Lyr Req: Old Horse (from M Carthy/Brass Monkey)

Subject: Lyr Req: old horse - lyrics and meaning
From: ooh-aah
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 02:06 AM

I've just been enjoying Martin Carthy and Brass Monkey's version of 'Old Horse'. Does anyone have the lyrics and the meaning? - it sounds very folklorish, or is it a song about 'salt horse', salted meat that sailors used to eat.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: old horse - lyrics and meaning
From: masato sakurai
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 03:03 AM

The lyrics have been posted HERE.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: old horse - lyrics and meaning
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 07:08 AM

On the notes to Out of the Cut, Carthy comments:

"The Dead Horse Ceremony was one of the death and resurrection type, this time performed at sea and often accompanied by the Old Horse Shanty. However, I often wondered if there existed a song for the ceremony which was not a converted shanty, and looking through Gale Huntington's book Songs the Whalemen Sang, which is a collection from the log-books of various old sailors, I came across the two-verse fragment of Old Horse. It smelled to me of ceremonial song in spite of its length. Verses 1 and 5 sung here are from Old Horse. I added three verses from the song Poor Old Horse plus one standard 'Rise Again' verse and there we are."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: old horse - lyrics and meaning
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Mar 03 - 09:06 AM

If you do a "thread search" for "Poor Old Horse" you'll find more discussion and interesting varients.

Charley Noble