Subject: Origins: Rap Her to Bank
From: Joe Offer
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry:
Rap 'Er to Bank
DESCRIPTION: "Rap 'er to bank, me canny lad! Wind 'er away, keep tornin! The bac-shift men are gannin' hyme...." The canaller recalls his father's life on the canal, and how he died in a fall of stones. The singer, too, is leaving the canal.AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Raven)
KEYWORDS: canal work death father
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Jon Raven, _VIctoria's Inferno: Songs of the Old Mills, Mines, Manufacturies, Canals, and Railways_, Roadside Press, 1978, pp. 74-75, "Rap 'Er to Bank" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1786
File: JRVi074
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RAP 'ER TE BANK (DT Lyrics)
cho: Rap 'er to bank, me canny lad!
Wind 'er away, keep tornin!
The back-shift men are gannin' hyam,
We'll be back in the mornin'.
My feyther used to call the torn
When the lang shift was ower.
As he went oot bye, ye'd hear him cry;
D'ye knaa it's efter fower?
And when that aaful day arrived,
The last shift for me feyther;
A faal of stones and brokken bones,
But still above the clatter, he cried:
final cho:
Rap 'er te bank, me canny lad!
Wind 'er reet slow, that's clivor!
This poor aad lad hes tekken bad,
Aa'll be back heor nivvor.
From Victoria's Inferno, Raven
Collected from Henry Nattress, Gateshead
Note: The rapper rope hung from a rapper at the minehead; the
miners pulled it as a signal to bring the cage back up
to the surface.
@English @mining @death
filename[ RAPBANK
TUNE FILE: RAPBANK
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
