A Song from The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg

[LincolnMan]

Another one from Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag is Hey Betty Martin. The book gives some background on it:

In the early 1800's, in the tank towns of the corn belt, few women bobbed their hair. Often when a woman who had taken this liberty walked along Main Street on a night when there was to be a band concert on the public square, she was an object of special scrutiny. Young men would sing at her:

Chippy, get your hair cut, hair cut, hair cut,
Chippy, get your hair cut, hair cut short.

The tune went back to a ditty sung in the 1800's during the War between the States, as follows:

Johnny, git your gun and your sword and your pistol,
Johnny, git your gun and come with me.




The tune is at least as old as the War of 1812, when drummer boys beat it on their drums and sang words about "Hey Betty Martin Tiptoe." We have that drummer's melody and words from A.T. Vance, a Long Island, New York, fisherman who was raised in Kansas and whose great-grandfather was a drummer in the War of 1812. The tune is traditionary in the Vance family and is executed with variations by Comfort Vance, son of A.T. The tempo, Wathall indicates, is allegretto scherzando, which in 1812 meant "Make it snappy," or "Let's go."

HEY BETTY MARTIN


Hey Betty Martin, tip-toe, tip-toe,
Hey Betty Martin, tip-toe fine.