Yes, I know there are other threads on this excellent song, but this is something a bit different. We made contact with the author Bill Lowndes last year, via an internet contact. He and his wife live in quiet retirement in Cornwall, UK - they don't want to be invaded by lots of folkies, so they asked us not to be more specific. "Old Fid" himself was a retired Norwegian sailor who settled in Bill's town. Bill would see him every day, sitting on a bench staring out to sea, and eventually got to know him and heard his story. The old man would look down at his hands and say "Look at 'em - every thumb a marline-spike and every finger a fid", which gave Bill his starting point for the song. When he heard our recording (Baggyrinkle - Old Swansea Town), he liked it but said that we, like everyone else, missed out half a verse. Apparently the first person to record Old Fid missed it out, and everyone's version goes back to that one. Bill was a bit upset that his song had been mutilated, so we said "No problem, give us the missing bit, and we'll put it back in." He did. We have. This then is the Authorised Old Fid, as dictated to us over the telephone by Bill Lowndes in 2002:
OLD FID (Bill Lowndes)
I'll sing me a song of the rolling sky, To the land that's beyond the Main, To the ebb-tide bell or the salt pork meal, That I'll never taste me again. There's many a night I've lied me down, To hear the teak baulks cry, To a melody sweet with a shanty-man beat As the stars went swimming by
(Chorus)Don't ask me where I've damn well bin, Don't ask me what I did, For every thumb's a marline-spike, And every finger's a fid.
I mind the times as we were becalmed, With never a breath for the sheet, With a red sun so hot that the water would rot, And the decking would blister your feet. And then there's the times, as we rounded the Horn, With a cargo of silk for Cadiz, The swell roll was so high it were lashing the sky Till the whole ruddy world were a fizz!
(Chorus).
Be it spices from Java or copra from Yap, Or a bosun so free with the lash, It were "Up with the anchor!" and "Run out the spanker!" And "Damn it, move faster than that!" I've loved proud women from Spain's lusty land, And I've seen where the Arab girl sleeps, And the black girls as well, though they're fiery as hell, Have all kissed me when silver was cheap.
(Chorus).
Lord, how the man's changed from the young cabin boy To the old man that sits on this bench! Now he's too old to fight or to stay out all night In the company of some pretty wench. Just an old clipper man who's long past his best years, He knows that he'll never be free From the smell of the tar that once braided his hair, From the salty old tang of the sea.
(Chorus)^^
Note that the first three verses are first-person, the words of "Old Fid" himself. The last verse is third-person, Bill's comments on Old Fid and his life. BTW, the "black girls" of Old Fid's amorous memories were Australian, not African.
Bill accepts that songs change as they pass from singer to singer, and is really pleased that people sing his words even if changed somewhat, but I thought you might like to know what he actually wrote. And what a great song! Nice one, Bill.