High Jinks

From the 1913 musical farce “High Jinks”
Words by Otto Hauerbach.
Music by Rudolf Friml.


The sheet music:


Accompaniment from a player piano roll
scanned by Terry Smythe:


Lyrics

  1. Beyond the Himalaya mountains
    Were flows the great Tsanpo
    Beside old Tibet’s laughing fountains
    Gay, festive flowers grow
    To hands of merry youth and maiden
    They yield their radiant bloom
    And all the balmy air is laden
    With rich and rare perfume
    One very little drop placed so
    One tiny little whiff, and lo

Refrain
Something seems tingle-ingle
Ingle-ingle-ingleing so queer
Here in your ear, nearer and near
Like some strange mingling
Of jingle-ingle-ingle-ingle-ingles
And tangle-angle-angle-angle-angles
Why! you want to cry
You want to die
But all you do is laugh
Hi! Hi! You’ve got the High Jinks
That’s why

  1. The Roman god of jubilation
    Old Momus was his name
    He wooed the goddess Exultation
    Of weird Buddhistic fame
    Their sun was High Jinks, a sensation
    Who, ere he caught his breath
    Soon died of chronic cachination
    Just laughed himself to death
    His soul became this wondrous flower
    Who breathes it, feels its mystic power

Sung here by Laurence Rubenstein: