Wink The Other Eye: A Song History
"Wink the Other Eye" is an American old-time reel in G, described as ragtime-influenced and suited to a slower pace than an ordinary breakdown.[1] Writing in The Devil’s Box in December 1981, Charles Wolfe called it a "fine old Sequatchie Valley (Tenn.) fiddle band tune," and the Traditional Tune Archive also connects it with Kentucky and Missouri, noting that players west of the Mississippi often use fancier versions.[1] The sources consulted here name no composer for the reel, though the Traditional Tune Archive, citing a 1980 source, links its title to an 1890 song by W. T. Lytton.[1] A sheet-music cover for that song in the Victoria and Albert Museum credits the music to George Le Brunn, names the music-hall star Marie Lloyd as its singer and carries her portrait.[2] The sources consulted here connect only the title, not the melody, of the fiddle reel to that song.[1]
Lover's Eye locket, watercolor miniature on ivory in a gold locket with enamel, seed pearls, stones and hair, ca. 1840. A single painted eye, shown in fun for the tune's title.
The tune was recorded several times between 1928 and 1930.[1] Theron Hale and Daughters recorded it for Victor in Nashville on October 3, 1928, as a duet with Hale on fiddle and Elizabeth Hale on piano.[3] Jess Young's Tennessee Band, with two fiddles and guitar, recorded it for Columbia on November 4, 1929.[4] The seven-piece Hack String Band of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, recorded it for Gennett in Richmond, Indiana, on September 29, 1930, and it came out on Champion and also on Superior under the name Cumberland String Band.[5][1] Missouri fiddler Lonnie Robertson played it, and Art Galbraith of the Springfield area learned it from him; their versions were transcribed in fiddle-tune collections, and a 1980 album of old-time Kentucky fiddle-band music took the tune’s name as its title.[1]
Mark Gilston's American Old Time Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 1, a collection of 40 classic old-time tunes arranged for mountain dulcimer, includes a tune listed as "Wink the Other Eye."[6]
Browse more tunes like this: Old-Time & Fiddle Tunes Dulcimer Tab
Sources
- Traditional Tune Archive: "Wink the other Eye".
- Victoria and Albert Museum: "Then You Wink The Other Eye" (sheet music cover).
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Victor matrix BVE-47123. Wink the other eye / Theron Hale and Daughters".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Columbia matrix W149351. Wink the other eye / Jess Young's Tennessee Band".
- Discography of American Historical Recordings: "Gennett matrix 17103. Wink the other eye / Hack String Band".
- Mark Gilston: "American Old Time Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 1".
- Image: Lover's Eye locket, watercolor miniature on ivory in a gold locket with enamel, seed pearls, stones and hair, ca. 1840. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.