The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #112697   Message #2388072
Posted By: GUEST,Lighter
13-Jul-08 - 08:04 PM
Thread Name: Origins/Lyr Add: Workin' on the Levee
Subject: RE: Origins/Lyr Add: Workin' On the Levee
The "Grace / disgrace" couplet seems to come from an earlier English sea song called "Aboard the Man-o'-War":

I had a wife and her name was Grace--
My curse upon her ugly face.
'Twas she that brought me to this digrace,
Aboard the man-o'-war, O.

(More or less.)