Lyr Add: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood

Subject: Tune Req: kindling wood
From:
Date: 05 Mar 03 - 08:31 PM

My English grandfather used to sing a song about 'kindling wood'. It went something like..."kindling wood, kindling wood, we're selling kindling wood to get along. If you'd like to help us, just buy some kindling wood, We're selling kindling wood to get along". Do these words stir any recollections in anyone? Would love to find the title, words, tune etc. but have had no luck so far.

Subject: Lyr Add: KINDLING WOOD (from Bessie Jones)
From: Sorcha
Date: 05 Mar 03 - 08:37 PM

Kindling Wood

Bessie Jones.

My name is Robert Johnson
All the way from North Carolina
I am selling kindling wood to get along

Kindling wood (Yes kindling wood)
Yes, kindling wood (Yes kindling wood)
I am selling kindling wood to get along.

Kindling wood (Yes kindling wood)
Yes, kindling wood (Yes kindling wood)
I am selling kindling wood to get along.
\

Yes, I got the left hind leg of a rabbit
And things are coming my way
Ya know all I got to do is just reach out and grab it
And things are coming my way

Oh me, me oh my
I feel happy all of the time
I don't have nothing to worry my mind
Because things are coming my way.

Oh me, how good I feel
I got possession of an automobile
And I can eat chicken that I don't have to steal

Because things are coming my way.

From: http://www.matchlite.com/sncrj/WebHelp/sncrjKindling_Wood.htm

Subject: RE: Tune Req: kindling wood
From: rich-joy
Date: 05 Mar 03 - 09:15 PM

Fuller lyrics of the "Things Are Coming My Way" part, were submitted in a thread for the DT last year and I THOUGHT I had an old recording of Bessie Jones and the G.S.I.S. doing it, but, damned if I can find it now!!!

Cheers! R-J

Subject: RE: Tune Req: kindling wood
From: GUEST,Sandra Vaughan
Date: 02 Oct 09 - 02:54 PM

This is a song that my Daddy would sing to me back in the 40's. His version didn't make much sense but here it is:

Kindling Woood, Kindling Wood
I'm selling kindling wood to get along.
Found a horseshoe it was rusty,
I piked it up and hung it "ore" my door.
Will you be mine? Oh Yes!
Will you be mine? Oh Yes!
Cause I'm selling kindling wood to get along.

Wondering where this song orginated?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 11:41 AM

From an article "Poughkeepsie's Great Day: The Inter-Collegiate Boat Race" by Arthur Ruhl, in Outing Magazine, Volume 52, No. 3 (New York: The Outing Publishing Company, June, 1908), page 318:

And when the ticket speculators are barking and the town girls in their summer dresses scurrying past and these young men with their arms on each other's shoulders and little bits of caps on the backs of their heads stroll by, smoking pipes and actually singing in "close" harmony:

"Kindling woo-oo-ood, kindling wo-oo-ood,
I'm selling kindling wood to get along"—

it seems so much too good to be true that....

[I think he's describing college students here. "College songs" were once very popular, but like "scout songs" or "camp songs" their origins were often not well documented.]

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood
From: Artful Codger
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 02:48 PM

A version transcribed from a recording made in 1922 may be found in The Frank C. Brown Collection of NC Folklore: Vol. V, p. 228. At Google Books, this title is preview-only, so it's possible my link will not display the page for you as it did for me.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood
From: Artful Codger
Date: 09 Nov 11 - 03:15 PM

I also tripped across mention of another song sung to the same tune: "We're growing soy beans to get along"; see here:
William J. Morse: History of His Work with Soybeans and Soyfood:
http://books.google.com/books?id=XgvCZIFpLSIC&pg=PA95
One verse and the chorus are quoted.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood
From: GUEST,Celia Sinclair
Date: 12 Dec 11 - 08:00 AM

This is actually one of my all-time favorite songs in the world. I was delighted to find this page with all of your valuable research. For anyone who is looking for the wonderful Bessie Smith version of "Kindling Wood," you can find it at amazon.com. Just search for "Put Your Hands on Your Hips and Let Your Backbone Slip" by the great Bessie Jones. It is currently on offer (used) for $11.78, plus shipping. Thanks again for the info!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood
From: GUEST,Ibby
Date: 01 Aug 13 - 10:35 AM

We had a family quartet and this is one of the songs we sang in very close harmony one. Down by the station, close to the fountain, I was cutting kindling wood to buy( or build) a boat( a great big boat), down by the station close to the fountain I was cutting kindling wood to buy a boat.Kindling wood,kindling wood, I was cutting kindling wood to buy a boat. We then synched into "Oh that little old red shawl my mother wore" I am 87 years old and the the other members of my quartet are all gone, but I woke up this morning singing about kindling wood.

Subject: Lyr Add: KINDLING WOOD
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Aug 13 - 12:25 PM

Lyr. Add: Kindling Wood

My name is Dinah
From South Carolina
And I'm selling kindling wood to get along
And won't you buy some
Oh, won't you buy some
For I'm selling kindling wood to get along.

With musical score. Sung by R. D. Ware, recorded at Trinity College, 1922.
See JAFL XXXIII 127.
Brown, North Carolina Folklore, Music of the Folk Songs, edit. J. P. Schinhan. Vol. 5, no. 324.

Subject: Lyr Add: THERE WAS AN OLD MILLER
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Aug 13 - 12:59 PM

Lyr. Add: THERE WAS AN OLD MILLER
No. 46
There was an old miller who lived all alone;
He had but one daughter, and that was his own;
Go, daughter, go, daughter, choose you one;
Go choose you a rich one or else choose none.

And now you are married, you must be good,
Supply your wife with kindling wood.
Split it up fine and carry it in,
And then she'll let you kiss her again.

Some Play-Party Games in Michigan.
Emelyn E. Gardner, p. 126.
JAFL, vol. XXXIII, no. 128, pp. 93-133.

Another song mentioning kindling wood.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Aug 13 - 01:01 PM

The above coll. 1920.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 01 Aug 13 - 01:40 PM

North Carolina Folklore, vol. 3, Folk Songs From North Carolina, p. 375 (no. 324) it is noted that the version sung by Ware (posted above) was popular with glee clubs c. 1906-15.

Here is another version from North Carolina:

Version C

Her name is Ina
And she's from South Ca'lina
And she's splitting kindling wood to get along,
To get along, to get along,
And she's splitting kindling wood to get along.

Reported by Gertrude Allen (Mrs. Vaught). P. 376.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Kindling Wood / Kindlin' Wood
From: GUEST,hallasun
Date: 26 Jan 16 - 10:01 PM

There's a good version of it on YouTube by Geyer Street Sheiks on Feb 2013

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTkFQ3eaGOs