Jamboree: Oat Cakes?

Subject: RE: Jamboree: Oat Cakes?
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 10:09 AM

Thanks, Charley!


I'm inclined to think --though I can't prove it-- that the chantey is not based in any single song, but rather that it used little catch phrases from minstrel songs. My reason for this is that a lot of chanteys seem like a jumble of minstrel song phrases, and rarely do they seem to match up to any minstrel song very well.

"Jamboree" is pretty similar in melody and feel to "Clear the Track," so I'm not surprised about the final line cited by Lighter "Johnny let the bullgine run!" -- substituting one minstrel catch phrase for another.

HughM--

"Bullgine" / "buljine" / "bulgine" is a steam engine. This slang term is used in several minstrel songs,including the original version of Stephen Foster's "Oh, Susanna." It's also in at least 4 sea chanteys at my present count:

Clear the Track / Eliza Lee
Run, Let the Bulgine Run
The Arabella
Hilo, Boys, Hilo
(Jamboree)

The last two have the odd phrase, "bulgine-pie"! Of course, the word could probably be added to lots more songs in the improv process! It seems like the word was a bit of a fashion in the time period of these songs, say 1840s (but don't take my word for that; seek an historical dictionary).

Which song did you sing in school, HughM?

Subject: RE: Jamboree: Oat Cakes?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Mar 09 - 08:58 PM

"Bulgine" is a reference to a steam engine but it's not clear to me if it's a reference to a steam engine aboard ship, i.e. a "donkey" engine for helping to work the sails or yards, or a steam engine on the dock helping to deliver bales of cotton or sacks of grain. Maybe it's a reference to all steam engine afloat or ashore.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Jamboree: Oat Cakes?
From: shipcmo
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 09:25 AM

refresh

Subject: RE: Jamboree: Oat Cakes?
From: doc.tom
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 10:33 AM

"Hugill... mentions a version from Sharp that goes; "Oh, you long-tailed black man poke it up behind me" & another version from Terry that goes; "O! ye long-tailed black man poke it up behind" "

"And there it is, a version of Whip Jamboree, "Somerset Folk-Song, collected and arranged by Cecil J Sharp" - with the chorus:
"Whip jamboree, whip jamboree,
O you long-tailed black man, poke it up behind me,
Whip jamboree, whip jamboree,
O - Jenny get your oat-cake done." "

These are all the same version - collected by both Sharp and Terry from John Short of Watchet in 1914 [see the Short Sharp Shanties projects - again!] - apart from Whall [different text] this is the only version up to Hugill that I am aware of.

With the 'long-tailed' line being freely sung by Short, it seems unlikely that he would then bowdlerise the 'oat-cakes' line. Which leads us to believe that 'oat-cakes' does not need 'ammendment' or 'restoring' - besides, reference to 'getting oat-cakes done' is not uncommon in minstrel texts! Methinks the revival has decided to re-invent a bolder last line while censoring the line before it.

TomB

Subject: RE: Jamboree: Oat Cakes?
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 10:52 AM

The fact that Sharp printed, and Short did not censor, "poke it up behind" suggests that neither was primed to give it a second thought.

See also my post of March 26, 2009.

Subject: RE: Jamboree: Oat Cakes?
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 02:21 PM

I'd guess there were two different last-lines current:

1. Jenny get your hoe-cakes -- revised by Britishers as oat-cakes, and based in the minstrel chorus -- nothing 'obscene' about it.
2. 'Dirty' version, 'Jenny keep your ---hole warm', which can be understood as a parody of #1.

Hugill knew of #2, and was being coy about it -- perhaps leading Revivalists to guess (and leading to "get your oats my son". Short may have known #2, but was too much of a gentleman to offer that, and offered the 'original' instead.

I realize this scenario does not explain the 'long tailed Black man' -- the reference may have been too opaque to raise any eyebrows. Although I have a 'dirty' interpretation of it, I'm by no means sure of that. If I wasn't told the song was supposed to be obscene, or if I was presented the song with "hoecakes", I would probably rationalize the long tailed black man in some other way.

I think all these things are true:
--Sharp did not bowdlerize, i.e. there was a fairly harmless version
--There was a bawdy version, too
--The song *has* been bowdlerized in some/various cases, too!
--The song has been re-bawdified, too!

Subject: RE: Jamboree: Oat Cakes?
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 02:50 PM

That's my analysis too.

Lloyd's version (origin unknown - and I'm afraid we know what that means) has "ring-tailed" and "come up behind."

Since the minstrel lines that apparently inspired the lyrics are "clean," I feel that the clean versions of the shanty are closer to the original and that the dirty versions are parodies. They could have been created at any time, though, including ten seconds after the shanty was first sung.