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Dandy Jim From Caroline--- See: Prettiest Little Girl/Sugar in My Coffee-O/What Are You Going To Do with the Baby-O?
Minstrel Song/fiddle tune/bluegrass song
ARTIST: Words by Silas Sexton Steel; Music by J. Richard ("Ole Bull") Myers
[Source: pages 159-160 from "Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883)]
Listen to: Dandy Jim From Caroline Sandy River Minstrels (Original Minstrel lyrics)
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: 1843.
RECORDING INFO: Davenport, Clyde. Titon, Jeff Todd / Old Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes, Kentucky, Bk/ (2001), p 65/# 31 [1990/03/31]
OTHER NAMES: Dandy Jim; Sm - California Stage Company; Pb - Jimmy Polk of Tennessee
RELATED TO: Sugar in My Coffee-O; Prettiest Girl in the County-O; Whatcha Gonna Do With The Baby-O;
SOURCES: "Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883)pages 159-160.
NOTES: Dandy Jim of Caroline is the 1843 Minstrel song that spawned such fiddle songs as "Sugar in My Coffee-O," first recorded by by Crockett's Kentucky Mountaineers, and "What are You Going To Do With the Baby," the 1928 song by the Hodge Brothers. The first related version and title was "Prettiest Little Gal in the County" by Gid Tanner and Riley Puckett in 1924.
LYRICS:
1.
I've often heard it said ob late,
Dat Souf Ca'lina was de state,
Whar handsome mens bound to shine,
Like Dandy Jim of Caroline,
CHORUS
For my ole mama tole me,
I'm de best looking man in de county oh,
I look in de glass, as I found it so,
Just as massa tell me, oh.
2.
I drest myself from top to toe,
And down to Dinah I did go,
Wid pantaloons strapped down behind,
Like Dandy Jim of Caroline,
(CHORUS)
3.
De bull dog cleared me out ob de yard,
I taught I'd better leabe my card,
I tied it fast to a piece ob twine,
Signed "Dandy Jim of Caroline."
(CHORUS)
4.
She got my card, an wrote me a letter,
And ebery word she spelt de better,
For ebery word and ebery line,
Was Dandy Jim of Caroline.
(CHORUS)
5.
Oh, beauty is but skin deep,
But wid Miss Dinah none compete;
She changed her name from lubly Dine,
To Mrs. Dandy Jim of Caroline.
(CHORUS)
6.
An ebery little boy she had,
Was de berry image ob de dad,
Dar heels stick out three feet behind,
Like Dandy Jim of Caroline.
(CHORUS)
7.
I took dem all to church one day,
An hab dem christen'd widout delay,
De preacher christen'd eight or nine,
Young Dandy Jims of Caroline.
(CHORUS)
8.
An when de preacher took his text,
He seemed to be berry much perplexed,
For nothing cum across his mind,
But Dandy Jim of Caroline.
(CHORUS)
*edited for racial language
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