The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #77862   Message #1393678
Posted By: Joe Offer
30-Jan-05 - 06:32 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Win Chan Lu, sailed on the Yangtze River
Subject: DT Correction: The Chinee Bumboatman
The version in the Digital Tradition is from Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas. The DT has a few typographical errors, so I'll post corrected lyrics:

THE CHINEE BUMBOATMAN

I'll sing ye a story o' trouble an' woe,
That'll cause ye to shudder and shiver,
Concernin' a Chinese bumboat man that sailed the Yangtze River.
He wuz a heathen o' high degree, as the joss-house records show,
His family name was Wing Chang Loo,
But the sailors all called him Jim Crow-ee-eye-oh-ee-eye!

CHORUS:
Hitchee-kum, kitchee-kum, yah! yah! yah!
Sailormen no likee me,
No savvy the story of Wing Chang Loo
Too much of the bober-eye-ee, Kye-eye

Now Wing Chang Loo he fell in love, with a gal called Ah Chu Fong,
She `ad two eyes like pumpkin seeds, an' slippers two inches long,
But Ah Chu Fong loved a pirate bold with all her heart an' liver,
He wuz the capitan of a double-decked junk,
An' he sailed the Yangtze river-eye-iver-eye! CHORUS


When Wing Chang Loo he heard o' this, he swore an' `orrible oath:
If Ah Chu marries that pirate bold, I `ll make sausage meat o' them both!
So he hoisted his blood-red battle flag, put into the Yangtze River,
He steered her east an' south an' west,
Till that pirate he did diskiver-eye-iver-eye!
CHORUS

The drums they beat to quarters an' the cannons did loudly roar,
The red `ot dumplin`s flew like lead, an' the scuppers they ran with gore.
The pirate paced the quarterdeck with never a shake nor a shiver,
He wuz shot in the stern wid' a hard-boiled egg, That penetrated his liver-eye-iver-eye!
CHORUS

The dyin' pirate feebly cried, "We'll give the foe more shot,
If I can't marry Ah Chu Fong, then Wing Chang Loo shall not!"
When a pease-pudden `ot hit the bumboat's side, it caused a `orrible scene,
It upset a pot of `ot bow-wow soup, An' exploded the magazye-eenee-aye-eenee!


Shanties from the Seven Seas

@sailor @China
filename[ CHINBUM
TUNE FILE: CHINBUM
CLICK TO PLAY
JY

The tune in the Digital Tradition is exactly the same as what's in Hugill.