Lyr Req: Firewood Song? / Woodcutter's Song

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WOODCUTTER'S SONG^^^
From: harpgirl
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 12:11 AM

...I don't think this is in the DT and it's one of my favorites...can't remember where I first heard it...

THE WOODCUTTER'S SONG

Oak logs will warm you well
That are old and dry
Logs of pine will sweetly smell
But the sparks will fly
Birch logs will burn too fast
And chestnut scarce at all, sir
Hawthorne logs are good to last
That are cut well in the fall, sir

Surely you will find
No compare in the hardwood logs
Cut in the winter time

Holly logs will burn like wax
You could burn them green
Elm logs burn like smolderin flax
With no flame to be seen
Beech logs for winter time
Yew logs as well, sir
Green elder logs it is a crime
For any man to sell, sir

Surely you will find
No compare in the hardwood logs
Cut in the winter time

Pear logs and apple logs
They will scent your room
And cherry logs across the dogs
Smell like flowers a bloom
But ash logs smooth and gray
Buy them green or old, sir
And buy up all that come your way
For they're worth their weight in gold sir

chorus...
^^^
a great song for those of us who love wood...Bill D and Spaw in particular...

---

[added to the Digital Tradition in 2000 (click)]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Woodcutter's Song
From: MMario
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 08:37 AM

These lyrics are VERY similair to, but not identical with, "Logs to Burn"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Woodcutter's Song
From: Willie-O
Date: 09 Feb 00 - 08:44 PM

Well I was out in the snow hackin away with my chainsaw today--cherry logs across the dogs? (Yipe!)

The rhyme reminded ends:
"But ash wood wet or ash wood dry
A king can warm his slippers by."

The point being, that all your wood should be well dried before you burn it (cut a year earlier), but ash burns better green than most others, if you must.

But how come they didn't mention maple? That's our number one. Mine anyway.

Willie-O

Subject: Firewood Song - help!
From:
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 10:57 AM

Around a campfire I once heard someone sing a song about all the different trees, and the kind of fires their wood is good for. I've also heard a rumour that it was recorded by the Incredible String Band, but I've not found it yet. Any suggestions? Ta, Ben.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: mg
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 11:00 AM

it's a great song...more wood stove wood...you should be out chopping more wood...maybe do a search with some of those words..

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: MMario
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 11:15 AM

is it this one?

LOGS TO BURN

Also take a look at WOODCUTTER'S SONG

and the one Mary mentioned is here MORE WOOD

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: MMario
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 11:30 AM

and if anyone has the tunes.....(hint, hint, hint)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Peg
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 11:44 AM

Perhaps you mean Oaken Logs?

Oaken logs will warm you well that are old and dry
Logs of pine will sweetly smell but the sparks will fly

that one?

My band MotherTongue recorded it on "This Winter's Night"...the poem is old and the tune setting is by a group called Coven in the Greenwood (but I think the tune itself is old).

Subject: Lyr Add: THE WOODCUTTER'S SONG^^^
From: Peg
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 11:50 AM

I found that this is called The Woodcutters' song in the other thread, Mario...I know slightly differet lyrics which I have added in parentheses....

THE WOODCUTTER'S SONG

Oak logs will warm you well
That are old and dry
Logs of pine will sweetly smell
But the sparks will fly
Birch logs will burn too fast
And chestnut scarce at all, sir
(*Chestnut scarce at all)
Hawthorne logs are good to last
That are cut well in the fall, sir (Cut them in the fall)

Surely you will find No compare in the hardwood logs Cut in the winter time (none of these lyrics occur in the version I know)

Holly logs will burn like wax
You could burn them green (You may burn them green)
Elm logs burn like smolderin flax (Elm logs like to smoldering flax)
With no flame to be seen (no flame to be seen)
Beech logs for winter time (Beech logs for the winter time)
Yew logs as well, sir (no "sir" occurs anywhere in the verion I know)
Green elder logs it is a crime
For any man to sell, sir (again, no "sir")
Oaken logs will warm you well that are old and dry.

