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Captain Jinks Of The Horse Marines
American (originally), Canadian; Single Jig and Air. Pa., New York State: Canada, Ottawa Valley.
ARTIST: Written and sung by William Lingard and first published in 1868.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes. DATE: First published in 1868. Popular in the late 1800’s.
OTHER NAMES: Captain Jinks; Down the Ohio; Captain Jenks;
SOURCES: In 1901, the young Ethel Barrymore starred at the Garrick Theatre in New York in Clyde Fitch's melodrama of the 1870s which he called Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines; in 1902 Ernest Crosby, a friend of Mark Twain, wrote a satirical anti-imperialist novel about the Spanish-American War with the title Captain Jinks, Hero. Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p120b Traditional Music in America, Folklore Associates, Bk (1940/1965), p423; Floyd Woodhull, 1976 (New York State) [Bronner]; Archie Miller (Lewisburg, Pa.) [Guntharp]; Walter Neal (Armstrong County, Pa., 1952) [Bayard]; Don Woodcock [Phillips]; caller George Van Kleek (Woodland Valley, Catsekill Mtns., New York) [Cazden]; fiddler Dawson Girdwood (Perth, Ottawa Valley, Ontario) [Begin]. Adam, No. 11. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 596, pg. 523-524. Begin (Fiddle Music in the Ottawa Valley: Dawson Girdwood), 1985; No. 69, pg. 79. Bronner (Old Time Music Makers of New York State), 1987; No. 17, pg. 80. Cazden (Dances from Woodland), 1945; pg. 16. Cazden, 1955; pg. 15. Ford (Traditional Music in America), 1940; pg. 120. Guntharp (Learning the Fiddler's Ways), 1980; pg. 77. Kraus, pg. 65. Phillips (Traditional American Fiddle Tunes), Vol. 2, 1995; pg. 361. Roche Collection, 1982; Vol. 2, pg. 23, No. 249. Shaw (Cowboy Dances), 1943; pg. 379. Sweet (Fifer's Delight), 1964/1981; pg. 19; Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc;
RECORDING INFO: Victor 36401A (78 RPM), Woodhull's Old Tyme Masters, 1941. Miller, Archie. Learning the Fiddler's Ways, Penn State, Sof (1980), p 77b; Woodhull's Old Tyme Masters. Square Dances, RCA (Victor) LPM-1238, LP, cut#B.03
NOTES: "G Major (Bronner, Ford, Guntharp, Roche, Shaw): D Major (Bayard, Begin, Phillips, Sweet). Standard. AB (Begin, Shaw, Sweet): AAB (Guntharp, Phillips): ABB (Bayard): AABB (Bronner, Ford, Roche). The title is taken from a popular song of the 19th century, "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines," which Sigmund Spaeth (A History of Popular Music in America) states was composed by an English music hall singer named William Horace Lingard who came to America in 1871. Confirming that Lingard wrote the lyrics, Denes Agay (Best Loved Songs of the American People, pgs. 156-157) however, credits the music to a T. Maclagan. Musicologist Sam Bayard (1991) traces the tune "ultimately (and indirectly)" back to a piece called "The Mill Mill O," a commonly printed and played duple time march from the 18th and early 19th centuries, and to the jig "Merrily Danced the Quaker('s Wife)," one of which was derived from the other. Another researcher cited by Bayard traces the melodic material in these tunes all the way back to 14th century plain-chant, although Bayard himself does not confirm or deny that line of thinking. He does believe that the mid-19th century tune known as "Captain Jinks" (and also the melody "Hundred Pipers") is an offshoot of the first part of the Mill air, via "The Quaker's Wife." It was listed as having been commonly played in the Orange County, N.Y. area for dances in the 1930's (Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly, pgs. 211-215), about the same time Bayard collected the melody from western Pennsylvania sources, and Norman Cazden collected it from Catskill Mountian, N.Y. dances of the era." (Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion, http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/fc).
Captain Jinks was a famous vaudeville song that was very popular in the U.S. almost immediately spawning another song by Will Hays about the captain's supposed wife: Mistress Jinks of Madison Square. It grew to be a well-liked square dance tune, and a popular song of soldiers in the American Army in the decades after 1870. It survives chiefly as a singing square dance call and fiddle tune. It is thought to be the origin of the word jinx.
LYRICS:
I'm Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines
I feed my horse on corn and beans,
And sport young ladies in their teens
Tho' a Captain in the Army.
I teach the ladies how to dance
How to dance, how to dance
I teach the ladies how to dance
For I'm the pet of the Army
Chorus: I'm Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines
I feed my horse on corn and beans,
And often live beyond my means
Tho' a Captain in the Army.
I joined the Corps when twenty-one
Of course I thought it capital fun
When the enemy comes, of course I run
For I'm not cut out for the Army.
When I left home, mamma she cried
Mamma she cried, mamma she cried,
When I left home, mamma she cried,
"He's not cut out for the Army."
The first time I went out for drill
The bugler sounding made me ill
Of the battlefield I'd had my fill
For I'm not cut out for the Army,
The officers, they all did shout
They all did shout, they all did shout,
The officers, they all did shout,
"Why, kick him out of the Army!"
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