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Subject: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 01 Jul 02 - 01:30 PM I'm pleased to announce that my new CD "Time Ashore is Over" is finally finished! This is a recording of sea shanties and sea songs featuring a chorus of shanty singers from San Francisco's Hyde Street Pier. Also featured is "Out of the Rain" - I reunited the original members of my former band to record three new songs. The CD is also a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the monthly shanty sings at Hyde Street Pier. Track list: 1. Heave Away Cheerily, O! 2. Away Susana! 3. The Apprentice Boy 4. The Grimsby Lads 5. Hooker John 6. The Ocean Queen 7. Saltpetre Shanty 8. Bound to Australia 9. Billy O'Shea 10. Firing the Mauritania 11. Jackie Tar 12. Roller Bowler 13. Ilo Man 14. Morning Shanty 15. Rolly Boys Roll 16. Time Ashore is Over Anyone interested in ordering by mail can write to me at the address or e-mail shown below. Cost of the CD for mail orders is $17 (this includes tax and shipping costs). IThis info is for orders in the USA. I have not calculated overseas shipping yet because postage rates are increasing here in the States. Richard Adrianowicz 604 Irving Street, # 1 San Francisco, CA 94122 radriano@consrv.ca.gov |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 01 Jul 02 - 01:53 PM Congratulations, Richard! It's a long and arduous process which is inadequately described by any shanty that I know. Roll & Go's first CD is still mired in that process; I'm meeting with a design consultant today to see what she can suggest for improving our print copy. Still looking forward to singing with you and Chantyranger in September in the Bay area. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Barry Finn Date: 02 Jul 02 - 10:23 PM Congrats radriano, it's been a long time coming, great things are always worth the wait. Hey out there, I have inside info that this is a CD worth it's weight in fairy gold dust. Such a deal. Barry |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: DonMeixner Date: 02 Jul 02 - 11:37 PM Hi Richard, Great news. I really enjoyed the process to do our CD, "Finally". Hope your was as much fun to do as ours. Don |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Noreen Date: 03 Jul 02 - 07:22 AM Very interesting... let me know how I can get a copy on this side of the pond please, Richard. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Peter Kasin Date: 03 Jul 02 - 10:48 PM I'm more than a little biased here.... it's REALLY GOOD! As Radriano would say: "Sounds like a weiner!" chanteyranger |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Celtic Soul Date: 03 Jul 02 - 11:18 PM Congratulations! I know exactly what you mean. It may be a labor of love, but it's still labor. I am glad to hear of yet another Shanty band keeping the tradition alive, as well.
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: GUEST,Melani Date: 07 Jul 02 - 12:32 PM I just heard it entirely for the first time two days ago. It's got great versions of songs you don't hear everyday. Everyone should get a copy immediately! |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 07 Jul 02 - 05:15 PM I've been enjoying my complimentary copy for the last week in the van. Richard, you've got some nice arrangements here of less familiar sea songs. I'm still puzzling over "Ilo Man" which reminds me of our New England "Huckleberry Hunting" in tune and even a number of verses, but the set of verses you found wins hands down. "Time Ashore is Over" makes a nice closing song; I may steal it, or swap you "Yangtse River"! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 08 Jul 02 - 12:52 PM Now all you guys and gals are making me blush. Charley, I also think "Ilo Man" is related to "Huckleberry Hunting" - you can hear it in the melody especially in the version of "Huckleberry Hunting" sung on the new "The Johnson Girls" cd. The melody for "Huckleberry Hunting" found in "Shanties of the Seven Seas" is quite different (Hugill calls the song "Ranzo Way") I got "Ilo Man" from an English shanty band called "The Harry Browns of Bristol" (formerly the Harry Brown Shantymen of Bristol). Unfortunately the liner notes from their album say next to nothing about the songs. Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 08 Jul 02 - 01:43 PM I forgot to mention that I do have lyric sheets available for my album. Anyone who wants one can e-mail me at: radriano@consrv.ca.gov The lyric sheet file is in MS Word format but I can easily save it as a MAC file as well. Monetary considerations forced me to be sparse with liner notes but I'd be happy to elaborate on them via e-mail. Charley, Bob Webb also does a version of Ilo Man on his cd "Bank Trollers." In fact, the info in my liner notes about Ilo Man comes from Bob. Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: SINSULL Date: 08 Jul 02 - 08:58 PM Currently am plum out of fairy gold dust but will send the required $17. Congratulations, radriano. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 10 Jul 02 - 10:32 AM Richard, you have some nice strong leads on this recording. I especially like the "hitches" and chorus arrangements for "Away Susanna!", "Hooker John", "Billy O'Shea", and "Roller Bowler". I bet they'd sound even better on the home stereo system rather than the one in the van but then I'd never get to listen to them! I always wish for more extensive notes but having had to edit our own draft CD notes down to a few spare sentences makes me empathetic but equally frustrated. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 10 Jul 02 - 12:05 PM Charley, thanks for your kind words. The chorus arrangements for the shanties are pretty organic - except for a couple of instances I did very little arranging. Initially I recorded all the songs solo so that my chorus singers could get used to my phrasings (and my idosyncracies). In the final sessions everything was done live which meant that recording took a bit longer but what really brought out the best balance was the work of my sound engineer, Michael Harmon. After a few verses of a song Michael would stop us and direct specific chorus singers to move their positions relative to the microphones. Michael was also very good about letting singers (myself especially) know when they were out of tune. The sea songs done with my former band Out of the Rain were quite a different story. We were known for very tight three part harmony singing - we used to spend several hours of rehearsal going over one line of one song. As it happened, one of the band members was just about to move out of the SF Bay Area so we had to throw together those arrangements rather quickly. Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Peter Kasin Date: 10 Jul 02 - 11:55 PM Semi thread creep here. While on the subject of Out Of The Rain, I'm going to put a plug in for Radriano's work with that group, briefly re-united for this recording. They were one of the bay area's finest folk groups in the 1980's, (in an area rich in folk performers) and their two recordings are very well worth having. The vocal arrangements are intricate and careful, but sound simple to the ear - never overdone. I find their second tape, "Song Of The Wage Slave," to be downright addictive. chanteyranger |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: katlaughing Date: 11 Jul 02 - 03:42 AM Congratulations, radriano and I'll be sending my check in right away, too. Really looking forward to it, esp. with the recommends and comments in this thread! How do we get copies of your former band's tapes, too? I am of the mind a body can never have enough Mudcatter CD's and tapes.*g* Thanks, kat |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 11 Jul 02 - 12:49 PM Katlaughing, I do still have cassette copies of Song of the Wage Slave - Out of the Rain's first cassette A Common Treasury is temporarily out of print. I was hoping to turn both of these into CDs but first I have to dig myself out of the financial hole the new shanty CD put me in. Song of the Wage Slave is available from me for $12 (including postage)(see address posted earlier in this thread). One of the special features of this recording is poems set to music by one of the band members, Marla Fibish. The title track is, of course, a Robert Service poem and the other two are There Came a Day by poet Ted Hughes and Joe Whitaker by poet Don West. Marla and her husband Jamie now run the Adelphian Center for the Arts in Alameda, California, which provides another venue for concerts and dances in the SF Bay Area. Richard P.S. Chanteyranger, you'll get your twenty dollars Saturday, okay? Good job on the plugs, buddy! |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 11 Jul 02 - 05:09 PM Geez, Richard (everyone else please ignore), I only got a complimentary CD and it ain't even got your autograph on it. I didn't know there was such big money in nautical rave reviews. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Barry Finn Date: 11 Jul 02 - 08:38 PM Hi radriano. Thanks for the copy. It came a few days back, what a great unexpected treasure. It's been sharing my office, my truck & my house & my kids (note here, not my wife) were getting pretty pissed at me for cutting into their music time. That was until they both finally took some notice & said that they knew some of the songs & both started singing parts of the chorus & giggling. It's not to often that they'll let me play a CD the whole way through, without some kind of snide remark, it's never that they'd stand for a couple of replays. I guess you're a hit with them, damn something I haven't been able to accomplish since they were young'ens. It's really a real keeper, great job & well done & thanks. It's good to hear your voice again from coast to coast. Barry |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Joe Offer Date: 11 Jul 02 - 08:57 PM Well, I finally got the time to give a serious listen to Richard's CD. It sounds just like he sounds in person - solid, unaffected, bringing out all the meaning and beauty of a song. It's an absolute pleasure to listen to Richard's singing. Hey, and he's a nice guy, too. thanks, Richard. Might you think of posting your lyrics here in this thread? -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: katlaughing Date: 12 Jul 02 - 12:02 AM Thanks, Richard, I will send you a check for both. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Peter Kasin Date: 12 Jul 02 - 12:08 AM $20??? Hey, Radriano, you omitted a couple of digits. I though we had a deal, man! :-0
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 12 Jul 02 - 03:27 PM Man, you guys just warm the cockles of my heart. Joe, are you really suggesting that I post the lyrics to all 16 songs in this thread? Or did I misunderstand what you were saying? I haven't checked but I'll bet that some of these songs are already in the DT. I'll be happy to post them if people really want me to. Barry, I'm glad you and your family are enjoying the music. You know it takes a West Coast singer to have that kind of effect on people. Seriously though, it was a real feather in my cap to have your melifluous voice on some of the cuts. Chanteyranger, when I mentioned an arrangement I was talking about the lyrics to Billy O'Shea, man. I thought I was being generous with the $20. See where being a nice guy gets you? |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Noreen Date: 12 Jul 02 - 06:45 PM The only way I can think of for getting this wonderful CD is to send dollar bills through the post, which obviously has security implications. Any better ideas? Please? |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 15 Jul 02 - 11:45 AM refresh |
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Subject: Lyr Add: AWAY, SUSANNA! From: radriano Date: 16 Jul 02 - 12:07 PM I've had several requests for lyrics for the songs on my cd. As suggested by Joe Offer, I'll offer lyrics for each of the songs in separate posts to this thread. I was forced to be very sparse in my liner notes so this is a grand opportunity for more complete notes on the songs. AWAY, SUSANNA! sheet shanty Shanghaied in San Francisco, we fetched up in Bombay They set us afloat in an old lease boat that steered like a bale of hay Chorus: Then away, Susanna, my fair maid Oho, ye New York girls, can't ye dance the polka We panted in the tropics whilst the pitch boiled up on deck We've saved our hides, little else besides, from an ice-cold North Sea wreck We drank our rum in Portland, we've thrashed through the Behring Strait An' we toed the mark on a Yankee barque with a hard-case down-east mate We know the quays of Glasgow, an' the boom of the lone Azores We've had our grub from a salt-horse tub, condemned by the Navy stores We know the track to Auckland an' the light of the Kinsale Head An' we crept close-hauled while the leadsman called the depth of the channel bed We know the streets of Santos, the river at Saigon We've had our glass with a Chinese lass in Ship Street in Hong Kong They'll pay us off in London, then it's oh, for a spell ashore Then again we'll ship for a southern trip in a week or hardly more 'Tis goodbye, Sal an' Lucy, 'tis time we were afloat With a straw-stuffed bed, an' achin' head, a knife an' an oilskin coat Sing "Time For Us To Leave Her", sing "Bound For The Rio Grande" An' when the tug turns back, we'll follow her track for a last long look at the land An' when the purple disappears an' only the blue is seen That'll take our bones to Davy Jones an' our souls to Fiddler's Green Away, Susanna! is straight out of Stan Hugill's Shanties From the Seven Seas. On my recording I left out the sixth verse and put in a fiddle break in it's place. I love shanties that mention different ports and this song was especially appropriate because San Francisco is mentioned. Away, Susanna! is the shanghai version of Can't Ye Dance the Polka, the well known song about the sailor who gets drunk and is cheated out of his money and clothes. Notes from Hugill's book: This capstan song has many versions of the words, both those of the verses and chorus, and the song probably started life in the Western Ocean Packets about the thirties or forties of the last century, when the polka reached America from Bohemia. The tune is thought to be that of an Irish air Larry Doolan, and one version does start with a verse from this ballad: My name is Larry Doolan, Oi'm a native of the soil, If yer want a day's diversion, bhoys, Oi'll drive ye out in stoile The words of the chorus give room for speculation. In my more modern first version the first lines of the chorus run: Then away Susanna, my fair maid… These words I've heard sung by Charlie Evans, a fine shantyman, one-time member of the crew of the Yankee ship The older Packet ship words were: Away you Santi, my dear honey… or Away you Santi, my dear Annie… Sometimes too one would hear 'Away you Johnnie, my dear honey' or 'my fair man' (Bullen), but in the main 'Santi' was sung. Now no one has ever given a real reason, or meaning, for this word; it just appears to be a meaningless name of some sort. I thought so too, until I came across a version giving 'Away you Santa, my dear Anna' and the explanation became clear - the mysterious 'Santi' or 'Santa' being nothing more than the two first syllables or our friend 'Santi-anna' or 'Santa'anna' or, as it was usually written, 'Santiana'! My first version of Away, Susanna was invariably sung to the 'shanhaied in San Francisco' theme. Charlie Evans, Arthur Spence, Bosun Chenoworth, 'Artie', an A.B. of the New Zealand brigantine Aratapu, and many other shipmates of mine all sang these words. However, I believe that these verses are of comparatively recent date and that they came from a poem (the author of which I have never discovered). Probably some versatile shantyman thought them 'just the job' and spliced them to the old Packet Rat shanty. Nevertheless, they were accepted and sung by hundreds of shantymen in the latter days of sail. Every sailing-ship man I ever knew was acquainted with them. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: DADGBE Date: 16 Jul 02 - 06:11 PM For those mudcatters from out of the San Francisco Bay area who may not know about Richard, his music and he have been an inspiration for many of us locals for more than 20 years. The new recording is a joy as are all the old ones from Out Of The Rain. Love the CD!!! |
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Subject: Lyr Add: BILLY O'SHEA From: radriano Date: 16 Jul 02 - 06:46 PM BILLY O'SHEA Oh, we all got drunk in Dublin City Ch: Fall down, me Billy We all got drunk and oh, what a pity Ch: Fall down, Billy O'Shea Full Chorus: Fall down, fall down Fall down, me Billy We're bound away for Americay Fall down, Billy O'Shea We all got drunk on the Rogerson's quay And when we awoke we were all at sea Oh, we're not sailors, Captain Drew And a bit unhappy to work for you The Captain said, "I've a cure for that" "And here for a start is a dose of the cat" He sent him up to the top mast yard When he hit the deck, well, he hit it hard We wrapped him up in a canvas sail And we lowered him gently o'er the rail Over the side and down he goes He's gone to Davy Jones with a stitch through his nose Farewell, farewell, farewell, me Billy For I am bound for Americay I first heard about this shanty on the Mudcat Café Forum. Click on the thread below to see the discussion. Shanty:Billy O'Shea In addition to the lyrics found at the Mudcat postings I bought a recording of the song by the Whigamaleeries on their cassette titled Tall Ships and Graeme Knights was kind enough to provide me with the melody and lyrics he sings (I also bought a copy of his cd Echoes from Afar that has Billy O'Shea on it as soon as it was released). As it turned out I liked Dan Milner's melody better but the lyrics I sing are compiled from all the versions I found. According to Pete MacNab's post in the thread on Billy O'Shea there was originally no full chorus. By the way, I highly recommend Graeme Knight's recording Echoes from Afar. In addition to some great singing by Graeme the album features a stellar chorus which includes Johnny Collins, Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman, among others. Radriano |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 17 Jul 02 - 02:49 PM I am pleased to announce that my cd Time Ashore is Over will soon be available in the UK from the Chantey Cabin website. The album will also be available online in the US at the Wooden Ships Music site. Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 17 Jul 02 - 03:16 PM Richard- If you could post your lyrics to "Hooker John" and "Roller Bowler", along with your more extensive notes, I would greatly appreciate it. You certainly nailed these two shanties! Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: EBarnacle1 Date: 18 Jul 02 - 12:10 PM I phoned Gus over at Wooden Ships and he didn't have the CD in yet. Please send him some copies so he can sell them for you. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 18 Jul 02 - 01:48 PM EBarnacle, My earlier post should have been worded "will soon be available at the Wooden Ships site." Copies were mailed off to them last week - they may not have received them yet. Cheers, Richard |
