The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #128961 Message #3067035
Posted By: MGM·Lion
04-Jan-11 - 11:21 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Woman dresses as sailor to win her love
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Woman dresses as sailor to win her love
Also perhaps a bit tongue-in-cheek: ~~ The "Short Jacket & White [or Blue] Trousers" family (2 versions in DT as "Short Jacket", one from Greenleaf, Newfoundland, collected from Mrs Tom White 1929). Versions were sung & recorded at various times by Louis Killen & Bert Lloyd. The story is abbreviated to between 4 & 7 verses ~~ mostly concerning the captain [sometimes Ross or Roth] with whom she enlists as cabin boy, trying to "find her secret out" [cf "Handsome Cabin Boy"]; but she holds him off and leaves him to "roar" (rhyme! after they have "docked in Baltimore" or "reached the Irish shore") when she appears in her petticoats and bids him adieu. The end of stanza 1 or 2 states that she does all this "All to find her own true love, Across the raging sea"; but we do not hear of this shadowy figure again in most versions, and this theme seems introduced merely as a sort of mechanical & perfunctory nod to the widespread convention that gives rise to the subject of this thread!
〠Michael〠