“Walking in Jerusalem Just Like John” is a traditional African American spiritual, also known by its refrain “I Want to Be Ready.” It was sung well before it was recorded, and a published version appeared as early as the 1910s.
The song is about spiritual readiness. Its chorus — the wish to be ready to walk in Jerusalem just like John — looks toward the New Jerusalem of scripture and toward John, the disciple granted a vision of it. To be ready is to live so as to be fit for that walk.
Bill Monroe arranged the spiritual for his Blue Grass Quartet and recorded it in 1951, setting it in the close gospel-quartet harmony that became a hallmark of bluegrass.
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