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High Betty Martin/Betty Martin
Old-Time, Breakdown; American, Reel. Southwestern Pa.; Appalcahians;
ARTIST: Cassius Radford (Pembroke, N.H.) Linscott (Folk Songs of Old New England), 1939; pg. 85;
Listen: Hiram Stamper- Betty Martin
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes
DATE: early 1800s
RECORDING INFO: Seeger, Peggy And Mike. American Folk Songs for Children, Rounder 8001/8002/8003, LP (1977), cut# 62;
OTHER NAMES: "Johnny Get Your Hair Cut;" “Pretty Betty Martin;” “Tip Toe Fine;” “Hey, Betty Martin;” “Granny Will Your Dog Bite;” "Fire on the Mountain(s)," "High, Betty Martin," "Hog Eye," "Hog-Eye Man," "I Betty Martin," "Old Mother Gofour," "Pretty Betty Martin," "Very Pretty Martin."
SOURCES: Dance to the Fiddle by Bayard; American Folk Songs for Children, Doubleday/Zephyr Books, Bk (1948), p.142; Vance, A. T. American Songbag, Harcourt Brace Jovan..., Sof (1955), p158 (Hey, Betty Martin); Botkin-NEFolklr, pp. 587-588, "Hey, Betty Martin!" Silber-FSWB, p. 280, "Hey Betty Martin;" Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
NOTES: Tip Toe Fine, better known as Hey Betty Martin, is a very old tune and singing game rhyme that sure dates back to the 1700s and colonial times. The lyrics with different verses were also used as a chorus:
CHORUS: Hey, Betty Martin, tip-toe, tip-toe,
Hey, Betty Martin, tip-toe fine:
The earliest printed tue by the title is "A. Shattuck's Book [ca. 1801]," p. 59 "I Betty Martin--tipto fine." It's listed in Music from the War of 1812; The Battle of Plattsburgh: Songs and Tunes of 1814 By Stan Ransom, The Connecticut Peddler. p c2001 by Stanley A. Ransom (BMI). Recorded at the Burnt Hills Studios of Jim and Carol Lombard, Cadyville, NY.
Hey, Betty Martin, Tip Toe Fine. Fifers and drummers frequently played this tune during the War of 1812. Song about a smart country bumpkin not fooled by city slickers. To all con men he says, “My Eye and Betty Martin!” Guitar, mandolin, drum. (Note: 3rd verse: A “jarvis” is a coach.)
The 1911 book, Sketches of Pitt County: a brief history of the county, 1704-1910- Page 39, reports:
"High Betty Martin" was thus early a favorite. It came to North Carolina from
Maryland, where it was composed in honor of Miss Elizabeth Martin.
Here's Betty Martin from Sandburg:
HEY BETTY MARTIN
In the early 1890'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 1860'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 acherzando, which in 1812 meant "Make it snappy," or "Let's go." -
THE HASTINGS TRAIL 1847 The following excerpt is from the Utah Historical Quarterly, vol. 20, pp. 4-11: CAPT. JAMES BROWN & ABNER BLACKBURN 1847
Capt. Brown said he would cook it himself so as to have one good mess on the desert. he commenced to dance around and sing a dilly (ditty),"
"Pretty betty martin, tip toe fine
She could not get a man to suit her mind
Some wear to coarse and some to fine
She could not get a man to suit her kind"
"at the last word he kicked out his foot and spilt all in the fire and cooked another.
The Boston miscellany of literature and fashion- Page 120 by Nathan Hale, Henry Theodore Tuckerman - Language Arts & Disciplines- 1842
Hey, Betty Martin, tip-toe, tip-toe,
Hey, Betty Martin, tip-toe fine:
Can't get a husband to please her, please her.
Can't get a husband to please her mind.
My Eye and Betty Martin 1836 (also published in 1834)
From the United States Songster (attributed to Barrett)
In Yorkshire I was born and bred
And knows a thing or two, sir;
Nay, what be more, my father said
My wit would bring me through, sir.
At single stick or kiss the maids,
I was the boy for certain
Says I, push on, to be afraid's
My eye and Betty Martin.
Chorus: HEY, BETTY MARTIN, TIP TOE FINE
Sketches of Pitt County: a brief history of the county, 1704-1910 By Henry Thomas King
Hey, Betty Martin, tip-toe, tip-toe,
Hey, Betty Martin, tip-toe fine:
She couldn't get a shoe, she couldn't get a stocking
Couldn't get a husband to please her mind
2. Cant get a sweet -heart, sweet- heart, sweet-heart;
Hey, Bet-ty Mar-tin. tip-toe fine;
Here are the notes from Kuntz:
"A Dorian. Standard. AAB. Samuel Bayard (1981) found no British antecedents for this group of tunes. Wilkinson has researched a connection between the "Fire on the Mountain" version of the melody and a Norse "halling" tune published in Norges Melodier (Copenhagen, 1875). Bayard confirms the two tunes are so close that in his opinion a connection is most likely, and concludes that, since "Free (Fire) on the Mountain" was published in a U.S. manuscript (Riley's Flute Melodies) in 1814 or 1815, that the transmission must have been before that. He asks, "Is it possible that this melody represents one of the few scattered cultural relics of the 17th century 'Delaware Swedes'?" (Bayard, 1981). A similar tune by the name of "I Betty Martin" appears in an American MS., "A. Shattuck's Book" (c. 1801). Bayard (1981) gives six versions from six different southwestern Pa. fiddlers--one, from Irvin Yaugher, was origianlly from his great-uncle Uriah, born in 1792. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 60, pgs. 41-43. Revonah Records RS-924, "The West Orrtanna String Band" (1976)." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc). Many floating titles and lyrics including “Fire on the Mountain;” Granny Will your Dog Bite;” “Old Mother Gofour” and “Hog-eye.”
Kuntz: TIP TOE FINE. AKA and see "Tip Toe, Pretty Betty Martin," "I Betty Martin," "Betty Martin," "Pretty Betty Martin."
TIP TOE, PRETTY BETTY MARTIN. AKA and see "Betty Martin," "Pretty Betty Martin," "I Betty Martin," "Tip Toe Fine," "Very Pretty Martin," "Granny, Will Your Dog Bite? [1]," "Old Mother Gofour," "Fire on/in the Mountain [1]," "Hog Eye [1]." Old‑Time, Breakdown. A Major. Standard tuning. AABB'. Various sets of words attached to the tune have led to a varity of titles for it:
Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 58:
Pretty Betty Martin, tip toe, tip toe,
Pretty Betty Martin, tip toe fine.
Listen: Hiram Stamper- Betty Martin
Betty Martin: Key of A, fiddle tuned aeae. Recorded 01-06-77. A member of a tune family including Fire on the Mountain and Granny Will Your Dog Bite. Known all over Kentucky and the southern mountains in general with much variation. This version is quite similar to Jean Ritchie's song Pretty Betty Martin, which she probably learned in Stamper's native Knott Co. They both sang "Pretty Betty Martin, tip toe, tip toe.
Pretty Betty Martin- Jean Ritchie
Pretty Betty Martin, tip toe, tip toe
Pretty Betty Martin, tip toe, fine.
Little boys, big boys, up and down the holler,
Pretty Betty Martin, got 'em all cryin'.
CHORUS: Pretty Betty Martin, tip toe, tip toe
Pretty Betty Martin, tip toe, fine.
Pretty Betty Martin, tip toe, tip toe
Put on a red dress and say you're mine.
First time I saw my pretty little Betty,
I thought that girl could tip toe fine.
Next tiem I saw Betty,
Stand back boys this ones mine.
Swing that gal up and down the holler,
Swing that gal and pat her on the head.
Swing her up on her tippy tippy tiptoe,
She don't like biscuits she likes cornbread.
Ritchie, who is now in her 90s, (I've talk to on the phone and corresponded with her several times) wrote the last verses- the first seems traditional.
SHEET MUSIC: Betty Martin- Stamper
http://books.google.com/books?id=mmbq3yYSvksC&pg=PA157&dq=%22Pretty+Betty+Martin%22&hl=en&ei=tpraTamUBYS5twegg-joDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepa
ge&q=%22Pretty%20Betty%20Martin%22&f=false
"The tune and words are traditional and fitted for a sort of jig that finished off a quadrille. It is a lively reminder to Radford of the days when he was a champion fiddler travelling all over New England. He remembers this tune and jig as one that was indulged in by those who felt the need of cutting an extra flourish and was executed with steps similar to the Highland Fling (Linscott, 1939)."
High Betty Martin
Whisted by Cassius Radford (Pembroke, N.H.) Linscott (Folk Songs of Old New England), 1939; pg. 85; These words went with the tune:
High, Betty Martin, tip toe, tip toe,
High, Betty Martin, tip toe fine;
Never found a man to suit her fancy,
Never found a man to suit her mind.
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