The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #32772   Message #1014883
Posted By: Joe Offer
08-Sep-03 - 02:10 PM
Thread Name: Origin: Sloop John B
Subject: RE: Sloop John B
The "Bahamas 1935" recording has a few more verses, but I can't make them out. There's a pause, then a repeat of the "captain and the mate got drunk" verse, and then some others. The only words I can pick out are:And that's it. No doubt, the Lomax recordings are a valuable asset, but some sure are a pain to listen to.
-Joe Offer-
Here's the entry from the Traditional Ballad Index:

John B. Sails, The

DESCRIPTION: A description of a horrible journey on the "sloop John B." Refrain: "Let me go home! I want to go home; I feel so break-up, I want to go home." Among the problems on the voyage: A drunken first mate who is arrested for robbery and a cook who won't
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag)
KEYWORDS: ship sailor hardtimes cook Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Sandburg-TheAmericanSongbag, pp. 22-23, "The John B. Sails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 280, "The John B.'s Sails" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 93, "John B. Sails" (1 text)
DT, WRKJOHNB

Roud #15634
RECORDINGS:
Rex Allen, "Wreck of the John B" (Mercury 5573, 1951)
Blind Blake Higgs, "John B Sail (Wreck of the John B.)" (on WIHIGGS01)
Cleveland Simmons Group: "Histe Up the John B. Sail" (AAFS 418 B2, 1935; on LomaxCD1822-2)

ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Sloop John B.
The Wreck of the John B.
NOTES [40 words]: Although I have yet to encounter a version of this song actually describing the sinking of the John B., the craft is said to lie at the bottom of Governor's Harbor in Nassau, where its remains are considered almost a historic monument. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.7
File: San022

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