Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)

Subject: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: GUEST,Socratesthekid
Date: 09 Dec 07 - 05:54 PM

So The other day a line from this song I believe to be titled 10 stone started going through my head "there's no digging in a watery grave" and since then bits and pieces have been coming to me. The chorus is something like "ten stone (ten stone) ten stone to roll them over. Jenny come along, jenny get along as we go marching over"

I have found nothing on here or even google with any lyrics and it's starting to drive me crazy. please help?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Dec 07 - 08:59 PM

You can find a version of this song sung by Peter Kasin and Richard Adrianowicz at their website: Click here and search for lyrics!

Buy their CD. You'll find it a worthwhile investment.

From their notes you'll find that the Boarding Party was one of the first nautical singing groups that recorded this song.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Dec 07 - 10:27 PM

The chantey as published by Bullen and Arnold, 1914, "Songs of Sea Labour," is reprinted in Stan Hugill, "Shanties from the Seven Seas." The remake by Kasin and Adrianowicz changes the thrust of the song.

TEN STONE
(windlass song)
I nebber seen de like sence I ben born!
Way ay ay ay ay!
Nigger on de ice an' a-hoein' up corn,
Way ay ay ay ay,
Ten stone! Ten stone! De win' am ober,
Jenny git along, Jenny blow de horn,
as we go marchin' ober!

Hugill, p. 198, with score.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: Padre
Date: 09 Dec 07 - 10:31 PM

"Ten Stone" comes from the F.T. Bullen/W.F. Arnold collection called "Songs of Sea Labour" published in 1914. We (BP) started singing it in about 1980 and finally recorded it some 17 years later for our third (and last) Folk Legacy album, "Too far From the Shore"

The chorus is:

It's ten stone (ten stone)
Ten stone, the wind am over
Jenny get along, Jenny blow the horn
As we go marchin' over

Padre

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: GUEST,JimP
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 01:29 AM

Um, how about on our own Chantyranger and Radriano's "Boldly to the Westward"? Ten Stone is the first track.

Subject: Lyr Add: TEN STONE (from Boarding Party)
From: Jeri
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 07:14 AM

Buy the CD Too Far From the Shore, The Boarding Party. It's a great one, as are all of their CDs!
^^
Ten Stone

I never seen the like since I've been born,
Way hey and a hilo--
Jenny with a jib-boom hoein' up corn.
Way hey roll and go.

It's ten stone (ten stone)
Ten stone--the wind am over
Jenny get along, Jenny blow the horn
As we go marchin' over

The possum jump and the panther roar,
Been dancin' this dolly since half past four.

If the sun don't shine then the hens won't lay,
And if you don't work then the boss won't pay.

The gals they say, "you're a bunch of liars,"
"You're bound to hell for to feed them fires."

And if you drown when you are young,
It's better to drown than to wait to be hung.

We dig your ditch with a silver spade,
Well there ain't no diggin' in a watery grave

Bullen heard this song in 1869, sung by Negro stevedores loading cargo in the Demerara River near Georgetown, Guyana, on the northern coast of South America. It was used only for cargo loading and was not in common use aboard ships.

An audience member once told members of The Boarding Party he'd heard Ten Stone being sung by Black field hands in Eleuthera, Bahamas, to accompany 'pickle picking'.

From 'Songs of Sea Labour' by F. T. Bullen and W. F. Arnold, published by The Orpheus Music Publishing Company (London) in 1914. Found by Jonathan Eberhard and sung by him on The Boarding Party's last CD Too Far From the Shore (Folk-Legacy CD-131)

Bullen only included the opening verse and refrain lines as other verses were improvised. Jonathan borrowed from other Negro shanties in Hugill's 'Shanties from the Seven Seas'.

(Copied and paraphrased from the above CD's liner notes)l

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 08:04 AM

Do I hear echoes?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: Snuffy
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 09:33 AM

The James Madison Carpenter collection has a version of "Ten Stone, Ten Stone, the Winter's Over" collected in 1928 from Capt Alex Blue in Greenock (Scotland), which starts "O have you been in Mobile Bay".

