494
If I Had It You Could Get It
Reported as sung by Negroes in Alabama (ANFS 309) and the
refrain of it without precise location is reported by Odum ( JAFL
XXIV 385) as Negro song; a like phrase occurs in a Negro con-
struction-gang song (NWS 91) ; reminiscent of it is a riddle on a
bald head reported from North Carolina (JAFL xxx 204). Not
improbably it is originally from the vaudeville stage.
'Logging Song.' Sent in by Julian P. Boyd, Alliance. Pamlico county,
as collected from a pupil in the school there, .Minnie Lee, who said it
was "heard in a logging camp." But in itself it has nothing to do with
logging.
1 I went right down to my old friend Joe
As I had been the day be to'.
And he said. 'Why didn't you come right down to me?
For I could have let you had a Y.
But 1 only have a twenty-dollar bill lett.
And 1 couldn't spare that to nobody.'
Chorus:
[i 1 had it you could get it.
But 1 am very sorry I haven't got it;
For I am all in and down and out !
2 When 1 had money I was crazy to lend.
If I ever get my hand on a dollar again
I'm going to hold fast to it.
For it's my only friend
When I am all in and down and out.