The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #68620   Message #1157408
Posted By: Charley Noble
08-Apr-04 - 09:14 AM
Thread Name: Tune Req: Shanty Song & When the taters r all dug
Subject: Lyr.Add.: Lewiston Falls
Oh, this is interesting! Apparently this chorus floated among several lumberjack/raftsmen's songs. Frank Warner collected a version titled "Lewiston Falls" which he recorded with entirely different verses on OUR SINGING HERITAGE, Electra 153, 1958. Warner notes that a simlar song is titled "The Shanty Song" in Barry's MAINE WOODS SONGSTER, and Harold Thompson's BODY, BOOTS AND BRITCHES has a raftsman's song from the Deleware with the same chorus. Apparently "Lewiston Falls" isn't in the DT. Transcribed from Warner's recording "lewiston Falls" goes like this:

LEWISTON FALLS
(As song by Frank Warner)

Chorus:

It's shove around the grog, boys,
The chorus around the room,
For we're the boys that fear no noise
Although we're far from home!(2X)

Well, I courted a girl in Albany,
Likewise in Montreal,
Another in Philadelphi,
But the best in Lewiston Falls. (CHO)

Well, a dollar in a tavern
Is very easy spent;
If we had it in old Ireland,
We'd have to pay downrent. (CHO)

Now, when you go to Albany
To give the girls a call,
They're not at all to be compared,
With the girls of Lewiston Falls. (CHO)

Hope this helps!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble