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Just who is Jenny Jenkins?

dolljen.jpg

Jenny Jenkins. Who is she and why won't she wear anything but a foldy-roldy, tildy-toldy
seek-a-double, use-a-cause-a roll?

It's a mystery that must be solved.

jenny-jen.jpg

Jenny Jenkins is a bluegrass, folk song of unknown origins.

It has become a popular childrens song and was turned into a book by Jerry Garcia & David Grisman some years ago. But that's about all I know.
Other than the fact that Ms. Jenkins refuses to wear any color clothes.

If you know you anything about the song enlighten us.
It's got me curious.


Lisa Loeb on Jenny Jenkins.

Here's one take on the lyrics...

Will you wear white
Oh my dear, oh my dear
Will you wear white, Jenny Jenkins?
No I won't wear white
For the color's too bright

Chorus
I'll buy me a foldy-roldy, tildy-toldy
Seek-a-double, use-a-cozza roll to find me
Roll, Jenny Jenkins, roll

Will you wear green
Oh my dear, oh my dear
Will you wear green, Jenny Jenkins?
No, I won't wear green
It's a shame to be seen

[chorus]

Will you wear blue
Oh my dear, oh my dear
Will you wear blue, Jenny Jenkins?
No, I won't wear blue
For the color's too true

[chorus]

Will you wear yellow
Oh my dear, oh my dear
Will you wear yellow, Jenny Jenkins?
No, I won't wear yellow
For I'd never get a fellow

[chorus]

Will you wear brown
Oh my dear, oh my dear
Will you wear brown, Jenny Jenkins?
No, I won't wear brown
For I'd never get around

[chorus]

Will you wear beige
Oh my dear, oh my dear
Will you wear beige, Jenny Jenkins?
No, I won't wear beige
For it shows my age

[chorus]

Will you wear orange
Oh my dear, oh my dear
Will you wear orange, Jenny Jenkins?
No, orange I won't wear
And it rhymes so there

[chorus]

What will you wear?
Oh my dear, oh my dear
What will you wear, Jenny Jenkins?
Oh what do you care
If I just go bare


In another version Jenny disses more colors. It goes like this...

(The Jean Ritchie & Pete Seeger version)


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9 Comments

I'm a little suprised that no one know what this song is about.

Jenny Jenkins is an old Arkansas term for home grown Marijuanna.

The old timers when smoking "Jenny Jenkins" took smoking her very seriously. It was almost a crime to smoke her anyother way than through a pipe.
Hence she wouldn't wear White (Zig Zags or rolling paper).
She wouldn't wear green referring to the 2-6 week drying process for good weed.
The blue refers to the fan leaves that need to be trimmed during the drying process. Some "Dirty Jenny" contained a mixture of the buds and the first fan leaf trimmings. Old timers refused it.
The yellow was a reference to lacing Jenny with Meth. A bad mixture, Jenny knew that it was impossible to get a "Fellow" because meth generally causes erectile disfunction.
The Brown refers to old-over age weed. Jenny knew no-one wants old bad weed. It never gets around.
Beige also refers to an aging weed. though Beige weed is smokable it is on the verge of going bad.
The orange that Jenny wouldn't wear refers to the practice of lacing Jenny with PCP. The effects of lacing Jenny with PCP were rarely negative, the old timers just didn't mess with it because well they didn't know why.

The chorus is pretty self explanatory, The young kids caught on to rolling joints and kept tempting the old timers to try it.

I hope that helps.

That should be worth a pack of candy cigs.

said Dave on November 18, 2008 4:11 PM.

Well I must say Dave you rose to the top of this unofficial challenge.

Now that you've enlightened me/us to the true meaning of Jenny Jenkins, I really understand why it's such a popular kids song.
They love the weed.

said Baierman on November 18, 2008 5:19 PM.

Yeah I just pulled that one out of my ass.

Probably really about a girl that just isn't happy with her clothes.

said Dave on November 18, 2008 6:12 PM.

I can't get past the fact that Lisa Loeb has eyebrows like an evil villain.

said Paul on November 19, 2008 4:55 PM.

