113 - Roll The Cotton Down ( F ) - Halyard Shanty
Roll The Cotton Down ( F ) - Halyard Shanty
Here halyard version of the shanty "Roll the cotton down", opens a big family of the shanties, which Stan Hugill describes as the shanty with the word 'Roll'. As a matter of fact, it vies with 'blow' and 'hilo' as the most popular word in a sailor work-song.
The versions of this great shanty are:
(a) Negro Version
(b) Cotton-Stowers' version
(c) Deep-sea version.
(d) Blackball version.
(e) Paddy and the railway.
(f) "A Long Time Ago"
This version is an "A Long Time Ago" version theme version. The book example suggests use more verses from "Blow the Man Down" shanty, I add additional five verses which gives us a reasonable length of the song.
"Shanties from the Seven Seas" by Stan Hugill (1st ed p 155 ).
Roll The Cotton Down ( F )
Oh, a long, long time an' a very long time,
- Roll the cotton down!
Oh, a long, long time an' a very long time,
- We'll roll the cotton down!
*2*
Oh, there ships they lay in Frisco Bay,
There ships they lay in Frisco Bay,
*3*
An' the smartest o' these was an ol' Yankie,
An' the smartest o' these was an ol' Yankie,
*4*
These smart Yankee packets lay out in the Bay,
All a-waiting a fair wind to get under way,
*5*
With all their poor sailors so weak an' so sad,
They'd drunk all their limejuice, no more could be had.
*6*
With all their poor sailors so sick an' so sore,
They'd scoffed all their whack an' they couldn't get more.
*7*
Oh, I sailed out of 'Frisco in a full rigged ship,
I sailed out o' 'Frisco in a full-rigged ship.
*8*
Her masts wuz of silver an' her yards wuz of gold,
Her masts wuz of silver an' her yards wuz of gold.
*9*
We wuz bound for New York with a cargo o' gold,
Bound south 'round the Horn through the ice an' the cold.
*10*
In eighteen hundred and ninety-four,
We shipped in a drogher bound for Singapore.
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