Subject: Lyr Add: Johnny Come Down to Hilo
From:
GUEST,Lighter (w/o cookie)
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 07:02 PM
This started on the current thread about the Jame Madison Carpenter Collection.
On original recordings now in the Library of Congress, Carpenter recorded former shantyman James Wright in Leith, Scotland, in 1928. The very scratchy and sometimes jumpy records, some of which have been re-recorded on CD by FOLKTRAX, make the lyrics terribly hard to decipher, although the melodies remain clear.
After listening to Wright's singing of "Johnny Coime Down to Hilo" fifty times or more - and with some help from Snuffy - I am *fairly* cconfident that this is what the elderly James Wright was singing in Scotland nearly 80 years ago It's not much, but it does provide a "new" and hopefully authentic couplet for this well-known shanty.
I once was a fool with lots of tin,
I never thought it could get so thin.
When Johnny comes down to Hilo!
Poor old man!
Ohhh, SHAKE her!
Ohhh, WAKE her!
Wake that girl with the blue dress on,
When Johnny comes down to Hilo,
Poor old man!
Wright sounds fatigued or forgetful, but shouts out SHAKE and WAKE with great force as though a strong pull once came on these words.
I believe the song is usually given as a capstan shanty, but as Stan Hugill used to say, "Different ships, different long splices."
"Tin," of course, means "money," and one normal meaning of "thin" is "scanty or scarce."
Even if the transcription turns out to be less than 100% accurate,
I think the resulting couplet is singable, makes sense, and would sound acceptable to a 19th century shantyman.
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sj