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Subject: Lyr Add: HOOKER JOHN From: radriano Date: 18 Jul 02 - 02:02 PM HOOKER JOHN Oh, me Mary she's a sailor's lass Chorus:To me Hooker John, me Hoo-John! We sported all day on the grass Chorus:To me Hooker John, me Hoo-John! Full Chorus: Ch: Way Susanna Solo: Oh, way, hay, high high-ya Ch: Johnny's on the foreyard Ch: Yonder, way up yonder Oh, me Susie's she's a sailor's gal She's nine foot high that gal's so tall Oh, me Flora she's a hoosier's friend She's beamy round the old beam end Oh, Sally Brown she's the gal for me She court's a bit when her man's at sea Oh, haul away for Mobile Bay Oh, haul away and make yer pay I can't remember where I heard this shanty first. It's been recorded by Pint & Dale on their album Port of Dreams and by Graeme Knights on his album Echo from Afar. There is also a shanty album from England titled Hooker John that I have not heard but I can't remember who put it out. The lyrics I use are the same ones Pint & Dale sing, I think, with the exception of the last verse which I lifted from the Graeme Knights cd. We had a great fun recording this one, not only because it's a great song but we all began laughing uncontrollably when one of the chorus singers started singing "Johnny's on the foreskin, yonder, way up yonder." My sparse liner notes info comes from the Encyclopedia of Nautical Knowledge by W.A McEwen and A.H. Lewis published by Cornell Maritime Press, Cambridge, Maryland. Their definition of hooker is: Hooker. (Du. hoeker, fishing-vessel; from hoek, hook) An old-time fishing-boat with one mast, common to Irish and southern English coasts. Any vessel usually fishing with lines and hooks, also termed liner. Sailor's depreciative term for a clumsy, old-fashioned vessel; as the hooker leaks like a basket; often applied fondly; as, we prefer to stay on board the hooker. Here's a definition from The Oxforrd Companion to Ships & the Sea, edited by Peter Kemp and published by Oxford University Press, London, New York, Melbourne, 1976: Hooker, a development of the original ketch, a short, tubby little vessel with main and mizenmasts, originally square-rigged on the main and with a small topsail above a fore-and-aft sail hoisted on a gaff on the mizzen. She usually set two jibs on a high steeved bowsprit. She was a fishing vessel, and probably, as her name suggests, was used mainly for line fishing. She became a distinct type of vessel in her own right, as opposed to the generic ketch, early in the 18th century. The rig was much favoured by Dutch fishing craft. The name is also used, slightly contemptuously, for any vessel when she grows old and has lost her early bloom, or perhaps has come down a bit in the maritime world. And, finally, as I found out from Pint & Dale, Hooker John is in Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas. Here are the notes from Stan's book: "Captain Whall gives a verse and chorus called Ooker John in his book Sea Songs and Shanties. From my Barbadian friend Harding [he had the colorful name of Harding the Barbadian Barbarian] I learnt a similar capstan shanty, but he sang Hooker John, and he said that it was still popular in the West Indies (1931). It probably originated as a cotton-stower's song. Whall gives: O my Mary she's a blooming lass, Ch: To my Ooker John, my Oo-John, O my Mary she's a blooming lass, Ch: To my Ooker John, my Oo-John, Full Chorus: Way, fair lady, O way-ay-ay-ay-ay, My Mary's on the highland, O yonder's Mary - yonder… and judging from these words it looks as though, in spite of the Negro tune and the way the refrains are worded, some Scotsman or North Countryman had a hand in this version. The tune of the solo lines is similar to that of Roll the Cotton Down. Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 18 Jul 02 - 08:51 PM Nice meaty notes, Richard. Thanks! Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 19 Jul 02 - 11:54 AM I spoke with Gus Pedersen who runs the Wooden Ships website via e-mail yesterday. He has not yet received my CDs yet and he is about to go away for a week so my recording won't be available through him for at least a couple of weeks yet. To complicate matters, this is how he handles new releases: He asked me to send him three copies initially. One for scanning and for music samples and two for inventory. When he sells the two copies he'll pay my invoice and then order additional copies for inventory. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. I'm looking into other outlets for online availability and if anyone has suggestions I would gladly welcome the information. I did leave a message with Camsco Music but have not heard back from them yet. Richard (radriano) |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: katlaughing Date: 19 Jul 02 - 05:14 PM Have you looked into www.cdbaby? Someone else on the Mudcat uses them, if I remember correctly. As a customer, I was really pleased with their service and they have a great sense of humour, PLUS a designated FOLK section!*g* I am eagerly awaiting my CD and tape, sent the check out a few days ago. Thanks! |
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Subject: Lyr Add: ROLLER BOWLER From: radriano Date: 19 Jul 02 - 05:45 PM ROLLER BOWLER Alternate title: Good Morning, Ladies All As I rolled out one mornin' Ch:Hurrah, you roller bowler! As I rolled out one mornin' I met a dou-dou fair Ch:Timme, hey-rig-a-jig an' a ha-ha Good morning ladies all Full Chorus: And hurrah, you roller bowler Timme, hey-rig-a-jig an' a ha-ha! Good mornin', ladies all Oh, I met her once in Liverpool Oh, I met her once in Liverpool That saucy gal of mine Oh, the first time that I saw her Oh, the first time that I saw her 'Twas down in Parkee Lane She winked and tipped her flipper She winked and tipped her flipper She thought I was a Mate But when she found that I was skint But when she found that I was skint She left me standing there I squared me yards an' sailed away I squared me yards an' sailed away An' to the ship I went The last time that I saw her The last time that I saw her Was down the waterside Oh, you ladies short and ladies tall Oh, you ladies short and ladies tall I love you one and all My version of this shanty is a combination of some of the verses from Barry Finn and the setting that Shay Black sings. I first heard of this song from Barry Finn (minus the full chorus) who got it from Polish shanty singer Marek Siurawski. I had heard that Shay Black sang it too but with a full chorus. I heard Shay's version when he, chanteyranger, myself, Skip Henderson, and Jim Nelson sang some shanties for the dedication of the new MUNI (local light rail) F-Line which ends up a block away from Hyde Street Pier in San Francisco. Shay Black told me that he used to sing Roller Bowler when he lived in