Dear all,

I'd like to try and resuscitate this 10 year old thread. I now have a copy of the Spinners Song Book, and so I have the Spinners version of the words and tune from that. As was noted in the old thread, the Spinners write: "The fo'c'sle song was collected in part from a retired sea cpatina's widow by Jacueline McDonald. Hugh Jones has added a verse and adapted elsewhere".

Earlier in this thread, we have Hughie Jones' intervention "The words were originally part of an old song - I wrote the present version and it was recorded by the Spinners and I often sing this during my current solo career ! I included it on the first solo release "Hughies Ditty Bag" and the lyrics are in the accompanting songbook"


What I want to know is:
a) does this mean that the Spinners version of the tune was an entirely new creation? (that's the impression I get from what's being said)

b) are they any other versions of the tune out there? Does anybody have an idea of the tune that would have been used before the Spinners? I'd be PARTICULARLY keen to hear from GUEST,Jon (any chances he's still around) to see if it's still possible to get hold of that midi file of the tune his grandfather used.