Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 11:15 AM

Thanks for the explanation re: "Johnny Creepaws". I like it when I know what I'm singing about (in a literary sense, at least, having had only a very brief stint at sea - a long time ago now, but not quite in the Age of Sail).

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 04:21 PM

I agree with your reasoning, Lighter.

Yet, some possible arguments against:

1. If the song originates in the stage/commercial sphere, I wouldn't rule out the first-person-singular voice.

2. Some of the "post-romantic" tone could be later accretion as the song developed through later periods. The chorus of "WE'RE bound for Valparaiso" could be an older bit, with new balladry spliced in as the solos.

3. I'm somewhat put off by the prospect that the 1868 writer would include a straight up ballad, no chorus, among the shanties. Even while "Paddy Get Back" is not the model chanty, and (by rough count) as many or more sources say it wasn't a work song, it does "work" as a capstan work song. I might be giving the writer too much credit, but I lean towards suspecting they would have distinguished such a song as "Rounding the Horn" rather than lumping it with the other repertoire.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Sep 23 - 10:38 AM

Gibb, unless an enlightening text of one or the other turns up before 1869, I'd say we can't know.

But there's no doubt that "Mains'l Haul" was well known at sea in the late 19th century, which was part of the OP's question.

(As was "Rounding the Horn." Heh-heh.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 03:58 AM

I'm going to put up the Dick Maitland (1857-1942) versions.

Significantly for this discussion, in the endnotes of Doerflinger's book (I'm reading the 1990 revised edition), it says that Maitland stated "that he sang the shanty on board an American vessel in 1877 and also heard it sung about that time by Mobile Bay cotton-stowers."

Maitland first went to sea at age 12 (circa 1869), and is reported to have absorbed much about chantey singing in the first two years at sea.
Does anyone have good info on his later sea-going career? I ask to get a sense of the likelihood that he may have picked up some of his shanties later than the 1870s.

Here's the text of Maitland from _Songs of the Sailor and Lumbermen_. I think Doerflinger met Maitland for this in 1941?

PADDY, GET BACK [w/ score]

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London.
I went down the Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
Paddy get back, take in the slack!
Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
‘Bout ship and stations, there, be handy,
Rise tacks ‘n’ sheets, ‘n’ mains’l haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin.
Shipping master told me she was going to New York!

If I ever get my hands on that shipping master,
I will murder him if it’s the last thing that I do!

When the pilot left the ship, the captain told us
We were bound around Cape Horn to Callao!

And he said that she was hot and still a-heating,
And the best thing we could do was watch our step.

Now the mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain b’longed in Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them were rough-n’-tumble fighters.
When not fighting amongst themselves, they fought with us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the tops’ls.
There was belayin’ pins a-flyin’ around the deck.

We came on deck and went to set the tops’ls.
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

Oh, the mate he grabbed ahold of me by the collar.
“If you don’t sing a song, I’ll break your blasted neck!”

I got up and gave them a verse of “Reuben Ranzo.”
Oh, the answer that I got would make you sick!

It was three long months before we got to Callao,
And the ship she was called a floating hell.

We filled up there at Callao with saltpetre,
And then back again around Cape Horn!

or

We filled up with saltpetre to the hatches
And then bound around Cape Horn to Liverpool.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 04:09 AM

Here's how Maitland sang the song for Alan Lomax in 1939.

When comparing it to the text for Doerflinger (above), it appears less improvised. I mean, each text by itself looks like Maitland is just roughly narrating, not making rhyme and not remembering "the lyrics," but the fact that he sang it more or less the same both times makes it seem as though he'd settled on a stable text during those years.

In the following, I omit the interjections explaining the song, that it was sung at the capstan, and the scolding of Lomax for asking where the "pulls" are.

PADDY, GET BACK

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down the Shadwell docks to get a ship.

    Paddy, get back, take in the slack,
    Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
    ‘Bout ship and stations there be handy,
    Rise, tacks and sheets and mainsail, haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin,
Oh, they told me she was going to New York.

If I ever lay my hands on that shipping master,
Oh, I’ll murder him if it’s the last thing that I do.

When the pilot left the ship way down the channel,
Oh, the captain told us we were going around Cape Horn.

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain hailed from Bangor down in Maine.

The three of them were rough and tumble fighters,
When not fighting amongst themselves, they turned on us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the topsails,
Now with belaying pins a-flying around the deck.

Oh, and we came on deck and went to set the topsails,
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

We had tinkers, we had tailors and firemen, also cooks,
And they couldn’t sing a shanty unless they had the book.

