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This thread is intended to serve as a forum for corrections and annotations for the Digital Tradition song named in the title of this thread.

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I've always enjoyed this song, so I think it's time for me to learn it. I'm wondering what background information and what other versions we can dig up.

Here's the version in the Digital Tradition:

JACK WAS EVERY INCH A SAILOR

Now, 'twas twenty-five or thirty years
Since Jack first saw the light;
He came into this world of woe
One dark and stormy night.
He was born on board his father's ship one day
As she was lying to,
'Bout twenty-five or thirty miles
Southeast of Bacalhao.

cho: Jack was every inch a sailor,
Five and twenty years a whaler,
Jack was every inch a sailor,
He was born upon the deep bright blue sea.

When Jack grew up to be a man,
He went to Labrador,
He fished in Indian Harbor
Where his father fished before.
On his returning in the fog,
He met a heavy gale,
And Jack was swept into the sea
And swallowed by a whale.

The whale went straight for Baffln's Baffin's Bay
'Bout ninety knots an hour,
And ev'ry time he'd blow a spray,
He'd send it in a shower.
"Oh, now," says Jack unto himself,
"I must see what he's about."
He caught the whale all by the tail
And turned him inside out.

@sailor @animal @fish
filename[ EVRYINCH
TUNE FILE: EVRYINCH
CLICK TO PLAY
RG
(Note suggested corrections in strikeout/italics)

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Here's the entry on this song in the Traditional Ballad Index:

Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor

DESCRIPTION: "Jack was every inch a sailor... He was born upon the bright blue sea." Having been brought up as a whaler, one day Jack is swept overboard and swallowed by a whale. He escapes by pulling the whale inside out
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1929 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: talltale sea humorous whaler
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 125, "Jack was Ev'ry Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 40-41, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle2, p. 13, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Doyle3, p. 33, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Blondahl, p. 56, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 84, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (1 text)
DT, EVRYINCH
Roud #4541
RECORDINGS:
Omar Blondahl, "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor" (on NFOBlondahl01,NFOBlondahl05)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ambletown" (occasional floating lyrics)
cf. "Paddy and the Whale" (theme)
cf. "The Catfish" (Banjo Sam) (fish story)
Notes: This is almost certainly a cleaned-up bawdy song. - PJS
The versions I know all seem more in the Paul Bunyan vein -- extraordinary exaggerations. (But maybe I don't have imagination enough.) I suspect Paul is referring to "Jack Is Every Inch a Sailor," which is similar only in its first line and metrical form, and which IS sexual in theme. - RBW
File: FJ040

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