Cindy (folk song)
American folk song / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Cindy" ("Cindy, Cindy") is a popular American folk song. According to John Lomax, the song originated in North Carolina.[citation needed] 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. 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. In addition, as Byron Arnold and Bob Halli noted in An Alabama Songbook, performers could swap verses with those of other songs, including "Old Joe Clark" and "Boil Them Cabbage Down".[2]
The tune is taken from the spiritual "The Gospel Train", also known as "Get on Board Little Children".