170 - Blow The Man Down ( C ) - Halyard Shanty


Here is one of the most favorite shanties are the tops'l halyard shanty "Blow The Man Down". This version is the famous one about the "flying-fish sailor" who was mistaken for a Blackball seamen. A "flying-fish sailor" was a John Tar who preferred the lands of the East and the warmth of the Trade Winds to the cold and misery of the Western Ocean.
Stan Hugill left record on his album: "Chants des Marins Anglais (1992)" where singing with Stormalong John, and this is version with melody and tempo, I try replicate.
I would also like to thanks to Artur Pietrzykowski for the wonderful illustration that you can find at the beginning of the record.
"Shanties from the Seven Seas" by Stan Hugill (1st ed p 203, 204).


Blow The Man Down ( C )


I'm a deepwater sailor just home from Hong Kong,
   - Timme WAY, hay, BLOW the man down!
If ye give me some whisky I'll sing ye a song,
   - Ooh! GIMME us some time to BLOW the man down!

*2*
As I was a-walkin' down Paradise Street,
A handsome fat policeman I happened to meet.

*3*
Sez he, Yer a Blackballer by the cut o' yer hair,
An' the long, red-topped seabots that I see yer wear.

*4*
'Ye've sailed in some packet that flies the Blackball,
Ye've robbed some poor Dutchman o' boots, clothes an' all.'

*5*
'O mister, ye do me great wrong,
I'm a flyin'-fish sailor, just home from Hong Kong.'

*6*
So I spat in his face, an' I stove in his jaw.
Sez he, 'Here, young feller, yer breakin' the law!'

*7*
They gave me six months, boys, in ol' Walton town.
For bootin' an' kickin' an' blowin' him down.

*8*
Now all ye young fellers what follow the sea,
Put yer vents on the wind an' just listen to me.

*9*
I'll give ye a warnin' afore we belay,
Steer clear o' fat policemen, ye'll find it'll pay.