Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland

Subject: Lyr Add: THE GIRLS OF NEWFOUNDLAND
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 02:32 PM

Lyr. Add: The Girls of Newfoundland

We weighed our anchors in Harley Buck
In a hot and humid clime,
The steam-boat took us in the run,
We soon leaved her behind.

We unfurled canvas fore and aft
In a sweet and pleasant breeze,
Till lufting topsails carried us on
As she crept o'er the seas.

Two nights and days we sailed that way,
Our ship before the wind;
Two nights and days we sailed that way,
Till we got on the line.

It's for our noble captain,
He's plowed the ocean far,
And like him our sea-faring mate,
A stout and jolly tar.

It was for those four young seamen bold
Have nothing to trouble their mind,
But thinking on those handsome girls
Which they had leaved behind.

And now we're anchored in Harbour Grace,
The land we do adore;
We'll now la'nch out our long-boats
And lusty pull on shore.

Where we drank liquor there all day,
We'll drink an o'erflowing can;
We'll drink a health to all seamen bold
That sails from Newfoundland.

Some pretty girls we will see there
With hearts so young and gay
Who like some early blossoms
Blooms in the month of May.

The rose that blooms upon their cheek,
'Twould would win the heart of man;
The pride of all our nation is
Those girls of Newfoundland.

Kenneth Peacock, 1965, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports, vol. 3, pp. 875-876, with music (emailed to Joe for transcription).

---

Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE GIRLS OF NEWFOUNDLAND
From: GUEST, GEST
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 08:52 PM

The word "would" should not be repeated twice in the third to the last verse. :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE GIRLS OF NEWFOUNDLAND
From: GUEST, GEST
Date: 16 Oct 03 - 08:54 PM

Oops! Should have said third to the last line. Sorry. :-)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: THE GIRLS OF NEWFOUNDLAND
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Oct 03 - 12:04 AM

Yep, 'twould would is slightly repetitive.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 02:20 PM

I posted a MIDI I transcribed from the sheet music Q sent me. Q, do we know anything more about this song? Is it traditional, or did Peacock write it? I can't figure out the notation on the sheet music, but I'm sumising that teh song was sung by Arthur Nicolle at Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland, August, 1958 - and that Peacock collected the song from him.

Any other instances of this song?

The sheet music has a fermata on the first note of "run" in the first verse. It just didn't sound right to me, so I left it out. Seems to me there should be a slight pause after "run," but not at the beginning of it. Must be a mistake in the songbook, since everybody knows Joe Offer doesn't make mistakes...

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 02:51 PM

If one has to pick an author, it would have to be Arthur Nicolle. Peacock says Nicolle also used the tune for "The Loggers' Plight," a new ballad about the 1959 loggers' strike, lyrics which were given in handwritten form to Nicolle, author unknown.
However, the tune is quite different although both are Aeolian! Error by Peacock?
No further information. I think the tunes are Nicolle's; his name on the sheet music for both suggests that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: radriano
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 04:49 PM

I have a real hard time putting the midi melody to the lyrics posted. Is there any way I could glance at the sheet music?

I'm usually pretty good at this sort of thing but this one baffles me.

Radriano

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Joe Offer
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 06:01 PM

Hi, Richard - send me an e-mail address where you can receive jpg's.
I'll get it right out to you.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Amos
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 07:09 PM

Rhythmically this is the same cut as "The Banks of Newfoundland" -- is the tune derived from that older song?

A

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 09:03 PM

The song has been recorded by Dick Nolan on a tape called "The Pretty Girls of Newfoundland," along with Lukey's Boat, Newfie Girl, Ise the By, Aunt Martha's Sheep, CN Bus and other Newfie favorites.
http://www.newfoundlandmusic.net (Cat. 1276, $11.95).

The website also offers Partridgeberry syrup for sale, Dark Tickle brand, and Partridgeberry Tea.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 10:51 PM

Meter but not the notes similar to the Canadian "Banks of Newfoundland," but very different from the American and the English songs of the same name.

Canadian 1st verse:
The springtime of the year is come,
Once more we must away,
Out on the stormy Banks to go
In quest of fish to stay

American 1st verse:
Most sad was my misfortune in the year of 'sixty-three
When I shipped on board for fishing there caught on a drunken spree,
I shipped on board the Eastern Light as you might understand
For to go out on the salty sea to the Banks of Newfoundland.

English 1st verse:
Ye rambling b'ys of pleasure I'll have you to beware,
Don't never go sailing in a Yankee ship nor dungeon jumpers wear,
But have your monkey jackets always at your command,
Beware of the cold nor'westerns on the Banks of Newfoundland.

Joe, looking through a number of Newfoundland songs, the fermata is probably real. This distortion or pause which doesn't quite fit the meter may be a local quirk. I think most singers regard it as optional.