Anyone fancy popping down to the LoC to transcribe it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: GUEST,socratesthekid
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 10:40 PM

Thank you all so much. Its been driving me a little crazy.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: GUEST,JimP
Date: 10 Dec 07 - 11:01 PM

I SWEAR that Charley's post wasn't there when I posted. Gettin' old . . .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: Jeri
Date: 11 Dec 07 - 07:29 AM

I'm interpreting the notes to the Boarding Party's version as meaning that the song, with those verses is Jonathan Eberhard's creation. If you sing it that way, it came from him. Other appropriate verses would fit.

Personally, I always manage to sing, 'The panther jump and the possum roar', which is just silly, and I sing 'if you drown when you are young,' as 'if you die when you are young'. Doesn't make any difference, other than the word isn't repeated.

Subject: Lyr Add: TEN STONE
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 12:58 AM

Still there, Snuffy?

Sung by Capt. Alexander Blue, 1928:

                Oh, have you been in Mobile Bay?
                        O-o-o-o-oh!
                Pickin' cotton all the day.
                        O-o-o-o-o-o-o-oh!

                        Ten stone, ten stone, the winter's over!
                        Hi get along! Jimmy crack corn!
                        As we go marching on!

                I'd like to be in Ry-o Grand,
                        O-o-o-o-oh!
                Them flash women they pawn your bag.
                        O-o-o-o-oh!
                        
                        Ten stone, ten stone, the winter's over!
                        Hi get along! Jimmy crack corn!
                        As we go marching on!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: Snuffy
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 05:44 AM

Still here, waiting patiently. Many thanks.

Your hearing certainly seems better than mine. Or do you just have a better hi-fi?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten stone
From: Lighter
Date: 18 Jul 09 - 09:06 AM

It must be the graphic equalizer. The audio quality of most of the tracks really is terrible. Transcribing sometimes turns into a cross between the folk process and the uncertainty principle.

For example, a further listening suggests the second stanza begins "Have you [ever] been in..." "Hi get along" could be "Paddy get along," at least the first time. It's like Heisenberg and his electrons.

The first line, about Mobile Bay, didn't make it to the CD. Fortunately it was on the Carpenter website - which has first lines only, if that much.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 06:35 PM

Hi,

What does "ten stone" mean?

thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: Padre
Date: 01 Oct 09 - 10:01 PM

Ten stone = 140 pounds

The words refer to the weight of the sacks of cargo the stevedores are loading into the hold of the ship

Padre

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Oct 09 - 10:12 PM

Thanks, Padre. I suspected as much, but I was also wondering if it might relate to the verse lyrics at all, so I thought there might be some other meaning. Guess not!


Thanks for the info in this thread, guys! I just recorded and posted up a quick version of the bit documented by Bullen, HERE

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: Joe_F
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 06:25 PM

Happens to be my weight these days, pretty near.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 06:57 PM

I was 10 stone back in 1965, but have got down from 16/3 (224 lb) to 13/13 (195 lb) this year, so atill a long way to go. :-(

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: Padre
Date: 04 Oct 09 - 08:44 PM

I weighed 10 stone at my enlistment physical in 1964, and I haven't looked back since.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: radriano
Date: 05 Oct 09 - 04:13 PM

Hi everyone,

My apologies regarding the Handspikes.com website - we inadvertently lost our website. Our version (radriano & chanteyranger) of Ten Stone is virtualy identical to the one posted from the Boarding Party earlier in this thread. It's on our first album titled "Boldly from the Westward."

radriano

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: mn
Date: 05 Oct 09 - 05:00 PM

TEN STONE is great! I like both Boarding Party & P.Kasin/R.Adrianowicz versions. It's strange, but in Poland (where almost ALL shanties are well known and translated into Polish) this one isn't performed by anyone. And very few people know it. I think it will change :)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Ten Stone (chantey)
From: shipcmo
Date: 08 May 10 - 08:08 AM

refresh