The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128220   Message #3070366
Posted By: Gibb Sahib
09-Jan-11 - 04:32 AM
Thread Name: The Advent and Development of Chanties
Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
Smith next gives "THE LION MAN-O'-WAR," without saying it is a chanty, only that it was "A very popular song at Portsmouth..."

She follows it with HOME DEARIE HOME, the shore composition. Her version of the words, unless they were popular in periodicals/broadsides of the time, may have come from James Runciman's SKIPPERS AND SHELLBACKS (London: Chatto and Windus, 1885).

http://books.google.com/books?id=OrwNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA207&dq=%22amble+is+a+fine+tow

The idiosyncratic words match exactly (e.g. "Amble" rather than "Falmouth")...but then where does her tune come from? ANd she says that it is "Amongst the favourite chanties of North-country sailors..." but I don't know what the proof of that is. Chanty for what?

Next she gives a stanza, with tune, of GOLDEN VANITY, which she calls 'the capstan song of "Lowlands"'.

Then comes a version (text only) of OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND that I've not seen exactly before:

//
There is also a " Homeward Bound " song very well known to them :—

"At Catherine's Dock I bade adieu
To Poll and Bet, and lovely Sue;
The anchor's weighed, the sails unfurled,
We're bound to plough the watery world;
Don't you see we're outward bound.

But when we come back to Catherine's Docks,
The pretty girls they come in flocks;
And Bet to Poll and Sue will say—
'Oh, here comes Jack, with his three years' pay;'
Don't you see we're homeward bound?
Then we all set off to the 'Dog and Bell,'
Where the best of liquor they always sell;
In comes old Archy, with a smile,
Saying ' Drink, my lads, it's worth your while ;'
Don't you see we're homeward bound?"
//

No information as to whether it was a chanty.

I believe that her next song, WHISKEY JOHNNY, came from the Haswell 1879 source.

//
The chanty known by the name of "Whisky for my Johnny," or "Whisky Johnny," has many different verses, all more or less bearing upon the same subject, and none betraying much delicacy or refinement of expression. It has been sent to me from several different quarters where I have applied for chanties, so I - conclude from this fact, that it must be fairly well known amongst the sailors, and may be even a great favourite. As I have before remarked, the sailors' songs are truly characteristic of the men they belong to, and so long as they adapt themselves to the purpose for which they are intended, and help to lighten the labour and regulate the work at sea, we must be content to take them as they are, and not look for drawing-room rose-water sentiment in the ideas that originate and find favour amongst the hardy toilers of the briny ocean.

[w/ score]
Oh, whisky is the life of man;
Oh, whisky! Oh, Johnny!
Oh, whisky is the life of man!
Oh, whisky for my Johnny!

Solo.—Oh whisky makes me pawn my clothes,
Chorus.—Oh whisky, Oh Johnny;
Oh whisky makes me pawn my clothes,
Chorus.—Oh whisky for my Johnny.
Solo.—Oh whisky gave me a broken nose,
Oh whisky gave me a broken nose,
I thought I heard the old man say,
I thought I heard the old man say,
I thought I heard the old woman say,
I thought I heard the old woman say,
Oh whisky up and whisky down,
Oh whisky up and whisky down,
I thought I heard the steward shout,
I thought I heard the steward shout,
Chorus.—Here's whisky for my Johnny.
If I can't get whisky, I'll have rum,
Chorus.—Whisky, Johnny;
Oh that's the stuff to make good fun,
Chorus.—Oh whisky for my Johnny.
For whisky men and women will run,
Chorus.—Oh whisky, Oh Johnny;
I'll drink whisky when I can,
That's the stuff to make you frisky,
Chorus.—Whisky, Johnny;
Give me whisky and I'll give you tin,
If you have no whisky give me gin,
If you have no whisky give me gin.
      BELAY THERE!

Belay is generally said when the song comes to an end, or "Coil up the ropes there, boys."
//