Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework

Subject: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: Charley Noble
Date: 28 Jul 02 - 01:42 PM

Here's a relatively new shanty from my shanty factory, adapted from a short poem from nautical writer Lincoln Colcord, brother to sea music editor and collector Joanna Colcord. There was no tune but one flew into my head from somewhere and I'm responsible for adding the filler verses in between the largely original first and last verses:

WINDLASS CHANTY
(After a poem by Lincoln Colcord (1883-1947) From Sea Stories from Searsport to Singapore Words adapted & added to by Charlie Ipcar – © 1999 Tune: Charlie Ipcar © 1999)

Am
Soon she'll bite the swells, the breeze is singin',
--------F
We'll be sinkin' Sandy Hook in the morn,
Em-Am
So, walk 'er up, me lads, the pawls are ringin',
F ------------------------------Am
Soon we'll be rounding ol' Cape Horn.


Them Northeast Trades will keep our halyards singin',
We'll be sinkin' Sandy Hook in the morn,
We'll be rolling down to Rio, stuns'ls wingin',
Soon we'll be rounding ol' Cape Horn.*

Them gals in Callao will all be waitin',
We'll be sinkin' Sandy Hook in the morn,
When we're 'longside there'll be no hesitatin',
Soon we'll be rounding ol' Cape Horn.*

"The mudhook's up an' down!" the bosun's callin',
We'll be sinkin' Sandy Hook in the morn,
"So, break 'er out an' cat 'er!" now he's bawlin',
Soon we'll be rounding ol' Cape Horn.*

"Goodbye, me love, a year we'll be a-sailin',"
We'll be sinkin' Sandy Hook in the morn,
"So, sheet yer tops'ls home, the dawn is palin',"
Soon we'll be rounding ol' Cape Horn. (REPEAT)

F------------------------------Am
Soon we'll be rounding ol' Cape Horn!

* New verses

"Sandy Hook" in New Jersey is a familar landmark for those entering or leaving New York harbor, and, of course, is not literally "sinking." The world is round, so they claim!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, not to be confused with Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: radriano
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 11:42 AM

Nice job, Charley.

Can you post the tune?

Richard

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 04:39 PM

Richard, it would be easier for me to send you an MP3 file. Glad you like it!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: MMario
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 04:42 PM

*pout* we *gotta* find some poor sucker new mudcatter who can and wants to spend about a gazillion hours transcribing by ear.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: radriano
Date: 29 Jul 02 - 05:43 PM

Hi Charley,

Any idea how big the MP3 file is? I don't have a sound card at work and I don't have e-mail at home so I'd have to be able to save it onto a floppy disk.

Richard

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 09:59 AM

MMario-

Sorry but being musically illiterate is one of my handicaps. Seems that we don't have a MP3 file on hand but I've persuaded my sound engineer (and wife) to record and magically transform what comes out of my mouth. It's amazing, what she can accomplish! Most of our MP3 files are saved so they are less than 1.5 MG, readily e-mailed from our rural dial-up and saved to disc.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: MMario
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 10:06 AM

Charley - that was *not* a dig by any means. I cannot read music, nor transcribe by ear. (nor consistantly hit the correct note when starting a song, nor keep a rhythm to save my life...)

it was actually a serious - "gee I wish we could find someone with both the capability and the time to help us poor suckers who can't do it ourselves" - with a big emphasis on the fact I am one of them poor suckers.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Jul 02 - 10:34 AM

MMario- I really didn't take it as a dig, and I appreciate the never ending work you do tracking down tunes. We've just finshed taping and the MP3 file is a modest 419 kb.

Here's the original poem, which upon viewing it again I have to admit I'm done some radical folk-processing:

By Lincoln Colcord (1883-1947) From Sea Stories from Searsport to Singapore North Country Press, 1987

Windlass Chanty (original poem)

Oh, soon she'll bite the swell, the breeze is singing,
Sandy Hook is dropping fast astern!
Come, walk her up, my boys, the pawls are ringing,
And the long low coast goes down.
Then it's good-bye, and a year we'll be a-sailing,
Sandy Hook is dropping fast astern!
So, sheet your topsails home, the dawn is paling,
And the long low coast goes down.

Lincold Colcord was actually born on a square-rigged ship rounding Cape Horn in a gale, no less. But as he acknowledged later he was born too late "The day of sailing vessels was done."

I'd hope he'd like what I've done with his poem.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Jul 02 - 10:54 AM

Another recently published book LETTERS FROM SEA 1882-1901, edited by Parker Bishop Albee, Jr., and published by Tilbury House (in cooperation with the Penobscot Marine Museum), Gardiner, Maine, in 1999, provides a "splendid window" into the life of the seafaring Colcords, of Lincoln and his sister Joanne growing up aboard ship. As Lincoln later wrote:

"I knew no other home than a ship's deck, except the distant home in Maine that we visited for a few weeks every year or two. My countryside was the ocean floor, where I would roam only with the spyglass; my skyline was the horizon, broken by the ghostly silhouettes of passing vessels, or at intervals by the coasts of many continents, as we sailed about the world."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 Dec 06 - 02:11 PM

Here's a link to an MP3 sample of how I sing this song: click here and search for lyrics!

I've recorded the entire song on UNCOMMON SAILOR SONGS in 2004.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: shipcmo
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 04:37 PM

Which is now available in printed form

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Windlass Shanty-Lincoln Colcord Rework
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Jan 11 - 08:33 PM

Thanks, George, for mentioning the Uncommon Sailor-Songs songbook.

I'm always amazed with one of my dormant threads is revived.

I'm still fond of "Windlass Shanty."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble