The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #60190   Message #962395
Posted By: GUEST
31-May-03 - 02:56 AM
Thread Name: Oyster songs
Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
Oystering songs: There's the "Geoduck" song from Seattle I believe. This has been recorded in Japanese
A version goes like

Chorus:

Dig a duck, dig a duck,
Dig a gooey duck
Dig a duck, dig a gooey duck
Dig a duck a day


You can hear the digger say
As he's headed for the bay
I gotta dig a duck, gotta dig a duck a day

Cause I get a buck a duck
If I dig a duck a day
So I gotta dig a duck,
Gotta dig a duck a day

They walk across the sand
About a half a mile from land
To dig a gooey duck
You dig him up by hand
But it isn't much trouble
And you don't use a shovel
You find a gooey duck
By looking for the bubble

It take a lot of luck
And a certain kind of pluck
To dig around the muck
To get a gooey duck
Cause he doesn't have a front
And he doesn't have a back
And he doesn't know Donald
And he doesn't go, "Quack!"

From the Chessapeake Bay there's also the "Shanghied Dredger". A early 19th century round from Baltimore called "Go It Jerry" contains an oyster vendors cry as one of its verses