When BioShock Infinite players heard a choir sing Will the Circle Be Unbroken without the word Lord, many accused the developers of censorship. In fact, the game's 1912 setting used the original 1907 lyrics, and most listeners had never heard them. This episode traces the century-long evolution of the song, from its publication in Chicago by Charles M. Alexander with music by Charles H. Gabriel and lyrics by Ada R. Habershon, through the oral-tradition mutation captured by the Metropolitan Quartet in 1927, to A.P. Carter's 1935 rewrite for the Carter Family.

We look at how Carter replaced fireside imagery with a hearse and a dying mother, changed a hopeful question into a declaration of faith, and created a separately copyrighted work over a public-domain melody. From there the song became an open framework: John Lee Hooker's rhythm-and-blu ...