Help: Hills of Idaho? / Hills of Isle au Haut

Subject: What is this sea song?
From: Stower
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 07:51 AM

This is a really embarassing request. The song I'm after is very well known. I joined in with it in a session the other night and have now forgotten most of it. I don't know if it's trad or not. It's a sea song but not a shanty. I'm hoping it's *so* well known that, even from my vaguest of descriptions, someone will recognise the words to this very simple and catchy tune. Since I can't remember the words and don't know the title, I can't post a link to the tune. The chorus goes:

Daa daa da daaa (Haul away the sail?)
Da daa daa together
Daa daa da daa
Da something Idaho

I'm now looking down, red-faced with shame, but with eyes slightly raised in hope.

Sorry and thank you.

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:08 AM

Is the chorus (And i'm not sure how good my memory is working)

Haul down the sail
Where the bays come together
While away my days
on the hills of Isle o' Ho.

If so, I'm sure someone will be along with the writer and song details shortly.
Quack!
GtD.

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:15 AM

It isn't embarassing not to know something.

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: Stower
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:15 AM

Geoff, that's it! Misheard by me as Idaho! Thank you! And it's in the DT here. Also here. Can anyone recommend a good recording of this?

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: curmudgeon
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:16 AM

"Hills of Isle au Haut" by Gordon Bok - Tom

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: Stower
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 08:26 AM

GUEST, thank you for your kindness. My embarassment wasn't in not knowing, but in the sheer vagueness and, I thought, impossibility of the request. But Mudcat has come up trumps again.

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 10:25 AM

Confusing to people who have never heard of the place -- Isle au Haut is pronounced "Isle au Ho" (long O) and has even been mis-sung as "Hills of Idaho" with the singer probably wondering about all the maritime references.

It's an island off the coast of Maine.

Beautiful place.

Linn

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 11:53 AM

And to make it even more confusing, there is the old settler's song called "Away Idaho" which in my misspent youth I and my friends transformed into "Away Isle au Haut", a raucous ditty about the joys of getting smashed on homebrew in Penobscot Bay.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 12:06 PM

See the song in the DT: Hills of Isle Au Haut, also the threads:
Lyr Req: Hills of Isle au Haut (Gordon Bok) and Tune/Chords Req: Hills of Isle Au Haut .


Mick

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 07:33 PM

Getting smashed on homebrew in Penobscot Bay.

That sounds fun

CC

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: kendall
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 07:47 PM

More fun thasn getting smashed UP on the rocks of Penobscot Bay. I've done both.

Subject: RE: What is this sea song?
From: autoharper
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 07:51 PM

Charley: Please post your parody lyric "Away Isle au Haut/Away Idaho".
Thanks!
-Adam Miller

Subject: LYR: Add: Away, Isle au Haut
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Dec 09 - 09:02 PM

Adam-

Hi! When do you get back to Maine?

Well, I did find my old notebook, which is falling apart, but the song is there as transcribed in 1965:

Away Isle au HautM
(By Charlie Ipcar and members of the Puliston Family, 1965, parody of "Away, Idaho" as collected by Frank Warner)

The say there is a land where crystal waters flow,
Where banks of cod are there, by God, way out at Isle au Haut!

Chorus:

Away, Isle au Haut,
We're coming, Isle au Haut,
Our four-house gray* is on its way,
Way out to Isle au Haut!

You'll need no hook or line, no net nor bait nor twine,
The largest float up to the boat, way out at Isle au Haut. (CHO)

We'll face hard times no more and want we'll never know,
When we have stuffed our bellies full, way out at Isle au Haut. (CHO)

Now one thing that is true, there's nothing like homebrew,
For on our toots we're pissed as newts, way out at Isle au Haut. (CHO)

We have such a leaky boat, you'd wonder to see her afloat,
But we stay dry 'cause we're so high, way put at Isle au Haut. (CHO)

While sailing through the fog, we need no compass or log,
We sniff the air and if it's fair, we're bound for Isle au Haut. (CHO)

One thing that is false, commercial beer has no malts;
The truth is this, it taste , it tastes like piss, way out at Isle au Haut. (CHO)

We'll really have a feed, we'll eat all that we need,
And them that choose can drink homebrew, way out on Isle au Haut. (CHO)

We'll really have a bash, on homebrew we'll get smashed,
And on the rocks we'll all lie crocked, way out on Isle au Haut. (CHO)

Not a particularly brilliant song but it suited the moment. Bok did a better job!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble