The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #67549 Message #1129009
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
04-Mar-04 - 08:34 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Aboard a Man o' War
Subject: RE: Origins: Aboard a Man O' War
A text appears in the DT as Press Gang: it appears to have been taken from a Ewan MacColl record. A further three texts from revival performers are posted in thread Lyr Req: 'On Board Of A Man-of-war', but with no information as to traditional sources.
See also thread Lyr Req: Ewan MacColl's The Press Gang which points out a probable error in the DT transcription.
So far as I can tell, all these are collations of the two traditional sets mentioned, from Thomas Taylor (Ross Workhouse, Herefordshire, 10 September 1921, noted by Cecil Sharp) and James Sutton (Winterton, Norfolk, July 1915, noted by E J Moeran): altered either deliberately or by accident by the various performers concerned or by whoever they learned the song from.
The broad answer to the question is, yes; the song is traditional, though we don't know if it was traditionally sung in the form in which Ewan MacColl recorded it (and I expect that most people have learned it from him, directly or indirectly). We don't know who originally wrote it.
A midi made from Moeran's notation of James Sutton's singing is at the Mudcat Midi Pages:
The Pressgang
On Board a Ninety Eight is a different song, unrelated to the one Soundcatcher has asked about.