Oh, wasn’t that a bunch of hoodlums
For to take a ship around Cape Horn!

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 04:41 AM

In the 1942 volume of _The American Neptune_ (vol. 2), there is an offering for the holiday season at the very end, presented by Joanna Colcord. She refers to the version of "The Oxford" given in the previous year's volume (1941) by Sturtevant (discussed above).

//
Its rollicking tune, which probably boasts a music-hall origin, has never appeared in print, so far as I know. There are many versions, but the consistent pattern is that of a sailor shipping away from London or Liverpool on what he supposed to be an ‘easy voyage,' and finding, alas, that the boarding-master had deceived him! The words on the following page are from various sources; the air as it was sung to me by Captain Richard Maitland of Sailors' Snug Harbor. His complete version of the song is on records preserved in the Archive of American Folk-song of the Library of Congress. [the recording made by Lomax in 1939?]
//

So, it looks like Colcord took Maitland's story line and improved the rhymes and prosody, also inserting lines 3 and 4 from another source. I don't remember ever hearing before that Maitland sang for Colcord! Did Maitland actually sing groups of 4 lines between each chorus? That's how Colcord has it notated, though its not how Maitland sung it for Doerflinger and Lomax.

PADDY, GET BACK [w/ score]

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down to Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
‘Twas in the middle of the cold month of November,
And I thought ‘twas time to make another trip.

Paddy get back, take in the slack!
Heave around the capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl
‘Bout ship and stations and be handy!
Rise tacks and sheets and mains’l haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the Basin,
She was bound for New York, the boarding-master said.
If I ever lay hands upon that boarding-master,
I will be a month before he leaves his bed.

The pilot left the ship ‘way down the Channel,
And the captain said we was bound around Cape Horn.
He told us if we did not do our duty
He would make us wish we never had been born!

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
The Old Man hailed from Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them was rough-and-tumble fighters;
The treatment that we got, it was a shame.

We was called on deck one night to reef the topsails,
Belaying-pins was a-flying about the deck.
The mate he got ahold of me by the collar:
‘If you don’t sing a song, I’ll break your neck!’

Etc., etc.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 05:05 AM

Maitland performed at the Third National Folk Festival in Dallas, 1936.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Oct 23 - 06:08 PM

John Sampson, "The Seven Seas Shanty Book" (1928). Sampson was a British chanteyman in the 1880s:

                  MAINSAIL HAUL

One morning in the month of cold December,
And most of my money being spent,
What day it was I scarcely can remember,
But down to the Shipping Office went.
Now that day there'd been a great demand for sailors,
For India, for China and for France,
And I shipped on board of the 'Oxford,'
And went upon the spree with my advance.

Chorus:
Stand back, take in the slack,
Bear away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl,
'Bout ship, stations boys, be handy.
Rise tacks, sheets and mainsa'l haul.

Now most of our sailors had been drinking,
And some had been heavy on the boose,
So I set upon my chest a-quietly thinking,
Whether to turn in and have a snooze,
When I heard a voice above me loudly calling.
I listened and I heard the voice again,
'Twas the chief mate at the fo'c'sle door a-bawling,
'All hands lay aft and answer to your name.

Chorus.

Now when I arrived upon the quarter-deck
Such a sight I'd never seen before,
There were scallywags from every tribe and nation,
It made my poor heart both sick and sore.
Then I wished that I was back at the 'Jolly Sailors,'
Along with Irish Kate a-drinking beer,
Oh Kitty, my poor heart is breaking,
I went for'ard for to shed a pitiful tear.

Chorus.

Now in my chest I knew I had a bottle.
For I saw the boarding master put it there,
So I thought that I would go and wet my throttle,
Just to drive away my sorrow and my care.
Then I fell down on my knees like thunder,
A-groping like a pig around a trough,
When to my astonishment and wonder,
It was a bottle of medicine for a cough.

Sampson observes, "This is a fairly modern sea song well known to all old sailing ship men, although the words will vary considerably....It is not of the music-hall type of sea song, but bears the marks of its nautical origin on every line."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Anglo
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 05:32 PM

Gibb mentioned, above, the version given by Benjamin Bright, from 1929 in the Carpenter collection. Could this be the same Ben Bright that Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger collected a few decades later? Unfortunately my library is currently in disarray, and I can't put my hand on Ewan's monograph.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 05:52 PM

"The People and the Collectivist" (Sydney) (June 9, 1900):

"While the tug conveyed us down the river to where the vessel lay at anchor the chortling idiots who accompanied me kept me awake by singing:

    Get back,
    Take in your slack,
    Heave away the capstan,
    Heave apaul   [sic]
    Bout ship!
    [S]tations, boys, be handy,
    Lay home tacks,
    Sheets and mainsail haul."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 23 - 07:04 PM

Los Angeles Express (Jan. 26, 1919):

"I was in London in the cold month of December,
And all of my wages I had spent.
Oh how it went today I can't remember,
But I down unto a shipping office went.
In those days there was a great demand for sailors,
From London around Cape Horn and back to France,
So I shipped me aboard a bark called the Oxford,
Oh, here's to take a drink to my advance.

                      CHORUS.

Paddy go whack, take in the slack, and heave away the capstan,
   Heave a pull, heave a pull.
For we're bound, ship staysails, boys be handy,
   We're bound to Valparaiso round Cape Horn."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 09:50 AM

Thanks for posting, Gibb.

Technically, "crapaud" means "toad" in English, but it was a common seafaring term for the French, often as "Johnny Crapaud."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 10:46 AM

I'm persuading myself that the 1868 reference to "Valparaiso, Round the Horn" isn't to this song but to the one commonly called "Rounding the Horn" or "The Girls Around Cape Horn" - about the ship "California," the frigate "Amphitrite," the ship "Conway," etc. (Roud 4706).

The style and diction of "Paddy Lay Back" is just too post-romantic for me. There are no "poetic" cliches, no sentimentality, no "brave boys," etc.: circumstantial, plain-spoken, first-person realism only.

It's the fresh first-person realism, undiluted, that impresses me: the narrator is an individual, not a conventional figure or a "we." He insists that he did and saw these many, very specific things personally and makes no attempt to generalize, moralize, or aestheticize them. The style just doesn't strike me as typical of the 1860s or earlier.

Unless new evidence shows up, I'd date "Paddy" to ca1885 or later.

Tentatively.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 01 Sep 23 - 10:38 AM

Gibb, unless an enlightening text of one or the other turns up before 1869, I'd say we can't know.

But there's no doubt that "Mains'l Haul" was well known at sea in the late 19th century, which was part of the OP's question.

(As was "Rounding the Horn." Heh-heh.)

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 04 Oct 23 - 06:08 PM

John Sampson, "The Seven Seas Shanty Book" (1928). Sampson was a British chanteyman in the 1880s:

                  MAINSAIL HAUL

One morning in the month of cold December,
And most of my money being spent,
What day it was I scarcely can remember,
But down to the Shipping Office went.
Now that day there'd been a great demand for sailors,
For India, for China and for France,
And I shipped on board of the 'Oxford,'
And went upon the spree with my advance.

Chorus:
Stand back, take in the slack,
Bear away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl,
'Bout ship, stations boys, be handy.
Rise tacks, sheets and mainsa'l haul.

Now most of our sailors had been drinking,
And some had been heavy on the boose,
So I set upon my chest a-quietly thinking,
Whether to turn in and have a snooze,
When I heard a voice above me loudly calling.
I listened and I heard the voice again,
'Twas the chief mate at the fo'c'sle door a-bawling,
'All hands lay aft and answer to your name.

Chorus.

Now when I arrived upon the quarter-deck
Such a sight I'd never seen before,
There were scallywags from every tribe and nation,
It made my poor heart both sick and sore.
Then I wished that I was back at the 'Jolly Sailors,'
Along with Irish Kate a-drinking beer,
Oh Kitty, my poor heart is breaking,
I went for'ard for to shed a pitiful tear.

Chorus.

Now in my chest I knew I had a bottle.
For I saw the boarding master put it there,
So I thought that I would go and wet my throttle,
Just to drive away my sorrow and my care.
Then I fell down on my knees like thunder,
A-groping like a pig around a trough,
When to my astonishment and wonder,
It was a bottle of medicine for a cough.

Sampson observes, "This is a fairly modern sea song well known to all old sailing ship men, although the words will vary considerably....It is not of the music-hall type of sea song, but bears the marks of its nautical origin on every line."

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 01:33 AM

"Johnny Creepaws"?

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: meself
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 11:15 AM

Thanks for the explanation re: "Johnny Creepaws". I like it when I know what I'm singing about (in a literary sense, at least, having had only a very brief stint at sea - a long time ago now, but not quite in the Age of Sail).

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 01:17 AM

The text from Bone, _Capstan Bars_ (1931), for reference. He classes it among "fo'cas'le ditties." As Robert mentioned above, Bone notes that it was "popular in 1900" and "I have not heard it since then."

