1914        Bullen, Frank. T. and W.F. Arnold. _Songs of Sea Labour._ London: Orpheus Music Publishing.

Bullen, born c.1858, first went to sea in 1869 at age 11.

Bullen's collection is a unique and detailed repository of chanties as learned by a "hardcore" chantyman of the 1870s, without the prejudice of Captain Whall's earlier selections. Bullen's singing was transcribed by Arnold, an academically trained musician.

While Sharp read and acknowledge the work, it does not seem to have had much/any influence on later performers (/the Revival) until Hugill re-printed some of the items. Bullen was known for a couple books earlier. I wonder what happened with this one. Was it poorly distributed? Did it not carry much clout for some reason?

Intro, dated 1913. Critiques predecessors for not having experience.
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But I, unwillingly enough, had to spend over a decade of my sea life in various sailing ships' forecastles, engaged in trades where Chanties were not only much used on board, but where many new ones were acquired in the harbours; I allude to the West Indies and the Southern States of America.

Being possessed of a strong and melodious voice and a tenacious memory, Chanty singing early became a passion with me, and this resulted in my being invariably made Chantyman of each new vessel I sailed in, a function I performed until I finally reached the quarter-deck, when of course it ceased…I was before the mast in sailing ships from 1869 to 1880…I was never apprenticed and consequently was a member of many different ships' companies and sailed in many varying trades in that time.
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The nature of chanty lyrics: Impromptu, dirty.
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The stubborn fact is that they had no set words beyond a starting verse or two and the fixed phrases of the chorus, which were very often not words at all. For all Chanties were impromptu as far as the words were concerned. Many a Chantyman was prized in spite of his poor voice because of his improvisations. Poor doggerel they were mostly and often very lewd and filthy, but they gave the knowing and appreciative shipmates, who roared the refrain, much opportunity for laughter… And although many a furtive smile will creep over old sailors' faces, when they hear these Chanties and remember the associated words that went with them, those words are not down here.
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Notes on "The Music of the Chanties," by Arnold, 1913.
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Seeing that the majority of the Chanties are Negroid in origin, perhaps a few remarks on Negro music will not be out of place here…
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Musicological talk follows. About pentatonic scale. Comparison with example from "Slave Songs of the United States." "Snap" rhythm. Ending melodies on other tones than the tonic. "Rag-time" vs. "raggy" nature of chanty tunes. Comparison to Sankey hymns (and also quoting Jekyll's work on Jamaican music).
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Many of the Chanty tunes bear a strong resemblance to hymn tunes of the Sankey and Moody type. …after the War of Emancipation troupes of negro singers toured the Northern States of America, introducing the traditional slave tunes to all classes of the community, including the negroes of the North, who adapted some of the songs into their religious services. …negro songs and singers became "the rage." …many of the traditional tunes already used as hymns by the negroes, and others because of their quasi religious flavour, were adapted to words of a devotional nature. Mr. Bullen himself told the writer that on one occasion he overheard a South Carolina negro, employed on a sperm whaling ship as harpooner, crooning what was ostensibly a Sankey hymn, but, on being questioned, the singer submitted the information that he had never heard of either Sankey or Moody, and what he was singing was a South Carolina slave song, "The little Octoroon"… Mr. Bullen however, knew the tune as "Ring the bells of heaven" one of the best known of the Sankey collection. …There is not the slightest doubt that many of the hymns in that famous collection had their origin in the old traditional negro tunes…The tunes of both the Chanties and the American Revival Hymns spring from one common source—negro music.
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"Note to the Chanties"
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It is a wild thought of mine I know, but I have imagined the improvising of words to these Chanties becoming a favourite country house Drawing Room diversion…
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Chanties not sung off duty.
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Unlike the old folk-songs, which are used for pleasure or diversion, the Sailor's Chanties were never sung in the forecastles after labour, nor in all my experience have I ever heard a song sung in a ship's forecastle that would be recognized as a sailor's song.
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…But the great majority of these tunes undoubtably emanated from the negroes of the Antilles and the Southern states, a most tuneful race if ever there was one, men moreover who seemed unable to pick up a ropeyarn without a song… I have never seen any men work harder or more gaily than negroes when they were allowed to sing….
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[[WINDLASS AND CAPSTAN CHANTIES]]

[MUDDER DINAH] Sharp also gave this (from informant Conway), and we know it as a rowing song from South Carolina.
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…when I first heard the Chanty which I have called "Mudder Dinah!"…We were discharging general cargo in the Demerara River off Georgetown, and all the wonder I could spare, being a first voyage laddie, was given to the amazing negroes who, not content with flinging their bodies about as they hove at the winch, sang as if their lives depended upon maintaining the volume of sound at the same time… I became most anxious to learn it, so I asked one of our two boat-boys to teach me…HE set about his pleasnt task at once but was very soon pulled up by his mate who demanded in indignant tones what he meant by teaching "dat buckra chile" dem rude words. They nearly had a fight over it and then I learned that the words didn't matter, that you varied them according to taste, but as taste was generally low and broad the words were usually what my negro friend called, in cheerful euphemism, rude.

