelsy. It's got a catchy (if not irregular) melody, and as one gospel YouTube performance demonstrates, it is very adaptable to modern styles. And the Jubalaires' a capella adaptation shows the song is hardly about race as much as it is the fun, fantastic narrative delivery.
The Preacher and the Bear, as performed by Arthur Collins.
A preacher went out a-hunting
'Twas on one Sunday morn'.
Of course it was against his religion,
But he took his gun along!
He shot himself some very fine quail
And one big measly hare;
And on his way returning home,
He met a great big grizzly bear!
The bear walked out in the middle of the road,
And he walked to the coon you see;
The coon got so excited that
He climbed up a simmon tree!
The bear sat down upon the ground,
And the coon climbed out on a limb:
Then he cast his eyes
To the Lord in the skies,
And these words said to him:3
Refrain:
Oh Lord, didn't you deliver Daniel from the Lion's den?
Also, deliver Jonah from the belly of the whale and then --
Three Hebrew children from the fiery furnace, so the Good Book do declare!**
Now Lord, if you can't help me, for goodness sake don't you help that bear!
Dramatic interlude:
Now, Mr. Bear, let's you and me reason this here thing out together, eh? (Grr)
Nice bear... (Grr)
Good old bear... (Grr)
Will you please go away, Mr. Bear? (Grr)
Say Mr. Bear, if I could give you just one nice, sweet, good juicy bite, would you go again then? (Grr, ending with falsetto crescendo indicating affirmative)
Oh, you would, eh? No? So I'll stay right here!
Oh my. Ohhh my! Ohhh --4
Lord, didn't you deliver Daniel from the Lion's den?
Also, deliver Jonah from the belly of the whale and then --
Three Hebrew children from the fiery furnace, so the Good Book do declare!
Now Lord, if you can't help me, for goodness sake don't you help that bear!
Zip Coon stayed up in that tree,5
I think it was all night.
He said, "Oh Lord if you don't help the bear,
Then you'll see an awful fight!"
Just about then, the limb let go,
And the coon come a-tumbling down:
You could see him get his razor** out6
Before he struck the ground!
He hit the ground, a-cutting right and left,
He put up a very game fight.
Just then the bear hugged this coon,
He squeezed him a little too tight!
The coon then lost his razor,
But the bear held on with a vim;
Then he cast his eyes to the Lord in the skies,
And once more said to him:
Oh Lord, didn't you deliver Daniel from the Lion's den?
Also, deliver Jonah from the belly of the whale and then --
Three Hebrew children from the fiery furnace so the Good Book do declare!
Now Lord, if you can't help me, for goodness sake don't you help that bear!
Say, Mr. Bear, I want to act (tropically ?) on the level of this here matter. Now I'll fight you a finish, without gloves, Marquis of Queensbury rules,7 eh? (Grr)
No hitten' in the clinches! (Grr)
And I want a clean break! (Grr)
Ready? Shake hands. Hold on, I didn't say "go", yet! Now, Go! (Grr, vocalized struggle with the bear)
Oh! Ohh! Oh my goodness, what are you doing? Let go! Let go, you hear me? Oh Lord! Ohhh Lord! Ohhh --
Lord, didn't you deliver Daniel from the Lion's den?
Also, deliver Jonah from the belly of the whale and then --
Three Hebrew children from the fiery furnace so the Good Book do declare!
Now Lord, if you can't help me, for goodness sake don't you help that bear!
* razor pronouned (RAH-zoor).
** furnace pronounced (FOY-ness).
1 As of late 2012, located at http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/recordings/detail/id/8145/.
2 At http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXVceSSVlPE.
3 Introducing the chorus of a song as a quotation from a lyrical character seems to be an American meme, and I am unsure as to its (sub-)cultural origin in traditional music more generally. This line function is shared by the traditional song "Git Along, Little Doggies"' beginning stanza,
As I was a-walking one morning for pleasure,
I spied a cow-pincher come riding along;
His hat was throwed back and his spurs were a-jinglin',
As he approached me a-singin' this song: (1947 Lomax/Seeger version)
and, more recently, it is featured in the first pre-prechorus stanza of They Might Be Giants' "Whistling in the Dark":
She looked at me, I looked at something
Written across her scalp
And these are the words that it faintly said
As I tried to call for help:
4 The 1905/08 loc.gov version here ends the dramatic interlude with a laugh ("Yip ha-hah!"), while the 1915 YouTube version leads into the refrain. The later version also includes the second dramatic portion and additional refrain, which is omitted from the earlier recording, probably due to duration constraints of the medium.
5 A reference to Zip Coon, a blackface character and the slur's origin -- the character, a sort of Ethiopian (the default motherland of African-American heritage in satirical depictions, it seems) redneck or bumpkin who wears raccoon-skin moccasins and figures himself a "learned scholar". Blackface minstrel groups often featured a regular cast of characters, another being Jump Jim Crow, the eponym of Jim Crow laws. Racial parody was not limited to those bearing dark skin, and Orientalizing caricatures of Asian-Americans were also common, and continued to pop up in American folk ballads (including early verses of "John Hardy" cataloged by the Lomax/Seeger songcatching superteam, now excluded from group songbooks) through the 20th century.
6 The use of shaving razors (pronounced (RAH-zoor), in mocking of African-American enunciation of the time) by black characters as a melee weapon is a regular shtick in proto-country songs featuring minstrelsy-derived themes. One other notable example would be "Coon from Tennessee", performed by many, including the popular Charlie Poole around 1930 who sang the second verse thus:
I'm gonna run me a cemetery of my own,
If you don't leave my sweet gal alone.
Gonna buy me a razor, scrape the blade,
Gonna lay some son-of-a-gun in the shade...
7 Blackface characters making attempts at high Western culture was a regular gag in shows, e.g., "black vernacular" recitation of Shakespeare was a common trope.
I have a theory that the chorus of "The Preacher and the Bear" can be heard in the structure of Janis Joplin's song "Mercedes Benz". For added fun, read the "Preacher" chorus in Joplin's voice!