Annotation:Kiss Me Quick and Go
X: 1 T:Kiss me Quick and Go M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Country Dance B:T. Westrop's 120 Country Dances, Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, &c. for the Violin (No. 23, p. 5) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C G|edcB|AcGE|Gcde|d3G|edcB|AcGc|edAB|c3|| e|dcBA|BcdB|Aedc|B3e|dcBA|Bdg>e|dcBA|G3||
KISS ME QUICK AND GO. American, Air and Polka (2/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The music to "Kiss Me Quick and Go" was composed by Fred Buckley (1832-1864) to words by Silas Sexton Steele and published in 1856. It begins:
The other night while I was sparking
Sweet Turlina Spray,
The more we whisper'd our love talking.
The more we had to say;
The old folks and the little folks
We thought were fast in bed-
We heard a footstep on the stairs,
And what d'ye think she said?
Chorus.
"Oh! kiss me quick and go, my honey,
Kiss me quick and go!
To cheat surprise and prying eyes,
Why kiss me quick and go!"
Buckley was born in Lancashire, England, but moved with his family to Boston, Massachusetts as a child. A musical prodigy, he mastered the violin at age 8. He became a noted minstrel performer on the violin and was nicknamed 'Little Ole Bull' and later 'Master Ole Bull' (after the famous Norwegian violinist). Buckley was a member of various troupes, including the Congo Melodists, New Orleans Serenaders, and his own family's organization, Buckley's Minstrels. Unfortunately he died quite young, age 31, of consumption. Steele was an actor, playwright and songwriter from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a gift for dialect. His many melodramas, farces, burlesques, and comic operas were well received for more than twenty years in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and London, but none are remembered today[1]. He, too, died of consumption.
"Kiss Me Quick" proved durable and was recorded several times in the 78 RPM era, notably by Uncle Bud Landress and the Georgia Yellow Hammers. In Britain, 'Kiss me quick' is perhaps best known from being printed on hats traditionally worn at seaside resorts such as Blackpool. The phrase was also applied to a type of bonnet, a 'kiss-me-quick', that was set far back on the head, thus exposing the face.
