Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918

Subject: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Lighter
Date: 25 May 26 - 03:45 PM

The New Orleans Item of June 9, 1918, ran a double-page, small-print spread of chanteys sung to the unnamed writer by Mr. M. J. Powers, 83, who had gone to sea in 1851. Maddeningly they are "only a few samples" ad when Powers left the sea is not indicated.

Powers's texts are distinctly unusual. Here is "The Hog-Eye Man," which the paper calls "The Lime-Juicer":

It's who's been here since I've been gone,
   A Lime-Juice sailor with his habits on.
    And a Hog-eye!
A railroad n-----r and a Hog-eye!
(Row the boat ashore!) and a Hog-eye!
And all she wants is a hog-eye man.

[Similarly:]

Get up, old Juicer, on the floor,
   My Yankee laddie's at the door....

I say, old Juicer, I'll have no tricks,
   For I remember Seventy-six....

I hit that Juicer, queer old ram --
   For I owed him one for Uncle Sam....

I say, old Juicer, I want no airs,
   And I throwed him, body and bones, right down the stairs....


A "Limejuicer" or "Juicer" is an English (or British) seaman.

"Habit" appears to mean "customary outfit," but OED's final example is from 1796 - but the word might have lingered in regional usage for quite a while after. Another possibility is someone's mishearing of "hip boots."

A note explains - wait for it - that "Hog-eye was seamen's slang for a Chinaman." As I noted on another thread, June 7, 2020, "19th century databases show that 'hog-eyed' was a southern (American) term for 'having small or squinting eyes.'"

The anti-English, nationalist verses sound to me as though they probably date from before the Civil War.

More to come.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: meself
Date: 25 May 26 - 08:26 PM

Interesting!

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Lighter
Date: 26 May 26 - 12:03 PM

Powers's two versions of "Blow the Man Down":

                      "TOPS'L VERSION"

         I thought I heard the old man say-ay-ay-ay;
            Gimme some time to blow a man down!
         Load my ships and be away-ay-ay-ay!
            Gimme some time to blow a man down!


                     "CAPSTAN VERSION"

         I thought I heard the old man say-ay-ay-ay;
            Gimme some time to blow a man down!
         Blow a man down to Mobile town;
            Gimme some time to a blow man down!

[Similarly:]

         Then shake her up, my boys, and blow...
         In that hold the bale must go....

         Then shake shake [sic] her up, my bully crew....
         For Irish hoosiers on that screw....

         You're the boys to put it through....
         Every lick in the fire flue [sic]....

The "capstan version" clearly has lines from a cotton-screwing song. The "tops'l" line, "Load my ships and be away!" sound like one too.

"Every lick in the fire flue" must be garbled (though "flue" may be "flew," which is only slightly better).

Authorities claim that "Blow the Man Down" was used only for hoisting.
Apparently not.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 26 May 26 - 01:53 PM

Very odd! When you put 'similarly' are those three stanzas a continuation of the Capstan version? Also this does not seem to fit with the usual 'Blow the man down' tune and format. Any guesses at the tune?
Plenty of standard phrases 'We're the boys to pull/kick her through', 'Up aloft that yard must go'
As it's clearly a cotton screwing text it might be worth looking at the canting lingo of the hoosiers for that last line. 'And frolic in the .... Gibb might have some suggestions.

Habits 'high boots'?

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Lighter
Date: 26 May 26 - 02:07 PM

Hi, Steve. "High boots" may be even more likely than "hip boots."

Except for abbreviating things with "similarly," I've posted the words and format exactly as they appear in the newspaper. The so-called "tops'l version" contains only one stanza.

I think the usual "Blow the Man Down" needs to be tweaked only slightly to carry the words. If so, "say-ay-ay-ay" and "way-ay-ay-ay" would be better spelled "sayyyyyy" and "awayyyyy."

The article gives no tunes. It does, however, give a lot of information about chanteying, little of it unfamiliar.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 26 May 26 - 05:01 PM

Hmmm, don't agree over the 'ay-ay-ay'. I think that more likely means exactly what it says. If you just wanted to express a continued note you would just put 'ay-----' or even 'sa------ay'.

I know it's in the chorus rather than the solo but surely it intends something like in 'A Long Time Ago' 'To me way-ay-ay-ya.' They could even represent pulls or a pull on the last 'ay'

The capstan version would just need a steady rhythm which is why it is slightly different in form.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 May 26 - 01:41 AM

I can see each syllable of "ay" being articulated.

"Blow the Man Down" *can* be problematic for singers insofar as it departs from the standard.

The following is my opinion.

I consider a "standard" chanty to contain a couplet, each line of which is—I guess—iambic tetrameter. There are four "beats." The number of syllables can vary, but because English is a stress-timed language you can still organize 4 stress points with varying numbers of syllables.

WHIS-key IS the LIFE of MAN
WHIS-key FROM and OLD tin CAN

(Capitalized syllables are stressed and fall on the beat.)

A singer has a vast number of couplets in their repertoire, and is accustomed to improvising new ones that fit this pattern. And the pattern will fit the great majority of chanties (being, as they are, standardized), so that you can swap couplets/lines wherever.

Some species of chanty don't conform to this standardization.

"Sally Brown," "Shenandoah," (some versions of) "Blow Boys Blow," and maybe 1-2 others I'm forgetting don't quite match in that there's an "extra" syllable at the end in their typical verses. You can fudge the "standard" couplet if you add some filler. Like, imagine trying to sing "Whiskey is the life man" to the Sally Brown tune. It sounds awkward to stretch out "man." It needs another syllable. So, I might at "boys" and sing, "Whiskey is the life of man, boys." The point is that I don't want to be limited to the familiar Sally Brown / Shenandoah / Blow Boys verses, but my store of matching-meter verses is limited and, it turns out, it's harder to come up with a 2-syllable final word to the line (twice, to create rhyme). It's not that big a deal, but something that needs to be negotiated. (Interestingly, this internal feature seems to keep this handful of chanties in their own little box where they influence each other.)

"Blow the Man Down" represents a different departure from standard. First, it is in compound meter, three subdivisions per beat (e.g. 6/8) which, despite popular stereotypes about what chanty tunes are like, isn't all that common. Moreover, some chanties which are in compound meter simply follow a quarter note + eighth note rhythm most of the time, giving two notes per beat.

This version of "Knock a Man Down" (Blow the Man Down) does that.
https://youtu.be/OOBrLZwZr-I?si=KcZnEiXzF8F6cyAo
As a result, the is no problem in setting any "standard" couplet to it.

Interestingly, this version of "Blow Boys Blow" from Georgia is in compound meter (as opposed to the simple meter of the most famous versions) but circumvents the issue of the "extra syllable" mentioned above. It is also appropriate for "standard" couplets.
https://youtu.be/YHhqlViZVJw?si=reJTFSekVrus5-zG

It's no coincidence that I consider these versions of Knock a Man Down and Blow Boys to be in some way more "authentic." They serve the practical aspect of the craft of chanty singing as a tool, whereas the more famous versions of these songs must depend more on scripted features that feel more performative to me. I'm being a little vague here.

But the famous style of "Blow the Man Down" illustrates it. The mouthful of words about "As I was a rollin' down Paradise Street" or "I'm a deepwater sailor just home from Hong Kong" is suitable for the tune where you get continuous jig-like eighth notes. It's easy enough to manage if you've got the whole scripted story in mind and your plan is to sing "the song: Blow the Man Down" with those canonical words.

But what if you just want to riff on it? There are "two many notes." Your standard couplets don't fit. If you're sharp, you can do a quick adaptation, like,

oh WHIS-key oh WHIS-key's the LIFE of all MEN

Still, I find it somewhat annoying as a singer. I'll avoid Blow the Man Down or else find myself in the rut of doing the canonical verses (few of which I can remember in the moment) and, ultimately, end up feeling like it was a "performance" of Blow the Man Down rather than an expression using the scaffold of a chanty framework.

Long ramble short: It looks to me like Powers was taking an improvisational approach. He launches off with "I thought I heard the old man say." A standard opening declamation for a chantyman. Where will it go from there? No one knows. Just start it off, and by the end of the chorus you'll figure it out.

Yet if he had the famous tune of Blow the Man Down in mind—a tune that was really popular in a pesky way in 1918 (possibly the most famous chanty of the time), then he'd find himself in the awkward position of setting the STANDARD chanty line (I thought I heard the old man say) to the that annoying SpongeBob tune. He squeezes it in:

i /THOUGHT i heard / THE old man / SAY ay ay / AY

/LOAD my ship / AND be a- / WAY ay ay / AY

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 May 26 - 01:43 AM

Sorry, here are clickable links.

Knock a Man Down

Blow Boys Blow

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Lighter
Date: 28 May 26 - 07:16 AM

"Sung on any job where pulling on a rope was the essential thing."

                      HAULING C[H]ANTEY

Oh, they call me Hangin' Johnnie,
Hurray! Hurray!
All because I hang for money,
And it's hang, boys, hang.


[Similarly:]

But I ne'er hung anybody....
I've only hung me daddy....

Don't it look mighty funny...
But I just hung 'im for his money....

Now I've hung in Alabama....
And I've hung in Louisiana....

I've hung in Sacramento....
And I've hung in San Francisco....

I've hung to create commotion....
For I've hung in [sic] every ocean....


The poetic "ne'er" sounds archaic to me. It might suggest the 1850s or earlier. Cf. my note on the "Hog-eye Man."

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 May 26 - 07:25 AM

"when Powers left the sea is not indicated."

It's implied at the end that 1887 was his last ship-work, on the Great Lakes.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Lighter
Date: 28 May 26 - 11:54 AM

Hi, Gibb.

It certainly looks like Powers had worked at some point at screwing cotton, which would explain some of "Blow the Man Down."

Daily City Item (N.O.), Nov. 25, 1891: "Today is the forty-first anniversary of the Cotton Screwmen's Benevolent Association, and...the occasion is being celebrated by a grand parade.....