Liverpool and was singing with the band Stormalong John. I believe Shay learned the song from Stan Hugill who used Stormalong John as his shanty chorus for one of his concert tours. You can hear Shay singing the song on Stormalong John's cd Liverpool, a re-release of songs from earlier cassette tapes they had made. There is no indication on the Liverpool cd of who is in the band but there's no mistaking Shay's distinctive voice and he confirmed that it was indeed he on that recording. There is also a recording of Roller Bowler sung by Shay Black on a cd of a French sea music festival, Les Musiques De La Fete: Brest '92. It's too bad Barry Finn never has recorded it because he does a wonderful job on it. I had fun with the "timme!" yells in the chorus. I sing the yells as solo lines simply because I like the way it sounds - it's not traditional to do it that way. It was Skip Henderson who told me that he had read that Stan Hugill thought very highly of this shanty. Hugill certainly doesn't say so in Shanties from the Seven Seas: "Another shanty which uses the expression 'high-rig-a-jig' is the capstan song Roller Bowler which appears to me to be another of the Negro-Irish type of sailor work-song. I picked up my version out in Trinidad. Sharp's version, the only one in print until now, seems to be a Liverpool shanty although he collected it in Bristol, I think. Anyhow it is definitely a shanty that was sung aboard of the West Indian Sugar and Rum Traders, since it was well known by most of my West Indian shipmates. Sharp gives an introductory chorus." radriano |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 20 Jul 02 - 03:13 PM What joy, what joy! Although if I transcribed "Roller Bowler" from your CD, Richard, I might have come up with some interesting new wording. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 22 Jul 02 - 11:36 AM Dear Katlaughing, Thanks for the tip about www.cdbaby (see katlaughing's earlier post in this thread for the link). I sent off a supply of CDs to them over the weekend. They seemed pretty decent. Thanks! Richard |
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Subject: Lyr Add: TIME ASHORE IS OVER (Bill Meek) From: radriano Date: 23 Jul 02 - 05:56 PM I originally got this song from local singer Dick Holdstock. When I contacted author Bill Meek (via John Conolly) to get his permission to record he sent me a lyric sheet which was a bit different from what I had learned. I had glanced at it and thought that I had the correct lyrics probably based on looking at the first two verses but Bill often re-visits his songs and re-writes words and phrases so I'm not sure at this point which set of lyrics came first. Here are the lyrics Bill Meek sent to me followed by what I am singing:
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Subject: Lyr Add: BOUND TO AUSTRALIA From: radriano Date: 25 Jul 02 - 02:05 PM BOUND TO AUSTRALIA I'm leaving old Ireland, the land that I love And I'm bound far across the sea Oh, I'm bound for Australia, the land of the free Where there'll be a welcome for me Chorus: So fill up yer glasses an' drink what ye please For whatever the damage I'll pay So be aisy an' free, whilst yer drinkin' wid me Sure I'm a man you don't meet every day! When I board me ship for the south'ard to go She'll be lookin' so trim an' so fine And I'll land me aboard, with me bags and me stores From the dockside they'll cast off each line To Land's End we'll tow, with our boys all so tight Wave a hearty goodbye to the shore And we'll drink the last drop to our country's green land And the next day we'll curse our sore heads We'll then drop the tug, and sheet tops'ls home taut And the hands will crowd sail upon sail With a sou'wester strong, boys, we'll just tack along By the morn many jibs will turn pale We'll beat past the Ushant and then down the Bay Where the west wind it blows fine an' strong We'll soon get the Trades and we should make good time To the south'ard then we'll roll along Round the Cape we will roll, take our flyin' kites in For the Forties will sure roar their best And then run our Eastin' with yards all set square With the wind roaring out of the west We'll then pass Cape Looin all shipshape and trim Then head up for Adelaide Port Off Semaphore roads we will there drop our hook And ashore, boys, we'll head for some sport Another song from Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas. I changed the first line of the song from "I'm leaving Old England.." to "I'm leaving Old Ireland…" because I felt that the chorus words had an Irish feel to them, especially the "Sure I'm a man…" in the last line of the chorus. I tend not to sing in dialect so I'm not singing exactly what is in Hugill's book. I also left out the last two verses. Of course there's the well known song Jock Stewart in the DT which is described as "an Irish narrative ballad that has been shortened to an Aberdeenshire drinking song." There are a few threads at Mudcat about this, here, here and here. These threads are mostly about the Jock Stewart / I'm A Man You Don't Meet Every Day songs that don't have nautical verses. Bound to Australia also uses a different melody, a variant of Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms. Here's what Hugill has to say about Bound to Australia: An old song known to most Irish and Liverpool-Irish seamen was Bound to Australia, sung to the air I'm a man ye don't meet every day - a variant of Believe me if all those endearing young charms. It was not a true forebitter perhaps, although it was sung in the dog-watches in the old sailing ships; but I never heard that it was used as a capstan shanty until I read in Doerflinger's Shantymen and Shantyboys that according to Captain P. Tayleur it was often sung by seamen in the Australian Emigrant Trade as the 'hove in their mooring lines' and 'brought the anchor to the hawse-pipe'. Captain Tayleur calls his song The First of the Emigrants and in the main it is the same as mine, which I had from old Paddy Griffiths. Gold was found in Australia in 1851 and from that time onwards for the rest of the century sailing ships packed to the scuppers with emigrants and gold-seekers headed for the 'Colonies'. No doubt it lent itself to being a fine capstan song. Richard (Radriano) |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: dick greenhaus Date: 25 Jul 02 - 04:21 PM It's a nicely done CD. If you insist on paying with plastic, you can order it through CAMSCO Music 800/548-FOLK (3655) |
