> Folk Music > Songs > Gently Johnny My Jingalo / I Left My Hand

Gently Johnny My Jingalo / I Left My Hand

[ Roud 5586 ; G/D 7:1412 ; Ballad Index EM318 , ShH65 ; DT JJINGLO ; trad.]

Maud Karpeles: Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs James Reeves: The Idiom of the People Cecil J. Sharp: One Hundred English Folksongs Katherine Campbell: Songs From North-East Scotland Katherine Campbell and Ewan McVicar: Traditional Scottish Songs & Music

Pat MacNamara of Kilshanny sang I Left My Hand in July 1975 to Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie. This recording was included in 2004 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs from the Carroll and Mackenzie collection, Around the Hills of Clare. A phrase from the recording gave Ian Lynch the title for his monthly blog Fire Draw Near. Jim Carroll and Rod Stradling noted:

This was taken down by Cecil Sharp in England and Gavin Greig in Scotland, though, from their notes, both collectors were uncomfortable with it. Sharp re-wrote it with the comment, “The words, as I took them down, were too coarse for publication. I have, however, been able to re-write the first and third lines of each verse without, I think, sacrificing the character of the original song . He suggested that the song is of some antiquity.

Greig’s version came from Katie Steven of Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire, under the title Johnny Jiggamy. The collector wrote: “(the words) illustrate the gross note of the songs that were current enough, even among women, it seems”. The Vance Randolph Collection contains a description of a game connected with the song in which a man touches the parts of the woman’s body mentioned. Here the song is stated to have been of British origin and to be “eighteenth century at the latest”.

Ref: Roll Me In Your Arms, Vance Randolph, ed. Gershon Legman, University of Arkansas Press, 1992

Other recordings: Sid Hollicks, (Tippertoe-Billygoe-Lairyo), Helions Bumpstead NLCD 5

Jenny McCormick sang Gently Johnny in 2011 on The Woodbine & Ivy Band’s eponymous Folk Police album The Woodbine & Ivy Band.

Lyrics

Pat MacNamara sings I Left My Hand

Ah, I left my hand on her toe, saying,
“What’s that my dear?”
“That’s my toe, tippen toe; hiden go, dingle doe,
Sit by the fire and draw near.”

I left my hand on her heel, saying,
“What’s that my dear?”
“That’s my heel, hollow back,
That’s my toe, tippen toe; hiden go, dingle doe,
Sit by the fire and draw near.”

I left my hand on her shin, saying,
“What’s that my dear?”
“That’s my shin, shanky shank, that’s my heel hollow back,
That’s my toe, tippen toe, hiden go, dingle doe,
Sit by the fire and draw near.”

I left my hand on her thigh, saying,
“What’s that my dear?”
“That’s my thigh, thicken fat, that’s my knee, nacken nack, that’s my heel, hollow back,
That’s my toe, tippen toe, hiden go, dingle doe,
Sit by the fire and draw near.”

I left my hand on her belly, saying,
“What’s that my dear?”
“That’s my belly, umble gut, that’s my thigh, thicken fat, that’s my knee, nacken nack, that’s my heel, hollow back,
That’s my toe, tippen toe, hiden go, dingle doe,
Sit by the fire and draw near.”

I left my hand on her diddies, saying,
“What’s that my dear.”
“Oh, that’s my milk, milky milk, that’s my belly, umble gut, that’s my thigh, thicken fat, that’s my knee, nacken nack, that’s my heel, hollow back,
That’s my toe, tippen toe, hiden go, dingle doe,
Sit by the fire and draw near.”

Spoken: Oh God, I couldn’t.