The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #41062 Message #4193741
Posted By: Gibb Sahib
17-Dec-23 - 06:16 AM
Thread Name: Donkey Riding - What's Hong-ki-kong?
Subject: RE: Donkey Riding - What's Hong-ki-kong?
Harlow next publishes the chanty material from the "Making of a Sailor" manuscript as "Chanteying Aboard American Ships" in journal installments beginning in April 1948.
The original manuscript for the whole of "Chanteying Aboard American Ships" is dated 1945. That manuscript's table of contents includes "Riding on a Donkey" with both the notes "(Walk Away)" and "Halliards." Sorry again, I don't have access to the page of the manuscript where the song appears.
Chanteying Aboard American Ships was published in its entirety (in book form) in 1962. I presume it contains the same or nearly the same as appeared in the 1945 manuscript.
The book's table of contents lists only the song title. The song appears on pp. 72-3.
The chanties in this part of the book are situated within a narrative of a passage out of Sydney in 1876. Harlow often refers to Brooks, of Brooklyn NY, the main chantyman.
In contextualizing "Riding on a Donkey," Harlow has Brooks leading the song for hauling a topsail halyard.
However, at the top of the score, the song is credited to Capt. J. L. Botterill. Botterill was an Englishman who had sung some chanties to Harlow (i.e. Harlow had "collected" chanties from Botterill, years after his retirement from the sailor profession). Two other chanties credited to Botterill appear in the book, as do chanties credited to print sources like Burgeson. In 1926 correspondence with a third party, in archive, Harlow refers to his contact with Botterill, calling him "a sailor of the later school." It's no surprise that Harlow might need a refresher on the song 50 years after his sailing days, though it's frustrating to get this Botterill version rather than whatever (so we are to believe) Brooks sang in 1876.
The song's text has elements of the "Little Powder Monkey Jim" (Creighton's "Chanty Song," mentioned up-thread).
Soon we'll be in London Town Sing ye lads, hi-oh! We'll see the Queen with a golden crown. Sing ye lads, hi-oh! Hi-oh and away we'll go. Sing ye lads, hi-oh! Hi-oh and away we'll go, Riding on a donkey.
We'll see the girls with eyes of brown And drink the best there is in town.
We'll clew sail and heave her to And never sail till the pay day's due.
At Oxford Circus we'll take our stand Among the lords and ladies grand.
My gal I'll dress in ribbons bright And at Garrie's show we'll spend the night.
We'll drink the best he's got in store, And when it's gone we'll call for more.