Help: Coast of Peru

Subject: COAST OF PERU
From: MMario
Date: 08 Jan 02 - 02:12 PM

there are two versions of 'Coast of Peru' in the DT - plus a version in the forum.(New Zealand Whales.

the 'Coast of Peru (2)' doesn't have a tune, though the one linked above does.

Have found two tunes on a polish szanty site listed as traditional here and here. The 'New Zealand Whales' in the forum also has a tune. all four are different. Does anyone know which if any was used for "Coast of Peru (2)"?

Subject: RE: Help: COAST OF PERU
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 12:23 AM

MMario -

The second melody on the Polish site is the one I've heard performed for CP(2). It's also the melody on A.L. Lloyd's classic recording of the song. I'll defer to others who might have heard the first melody written out on the polish site.

-chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Help: COAST OF PERU
From: Anglo
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 01:27 AM

The tune in the DT, with Gale Huntington's text, is from Gale Huntington's book, and he possibly got it from Harlow, "Chanteying Aboard American Ships." (I don't have a copy of that so I can't check). Huntington used whalebook logs to find his texts, but having got them, used other sources to find tunes for them. He cites Colcord's "Songs of American Sailormen" as a reference to Coast of Peru - there's a related tune there, but it's not quite the same. The Polish tune referenced above (Brzegi Peru (2) - not the one correctly identified by Chanteyranger) is another variant, more a simplification, of the same tune.

Doerflinger published a text (in the DT) but no tune, so take your pick.

Phil Garland's notes state that his New Zealand version was collected in the States by John Leebrick, who was also responsible for bringing Davy Lowston to light. The tune is in 4 rather than 3; there are a couple of places where the contour is similar to the Huntington tune, but it's certainly not the same.

Is all this confusing enough, MMario? I suppose a simple answer to your original question would be "No."

Subject: RE: Help: COAST OF PERU
From: MMario
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 08:43 AM

close enough for me.

I know Malcolm is cringing. but when I send this in I will reference this thread - so at least it show I tried.

Subject: RE: Help: COAST OF PERU
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 09 Jan 02 - 09:19 AM

Oh, no cringeing in this case!  As Anglo says, Doerflinger printed no tune (presumably he didn't have one?) so it's up for grabs.  What I try to do where possible is find a tune from a version collected in the same region, or failing that one with as close a text as possible, but it can't always be done.  Many published songs are set to tunes from elsewhere in any case, and even otherwise reputable collectors and editors don't always say so or identify their source, though it's a pity.  So long as it's on record where the words and tune both came from (and that the connection is a best-guess) then there's no need for anyone to be inadvertently misled.

As you know, what does worry me is people adding tunes from unspecified sources to texts that may have nothing to do with them at all, sometimes just because they have similar titles, but that isn't an issue here.  I can't help with Coasts of Peru at all, I'm afraid.

Subject: RE: Help: Coast of Peru
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Sep 19 - 10:23 AM

Thomas Chandler Haliburton, The Clockmaker…Third Series, by "Sam Slick" (Phila.: Lea & Blanchard, 1840) p. 44:
        
        When you double Cape Horn, as yer in hopes for to do,
        There's a plenty of sparm whale on the coast of Peru.


Henry James Mercier, "Life in a Man-of-War, or Scenes in 'Old Ironsides' "(Philadelphia, 1841):

“Dobbs…had been for twenty or thirty minutes desperately engaged in drawling forth a song to which there appeared to be no end, the burden of which was the capture of a whale after a severe and bloody struggle.…
        “‘Why, damme, man, whilst you have been lowering the boats away in that song of yours, a good Nantucketer would have three whale turned up.’
        “‘Oh !…The marrow of the ditty is to come yet—when we get the fish alongside.’”

Subject: RE: Help: Coast of Peru
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 26 Sep 19 - 07:09 PM

The Coast of Peru by various performers on YouTube

Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and A.L. Lloyd
Hughie Jones
Geoff Kaufman
Bill Bonyun
Bernie Davis
Crows
Yesterdays Men
Stuart Gillespie
Ian Campbell Folk Group
Ewan MacColl
A. L. Lloyd
Bob Webb Bernie Davis
Dick Miles
The X-Seamen's Institute

Subject: RE: Help: Coast of Peru
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 26 Sep 19 - 07:23 PM




and Louis Killen

Subject: RE: Help: Coast of Peru
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Sep 19 - 07:27 PM

Bert Lloyd has a stellar version on Leviathan ! Ballads & Songs of the Whaling Trade. Topic 1967

Subject: RE: Help: Coast of Peru
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 27 Sep 19 - 03:32 AM

Yes GUEST it is amonng the YouTube links above

Subject: RE: Help: Coast of Peru
From: Reinhard
Date: 27 Sep 19 - 04:18 AM

The version attributed to Louis Killen on YouTube (from the album Steady As She Goes) was actually sung by Gerret Warner.