THE LIVERPOOL SONG

‘Twas in th’ cold month of December,
When all my money I had spent,
I shipped in the Clipper ship ‘Defender,’
An’ away to the west-ard I went.

CHORUS
An’ it is ‘Get ye back.’ Ho!
‘Take in y’er slack.’ Ho!
Heave away th’ capstan. Heave a pawl.
Heave a pawl!
‘Bout ship: stations, boys, be handy.
Raise tacks, sheets, an’ mains’l haul!

I joined on a bitter winter’s morning.
A-frappin’ my arms to keep warm.
An’ th’ south cone a-hoisted for a warnin’
To stand by th’ makin’ of a storm.

It was then that I heard a voice a-callin’.
I listened and I heard it again.
‘Twas th’ mate at th’ fo’cas’le door a-bawlin’.
‘Oh, lay aft an’ answer t’ y’er name.’

An’ when I arrived upon th’ quarter-deck,
Great Heavens, what a sight was there to see:
There were remnants of nearly every nation.
An’ I tell you th’ sight did sicken me.

There was Dutchmen an’ Roosians an’ Spanish,
An’ Johnny Creepaws straight across from France,
An’ most didn’t know a word of English,
But answered to the name o’ ‘Month’s Advance.’

Now in my chest I had a bottle.
I saw my boarding master put it there.
So I slipped off th’ deck t’ wet my throttle,
To drown off my sorrow an’ my care.


NB: The melody of the first two lines of the chorus is significantly different than Hugill's familiar melody version.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 02:12 AM

Johnny Crapaud-s

Crapaud - French for "frog"

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 04:21 PM

I agree with your reasoning, Lighter.

Yet, some possible arguments against:

1. If the song originates in the stage/commercial sphere, I wouldn't rule out the first-person-singular voice.

2. Some of the "post-romantic" tone could be later accretion as the song developed through later periods. The chorus of "WE'RE bound for Valparaiso" could be an older bit, with new balladry spliced in as the solos.

3. I'm somewhat put off by the prospect that the 1868 writer would include a straight up ballad, no chorus, among the shanties. Even while "Paddy Get Back" is not the model chanty, and (by rough count) as many or more sources say it wasn't a work song, it does "work" as a capstan work song. I might be giving the writer too much credit, but I lean towards suspecting they would have distinguished such a song as "Rounding the Horn" rather than lumping it with the other repertoire.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 03:58 AM

I'm going to put up the Dick Maitland (1857-1942) versions.

Significantly for this discussion, in the endnotes of Doerflinger's book (I'm reading the 1990 revised edition), it says that Maitland stated "that he sang the shanty on board an American vessel in 1877 and also heard it sung about that time by Mobile Bay cotton-stowers."

Maitland first went to sea at age 12 (circa 1869), and is reported to have absorbed much about chantey singing in the first two years at sea.
Does anyone have good info on his later sea-going career? I ask to get a sense of the likelihood that he may have picked up some of his shanties later than the 1870s.

Here's the text of Maitland from _Songs of the Sailor and Lumbermen_. I think Doerflinger met Maitland for this in 1941?

PADDY, GET BACK [w/ score]

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London.
I went down the Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
Paddy get back, take in the slack!
Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
‘Bout ship and stations, there, be handy,
Rise tacks ‘n’ sheets, ‘n’ mains’l haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin.
Shipping master told me she was going to New York!

If I ever get my hands on that shipping master,
I will murder him if it’s the last thing that I do!

When the pilot left the ship, the captain told us
We were bound around Cape Horn to Callao!

And he said that she was hot and still a-heating,
And the best thing we could do was watch our step.

Now the mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain b’longed in Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them were rough-n’-tumble fighters.
When not fighting amongst themselves, they fought with us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the tops’ls.
There was belayin’ pins a-flyin’ around the deck.

We came on deck and went to set the tops’ls.
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

Oh, the mate he grabbed ahold of me by the collar.
“If you don’t sing a song, I’ll break your blasted neck!”

I got up and gave them a verse of “Reuben Ranzo.”
Oh, the answer that I got would make you sick!

It was three long months before we got to Callao,
And the ship she was called a floating hell.

We filled up there at Callao with saltpetre,
And then back again around Cape Horn!

or

We filled up with saltpetre to the hatches
And then bound around Cape Horn to Liverpool.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 04:09 AM

Here's how Maitland sang the song for Alan Lomax in 1939.

