I posted the original poem by Burt Franklin Jenness in the Old Sailor-Poet thread that this song is based on. Here's a link to where you can find the original poem as posted on the Oldpoetry website: Here's a link to this poem posted to the Oldpoetry website which permits header-graphics; I've picked a nice one by Gordon Grant appropriately titled "Bumboats": Click here!



I really haven't modified the words a lot and it fills a nice gap in the nautical song set as I'm aware of it. I'm not sure what the verse tune is (a lot of tunes would work) but the chorus shift to a familiar Calypso tune, with an appropriate shift in the rhthym (copy and paste into WORD/TIMES/12 to line up chords):

BUMBOATS

(Poem by Burt Franklin Jenness
From SEA LANES, edited by Burt Franklin Jenness,
The Churchill Publishing Co., Boston, US, © 1921, pp. 53-55.
Adapted by Charlie Ipcar, 4/1/07)

C--------------------F
I've had a whirl at games of chance
----------C---------G---------C
    From Bombay 'round to Cork,
-----C'------------------C
I've seen the ways of high finance
------C'-----C--------G
    In little old New York;
--C'----------------C
I know the way a bargain's made
-----C'------C-------G
    In Con-ti-nent-al marts,
--------C-------------------F
Where crafty merchants ply their trade
---------C---------G7------C
    And practice cunning arts;
-------------------------F
But when I call them back to mind,
-----C-------G--------C
    I make a solemn vow --
---------C'------------C
There's only one of all their kind
-----------C'-------C-----------G
    Could sell me something now;
--------C'---------------C
There's only one that ever can
-----------C'--------C------------G
    Bring pleasant thoughts to me --
-----C----------------F
And that's the little bumboatman,
----------C--------G-----C
    Who paddles out to sea:
-------------F-----------------C
With his: "Gotta nice ripa banan,
---------G----------------------------C
    You buy da beeg orange? He sweet!
F-------------------C
Gotta cirgarette; lika da fan?
---------G-------G7---------C
    You lika da fine par-a-keet?"

Now as we watched them rowing out,
    At first they looked like specks,
Just creeping down the bay, 'bout
    The time we'd swabbed the decks,
They'd be a-hovering 'round like gulls --
    Just waiting for "mess gear,"
The band would play, and in the lulls
    We'd call the bumboats near;
And on the wonders in each boat
    We'd feast our hungry eyes,
And as their little craft would float,
    We'd bargain for a prize;
Coral, shells, and blow-fish, dried,
    Fruit, and Guava jell,
Nuts, and gum, and dried snake hide,
    Lace, and tortoise shell –
Then 'twas "Gotta nice ripa banan,
    You buy da beeg orange? He sweet!
Gotta cirgarette; lika da fan?
    You lika da fine parakeet?"

Now, you may have your gilded shops,
    Their tinsel and their glare;
The scent of sandalwood and hops,
    And incense burning there;
Your money-changers, lottery sharks,
    And sleek rug merchant's guise;
Your hounding guides around the parks
    And street stockbroker's lies --
The bumboatmen are not the breed
    That lurk in Europe's mart,
They barter for their daily need --
    Deceit is not their art.
If there's reward for toil and strife,
    When comes the final summing,
In cheering up a sailor's life --
    Bumboaters have it coming;
With their: "Gotta nice ripa banan,
    You buy da beeg orange? He sweet!
Gotta cirgarette; lika da fan?
    You lika da fine parakeet?"

There may still be too many tongue-twisters in this one to sing. I'll probably record a draft version of this on the weekend (if I finish my taxes!) and link it to this thread.

"Waiting for mess gear" is probably a reference to "mess call" where the sailors break from work for nourishment.

Oh, the C' in my chord notation above is my attempt to indicate where I jump an octave on the banjo.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble