Origins: 'Hilo'

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Hilo'
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 04:48 PM

1921        Terry, Richard Runciman. _The Shanty Book, Part I_. London: J. Curwen & Sons.

Terry's shanties were based on collected or remembered versions, from growing up around sailor relatives and fieldwork in NE England. However, his final versions are composites that mix verses and search for ideal forms. For his "Tom's gone to Hilo, he gives the source that informed the "core" of the version.

…I have chosen the version sung to me by Mr. George Vickers, although in the first chorus it differs somewhat from the version I learnt as a boy:…
I give Mr. Vickers's verses about 'The Victory' and 'Trafalgar,' as I had never heard them sung by any other seaman. I have omitted the endless couplets containing the names of places to which Tommy is supposed to have travelled.

24. Tom's gone to Hilo

1. Tommy's gone and I'll go too,

Away down Hilo.

Oh, Tommy's gone and I'll go too.

Tom's gone to Hilo.

2. Tommy's gone to Liverpool,


3. Tommy's gone to Mobile Bay.



4. Tommy's gone, what shall I do?


5. Tommy fought at Tráfalgár.

6. The old Victory led the way.
The brave old Victory led the way.



7. Tommy's gone for evermore.

Oh, Tommy's gone for evermore.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Hilo'
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Jul 11 - 10:08 PM

1951        Doerflinger, William Main. _Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman_. Macmillan: New York.

Here is Doerflinger's presentation of "Tommy's Gone."

His remark on "Ilo" seems to have no purpose -- unless he is drawing a connection between that and the nitrate trade. However, it is also unclear why he says it is a chanty of the nitrate trade in the first place. Did Richard Maitland, the singer, say something about this? That seems somewhat doubtful, and, as we've seen, the song certainly was not limited to that trade. Could it be that, through circular logic (Ilo = Peru = nitates = Ilo) he convinced himself that the statement about the nitrate trade was reasonable to make without citing a source?

From the nitrate trade around Cape Horn to the West Coast of South America came "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (pronounced "high-lo"). Ilo, as the inhabitants call it, is the port in southern Peru. The name of any port could be worked into Tommy's travels by a resourceful shantyman.

Tommy's Gone To Hilo

(From the singing of Richard Maitland, Sailors' Snug Harbor, NY)

1. My Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Away, Hilo!
My Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Tommy's gone to Hilo!

2. My Tommy's gone to Liverpool,
My Tommy's gone to Liverpool,

3. Now, Tommy's gone and I'll go too,
My Tommy's gone and I'll go too.

4. Now, pull away and show her clew.
We'll h'ist her up and show her clew.

5. One more pull and that will do.

6. Tommy's gone to Baltimore
And where they carry the cotton shore.

7. Now, pull away, my bully boys,
Oh, pull away and make some noise.

8. Now, Tommy's gone to Mobile Bay.
Tommy's gone to Mobile Bay.

9. A-screwing cotton by the day.

10. My Tommy's gone, they sat to Bombay.
Tommy's gone, they say to Bombay.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Hilo'
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 26 Jul 11 - 02:58 PM

Gibb, re Sampson.
He was commissioned by fellow members of the Seven Seas Club to prepare a standardised version of some of the more popular shanties.
"There are a number of Shanty books already on the market but... they were not considered adequate by the sailing ship members of the club."
"....I had actually sung every shanty and song in this book at sea in sailing ships (1886-1898);and I am fortunate in possessing a reliable memory."
He acknowledges that "The words used at sea varied considerably, far more so than the tunes,.." and gives the reasons.

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Hilo'
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 06:58 PM

1924        Frothingham, Robert, ed. _Songs of the Sea and Sailors' Chanteys_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

I think this source furthers the narrative of "Hilo" as a reference to the Peruvian city.

The text given appears -- so say I -- to be something put together, partially newly-composed. I think it was based in Davis and Tozer's printed version. One of the verses (4th) is identical, whereas others look like Frothingham took the idea of the verse and rewrote it to make it *less* literary sounding. It runs with the idea of Hilo as something Peruvian, so the verses relate to that theme. See what you think!

Tom's Gone to Ilo

Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Heigh-ya to Ilo!
Tom is gone, and I'll go too.
Tom's gone to Ilo.

He's gone away to Ilo Bay,
To Ilo Bay I heard him say,

Way 'round to Callao,
Those Spanish girls he'll see, I know,

Oh, I love Tom and he loves me,
He thinks of me, when out at sea,

Tommy's gone forever more,
I'll never see my Tom no more,

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Hilo'
From: Lighter
Date: 08 Mar 26 - 02:49 PM

Greenock Telegraph (Dec. 6, 1862):

STREET SONGS...Songs of a transatlantic or sea-faring class are likewise favourites....Many of the sea-songs are vague or unintelligible:

   Oh,John has gone to Mobile Bay,
    Ooway, a heeli oh
   Oh, John has gone, and I'll go too,
    A hiddy oh, a highlow."

Subject: RE: Origins: 'Hilo'
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 02 Jul 26 - 03:45 PM

Following is, in my estimation, an important document in the story of both the song "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" and the "hilo" vocable/word/holler in general.

Even better: Although I initially "discovered" it in the archive, there is a remotely-accessible recording!

Catalogued as "Way Down Yonder"

Harden W. Stuckey of Jacksonville, FL sang this to collector Herbert Halpert in June 1939.
Stuckey, a 43-yr-old Baptist preacher, consented to sing profane material for the purpose of the historical record. It's his memory of childhood days on a farm in South Carolina.

The context of the song was that of two youths working in nearby fields. They sang to signal the time to break for "dinner" (lunch) at noon.

Other field recorded interviewees in the collection note that hollers (i.e. from whence "hilo" may come) as signals for dinner (12pm) and supper (6pm). In those cases, note, the hollers were more like the "field hollers" that are more familiar: ametrical / melismatic in blank verse consisting of fragmentary phrases. By contrast, this one has a clearly metered couplet followed by a refrain, all of which organizes into stanzas.

Halpert refers to this song as a "holler" with the implication that Stuckey may have earlier categorized it as such.

Stuckey sings first at a lower pitch and volume, but is encouraged by Halpert to sing again in a more realistic outdoors style, and he sings higher and louder.

There are two different verses.

Way down yonder in the middle of the branch
We taught those buzzards how to dance
    Hilo! Hilo!
    When you comin’ over?

This old mule is cuttin’ the fool
I can’t get the saddle on this old mule
    Hilo! Hilo!
    When you comin’ over?

I had a little mule and he wouldn't go [,] gee (?)
I hit him in the head with the single (?) tree
    Hilo! Hilo!
    When you coming' over?

Stuckey explains that one farm worker called out the first "Hilo!" and was answered by a worker in another field with the second "Hilo!"
***

The form of "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" is an outlier among sailors' chanties because, rather than dividing the couplet between responses/choruses, the two lines of the couplet are scrunched up together at the start. (Gandy dancers' songs are similar.)

This holler does the same but takes freedom with the timing of the following "chorus," there being no need for a pulse.

The example offers evidence to suggest that the word "hilo" was little more than a common one used in hollers.