When comparing it to the text for Doerflinger (above), it appears less improvised. I mean, each text by itself looks like Maitland is just roughly narrating, not making rhyme and not remembering "the lyrics," but the fact that he sang it more or less the same both times makes it seem as though he'd settled on a stable text during those years.

In the following, I omit the interjections explaining the song, that it was sung at the capstan, and the scolding of Lomax for asking where the "pulls" are.

PADDY, GET BACK

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down the Shadwell docks to get a ship.

    Paddy, get back, take in the slack,
    Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!
    ‘Bout ship and stations there be handy,
    Rise, tacks and sheets and mainsail, haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin,
Oh, they told me she was going to New York.

If I ever lay my hands on that shipping master,
Oh, I’ll murder him if it’s the last thing that I do.

When the pilot left the ship way down the channel,
Oh, the captain told us we were going around Cape Horn.

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
And the captain hailed from Bangor down in Maine.

The three of them were rough and tumble fighters,
When not fighting amongst themselves, they turned on us.

Oh, they called us out one night to reef the topsails,
Now with belaying pins a-flying around the deck.

Oh, and we came on deck and went to set the topsails,
Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.

We had tinkers, we had tailors and firemen, also cooks,
And they couldn’t sing a shanty unless they had the book.

Oh, wasn’t that a bunch of hoodlums
For to take a ship around Cape Horn!

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 04:41 AM

In the 1942 volume of _The American Neptune_ (vol. 2), there is an offering for the holiday season at the very end, presented by Joanna Colcord. She refers to the version of "The Oxford" given in the previous year's volume (1941) by Sturtevant (discussed above).

//
Its rollicking tune, which probably boasts a music-hall origin, has never appeared in print, so far as I know. There are many versions, but the consistent pattern is that of a sailor shipping away from London or Liverpool on what he supposed to be an ‘easy voyage,' and finding, alas, that the boarding-master had deceived him! The words on the following page are from various sources; the air as it was sung to me by Captain Richard Maitland of Sailors' Snug Harbor. His complete version of the song is on records preserved in the Archive of American Folk-song of the Library of Congress. [the recording made by Lomax in 1939?]
//

So, it looks like Colcord took Maitland's story line and improved the rhymes and prosody, also inserting lines 3 and 4 from another source. I don't remember ever hearing before that Maitland sang for Colcord! Did Maitland actually sing groups of 4 lines between each chorus? That's how Colcord has it notated, though its not how Maitland sung it for Doerflinger and Lomax.

PADDY, GET BACK [w/ score]

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London,
I went down to Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
‘Twas in the middle of the cold month of November,
And I thought ‘twas time to make another trip.

Paddy get back, take in the slack!
Heave around the capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl
‘Bout ship and stations and be handy!
Rise tacks and sheets and mains’l haul!

There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the Basin,
She was bound for New York, the boarding-master said.
If I ever lay hands upon that boarding-master,
I will be a month before he leaves his bed.

The pilot left the ship ‘way down the Channel,
And the captain said we was bound around Cape Horn.
He told us if we did not do our duty
He would make us wish we never had been born!

The mate and second mate belonged to Boston,
The Old Man hailed from Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them was rough-and-tumble fighters;
The treatment that we got, it was a shame.

We was called on deck one night to reef the topsails,
Belaying-pins was a-flying about the deck.
The mate he got ahold of me by the collar:
‘If you don’t sing a song, I’ll break your neck!’

Etc., etc.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 05:05 AM

Maitland performed at the Third National Folk Festival in Dallas, 1936.

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 31 Aug 23 - 10:17 AM

> "toad" in English

.... "Borrowed from French", quoth Wictionary. My hardcopy Collins's* agrees, and adds "(Caribbean)", which suggests a migration route for the word as a pejorative.

* That's not definitively helpful, as it's the first edition of the computer-sorted version, complete with the interesting errors (eg confusing Sardinia with Sardos as the origin of "sardonic").

Subject: RE: Origins: Valparaiso / Paddy Lay Back
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Jan 26 - 08:44 PM

St. Catherine's [Ont.] Standard (Dec. 20, 1923), referring to the 1890s in Western Australia:

"I will only try to give about one verse out of the 37 verses that were in the song as he used to sing it....:

Now you know there was a great demand for sailors
For India, China, America, and for France,
So I shipped aboard a vessel bound for Rio,
And went and had a spree on my advance;
Paddy lay back, take in the slack,
Heave at the capstan, heave and pawl, heave and pawl.
About ship, station boys, be handy,
A long pull, a strong pull, and warp the 'hooker' out."

"Hooker" = ship.