Jeremiah blow the fire

AKA Jeremiah Jones
First Published 1877
Writer/composer John J Stamford Roud RN18583

Music Hall Performers GH MacDermott, JW Rowley
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Bennett, George; England : Suffolk 1975-80
Clancy Children; Ireland : Co. Tipperary : 1955-61
Flower, Mrs. Eliza; England : Northamptonshire : nd
McGuire, Edward; Ireland : Co. Westmeath : 1938		 

JEREMIAH, BLOW THE FIRE.
Published by E. H. limunna, 429 Bowery, N. Y. Music and words, 10 cents.

My name is Jeremiah Jones, and when I was a child,
I used to play a little game which drove my mother wild; 
I'd take the bellows on my knee, to blow the fire I'd try, 
And when the fire began to blaze, I lustily would cry:

Jeremiah, blow the fire, puff, puff, puff, 
Jeremiah, blow the fire, puff, puff, puff,
First you do it gently, then you come it rather rough, 
Jeremiah, blow the fire, puff, puff, puff.

Then when a little older to a farrier I was bound,
To learn the art of shoeing, which a bootless task I found;
They canceled my indentures, for I raised my master's ire 
By shouting out the whole day long while blowing at the fire.

In time I loved a pretty girl and strange tho' it may be, 
The lady in her younger days was just the same to me;
And when I asked her to be mine, she bowed her lovely head, 
And as I pressed my lips to hers, in artful tones she said:
SPOKEN:You remember the old song of

We're married now, I'm proud to say, and have been many years; 
We're very happy and we've got a dozen little dears;
They're all of them strong-winded, which you'd say without a doubt,
If you came into our domicile and chanced to hear them shout:

The phrase Jeremiah blow the fire seems to have been in use long before the song existed. In a memoir about his schooldays, published in 1841, George Wickham described how students would torment a school servant:

[we would] endeavour to irritate him  … calling aloud his Christian name, salute him as follows: “Jeremiah blow the fire, puff, puff, puff!” and then slamming the door, scamper away ..

A Blue-coat Boy’s Recollections of Hertford School, George Wickham, 1841

I am not sure where the phrase comes from, but all uses before 1877 that I can find are limited to Jeremiah blow the fire: puff puff puff! The phrase first seems to have been developed into a song by John J Stamford, a prolific writer of pantomimes, sketches and songs. It was first sung in the Halls by GH MacDermott and later also by JW “Over” Rowley (MacDermott sold Rowley the right to sing it outside London, a common practice at that time.)

The Era – Sunday 15 July 1877

The song was considered suggestive – during a libel case in 1882 Robert Villiers owner of the Pavillion Music Hall, gave evidence that it was one of a number of the songs he had forbidden as a result of their “rude or doubtful character”. Its clear from the reports of the case that it was the way the songs were sung that made them objectionable, not necessarily the words. Having said that it doesn’t take too much imagination to see how the words could be performed in a sexually suggestive way.

Its perhaps ironic then that a fragment of the song evolved into a 2oth century nursery rhyme, given by the Iona and Peter Opie as:

Jeremiah, blow the fire,
Puff, puff, puff!
First you blow it gently,
Then you blow rough.

The Oxford dictionary of nursery rhymes, Iona and Peter Opie, 1977

As sung by the Clancy Brothers:

It is often sung to babies whilst blowing on tummies!

Sources: