Here's what appears to be another Doerflinger-Hugill-Lloyd three-way, with the usual hanky panky.

"Rise Me Up From Down Below"

Print: Hugill; Doerflinger
Performers: Ewan MacColl ("Whiskey Johnny"); Clancy Brothers ("Whiskey is the Life of Man"); etc…but?

Doerflinger had this in his 1951 text, from Capt. James P. Barker, who learned it from a Black American named "Lemon" Curtis in the 1890s. Doerflinger notes that, "Tune given from memory"; I'm not sure, but I think this is his way of saying that he notated it from his memory, rather than a recording he might have made.

Ewan MacColl leads a performance on this, directed by A.L. Lloyd, on their 1960 (I hope I've got the date right) album BLOW BOYS BLOW. What they've done, however, is cross the lyrics with those typical of the much more well-known halyard chantey, "Whiskey, Johnny." Note that, while we all know chantey lyrics are highly variable, the two chanteys "Rise Me Up…" and "Whiskey Johnny" (traditional form) have clearly different themes. They even change "Rise ME up" to "Rise HER up" – it's as if 'HER' refers to the yard, whereas in the original, 'ME' has to do with the supernatural theme of coming up from Hell. And while MacColl + Lloyd follow the general shape of the melody, they have (perhaps carelessly?) changed it significantly.

Again, my allegations of Bert Lloyd hanky panky is just rhetorical – let us see what evidence there might be to the contrary, for Lloyd/MacColl getting their different version from some other sources. Note first that, based on other songs on the album, it seems clear that they were using Doerflinger's book as a source. And although, as per the above discussion, they may have interacted with Hugill by that time, the fact that Hugill's and Doerflinger's versions match, whereas MacColl's is different, makes it unlikely they learned this from Stan.

Hugill's notation came in 1961, based in how he learned it from Harding, who claimed it was a Jamaican work song. As mentioned, his tune has some differences from Doerflinger's but they are obviously cut from the same cloth.

The Clancys recorded it in the style of MacColl in 1968 on the HOME BOYS HOME, and Louis Killen was also involved in this sort of rendition, I think. Subsequent performances follow this style, too.

I've attempted to render Hugill's text, HERE

I'd be interested to hear who else has performed and recorded a version of this that is closer to the documented tradition. This seems to be another chantey which, in lieu of an intact oral tradition, has been skewed in a revived version.

Tangential to this discussion is my observation that what was, by all known accounts, a song from an African-American tradition might be now more commonly construed as a sort of Irish drinking song – the Clancyfication process!

Gibb