I'll Fly Away

Avalon is the third artist on this site's backlog to record Albert Brumley's 1932 hymn within this same review cycle, and this version keeps his original text completely intact — no added verse, no reworked bridge. 'Some glad morning when this life is over, I'll fly away' still carries its plain, unadorned confidence about what comes after death, three artists and multiple arrangements later without losing any of its directness.

'To a land where joy shall never end' reaches toward Philippians 1:23's admission that departing to be with Christ is 'far better' than staying, and 2 Corinthians 5:1's image of 'a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens' sits behind the hymn's confidence that what's ahead is a genuine upgrade, not merely an ending. The repeated 'hallelujah, bye and bye' keeps the tone celebratory rather than mournful — grief for what's ending stays almost entirely absent from a hymn that's really about anticipation.