107 - Roll The Cotton Down ( A ) - Halyard Shanty


A very popular halyard shanty "Roll the cotton down", opens a big family of the shanties, which Stan Hugill describes as the shanty with the word 'Roll'. As a matter of fact, it vies with 'blow' and 'hilo' as the most popular word in a sailor work-song. At Tops'l halyard it was a hardy perennial, although it suited t'gallant halyards it was a hardy perennial, although it suited t'gallant halyards even more so, being of a fairly lively march time.
This version is a "Negro" theme version.
"Shanties from the Seven Seas" by Stan Hugill (1st ed p 152 ).


Roll The Cotton Down ( A )


Oooh, roll the cotton down, me boys,
   - ROLL the cotton DOWN!
Oh, roll the cotton down, me boys,
   - Oh, ROLL the cotton DOWN!

             *2*
I,m goin' down to Alabam,
To roll the cotton down, me boys,

             *3*
When I lived down south in Tennessee,
My old Massa, oh, he said to me.

                     *4*
Oh, the slaver works for the white man boss,
He's the one who rides on the big white hoss.

             *5*
If the sun don' shine, then the hens don'lay,
If the slaver won't work, then the boss won't pay.

             *6*
Away down south where I was born,
I worked in the cotton and the corn.

             *7*
Oh the slaver works the whole day long,
The Camptown ladies sing this song.

             *8*
When I was young before the war,
Times were gay on the Mississippi shore.

             *9*
When work was over at the close of day,
'Tis then you'd hear the banjo play.

             *10*
While the darkies would sit around the door,
And the piccanninies played upon the floor.

             *11*
But since the war there's been a change,
To the darkey everything seems strange.

             *12*
No more you'll hear the banjo play,
For the good ol' times have passed away.

             *13*
And now we're off to New Orleans,
To that land of Slaver Queens

             *14*
Oh, in Alabama where I was born
A-screwin cotton of a summer's morn.