The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157370 Message #3714398
Posted By: Lighter
04-Jun-15 - 08:06 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: 'Shenandoah' in the U.S. army
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Shenandoah' in the U.S. army
This may be the earliest complete text of "Shenandoah" - from the 1860s.
It includes lines about seven years of courting, plus rum and chewing tobacco - and in the same order as above. Not only that, it already contains elements of "Sally Brown" and "Blow, Boys, Blow."
Anon., "Sailors' Songs," The Riverside Magazine for Young People (Apr.,1868), p.185:
"Man the capstan bars! Old Dave is our 'chanty-man.'* Tune up, David!
"Oh, Shannydore, I long to hear you! Chorus.-- Away, you rollin' river! O, Shannydore, I long to hear you! Full Chorus.--Ah ha! I'm bound awAY On the wild Atlantic!
Oh, a Yankee ship came down the river:… And who do you think was skipper of her?…
Oh, Jim-along-Joe was skipper of her:… Oh, Jim-along-Joe was skipper of her!…
An' what do you think she had for cargo?… She had rum and sugar, an' monkeys' liver!…
Then seven year I courted Sally: An' seven more I could not get her….
Because I was a tarry sailor,-- For I loved rum, an' chewed terbaccy:…
*Chanter (French), to sing. The words to the songs given here were from the lips of a veritable 'old Dave,' during the writer's recent voyage across the Atlantic."