"Riding at the head of the column was Grand Marshal John T. Clark with the following aids: James Pendergast, Thomas Casey,...M. J. Powers...."

While the "Great Lakes Chantey" implies that Powers was still a sailor in 1887, that may not have been his last voyage. (And for chantey purposes, I consider the Great Lakes the "sea"!)

According to an obituary for "Michael J. Powers" in the New Orleans States (March 25, 1928) Powers's dates appear to have been 1834-1928. Michael J.Powers would indeed have been 83 in early 1918.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 May 26 - 07:59 PM

Well, it's the the *note* in the article that says "[Great Lakes Chantey] was written by M. J. Powers himself, in commemoration of his last trip at sea—a Great Lakes voyage." He'd have been ~52 yrs old. No reason to think they lied and he snuck in more voyages after that :)

Thanks for the independent confirmation about his screwman work. Otherwise, the lyrics in all the examples strongly imply it. Doubtful that an unconnected person would still remember a whole ballad of "The Screwmen" —commemorating a two-week strike to go from $5 to $6, in 1865! Haha.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Lighter
Date: 28 May 26 - 08:38 PM

Interesting too that Powers seems to have used the word "chantey" to describe any sort of sea song - unless that was simply an editorial decision.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 May 26 - 10:20 PM

It's really cool to see the screwmen's ballad adjust a data point cited in my cotton screwing article: that in the mid-1860s the wage for New Orleans screwmen was $4/day. (That came from Arnesen, _Waterfront Workers_). The ballad indicates that, on the contrary, it was $5, and after they won the strike in 1865 they got it up to $6, to align with the Mobile pay.

In my article, I also cite $3 in the 1850s and $2 in the 1840s. On that basis—here's the fun fact—I speculate that the cotton chant verses mentioning "a dollar a day" or "a dollar and a half a day" may have been composed earlier than the 1840s.

It's unknown to me how exactly race of the workers might have affected these figures besides the general understanding that, at times, Black screwmen were paid less. Powers's organization was for White screwmen. New Orleans' "Colored" version of the organization was founded in the 1870s.

The ballad also suggests that the pattern of the foreman (chantyman) being paid a dollar more than the rest of the gang was consistent: Their pay went up from "5 and 6" to "6 and 7."

The texts hint at further complexity: Powers (or his song persona) identifies, at least nominally, with the Confederacy while many of the songs/expressions signify (at least to me) a ready adoption of "Black" voice. Some will disagree, but it seems to me quite striking that Powers adopts this "Black" mode of expression in the songs yet this goes without any comment in the article, and the only explanation that comes to mind right now is that it was taken for granted that screwmen took that style.

The White screwmen drew a racial line between themselves and Black people while simultaneously constantly interacting with them. The racial categorizations were as hard as ever, while the culture overlapped. This can be contrasted with social spheres wherein people of different racial groups made more effort to reify the racial category through selective presentation of culture. This is going to sound a little silly, but it reminds me of American prisons, where one's race becomes a stark determiner for one's "tribe" as a support group. The different racial factions are at odds...even while everyone participates in a similar prison culture. The screwmen were in competition as racial groups, but being part of the "White" tribe didn't mean extracting from a culture that was steeped in African American culture.

Subject: RE: Chanteys of M. J. Powers, 1918
From: Lighter
Date: 29 May 26 - 09:39 AM

Gibb, good info on the segregated screwing crews.

The only minor disagreement I might have is that "a dollar a day" (or a "dime a day") may have had nothing more to do with reality than to complain (or simply say) that Whites earned more than Blacks. What the "original" amounts were is probably unknowable.

Back to Powers:


"The following chantey is literally an endless affair. In the days before donkey engines were known, heavy loads were swung inboard in the hold by means of the capstan....This was done while the ship was moored to the pier, and perhaps for this reason, the song is called the 'Pierhead Chantey.'

"The chantey leader lined out the first verse of the song. The words "cousin," uncle," father," "mother" were substituted for the two examples given here, and when the family connections were exhausted, proper names were substituted, so that the length to which this chantey could be drawn out was conditioned only by the vocal cords [sic] of the chantey-men. Here are two verses given by way of illustration:

                  THE PIER-HEAD [sic] CHANTEY

I've got a shipmate over yonder,
I've got a shipmate over yonder,
I've got a shipmate over yonder,
   On the yonder shore.
Bye and bye we'll go to meet him,
Bye and bye we'll go to meet him,
Bye and bye we'll go to meet him,
   On the yonder shore.
For we're all going over sometime,
For we're all going over sometime,
For we're all going over sometime,
   Sitha [sic] here, my darling, sometime.
Suffering time will soon be over,
Suffering time will soon be over,
Suffering time will soon be over,
   Hope I join the band.


[Similarly, including "Sitha":]

I've got a sweetheart over yonder...."


My SWAG (stupid wild-assed guess) is that "Sitha" represents "See thou." I don't believe this song has been reported elsewhere, at least not as a chantey.

Its structure seems to me extraordinarily elaborate. The meter suggested to me the melody of "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder," but that hymn, by James M. Black, was not published till 1893.