Subject: A Nautical Yarn (Aussie paddle-boat)
From:
Bob Bolton
Date: 09 May 02 - 10:32 PM
This came up in another thread ... I posted the words, but here are the words and the original tune, in MIDItxt.
A Nautical Yarn
(This appears in Keighley Goodchild's 1883 poetry book Who Are You ... but critics maintain it is too far removed from his style to be his own compositions ... more likely to have been heard in a pub in the Echuca area.). I have used the original Goodchild form and spellings ... and the chorus, which is sung with the (probably more authentic) Dreadnought tune
A Nautical Yarn
is commonly sung in Australia to Villikins and his Dinah (known in US as Sweet Betsy from Pike ... but this is an aberration introduced in the early 1950s by Burl Ives ... probably on the basis of a mis-identification of the 2 tunes as identical by riverboat book author Ian Mudie.
A Nautical Yarn
I sing of a capting not unknown to fame,
A naval commander, Bill Jinks was his name,
Who sailed where the Murray's clear waters do flow,
Did this freshwater shellback with his Yeo heave a yeo.
(Derry down, down, down derry down.)
To the port of Wagunyah his vessel was bound
When night comes upon him and darkness around,
Not a star on the waters its clear light did throw,
But the vessel sped onward with a Yeo heave a yeo.
"Oh capting, oh capting, let's make for the shore,
For the winds they do rage and the winds they do roar."
"Nay, nay,' said the capting, "Though the fierce winds may blow,
I'll stick to my vessel with a Yeo heave a yeo."
"Oh capting, oh capting, the waves sweep the deck,
Oh capting, oh capting, we'll soon be a wreck,
To the river's deep bosom each seaman will go"
But the capting laughed lightly with his Yeo heave a yeo."
"Farewell to the maiding, the girl I adore,
Farewell to my friends, I shall see them no more."
The crew shrieked with terror, the capting he swore -
They had stuck on a sandbank, so the men walked ashore.
Here is the Dreadnought tune, in Alan of Oz's MIDItext format. (The other tune Villikins and His Dinah (or Sweet Betsy from Pike) is freely available, so I won't bother supplying it.):
MIDI file: nautical.mid Timebase: 240 TimeSig: 3/4 24 8
Tempo: 128 (468750 microsec/crotchet)
Start
0480 1 71 080 0192 0 71 064 0048 1 71 080 0192 0 71 064 0048 1 72 080 0192 0 72 064 0048 1 71 080 0192 0 71 064 0048 1 69 080 0192 0 69 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 63 080 0384 0 63 064 0096 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 62 080 0192 0 62 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 67 080 0384 0 67 064 0096 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 62 080 0192 0 62 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 62 080 0192 0 62 064 0048 1 62 080 0192 0 62 064 0048 1 64 080 0192 0 64 064 0048 1 62 080 0192 0 62 064 0048 1 74 080 0384 0 74 064 0096 1 76 080 0096 0 76 064 0024 1 76 080 0096 0 76 064 0024 1 76 080 0192 0 76 064 0048 1 71 080 0192 0 71 064 0048 1 71 080 0192 0 71 064 0048 1 72 080 0192 0 72 064 0048 1 71 080 0192 0 71 064 0048 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 69 080 0096 0 69 064 0024 1 71 080 0192 0 71 064 0048 1 69 080 0192 0 69 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 69 080 0384 0 69 064 0096 1 67 080 0096 0 67 064 0024 1 66 080 0096 0 66 064 0024 1 64 080 0576 0 64 064 0144 1 71 080 0576 0 71 064 0144 1 69 080 0192 0 69 064 0048 1 67 080 0192 0 67 064 0048 1 66 080 0192 0 66 064 0048 1 64 080 0384 0 64 064
End This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here ABC format: X:1
T:
M:3/4
Q:1/4=128
K:C
B6|B2c2B2|A2G2^F2|G2^F2E2|^D4^F2|E2^F2E2|
G2^F2E2|D2E2^F2|G4G2|G2^F2E2|D2E2D2|D2E2D2|
d4ee|e2B2B2|c2B2AA|B2A2G2|A4G^F|E6|B6|A2G2^F2|
E13/4||
|
sj