Surely you will find No compare in the hardwood logs Cut in the winter time (again this is not familiar but I would like to know how it fits into the tune and version I know)

Pear logs and apple logs
They will scent your room
And cherry logs across the dogs (no "and")
Smell like flowers a bloom (smell like flowers of broom)
But ash logs smooth and gray (Ashen logs smooth and gray)
Buy them green or old, sir (Burn them green or old)
And buy up all that come your way (no "and")
For they're worth their weight in gold sir (worth their weight in gold)

Oaken logs will warm you well that are old and dry.^^^

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Night Owl
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 12:26 PM

"More Wood" is one of my favorite winter songs which speaks "truth" for anyone who heats with wood. The version I'm familiar with (lyrics the same as in Mario's link to the DT)is on the "Voices of Winter" cd by Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, and Cindy Mangsen issued in 1997 by Gadfly Records in Burlington Vermont. (On my list of cd's to buy.) Their madrigal style of singing the tune is wonderful!! When you locate the song you're looking for....hope you'll try "Folk Legacy" or "Camsco" to see if they have it available....

Subject: ADD Version: The Woodcutter's Song
From: Allan C.
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 12:39 PM

The lyrics Peg posted are the ones used by Pint & Dale on their "When Winter Comes" CD. This is one of my favorites. You can find them and their lyrics here:

http://members.aol.com/Pintndale

---

THE WOODCUTTER'S SONG

Oak logs will warm you well
As are old and dry.
Logs of Pine will sweetly smell
But the sparks will fly.
Birch logs will burn too fast.
Chestnut's scarce at all, sir.
And Hawthorne logs are known to last
That are cut down in the fall, sir.

Chorus:
Surely you will find
There's none compare with the hardwood logs
That are cut in wintertime, sir.

Holly logs will burn like wax.
You can burn them green.
Elm logs burn like smouldering flax
With no flames to be seen.
Beech logs for wintertime
Few logs do as well, sir.
Green Alder logs - it is a crime
For any man to sell, sir.

Chorus

Pear logs and Apple logs,
They will scent your room.
Cherry logs across the dogs
Smell like flowers in bloom.
But Ash logs, smooth and gray,
Buy them green or old, sir,
And buy up all that come your way
For they are worth their weight in gold, sir.

Chorus (twice)


As sung by William Pint & Felicia Dale on their
"When I See Winter Return" CD (Waterbug)

---

[chorus different from the version added to the Digital Tradition in 2000 (click)]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Allan C.
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 12:41 PM

(I meant the lyrics as they were before the editing.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: GUEST,LynnT
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 12:54 PM

I recall hearing "More Wood" on a Metamora album more than ten years ago -- sung by Malcolm Dalglish, Pete Sutherland et al. If memory serves, it was written by Dillen Bustin, and also shows up on his Almanac album.

Hope this helps.

Lynn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 01:23 PM

If it's of any interest to mbwilliams85, "The Woodcutter's Song" was recorded not by the Incredible String Band, but by Robin Williamson and his Merry Band (understandable confusion!)  (AWL 1006, 1986 and Flying Fish FF096, 1989)  I should think that it's available on CD nowadays.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 01:26 PM

I forgot to add the title of the record...it was "A Glint of the Kindling".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Gypsy
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 03:45 PM

Peg, tune? As someone who heats solely with wood, and cooks with it six months out of the year.....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: GUEST,marshman
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 04:21 PM

A couple of my favorite firewood songs have more to do with love and relationships than fire, but the metaphores are colorful and the songs lovely. Jim Morrisy sings one that I think is called "Birches" and Kate Wolf's "Leggett Serenade" should both be in the files.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Peg
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 05:03 PM

gypsy;

I don't know how to put tunes into the forum! (sorry) I could try to do a solfaichez (sp?) version...

