O Dear Mother My Toes Are Sore

"O Dear Mother My Toes Are Sore", also known as "Oh Mother it Hurts Me so", "Jinny O Jinny My Toes are Sore" and "O Mother My Toes are Sore" is an American March in 6/8 time from southwestern Pa. in A Dorian or Mixolydian or D Dorian. The parts are played AB. Bayard (1981) is certain the tune is British Isles in origin even though it has the marks of considerable folk-processing in American tradition, yet he cannot trace it adequately to old country repertory. Speculating, he suggests the tune is a derivative of the "Welcome Home" or "Boyne Water" families, or perhaps a crossing of the two. He says all three forms of the title tune in Pennsylvania have in common the following rhyme associated with them:

Dear oh, mother, my toes are sore,
Dancin' over your sandy floor.
Its yesterday or the day before
I've just come home from Baltimore.
I've danced today, and I'll dance no more.

It was printed in Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle (1981).