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Subject: RE: New sea music cd, Time Ashore is Over From: katlaughing Date: 25 Jul 02 - 04:59 PM Ah, good, Richard! There ya go, CAMSCO and CDBaby! Thanks, kat |
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Subject: Lyr Add: JACKIE TAR (from Roy Palmer) From: radriano Date: 26 Jul 02 - 12:38 PM JACKIE TAR The Oxford Book of Sea Songs, Roy Palmer, editor When Jack had pulled the oar and the boat was gone And the lassie on the shore with her head hanging down The tears stood in her eyes and her bosom heaving sighs Farewell, my dear, she cries, with your trousers on Farewell, said he, I go to sea, and you must stay behind But do not grieve, for while I live I ever will be kind And when I come to land you will meet me on the strand And welcome Jackie Tar with his trousers on Now peace is proclaimed and the wars are all o'er The fleets they are moored and the sailors come ashore Now you may see her stand with a glass into her hand To welcome Jack to land with his trousers on While up on high, she catched his eye with all her lovely charms Her face he knew and straight he flew and caught her in his arms Her hand he kindly pressed as he held her round the waist And he kissed the bonny lassie with his trousers on O Jack, where have you been since you went from me And what have you seen upon the raging sea I mourned for your sake while my heart was like to break For I thought I'd never see my Jack with his trousers on And while you stayed I sighed and prayed to Neptune and to Mars That they would prove kind and send you home safe from the wars And now to my request they have been pleased to list And sent you to my breast with your trousers on I have sailed the seas for you to the Torrid Zone From the confines of Peru to Van Diemen's Land From the Bay of Baltimore to the coast of Labrador But now I'm safe on shore with my trousers on I have beat the storms in many forms upon the raging main I have fought the foes with deadly blows and many a hero slain I have heard the cannons road, I have rolled in blood and gore But now I'm safe on shore with my trousers on I have been aloft when the winds have blown And I have been aloft when the bombs were thrown But like a sailor bold I have now come from the hold With my pockets full of gold and my trousers on And now no more from shore to shore I'll plough the raging seas But free from strife as man and wife we'll live in peace and ease To the church this couple hied and the priest the knot has tied And the sailor kissed his bride with his trousers on I was intrigued by the lyrics for this song and by the way every verse ended with the phrase "with his trousers on." I was also attracted to it because the song bears the same name and uses the same melody as the hornpipe Jackie Tar. There are some other examples of this sort of thing. Ricky Rackin sings a song titled Off to California to the tune of the hornpipe Off to California and I'm sure there are some others. Concerning the "with his trousers on" phrase I started a thread on the Mudcat Forum, Jackie Tar Thread, and got a number of interesting interpretations for the phrase. The one I liked best was from Malcolm Douglas: Roy Palmer had this to say on the subject (Bushes & Briars: Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1983/1999):
"At the end of the 18th century, when most men wore knee-breeches, sailors (apart from officers) wore trousers, and had been doing so for some fifty years. (Incidentally, the revolutionary French sans-culottes were so called, not because they went about with bare posteriors, but because they, too, wore trousers in preference to breeches). A sailor could easily roll up his wide trousers when decks had to be scrubbed, or seas were breaking over them. The trousers (usually spelled "trowsers" at the time) were often stained with the Stockholm tar used on the standing rigging, and "tarry trousers" were thus the unmistakable badge of the sailor." |
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Subject: Lyr Add: GRIMSBY LADS (John Conolly and Bill Meek) From: radriano Date: 30 Jul 02 - 12:36 PM THE GRIMSBY LADS Words and music by John Conolly and Bill Meek Chorus They sail in the cold and the gray of the morning Leaving their wives and their families behind Following the fishing, fulfilling their calling Their charts are all ready the shoals for to find Chorus: Here's to the Grimsby lads out at the trawling Here's to the lads on the billowing deep Shooting their nets and heaving and hauling All the night long, and the landsmen asleep Away to the north where there know will be waiting Frost and black ice and the lash of the gale Trawling and hoping and anticipating A ship bumper-full and safe homeward to sail From Scotland's gray shore to the cold coast of Iceland Through White Sea and Faeroe they're working their way Through Dogger and Forties to stormy Bear Island Eighteen long hours is the fisherman's day The nets are inboard and the catch lies a gleaming There's gutting and washing and packing below Ten days of fishing and home they'll be steaming A thousand miles gone and a thousand to go On Humber's brown water the new sun is gleaming To the fisherman's prayer the breeze sings the amen The smoky gray town in the stillness is dreaming Her sons from the waters return once again One of my favorite sea songs, originally learned from the Oxford Book of Sea Songs, edited by Roy Palmer. After recording this song, I bought an album of John Conolly and Bill Meek doing their song and I noticed that the second line of the last verse was different from the printed version in Palmer's book. I wrote to John Conolly and he said that both Bill Meek and he have a habit of re-visiting songs occasionally and tinkering with them. They had changed that line from To the fisherman's prayer the breeze sings the amen to Another trip's over, another day's done in a later recording. Black ice (in the 2nd verse) refers to sea ice that is clear enough to show the color of the water underneath, nearly invisible and thus dangerous. The place names in the 3rd verse bear some explaining: the White Sea is north of Archangel in the Soviet Union; Faeroe refers to the Faeroe Islands, a group of Danish islands (540 square miles) in the North Atlantic, between Iceland and the Shetland Islands; Dogger refers to the Dogger Bank, an extensive sand bank in the central North Sea, between England and Denmark, submerged at a depth of 60-120 ft.; the Forties is part of the North Sea, between Scotland and Norway; and Bear Island is to the south of