Sol fa me re do te do (yes, that is "me" as in "may" and not "mi" and "te" as in "tay" not "ti" as this is in a minor key)

do do re do te do

sol fa me re do te do

do do re do te do

me re me fa sol le sol

(high) do do te do sol

me re me fa sol le sol

(high) do do te do sol

sol fa me re do te do

do do re do te do

oh my gosh i can't believe i still remember how to do that!

anyone want to check that out and tell me if i am right??? my high school voice teacher would be so proud!

peg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Peg
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 05:34 PM

just curious, Allen; when did Pint and Dale's recording of this come out? I notice their CD titles is similar to the Mothertongue album; I wonder if we did the same version, and if so, whose came first? the song was kinda in the "pagan public domain" I believe...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Allan C.
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 07:21 PM

I made an error on the CD title. It is "When I See Winter Return" which, if you translate to French is the title of one of the other great songs on it. The copyright date is 1997 and it is on the Waterbug label. "January Man" and "The Trees Are All Bare" are my other favorites on this CD.

Some time ago I corresponded with William Pint about "The Woodcutter's Song" and its source. He said that as far as he knew it was traditional and mentioned the name of someone from whom he had heard it. I have long since forgotten the name he gave.

Pint & Dale have been known to drop by here from time to time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Gypsy
Date: 29 Dec 00 - 10:27 PM

Peg, you are such a clever creature! Never heard of doing it that way before. Thank you!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Peg
Date: 30 Dec 00 - 08:20 AM

clever? moi?

it is the only way I know how! I don't play any instrument well enough, or at any rate can't remember enough of what I learned in music theory to pull it out of air like that.

I found out as i got older that many musicians never learned solfaichez in school which shocked me. In voice class we did some sight singing every day! and the same teacher had us do a lot of it in theory class, too.

peg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: MMario
Date: 02 Jan 01 - 05:31 PM

Peg - what key? I could try to put it into a midi... then send you a gif to verify....

Subject: Tune Add: THE WOODCUTTER'S SONG
From: Snuffy
Date: 02 Jan 01 - 06:54 PM

Mario,

Here's an attempt at it I did earlier this evening. I'm guessing C Minor for the key, and the note lengths are guesses too. Feel free to play around with it.

X: 159
T:THE WOODCUTTER'S SONG
M:4/4
L:1/4
Q:100
K:Cm
GFED|CB,C2|C/C/DCB,|C4|
GFED|CB,C2|C/C/DCB,|C4|
EDEF|GAG2,|ccBc|G4 |
EDEF|GAG2,|ccBc|G4 |
GFED|CB,C2|C/C/DCB,|C4|

Wassail! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song - help!
From: Peg
Date: 03 Jan 01 - 01:23 AM

no idea what key...choose one! minor...Em or Dm perhaps?

Subject: Firewood songs...
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Nov 10 - 05:45 PM

We're well into woodstove season here in the Sierra Nevada foothills of Northern California. They predict we may have snow tomorrow. Makes me think I gotta find a woman with a chainsaw...

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song? / Woodcutter's Song
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 19 Nov 10 - 07:44 PM

Our version playing HERE - at least it was the last time I looked! Our woodstove is still in the in-law's garage (three years & counting) since we relocated to Lancashire. Clear skies tonight driving home from our favourite sesh; very cold but our hearts are warm - one of these days I will open up the old chimney breast & fit the stove..

---

direct link (click)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song? / Woodcutter's Song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 03:50 AM

Here's a recording of "Woodcutter's Song by some friends from San Francisco:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCgs4KmMlm8

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song? / Woodcutter's Song
From: Gda Music
Date: 18 Dec 14 - 04:47 PM

Mighty Terror - *Cutting Wood*

Bawdy calypso "boise bande" - a Caribbean aphrodisiac (from stiff or hard wood) is asking the lady to take his wood, she likes the look and the size but this real hardwood he carries might do her a mischief!.

http://youtu.be/trBG0xeDJug

GJ

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song? / Woodcutter's Song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Dec 14 - 01:46 AM

Anyone have information about the origins of "Woodcutter's Song"? It seems like an old song, but maybe it isn't. I didn't find any mention of it in the Traditional Ballad Index, which indexes a great number of songbooks.