1. Mudder Dinah.

Good mornin' Mudder Dinah, how does yer shabe yer peepul?
Sing! Sally oh! Right fol de ray!
Hooray-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay, For ole mudder di-inah-h
Sing Sally oh. Right fol der ray.
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In this way [i.e. from stevedores in Demerara on his first voyage] I acquired numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in this collection and I have never heard them anywhere else. They are negro Chanties all right enough, but they were not in common use on board ship.
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[SISTER SUSAN] Harlow also gave this as a stevedore's song.
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2. Sister Seusan.

Sister Seusan my aunt Sal
Gwineter git a home bime-by-high!
All gwineter lib down Shinbone Al,
Gwineter git a home bime-by.
Gwineter git a home bime-by-e-high
Gwineter git a home bime-by.
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3. Ten Stone.

I nebber seen de like sence I ben bawn!
Way ay ay ay ay!
Nigger on de ice an a hoe-in up corn
Way ay ay ay ay
Ten stone! Ten stone, ten stone de win' am ober!
Jenny git along Jenny blow de horn,
As we go marchin' ober!
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A "Shenandoah" lyrical theme, however, the form/tune here is unique. This is probably related to the now-popular "Down Trinidad/Sunnydore" song, and perhaps to "Shiny O".
My rendition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1be-0VjCtxE
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4. Shenandoah

Oh Shenandoh my bully boy I long to hear you holler;
Way ay ay ay ay Shenandoh
I lub ter bring er tot er rum en see ye make a swoller;
Way ay ay ay Shenandoh!
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[SALLY BROWN] Bullen notes with this (and later with "Drunken Sailor") having heard it sung for enjoyment by gentlemen of London's Savage Club. Am I to suppose that many of the Club's members would have included retired seamen (does anymone know more about it)? I guess the question for me would be what period he is talking about and what that would imply. To wit, was this after the era (first decade of 20th c.) when chanties had spread to the general public – in which case these two songs were, in a way, pop songs? Or, was it at an earlier time, such that the singers had all really remember the songs from their working experience?
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…But my most pleasant memory of it is not when weighing the anchor or working the flywheel pumps, but on sundry Saturday nights at the Savage Club, when the delighted Savages did their best to lift the roof off the great Clubroom at Adelphi Terrace, and the mighty volume of sound must have been heard on the farther bank of the Thames….

5. Sally Brown.

Sally Brown she's a bright Mulatto
Way ay –ay roll and go!
She drinks rum and chews terbacker;
Spend my money on Sally Brown.
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First appearance of this, though we've had WALKALONG SALLY. Tune resembles "Tom's Gone to Hilo" a bit.
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…typically negro and no white man could hope to reproduce the extraordinary effects imparted to it by a crowd of enthusiastic black men.

6. Walk Along Rosey.

Rosy here an Ro-o-sy dere,
A way you Rosy walk along
Oh Rosy here, an Rosy dere!
Walk along my Rosy!
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[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
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…an old, old favourite with the white sailor, but it is full of melancholy…probably more frequently sung than any other Chanty when getting under weigh either outward or homeward bound.

7. Good-bye, Fare-you-well.

I thought I heard our old man say
Good bye fare you well , good bye fare you well
I thought I heard our old man say
Hurah my boys we're ho-omeward bound!
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[MR. STORMALONG]
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8. Storm-along.

Stormy he was a good old man.
To my way, You Stormalong!
Oh Stormy he is dead and gone!
Ay! Ay! Ay! Mister Stormalong.
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[LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
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To sing it before the last day or so on board was almost tantamount to mutiny, and was apt even at the latest date to be fiercely resented by Captain and Officers.

9. Leave her Johnny.

Leave her Johnny and we'll work no-o more
Leave her Johnny, leave her!
Of pump or drown we've had full store;
Its time for us to leave her.
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[JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] was supposedly last heard off Calcutta by Bullen – in the 1870s, I suppose. Interesting in the lyrics here is the "[A]merican man." Bullen gives the lyrics in a Black [eye-]dialect, and in that context I'm not sure just what was meant by "American." Is the singing subject supposed to be a Black man of the Caribbean, or….?
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…brings to my mind most vividly a dewy morning in Garden Reach where we lay just off the King of Oudh's palace awaiting our permit to moor. I was before the mast in one of Bates' ships, the "Herat," and when the order came at dawn to man the windlass I raised this Chanty and my shipmates sang the chorus as I never heard it sung before or since…I have never heard that noble Chanty sung since…

10. Johnny Come Down to Hilo.

I nebber seen de like, Since I ben born
When a 'Merican man wid de sea boots on
Says Johnny come down to Hilo.
Poor old man!
Oh! wake her! Oh! Shake her
Oh wake dat gal wid der blue dress on,
When Johnny comes down to Hilo!
Poor old man!
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