Jinny Go Round and Around

DESCRIPTION: "Where did you get your whisky? Where did you get your dram?.... Down in Rockingham. Cho: Jinny go round an' around (x3) Way down in Rockingham." The remaining verses may give reasons why the singer will not marry or describe river life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage drink dancing playparty floatingverses river
FOUND IN: US(MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 272, "Jinny Go Round and Around" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 233-234, "Jinny Go Round and Round" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 272)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 389, "The Privates Eat the Middlin'" (1 fragment, probably a Civil War adaption of this piece)
Botkin-TreasuryMississippiRiverFolklore, p. 589, "[Number Ninety-Nine]" (1 text, 1 tune)
Botkin-TreasuryOfSouthernFolklore, p. 711, "Where'd You Get Yo' Whisky?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Courlander-NegroFolkMusic, pp. 121-122, "(Number Ninety-nine)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wheeler-SteamboatinDays, pp. 24-25, "Master Had a Bran' New Coat" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST R272 (Full)
Roud #836 (etc.)
RECORDINGS:
Earl Johnson & His Dixie Entertainers, "I Get My Whiskey From Rockingham" (Okeh 45183, 1928)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Cindy (I)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "A Railroader for Me (Soldier Boy for Me)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Way Down in Rockingham
Rockingham Cindy
NOTES [133 words]: This is an extremely problematic piece, recognized by the "Where did you get your whiskey" stanza. The rest is no unity, but the results are too fragmentary to classify as separate songs.
Almost all of these lyrics of some versions show up in one or another version of the "Cindy/Jubilee" family, but the chorus is different, so I've separated them. The Botkin Mississippi River piece (compare Courlander's) is almost equally remote from both "Cindy" and "Jinny," but not worth another entry, so I file it here.
Paul Stamler notes another piece, "Rockingham Cindy"; I suspect that to be a variant of this one.
The chorus "Jinny go round..." does not appear in all versions; I don't know if it is an addition to the Randolph text or if it dropped out of the usual versions sung by old-time singers. - RBW
File: R272

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