Lochaber No More

Farewell to Lochaber, farewell to my Jean
Where heartsome wi' her I ha'e many day days been
For Lochaber no more, we'll maybe return
We'll maybe return to Lochaber no more.

These tears that I shed, they are a' for my dear,
An' no' for the dangers attending on weir,
Tho' bourne on rough seas to a far distant shore,
May be return to Lochaber no more.

The poem appeared in Ramsey's Tea Table Miscellany of 1724, though the tune was not actually printed with the words until Thompson's Orpheus Caledonius in 1733. "Lochaber No More" was requested by Queen Victoria during her 1842 visit to Taymouth Castle for a recital by one of the most celebrated singers of Scots songs of the time, John Wilson.

The Leaving of Liverpool

"The Leaving of Liverpool" was first collected by William Main Doerflinger from Richard Maitland, whose repertoire he recorded at Sailors' Snug Harbor in Staten Island from 1938 to 1940. At the time, Doerflinger was an independent collector, recording the songs of sailors and lumbermen out of personal interest. In early 1942, Doerflinger found another version sung by a retired sailor, Captain Patrick Tayluer, who was living at the Seamen's Church Institute at the South Street Seaport in Manhattan.

Farewell to Princes' landing stage, River Mersey fare thee well
I am bound for California, a place I know right well
So fare thee well my own true love
When I return united we will be
It's not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me
But my darling when I think of thee

Leave Her, Johnny

In his book Shanties from the Seven Seas, Stan Hugill printed verses of Leave Her, Johnny as a halyard and as a pump shanty. He wrote: And now we come to the 'Johnny' song that usually ended the voyage - Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her! Its function was that of airing grievances just prior to the completion of the voyage either when warping the vessel in through the locks or at the final spell of the pumps (in wooden ships) after the vessel had docked. Many unprintable stanzas were sung, directed at the afterguard, the grub, and the owners. Bullen writes that: “to sing it before the last day or so was almost tantamount to mutiny.”

Leave her, Johnny, leave her!
Oh, leave her, Johnny, leave her!
For the voyage is done and the winds don't blow,
And it's time for us to leave her!

Recall Words & Music by Tom Lewis (Recorded by Tom Lewis on Surfacing!)

Long decades past without the worksongs roaring to the sky,
And sailormen upon the beach could only wonder why,
Those graceful ships of yesteryear no more would greet their eye,
Washed up like flotsam was the shantyman.

But now once more the great square-riggers sail the oceans wide,
Those tall ships filled with green, young sailors working side by side,
The old songs ringing-out again, the shanties never died,
Hoist Blue Peter for the shantyman,
Blue Peter's hoisted for the shantyman.

Shantyman by Bob Watson

Now modern ships carry mighty funny gear,
And away, get away, you shantyman.
Ain't seen a halyard in many's a year,
An' they got no use for a shantyman.

Shantyman, oh, shantyman,
Who's got a berth for a shantyman?
Sing you a song of a world gone wrong,
When they got no use for a shantyman.

STANLEY ACCRINGTON's most widely-covered song, Last Train, is an elegy for the lost railways of his native Lancashire.

Down the Rossendale Valley on a sultry warm day
The clanking of wheels echoes on
But it's all in my mind, when I wake up I find
That the last train from Bacup is gone