“Going to See My True Love (Jenny Get Around)”

Description

"The days are long and lonesome, The nights are gettin' cold, I'm goin' to see my true love 'Fore I get too old. O get around, Jenny, get around, O get around I say... long summer's day." Mostly floating verses, mostly about courting

Notes

This is one of those Great Floating Verse collections; every line of this song (as printed by Jean Ritchie) can be found somewhere else: "The days are long and lonesome, The nights are gettin' cold, I'm goin' to see my true love 'Fore I get too old." "I went up on the mountain, Give my horn a blow, Thought I heard that pretty girl say Yonder comes my beau!" "Asked that girl to marry me, Tell you what she did, Picked her up a knotty pine stick And like to broke my head." And so forth.

The result reminds me most of "Train on the Island (June Apple)," but the tune is utterly different. Jean Ritchie mentions a comparison to "Napoleon Crossing the Rockies." - RBW

References

  1. Ritchie-SingFam, pp. 192-193, "[Goin' to See My True Love]" (1 text, 1 tune)
  2. Roud #9175
  3. BI, JRSF192

About

Author: unknown
Earliest date: 1955
Found in: US(Ap)