Spitsbergen. Here are notes about this song from a lyric sheet sent to me by Bill Meek and John Conolly: "This is one of the first songs we ever wrote together…and it is more popular in 1998 than it was over thirty years ago! We have recently received recordings of it from Holland, Germany, Denmark and Poland. It is a simple tribute to the men who did the toughest job in the world…the deep-sea trawlermen whose triumphs and disasters were an integral part of our growing up, and whose lives we have tried to chronicle in many of our songs." And here are the notes about this song from Roy Palmer's book: "Distant water fishing has greatly declined since 1966 when John Conolly and Bill Meek wrote this song, but the skill and hardiness of trawlermen remain the same. Both writers were brought up within smell of Grimsby Docks in England. Conolly, born in 1941, had a grandfather who was a local shipwright. Meek was born in 1937, and his father worked on the docks as a 'lumper' (fish-handler). They set out to write of the trawling industry since they felt that 'the men who did the most dangerous job in the world deserved to be celebrated in song'. Richard (Radriano) |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: MartinRyan Date: 30 Jul 02 - 02:46 PM Richard Well done! My copy arrived safely and has just had its first twirl. Great robust singing of a very interesting set of songs. Regards p.s. Coincidentally, we had a long run of sea-songs in Ennistymon, during the Willy Clancy Week, recently. Tom Munnelly (who seems to have been there at the birth of the song!) sang "Billy O'Shea" - without a full chorus. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 30 Jul 02 - 03:00 PM Calling Joe Clone! Calling Joe Clone! Please replace the first paragraph of my post to this thread titled "Lyric Add: Time Ashore is Over" with the following: I originally got this song from local singer Dick Holdstock. When I contacted author Bill Meek (via John Conolly) to get his permission to record he sent me a lyric sheet which was a bit different from what I had learned. I had glanced at it and thought that I had the correct lyrics probably based on looking at the first two verses but Bill often re-visits his songs and re-writes words and phrases so I'm not sure at this point which set of lyrics came first. Here are the lyrics Bill Meek sent to me followed by what I am singing: Thank you! Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 30 Jul 02 - 05:39 PM I'm pleased to announce that my cd is now available at the CDBaby website: CDBaby Richard (Radriano) |
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Subject: Lyr Add: HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY, O! (chantey) From: radriano Date: 30 Jul 02 - 06:53 PM HEAVE AWAY CHEERILY, O! capstan, pumps and windlass shanty Oh, the wind is free an' we're bound for sea Ch: Heave away cheerily o-ho! The lassies are wavin' to you an' to me Ch: As off to the south'ard we go, as off to the south'ard we go Full Chorus: Sing, me lads, cheerily Heave, me lads, cheerily Heave away cheerily o-ho! For the gold that we prize an' for sunnier skies Away to the south'ard we go! They're cryin', Come back, my dear John an' dear Jack There's water in front an' no door at the back But we're Johnnies bold who can work for our gold An' stand a good dousin' wi'out catchin' cold The gals to the south'ard are bully an' fine When we gits to Melbourne we'll have a good time A John he is true to his Sal an' his Sue So long as he's able to keep 'em in view We'll heave her up, bullies, an' run her away We'll soon be a'headin' out on a long lay This shanty is from Stan Hugill's book Shanties from the Seven Seas. It is shown in Ab, a key with four flats that gives the song an interesting texture while fitting quite nicely within my vocal range. I changed the first three lines of the full chorus into call and response lines. This is not the traditional way to sing the full chorus but I really like the way it sounds. As I look at the book now I see that I have omitted this second verse for some reason: They're shoutin' goodbye, an' the gals they do cry So sing up, me darlin's, an' wipe yer tears dry Here are notes about this shanty from Stan Hugill's book: Our next 'heave' shanty is Heave Away Cheerily, O!. Only two collections give it. Davis & Tozer give it as capstan, Harlow as both pumps and windlass. Davis & Tozer state that the words and music or their version are 'entirely original'. If by this the editors mean that they composed it then seamen, obviously, must have taken it from their book in 1887 (first edition) and made use of it at sea - a magnificent gesture! For Harlow mentions it having been sung many times aboard his ship. He declares that there were many unprintable verses. I learnt my version from a Geordie shipmate in the twenties. This [Hugill's verses] is much the same as that of Davis & Tozer. Harlow gives verses 1 and 2 in similar vein, then: [verse 3] They're crying, 'Come back, my dear sailor in blue For no one can fill the place vacant by you [verse 4] They love us for money, whoever he be But when it's all gone we are shanghaied to sea [verse 5] Then sing, 'Goodbye Sally, your wonders I'll tell But when with another, I'll wish you in hell 'Geordie', my friend, always sang the word 'cheerily' as 'cheerilye' in accordance with typical sailor usage when singing any word ending with '-ly'. The word 'cheerily' mean 'quickly' and was often used at capstan and halyards when exhorting the men to harder efforts … 'Heave away cheerily, me hearties!' … 'Cheerily, lads, hand over hand!' It was used in both the Navy and Merchant Marine and Shakespeare uses it in Act I, Scene I, of his play The Tempest, where the bosun calls out: 'Heigh, my hearts, cheerly, cheerly, my hearts; yare, yare! Take in the topsail…' 'Cheerily' had an opposite number, 'handsomely'. This meant heave or haul slow and steady but appears to have been used more in the Navy than in the Merchant Service. Richard (Radriano) |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: katlaughing Date: 30 Jul 02 - 07:38 PM Wow, first class! Thanks so much, Richard. The CD is wonderful! I love the songs, most unknown to me landlocked as I've been:-), and the harmonies are great, as well as the energy. I've already recommended it to several others. I have to say....I am even more enamoured of the Out of the Rain tape "Song of the Wage Slave." I am really grateful someone mentioned it. My voice is well-suited for a couple of them and I've already gone looking for lyrics to learn them. The tight harmonies, excellent playing are really lovely and sing to my heart. Thanks so much for making both of these available. kat |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 31 Jul 02 - 12:03 PM I received a letter from John Conolly last night and he says that the lyrics that I am singing to Time Ashore is Over are real close to Bill Meek's original composition although I really like some of the changes Bill has made in his song. Radriano |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 01 Aug 02 - 11:46 AM Well, the requests keep rolling in! Richard, could you post the lyrics and notes for "Firing the Mauritania," an unusual song from the firemen's (coal shovelers) point of view aboard a "floating palace" which seems to ring true. Stephen Canright does a gread job on the CD leading this one. