The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #79100 Message #3191805
Posted By: Gibb Sahib
21-Jul-11 - 01:19 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Rio Grande (sailors)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Rio Grande (sailors)
1888 Dickens, Charles, ed. [Unknown] "Sailors' Songs." _All the Year Round_ 1047 (22 Dec. 1888): 592-
Reproduces Smith's version with the "Southron Star." Possibly written by Smith?
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1898[1894] Brewer, Ebenezer, Cobham. _Dictionary of Phrase and Fable_. New edition, revised. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus.
An entry in a slang dictionary.
Shanty Songs. Songs sung by sailors at work, to ensure united action. They are in sets, each of which has a different cadence adapted to the work in hand. Thus, in sheeting topsails, weighing anchor, etc., one of the most popular of the shanty songs runs thus :—
"I'm bound away, this very day. I'm bound for the Rio Grande. Ho, you, Rio! Then fare you well, my bonny blue bell, I'm bound for the Rio Grande."