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Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song

08 Jan 01 - 12:30 PM (#370912)
Subject: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Noreen

Can anyone help me find the lyrics to Bold Carter? Song is about the wrecking of an English frigate on Les Casquettes rocks in the year before the battle of Trafalgar.

Thanks in advance, you wonderful people. :0)

Noreen

08 Jan 01 - 03:44 PM (#371045)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Malcolm Douglas

The only "Bold Carter" I know of is an alternative title for  Polly On The Shore;  The text in the DT is credited as "copyright Randy Newman", which is a little puzzling unless he is nearly three hundred years old.  Perhaps it was he who added the lines about being on a Privateer, though I rather doubt it (I don't think that they are traditional, either, though I could be wrong).  The song was first published, apparantly, as "The Valiant Sailor" in 1744, so this, and the fact that the hero dies in battle rather than by shipwreck, would seem to rule it out as the song you want.  Do you know if your "Bold Carter" is an old or a modern song, and are you able to quote any of it for us?

Malcolm

08 Jan 01 - 04:03 PM (#371059)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Noreen

Thanks, Malcolm. This is a request from a friend and I don't know any more details myself, but will find out. I presume the details above are mentioned in the song.

(I agree with you that the Polly on the Shore reference is puzzling!)

Noreen

09 Jan 01 - 07:18 AM (#371350)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Noreen

refreshing...

09 Jan 01 - 01:12 PM (#371527)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Les from Hull

Although I can't help you with the song, if it relates to any actual event, I'll be happy to research that for you - my specialist subject is the Royal Navy of that period.

Incidentally, there were 2 British frigates (there's no such thing as an English frigate) lost that year - one in the Bay of Biscay and one one the coast of Portugal.

Les

09 Jan 01 - 03:23 PM (#371623)
Subject: Lyr Add: BOLD CARTER (from Ralph Vaughan Williams)
From: GUEST,bigJ

BOLD CARTER
from 'Folksongs Collected By Ralph Vaughan Williams' edited by Roy Palmer pp107-108

Come all you wild young men,
And a warning take by me
And never lead your life astray
Unto bad company.

Bold Carter is my name,
And hard is my intent;
Till I got pressed by a press merchant,
And on board a man of war got sent.

We hadn't sailed long,
Before the first thing that we spied,
It was five French ships came sailing to war,
And at length they were going to draw nigh.

We hoisted our main colours,
Our bloody flag we let fly,
Singing, every man stand to his gun,
For the Lord knows the day we must die.

Our captain got wounded most wonderfully sore,
And so did most of his men;
Our whole ship's rigging got all shot away,
So at last we were forced to give in.

Our decks were all sprinkled with blood,
And the great guns so loudly they did roar;
I wished myself back home again
With my Polly that I left upon the shore.

She's a tall and a handsome girl,
She's a black and roving eye;
And here upon the deck where I lay shot,
For her sweet sake I must die.

Here's adieu to my father and mother,
Crying friends and relations, too,
I never should have crossed the salt seas so wide
If I had been ruled by you.

Under the title of 'The Valiant Sailor', this first appeared in 1744 as one of 'three excellent new songs' in 'The Irish Boys Garland'. Through the long period of oral transmission since then the song has remarkably close to the same powerful text, and has usually been found with fine, soaring tunes. Vaughan Williams obtained this version from Mr J. Whitby, the sexton of Tilney All Saints near King's Lynn. (Palmer's notes). 'Bold Carter' was recorded by Nick Dow on his c1986 LP, 'A Mark Upon the Earth' (OHM 107).

09 Jan 01 - 03:28 PM (#371628)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: MMario

Thank you bigJ - do you have any way of posting the tune?

09 Jan 01 - 03:39 PM (#371633)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Malcolm Douglas

That's one of the "Bold Carter"s that I referred to in my first post to this thread, which, though a fine version of "Polly on the Shore", is for the time being ruled out as the song Noreen is looking for on the grounds of both date and content.  Of course, it may turn out that Noreen's friend may have confused the storyline or have come across a version that we don't know about, but prima facie it seems unlikely that this is the one.  If bigJ can't send in a midi, I will.

Malcolm

10 Jan 01 - 04:18 AM (#372057)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Calach

PLEASE can someone send in the midi for this... it sounds like it's a really good song
Looking forward in anticipation....

10 Jan 01 - 07:08 AM (#372099)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Noreen

Thanks all, I'll pass on this info and report back.

Les- thanks very much for the offer.

Noreen

27 Mar 01 - 02:05 PM (#426752)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Malcolm Douglas

Another question elsewhere reminded me about this thread, and the fact that, though I made a midi of the tune for the set of Bold Carter that BigJ posted, I don't seem to have sent it in.  This I will now do; until it appears at the  Mudcat Midi Pages,  it can be heard via the  South Riding Folk Network  website:

Bold Carter

Malcolm

27 Mar 01 - 02:25 PM (#426766)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: Noreen

Thanks Malcolm. It turns out that the friend had assumed a link between the song and the Trafalgar reference when there was no link there- this is the song.

Noreen

05 Jul 17 - 10:22 AM (#3864455)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Carter: Napoleonic song
From: GUEST,John Robinson

I sometimes sing this one as a variant of Polly on the Shore. My version is fairly colloquial, to add a bit of colour.

Come all you wild young men,
and a warning take by me,
never to spend your single life astray
into no bad company.

Bold Carter it is my name,
and hard was my intent,
till I was pressed by a press gang agent
and into a man-of-war I was sent.

We hadn't been sailing long
when the first thing we espied,
was five French ships, they were sailing as to war,
and at length we were going to draw nigh.

We hoisted our colours high,
and the bloody red flag we did fly.
Let every man stay true to his gun,
for Lord knows who must die.

Our captain was wounded full sore,
and so were the rest of our men.
Our mainmast rigging was all shot away,
and we were obliged to give in.

The decks ran red with blood,
and the cannons so loud did roar,
and thousands of times I wished myself at home,
with Polly I left upon the shore.

She's a tall and a slender young girl,
with a dark and a roving eye.
And here am I lying bleeding on a deck,
when for her sweet sake, I'd die.

Farewell my parents and friends.
Likewise, my dear Polly too.
I'd never have sailed on the wild salt sea,
if I'd have been ruled by you.
If I'd have been ruled by you.

I'd never have sailed on the wild salt sea,
if I'd have been ruled by you.