Cindy – Fiddle Tune a Day – Day 227

It’s great how so many fiddle tunes start as a simple melody. Then, we get to fiddle around with it, and add to it without losing the essence of the melody. Tunes like this include Sally Goodin, Cripple Creek, Arkansas Traveller, Turkey in the Straw, Rabbit Where’s your Mammy, and (among many others), Cindy.

Cindy is also one of the first tunes I teach to my fiddle students. It’s got a great memorable melody, and is fun to play.

One of my specific memories of this tune is hearing Dick Barrett play it on his album “At the Fiddler’s Knee.” He really epitomizes the concept of adding to the tune while still staying true to its essence.

 

 

Cindy according to Fiddler’s Companion

CINDY [1]. AKA and see “Cindy in the Summertime,” “Cindy in the Meadows,”  “Get Along Home (Miss) Cindy,” “Git Along, Cindy,” “J’etais au Bal,” “Old Time Cinda,” “Run Along Home, Cindy,”   “Whoop ‘Em Up Cindy,”  Old‑Time, Song and Breakdown. USA; Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi. D Major (most versions): G Major (John Brown). Standard or ADae tuning. AB (Brody): AABB (Phillips/1989 {the ‘B’ part is ‘crooked’ in Phillip’s version}): AA’BB (Phillips, 1994). A widely known frolic tune, appearing in many folk music collections and even old elementary school songbooks. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published in 1954, and was recorded for the Library of Congress in 1939 by Mississippi fiddler John Brown. A very popular Cajun version of the tune, probably borrowed from the American song, is “J’etais au Bal” (I Went to the Dance Last Night).  Verses set to the tune are many, including several “floaters”:

***

Cindy in the summertime, Cindy in the fall,

Can’t have Cindy all the time, don’t want Cindy at all.

Chorus

Get along home, get along home,

Get along home, Cindy, fare you well.

***

You ought to see my Cindy, she lives way down South,

She’s so sweet the honey bees all swarm around her mouth.

***

Wish I had a needle as fine as it could sew,

I’d sew that gal to my coat‑tail, and down the road I’d go.

***

Went upon the mountain, to give my horn a blow,

Hollered back to Cindy, oh yander she go. (Rosenbaum)

***

When I was a little lad, about six inches high,

I used to court the pretty girls to hear the old folks cry;

Get a‑long down, down Big Sandy, Get a‑long down, down Big Sandy,

Get a‑long down, down Big Sandy, that’s the place for you.             (Thomas & Leeder)

***

The Big Sandy River, referred to in Thomas & Leeder’s lyric, forms the border between Kentucky and West Virginia and flows into the Ohio River at Catlettsburg, Ky.  It was a flat‑boat trade route before the advent of the railroads. See also similar stanzas printed by African-American collector Thomas Talley in Negro Folk Rhymes (1922) under the title “She Hugged Me and Kissed Me.” A song derived from the well-known “Cindy”, is a “Cindy” from the singing of Dan Tate (b. 1896), of Fancy Gap, Carroll County, Va.. It goes:

***

Railroad, a plank road,

A river and canal;

If it hadn’t have been for Doctor Grey,

There never would have been any hell.

***

Cho:

Get along home Cindy,

Get along home I say;

Get along home Cindy girl,

For I am a-going away.

***

A railroad, a plank road,

A river and canoe;

If it hadn’t have been for old John Jones,

They never would a-killed old Jude.

***

Tate said that Jude was a slave of a Doctor Gray, who abused her when she became pregnant and would not tell who the father of her child was.

***

Cindy (Folk Song) According to Wikipedia

“Cindy” (“Cindy, Cindy”) is a popular American folk song. According to John Lomax, the song originated in North Carolina. In the early and middle 20th century, Cindy was included in the songbooks used in many elementary school music programs as an example of folk music. It is familiar from the chorus:

Get along home, Cindy Cindy,

Get along home, Cindy Cindy,

Get along home, Cindy Cindy,

I’ll marry you some day.

One of the earliest versions of “Cindy” is found in Anne Virginia Culbertson’s collection of Negro folktales (At the Big House, where Aunt Nancy and Aunt ‘Phrony Held Forth on the Animal Folks, Bobbs-Merrill, 1904) where one of her characters, Tim, “sang a plantation song named ‘Cindy Ann’,” the first verse and refrain of which are:

I’se gwine down ter Richmond,

I’ll tell you w’a hit’s for:

I’se gwine down ter Richmond,

Fer ter try an’ end dis war.

An’-a you good-by, Cindy, Cindy

Good-by, Cindy Ann;

An’-a you good-by, Cindy, Cindy

I’se gwine ter Rappahan.^[1]

As with many folk songs, each singer was free to add verses, and many did. Cindy was a particular favorite for this, with many ribald verses added, attesting to Cindy’s amorous inclinations. The tune is taken from the spiritual The Gospel Train, also known as “Get on Board Little Children”.

Versions

Benjamin Weisman, Dolores Fuller and Fred Wise wrote a version of “Cindy” called “Cindy, Cindy”. This version is the familiar one recorded by such performers as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Warren Zevon, Nick Cave (in a duet with Johnny Cash), and others. Dr. Mack Wilberg’s choral arrangement of the piece was written for four-hand piano, double eight-part choirs, a string bass, xylophone, and a score of quintessential Americana instruments to supplement the melody during the arrangement’s hoedown section. This arrangement is available for any choir to learn and perform, although Wilberg also wrote a special arrangement to be performed by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The choral parts are the same, but the accompaniment has been rewritten for full orchestra (specifically the Orchestra at Temple Square). Robert Plant has included an arrangement of “Cindy” on his cd, Band of Joy.

Cindy Cindy Lyrics

You ought to see my Cindy

She lives way down South

She’s so sweet the honey bees,

They swarm around her mouth

Get along home Cindy, Cindy

Get along home Cindy, Cindy

Get along home Cindy, Cindy

I’ll marry you some day

In popular culture

The song is performed in the 1957 episode of Maverick (TV series), “Hostage” by Don Durant.^[2]

The song is performed in the 1959 John Wayne movie – Rio Bravo^[3]. It is performed by Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan.