Lyr Req: Sailor Town (Cicely Fox Smith)

Subject: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: Jon.Thrift
Date: 13 Dec 04 - 07:44 PM

Has anybody got the lyrics to "Sailor Town" as sung by Paul Sirman please?

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 09:35 AM

Jon-

Interesting request. There isn't a C. Fox Smith poem by that name in my 3 books. There is a poem called "In Sailortown" in my copy of FULL SAIL, pp. 72-74, which starts:

They don't sell no flash gear in Sailortown...

C. Fox Smith also wrote a series of short stories in her book entitled SAILORTOWN. Perhaps Sirman worked up a song from one of those stories. Can you tell us more?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: MMario
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 09:50 AM

it's on his album 'On Home Ground' - as 'Sailortown' no lyrics on the site where I found it listed.

Subject: Lyr Add: SAILOR TOWN (Cicely Fox-Smith)
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 10:57 AM

Here's the version as Johnny Collins sings it on Now And Then (a CD also notable for the excellent, if not modest enough, guitarist playing on it). He sings it to a tune written by Dick Miles, which may not be the tune Paul Sirman uses (implying the words may not be exactly the same), but which is the tune usually heard, so it probably is.

Mick

---

SAILOR TOWN
(Cicely Fox-Smith)

Along the wharves of Sailor Town a singing whisper goes
Of the wind among the anchored ships, the wind that gently blows.
Of a broad, brimming water where Summer day has died
Like a wounded whale a-sounding in the sunset tide.

  Chorus:
  I dreamed a dream in Sailor Town, a foolish dream and vain
  Of ships and men departed, of old times come again,
  And an old song in Sailor Town, an old song to sing,
  When shipmate meets with shipmate in the evening.

There's a big China liner gleaming like a gull
And her lit ports a-flashing along the long, gaunt hull
Of a Blue-Funnel freighter with her derricks stark and still
And a tall barque a-loading down at the lumber mill.

And in the shops of Sailor Town is every kind of thing
That the sailors buy there or the sailors bring.
Shackles for a sea-chest and pink cockatoos
Aye, and fifty-cent alarm clocks and also dead men's shoes.

You can hear the gulls a-crying and the cheerful noise
Of a concertina playing and a singer's voice,
And the wind's song and the tide's song crooning soft and low
The rum old songs in Sailor Town that the seamen know.

Source: Johnny Collins CD: Now And Then, sung to a tune by Dick Miles.

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 01:54 PM

Dick Miles has sung this song on a few occasions at Lancaster Maritime festival. I think that Dick has a book of songs that he has written and performed over the years?

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Dec 04 - 05:58 PM

Sure looks like C. Fox Smith. Anyone got a clue which book of hers it was printed in?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: ADD: Pacific Coast (C. Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 10:01 AM

As a serious collector of C. Fox Smith poems, I find this one particularly intriguing. It has the ring of what she wrote while working as a clerk at a shipping office in Vancouver, BC, in the early 1900's. Compare it to her "Pacific Coast":

Poem by C. Fox Smith, SEA SONGS & BALLADS 1917-22, pp. 96-97, © 1924

Pacific Coast
(Cicely Fox-Smith)

Half across the world to westward there's a harbour that I know,
Where the ships that load with lumber and the China liners go, -
Where the wind blows cold at sunset off the snow-crowned peaks that gleam
Out across the Straits at twilight like the landfall of a dream.

There's a sound of foreign voices - there are wafts of strange perfume -
And a two-stringed fiddle playing somewhere in an upstairs room;
There's a rosy tide lap-lapping on an old worm-eaten quay,
And a scarlet sunset flaming down behind the China Sea.

And I daresay if I went there I should find it all the same,
Still the same old sunset glory setting all the skies aflame,
Still the smell of burning forests on the quiet evening air, -
Little things my heart remembers nowhere else on earth but there.

Still the harbour gulls a-calling, calling all the night and day,
And the wind across the water singing just the same old way
As it used to in the rigging of a ship I used to know
Half across the world from England, many and many a year ago.

She is gone beyond my finding - gone forever, ship and man,
Far beyond that scarlet sunset flaming down behind Japan;
But I'll maybe find the dream there that I lost so long ago -
Half across the world to westward in a harbour that I know -
Half across the world from England many and many a year ago.

I would appreciate any further clues. I suspect that the poem may have been renamed and considerably reworked for singing.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: GUEST,Jacqued
Date: 15 Dec 04 - 02:27 PM

John Conolly did a song with this title on, I think, his CD "Humbers Brown Water."

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:31 PM

Jacqued-

Just had a listen to John Conolly and Bill Meek singing "Sailortown." Meek is credited as the composer and the lyrics have no relation to either of the songs posted above. But thanks for pointing out another "Sailortown" song.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Dec 04 - 11:50 AM

Refesh!

I've done some editing of the poem I posted above by C. Fox Smith. Seems that some of my puncuation preferences were coming through as question marks. Looks better now. Thanks for the help, Joe!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: GUEST,Jacqued
Date: 19 Dec 04 - 03:52 PM

Charley, an erudite????? mucker of mine tells me a charley noble was a galley funnel!?!   Any truth in that,

Jacqued

Subject: RE: Cicely Fox Smith - Sailor Town
From: Charley Noble
Date: 19 Dec 04 - 06:17 PM

Jacqued-

Well, I guess you "smoked" that one.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sailor Town (Cicely Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Apr 05 - 11:40 AM

I'm still wondering what the source of the C. Fox Smith poem "Sailor-Town" is, what book of hers it came from. I can't find it in any of the books I have in my growing collection. It looks like one of her poems but it may be just inspired by her work.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: Lyr Add: SAILOR TOWN (Cicely Fox Smith)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Apr 05 - 09:50 AM

No longer wondering about C. Fox Smith's original words. Danny McLeod was kind enough to sort this one out:

"Sailor Town" is in the book of the same name Sailor Town and also in Songs and Shanties was put to music by Dick Miles and a really good job he made of it.

The correct words are as follows: Dick has added a few words to it and uses the last verse as a chorus


SAILOR TOWN (Original)

Along the wharfs in sailor town a singing whisper goes
Of the wind among the anchored ships, the wind that blows
Off a broad brimming water, where the summer day has died
Like a wounded whale a-sounding in the sunset tide.

There's a big China liner gleaming like a gull,
And her lit ports flashing; there's the long gaunt hull
Of a Blue Funnel freighter with her derricks dark and still
And a tall barque loading at the lumber mill

And in the shops of sailor town is every kind of thing
That the sailormen buy there, or the ships' crews bring
Shackles for a sea chest and pink cockatoos,
Fifty-cent alarm clocks and dead men's shoes

You can hear the gulls crying, and the cheerful noise
Of a concertina going, and a singer's voice
And the wind's song and the tide's song, crooning soft and low
Rum old tunes in sailor town that the seamen know.

I dreamed a dream in sailor town a foolish dream and vain
Of ships and men departed, of old days come again
And an old song in sailor town, an old song to sing
When shipmate meets with shipmate in the evening.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Sailor Town (Cicely Fox Smith)
From: The Sandman
Date: 29 Jul 08 - 12:17 PM

Indeed SKIPPER JACK, my songbook is available from my websitehttp://www.dickmiles.com