The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128881   Message #2952626
Posted By: KathWestra
26-Jul-10 - 02:31 PM
Thread Name: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
Pittenweem Jo (recorded at least once by Scots-Texan singer/folklorist Ed Miller) has a great chorus:

Pittenweem, Pittenweem
She's every fisher laddie's dream.
She guts the herrin' doon by the quay
And she saves her kisses just for me.

The song's image of kissing someone who's been gutting herring all day is vivid. Must be true love, indeed.

My late friend Mary LaMarca and her husband George Stephens sang Pittenweem Jo and Fisher Lassies as a medley, and had a knack for finding and singing a lot of really good, if depressing, "dying industry" songs.