The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2407 Message #3222699
Posted By: Lighter
13-Sep-11 - 03:39 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Leave Her Johnny Leave Her
Subject: RE: Origins: Leave Her Johnny Leave Her
Actually, *no* shanty line is above suspicion - unless it was taped from the singing of a nineteenth-century crew at work.
And without numerous such tapes, it would be hard to know just how "traditional" it was anyway.
Any line is, theoretically, a possible bowdlerization of something else.
And anything bawdy (in modern performances) is likewise a possible dirtification of something else or a new invention.
If - and only if - Sharp bowdlerized the line about "Our Captain is a bully man," I suspect what heard was something like "is a bloody ass," with "bloody" being the objectionable word.
But I also suspect that Sharp was capable of coming up with a rhyme on his own, "silly ass" being the obvious, because idiomatic, choice.
Maybe the singer was doing the bowdlerizing.
As for collectors trying to set themselves up as unimpeachable authorities, I don't think that assumption is borne out by the general tone of their writings. (The obvious exception, of course, appears to be Whall, who strongly emphasizes the authenticity of his versions. But his versions undoubtedly are as authentic as he could remember - and cared print.)
Most of the collectors printed what they knew, and left out what would be offensive to the average book buyer. Not being scholars in the then nonexistent field of shanty studies, they put together idealized versions that would be "complete" and enjoyable to sing. How much messing around they did beyond that must vary with the editor. Besides taking verses from other collections, and occasionally expurgating (always easier than bowdlerizing), my impression is that the editors are usually trustworthy.
Sometimes I think Harlow "improved" the words more than anyone except Davis & Tozer (who never claim that their lyrics are all authentic), but that may be completely untrue. And, as Hugill noted, Patterson often "trots out" versions with choruses in odd places, which is highly suspicious. But most of the verses, by far, that appear in collections seem to be entirely genuine.
As for Joyce, since the lyrics appear as an actual utterance rather than in an internal monologue, I think we can assume they're as authentic as any others. My subjective impression, too, is that the stanza, while clever, is not surreal enough to be something that Joyce would have made up for a literary purpose.