On the other hand:
"Bully in the Alley crops up as published only from Short via Sharp ("I have no variants of this nor do I know of any printed version of it") – except for one other version that Hugill 'picked up in the West Indies'. There are three other shanties of this title in the Carpenter collection, with first lines that seem to be related (Edward Robinson - 'John Brown's body in the alley' and Cptn. Robinson – 'I lost my jacket in the alley' [both of Sunderland, England] – and Mr. Forman [of Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland] – 'I lost my coat in Story's Alley'). Judging by extant recordings and the internet, all revival versions seem to have the same structure, and stem from Hugill. Hugill's version gives Shinbone Al as a location in his text. There are Shinbone Alleys in St. George's, Bermuda, in Antigua, and in Pittsburgh – to name but a few! (Story's Alley, incidentally, is in Leith). There has also been some speculation that 'Bully' is a synonym for 'drunk': it could equally be synonymous with 'bullish' i.e. agressive (which might account for leaving your jacket in an alley after taking it off for a fight!).

Short's version gives no location and no indication of drunkenness. In fact, the fragments of Short's text are more reminiscent of Sally In Our Alley (the composition by Henry Carey published in 1726, which became very popular in the U.S. in the nineteenth century, not the Gracie Fields 1931 song) than of Bermudan alcoholism – but either 'explanation' of the shanty is probably grasping at straws and ultimately pointless.

Hugill comments, on the version published by Sharp, that "I feel that this version has all the signs of being in a worn condition, as though Mr. Short's memory, in this case, didn't serve him well." It certainly proved a difficult mss to get 'inside' and understand. Sharp did not always mark his mss with 'solo' or 'chorus', nor did he usually mark the stresses – the conclusion must be that when he does so (as he does throughout this shanty), it is because he has specifically checked it with Short for whatever reason. Sharp's solo/chorus markings and stresses initially did not seem logical, primarily because the Hugill version is so ingrained! However, the way it seems to work is actually as Sharp recorded/published it, although it is still open to some degree of interpretation. It feels as though this version is far closer to a cotton-screwing chant than the Hugill version. (Carpenter makes a note beside the version from Edward Robinson that it also was for 'cotton screwing').