Hi again (Why does work always have to interfere with the more important things in life),

"Sally's in the garden shelling peas" is in Hogeye Man as well. Knowing the Hogeye versions of these verses, they sure sound "modified" to me, here.

But more in general, Joe: Down to Hilo is a shanty of the type that would collect verses, I guess to fit the length of the work. If there was an original that made sense, then likely nobody alive knows it. So, uses Hilo verses that you like, other verses you pick from other songs, new verses that you think up on the spot or that you thought up to match the occasion.

Think of it: These shanties were sung under monotonous work: Would the sailors or other workers prefer to hear the same old verses time and again? Or would they want the lead to think of something new each time? Man, as a variation throw in the first lines of The Wild Rover, on Hilo melody, if you can. That, in my opinion, was what such shanties were about: Inventing stuff, changing stuff around.


Never seen the like since I been born
An Arkansas farmer with his flippers on

Sally's in the garden and says I
Her kisses are sweeter than apple pie.

I tell you now, all around her hat,
She wears a green ribbon, how about that?

My wife she died in some Texan town
And to me they sent her jawbone down

I put that jawbone on the fence
And it's been y'all-ing ever since

The <shipsname>'s so bad, I'll be ***
If she don't soon go to the promised land.

So hand me down *** *** [well-earned] pay,
In <port-name> I'll find some *** [dame] today.


Getting the lyrics "right" is not what it's about. It's probably more about getting them "wrong". It's: Don't make them work, make them laugh.

@ € 0.02

Bye,
                                                               Mysha