Subject: Lyr Add: PRETTY GIRLS OF NEWFOUNDLAND
From: GEST
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 01:58 PM

Q ~ A recent contribution of the lyrics to Dick Nolan's Pretty Girls of Newfoundland to my site disagrees with your mention of that song with Peacock's collected piece. Take a look at this:

Pretty Girls Of Newfoundland

Well, I been across this country and across the USA,
I've kissed the smiling faces of the girls along the way;
I've marvelled at their beauty and the ways to charm a man,
But the prettiest girls I've ever seen, they came from Newfoundland.

Well, there's Mary Lou and Peggy Sue, Wanda Lee and Rosie,
There's Candy, Sandy, Mandy, Jean, and Jane, And Josie;
Shirley and Eileen Marie and Roxanne,
They're Heaven to behold, those pretty girls of Newfoundland.

Perhaps you think I'm foolin' but what I say is true,
And if you don't believe me here's what I'll do for you:
I'll take you to the island, so come on if you can,
And introduce you to those pretty girls of Newfoundland.

Well, there's Eva, Heava, Molly, Dolly, Viola and there's Wendy,
Margarie, Annie, Krissy, Suzie, Evelyn, and Cindy;
There's Mary, Sara, Patsy, Trudy, Donna, and Joanne,
Jewels of the world, those pretty girls of Newfoundland.

Yes, there's Mary Lou, and Peggy Sue, Wanda Lee, and Rosie,
Candy, Sandy, Mandy, Jean, and Jane, and Josie;
Shirley and Eileen Marie and Roxanne,
They're Heaven to behold, those pretty girls of Newfoundland.
Yes, they're Heaven to behold, those pretty girls of Newfoundland.

####.... Dick Nolan, Pretty Girls Of Newfoundland, 1996. Also recorded on the cassette, My Beautiful Island, Condor 1500, Heritage Music, Ontario. Recorded at Shage Sound> ....####

From GEST Songs Of Newfondland And Labrador

The Girls Of Newfoundland

We weighed our anchors in Harley Buck,
In a hot and humid clime;
The steam-boat took us in the run,
We soon leaved her behind.

We unfurled canvas fore and aft,
In a sweet and pleasant breeze;
Till lufting topsails carried us on,
As she crept o'er the seas.

Two nights and days we sailed that way,
Our ship before the wind;
Two nights and days we sailed that way,
Till we got on the line.

It's for our noble captain,
He's plowed the ocean far;
And, like him, our sea-faring mate,
A stout and jolly tar.

It was for those four young seamen bold,
Have nothing to trouble their mind;
But thinking on those handsome girls,
Which they had leaved behind.

And now we're anchored in Harbour Grace,
The land we do adore;
We'll now la'nch out our long-boats,
And lusty pull on shore.

Where we drank liquor there all day,
We'll drink an o'erflowing can;
We'll drink a health to all seamen bold,
That sails from Newfoundland.

Some pretty girls we will see there,
With hearts so young and gay;
Who like some early blossoms,
Blooms in the month of May.

The rose that blooms upon their cheek,
'Twould win the heart of man;
The pride of all our nation is,
Those girls of Newfoundland.

####.... Newfoundland traditional ....####

Collected in 1958 from Arthur Nicolle of Rocky Harbour, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 3, pp.875-876, by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.

From GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Oct 05 - 09:53 PM

Yep, Dick Nolan's song is some different.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: GUEST,richard
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 08:37 PM

can someone tell me how to get the lyrics for i's da bys, by dick nolan

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 10:15 PM

Ise the Bye

There ya go, Richard.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Peace
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 10:19 PM

"Ise the Bye

"around the circle" - Fogo, Twillingate, and Morton's Harbour are places on three different islands on the North shore of Newfoundland. If you pulled into all three and returned to the first you would have travelled in a circle.

"Sods and rinds to cover yer flake" - Flakes were spread on the beaches to dry cod fish that had been salted.

Sods refers to grass sods. However, they were not used to cover flakes and are not related to flakes at all. Sods were used in many different areas of early Newfoundland life. For example, sod huts were use to smoke fish, but in the context of the line it makes little sense.

Rinds refers to birch bark, but in the context of the line it refers to birch boughs. Birch boughs (tree branches) were used to cover the flakes so the drying fish would not get burned by the sun. Also, the boughs helped to keep the flies off the fish, because no one likes maggoty fish.

Justus Elgar
(a former resident of Twillingate Isle)"

From the site linked just above this post.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 05 Jan 06 - 10:39 PM

"I'se the Bye that Builds the Boat," sheet music, 2 midis and eight verses at Gest "Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador"
GEST

Collected in 1951 by Ken Peacock and published in "Songs of the Newfoundland Outports," 1965, vol. 1, p. 64, with music. First published in Gerald S. Doyle, 1955, "Old-Time Songs of Newfoundland."

Note: 'Flake' (verse 2) is a platform covered with pieces of bark (rinds) on which the filleted cod are spread to dry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Girls of Newfoundland
From: GEST
Date: 23 Oct 06 - 09:55 PM

I might also add that this song should not be confused with the 1988 song by Kevin Collins, The Girls From Newfoundland, which Kevin recently contributed to GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador. :-)