She's evil alright Paul.

said Baierman on November 19, 2008 5:11 PM.

Jenny Jenkins is a circus bear who is having trouble deciding what to wear for her performance. She gets a lot of suggestions from the other bears. In the end she surprises them by saying, "Oh what do you care, if I just go bare?" and then sings the refrain for the last time. Whimsical art matches the repetitive, rhyming lyric. The cassette featuring Jerry Garcia and David Grisman singing and playing the guitar make for a great sing along. The repetitive words, large font and picture-to-word match make this an appropriate book for beginning readers as well as a read along or sing along for younger children. What Will You Wear, Jenny Jenkins? is another book in a series of songs from the Not for Kids Only album by Garcia and Grisman put to book and tape format by illustrator Bruce Whatley.

said brttnycerrillo on July 31, 2009 3:42 PM.

Mum, will you please stop this?

said Scaramouch on July 31, 2009 11:45 PM.

Lisa Loeb is definitely not any eviler than most. However, her eyebrows do give an impression of sneakiness. Now this is really a matter of too much tweezing. Eyebrow fashion goes in cycles, basically, since there's only so much you can do with an eyebrow. However, how the hot-de-jure celebs are wearing theirs can influence trends considerably. Brooke Shields popularized the bushy look; Madonna gave it some staying power. Jean Harlowe and Marlene Dietrich modeled the super thin, barely-there brow in the glammy 30's, but it's had its comeback of late. Of course, your middle-of-the-roaders (sensible types), just pluck the wild hairs which won't fall into line or the ones deemed extraneous and keep a general, "natural," and believeable brow. Sometimes a woman plucks her brows into oblivion and has to pencil them in. Talk about bizarre; they typically aren't skilled enough to do a good job of drawing them. But even if one drew them, they would always look fake, being flat and one-dimensional. A woman's mood of the moment or interlude is reflected is what she does to her eyebrows. Generally, too-thin brows signify a desire to appear alluring and sexy. Sometimes the effect is, as you described, "evil" -looking rather than appealing, however. Sometimes women go so overboard with nonsymmetrical tweezing that they completely alter their natural expression to the point that it just looks plain "off," though you can't tell how, if you didn't know what it was like before they tweezed. Michelle Obama's eyebrows need fixing. She overtweezed one more than the other and the effect is just unbalanced. She had a unique set to begin with (as evidenced by earlier photographs), but she should have stuck with them, as they were, in my opinion, her best look. Personally, I believe in total honesty when it comes to the eyebrow. The natural, untweezed eyebrows are a masterpiece of subtle expression. Moreover, the expression one is born with is, in essence, one's genuine signature. You can tell so much about a person's character by their natural eyebrows. But, I'm a portrait artist. Maybe what I can see might escape the more casual observer. Unfortunately, most modern women (unless they belong to religious groups which do not adorn or alter their faces) do pluck their brows, and thus it is impossible to see their "true" expression. I hope this doesn't catch on with men, so at least 50% of the sexes will wear honest expressions. I knew a guy with wild brows who occasionally trimmed the tops. Fortunately I saw him before his occasional trimming, so I knew what his brows were really like. When he cut them, he was basically toning down the passion his wild brows expressed. They seemed tame, even docile; certainly safe and socially-acceptable. His natural brows were extremely long, with fierce, thick hairs suddenly jutting out in opposite directions, and were, in fact, a great clue to his personality. He was a brilliant, eccentric, and erratically moody man, but his nice-guy brows gave one no clue as to what one was dealing with. Lisa Loeb's childhood pictures will reveal what her real brows are like. They're probably fine just as they are; definitely she would look much better with a more natural brow.

said Aida on December 7, 2009 2:07 AM.

Woah. Well thanks Aida for such a comprehensive review of eyebrows.
At YBNBY we are big fans of real eyebrows. None of that fake, penciled in shit goes here. Fake boobs yes, but unnatural eyebrows are just not real.
Really.
They are awful. We're with you. Lisa Loeb's weirdly sexy though.

Course, this could just be a new form of spam. We'll see.

said Baierman on December 7, 2009 12:15 PM.
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