“Happy, Frisky Jim”
Description
Assorted nonsense about Jim's family and neighbors: "I'm my daddy's only son, Gay and lively, full of fun, Brother's twice as old as me, So we're twins, you plainly see." Jim's girl, whose "mouth is like a big bull calf," also figures prominently
Supplemental text
Happy, Frisky Jim
Partial text(s)
*** A ***
From Norman Cazden, Herbert Haufrecht, Norman Studer, Folk Songs
of the Catskills, #153, pp. 575-580. From the singing of Mary Avery.
I'm my daddy's only son,
Gay and lively, full of fun,
The girls all kiss and they call me sweet,
It would take a dandy off his feet.
Refrain:
Get away now, don't come nigh me,
I'm like a kite, you'll have to fly me,
I can't keep still: come and tie me,
Happy, frisky Jim,
For I'm my daddy's only sonny,
Me and brother Joe.
(2 additional stanzas)
Notes
Although the statement about the brothers being twins sounds like nonsense, there is a time when it is true -- at the time when the younger brother is exactly as old as the interval between the births of the older and younger. Of course, this requires a baby less than an hour old to be talking....
Although the sheet music version in Cazden et al is apparently from the nineteenth century, it doesn't appear to me to be the original; it looks as if it has had minstrel verses grafted onto a traditional (non-racist) core. - RBW
References
- Randolph 431, "Frisky Jim" (2 texts)
- FSCatskills 153, "Happy, Frisky Jim" (1 traditional text plus a sheet music version, 1 tune)
- ST R431 (Partial)
- Roud #7610
- BI, R431