This (click) is intriguing, the results of a Google Books search for "cut them in the fall" "they will scent your room." Those phrases appear in a book titled The Book of Ballymote: A Collection of Pieces (prose and Verse) in the Irish Language, published by the Royal Irish Academy in 1887. The book isn't available online at Google Books. Anybody have access to it? This could be our earliest reference to this poem. -Joe-

Subject: ADD: Song of the Forest Trees (O'Grady)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Dec 14 - 02:07 AM

Here's a poem from The Poem-Book of the Gael: Translations from Irish Gaelic Poetry into English Prose and Verse, selected and edited by Eleanor Hull (Browne & Howell Co., Chicago, 1913), page 99

SONG OF THE FOREST TREES
(Standish Hayes O'Grady)

O MAN that for Fergus of the feasts dost kindle fire,
Whether afloat or ashore burn not the king of woods.

Monarch of Innisfail's forests the woodbine is, whom none may hold captive;
No feeble sovereign's effort is it to hug all tough trees in his embrace.

The pliant woodbine if thou burn, wailings for misfortune will abound,
Dire extremity at weapons' points or drowning in great waves will follow.

Burn not the precious apple-tree of spreading and low-sweeping bough;
Tree ever decked in bloom of white, against whose fair head all men put forth the hand.

The surly blackthorn is a wanderer, a wood that the artificer burns not;
Throughout his body, though it be scanty, birds in their flocks warble.

The noble willow burn not, a tree sacred to poems;
Within his bloom bees are a-sucking, all love the little cage.

The graceful tree with the berries, the wizard's tree, the rowan, burn;
But spare the limber tree; burn not the slender hazel.

Dark is the colour of the ash; timber that makes the wheels to go;
Rods he furnishes for horsemen's hands, his form turns battle into flight.

Tenterhook among woods the spiteful briar is, burn him that is so keen and green;
He cuts, he flays the foot, him that would advance he forcibly drags backward.

Fiercest heat-giver of all timber is green oak, from him none may escape unhurt;
By partiality for him the head is set on aching, and by his acrid embers the eye is made sore.

Alder, very battle-witch of all woods, tree that is hottest in the fight
Undoubtedly burn at thy discretion both the alder and whitethorn.

Holly, burn it green; holly, burn it dry;
Of all trees whatsoever the critically best is holly.

Elder that hath tough bark, tree that in truth hurts sore;
Him that furnishes horses to the armies from the sidh burn so that he be charred.

The birch as well, if he be laid low, promises abiding fortune;
Burn up most sure and certainly the stalks that bear the constant pods.

Suffer, if it so please thee, the russet aspen to come head-long down;
Burn, be it late or early, the tree with the palsied branch.

Patriarch of long-lasting woods is the yew, sacred to feasts, as is well-known;
Of him now build ye dark-red vats of goodly size.

Ferdedh, thou faithful one, wouldst thou but do my behest:
To thy soul as to thy body, O man, 'twould work advantage.

STANDISH HAYES O'GRADY.


So, it's the same general idea, but I don't think it's the source of the other two songs.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song? / Woodcutter's Song
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Aug 19 - 02:01 PM

Since Metamora's 'More Wood' has been mentioned, can anyone upload it?
I've asked all 3 members of the band. Apparently, it (and Gardening) was recorded at a concert, and never made it to disk? None of them had it. More like a folk-FM favorite. I used to play it, but the cassette vanished. I did post 'Gardening' on youtube.

And yes, "The Woodcutter's Song" was recorded not by the Incredible String Band, but by Robin Williamson and his Merry Band. A friend just posted the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song? / Woodcutter's Song
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 21 Aug 19 - 11:19 PM

The Wood Song (aka woodcutter's song) was one of the first songs our quartet, Castlebay, recorded in 1987. We arranged it kind of like a canon with some wild harmonies. Great song!
Julia

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Firewood Song? / Woodcutter's Song
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 21 Aug 19 - 11:21 PM

Here's our version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of1Dt69dF-M