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 01 Aug 02 - 12:34 PM Hi Charley, I'll see Stephen Canright at the shanty sing tomorrow night and ask him to write detailed notes since he leads the song. I think he may have originally heard it sung by David Jones on the Bermuda Triangle(not sure abt this title) album. Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 02 Aug 02 - 11:49 AM Riggy tells me that the recording Firing the Mauritania is on is A Beautiful Life by the band Bermuda Quadrangle. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 02 Aug 02 - 01:04 PM As I recall the "Bermuda Quadrangle" included David Jones, Jeff Warner, Jeff Davis and someone else. Anyone remember who? Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 02 Aug 02 - 04:23 PM The other member of Bermuda Quadrangle is Jerry Epstein. I was just looking at the link Riggy sent to me for Minstrel Records where you can order the cassette A Beautiful Life |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Noreen Date: 02 Aug 02 - 04:48 PM Richard, thank you so much for the CD, it's very good indeed and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. One that jumped out at me was the Morning Shanty, I'd love to sing it. Good luck with the sales- I'm plugging it over here! Noreen |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 02 Aug 02 - 07:16 PM Noreen, I'm pleased that you are enjoying the album. Morning Shanty seems to be creating a bit of a stir. John Conolly really liked that one too - he thinks it would be a great song to end an evening of shanty singing. The song's author, Sharyn Dimmick, has recorded her original version on her solo cassette. I don't want to mis-quote the title of the album so I'll post that Monday. Besides the two of us, I don't know if anyone else has recorded Morning Shanty. Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Noreen Date: 02 Aug 02 - 07:36 PM I would like to ask Sharyn's permission to sing Morning Shanty - how would I contact her, please? |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 05 Aug 02 - 11:50 AM refresh |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 06 Aug 02 - 11:26 AM Sharyn Dimmick's cassette tape that includes her song Morning Shanty is titled I Am Your Winter Lover. I believe it is only available through her. Anyone wishing to contact Sharyn can e-mail her at: sharyn@usisp.com Radriano |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Noreen Date: 06 Aug 02 - 11:46 AM Thanks for the info, Richard. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Jon Bartlett Date: 08 Aug 02 - 03:48 AM Richard, your new CD arrived the morning I took delivery of ours! Serendipity indeed - and yours is such a winner. Well done, Richard, and the rest of the crew: the process of "borrowing" has already begun, Rika picking up the Sally O. Our CD (titled "Blow the Man Down! Tall Ships in the Fraser") is by way of being a crowd starter: it's got 27 tracks for a full 72 minutes, and every one of 'em we've all been singing for years - not a new song amongst 'em. But the idea for us was to get non-singers singing, and to do it with a local flavour, since the Tall Ships arrive here tomorrow. The CD booklet is 32 pages long, and that's without the texts to the songs! (mostly a long local history of sail in the Fraser, 1820-1910, with stuff on how the shanties were used). We'd like to get down to the Bay area for a sing or three, but it's a long and expensive haul. All the best to the Bay shanty singers, including Richard A. and Dick Holdstock. Jon Bartlett |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: EBarnacle1 Date: 08 Aug 02 - 02:28 PM Just got the album. It's worth the wait. This is the kind of collection I wish many of the others out there were. The sound is especially well done as shown by the words come through clearly on all the cuts. Additionally, thank you for posting the lyrics here. It saves us from writing it out manually so we can learn the [well selected]pieces. Exceptionally good job of searching out copyright and other attributions. Keep up the good work. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE APPRENTICE BOY From: radriano Date: 08 Aug 02 - 05:08 PM THE APPRENTICE BOY When first I went to sea, apprentice bound I sailed the salt seas all round and round I scarce had sailed a voyage but one When I fell in love with my charming Ann I went to my Captain, both stout and bold And unto him my secret told I love yonder lass as I love my life What would I give if she were my wife Well, the Captain said, you're a foolish boy For to court a girl that you'll ne'er enjoy For she'll have lovers when you're at sea And she'll be married e'er you be free Well, I don't know but I'll go and try For she might fancy an apprentice boy And she might alter her mind for me And wait on me until I be free Well, I bought her ribbons and I bought her doves These things to prove of a heart that loves She accepted all and she was not shy And she vowed she'd wait for her apprentice boy When my ship is anchored and my work is o'er I'll steer my barque for sweet Erin's shore In my native country, my love I'll enjoy And she'll welcome home her apprentice boy So come all you sea apprentices where'er you be Never slight your true love when you're at sea Just love her as you love your life And she'll consent to become your wife In 1984 I made it to the Willie Clancy Festival which is held in the town of Miltown Malbay in County Clare, Ireland. I attended the Singing Workshop that year and heard Róisín White sing this lovely song which I understand she had from the late Joe Holmes. The Apprentice Boy offers a more romantic view of the sailor and is one of my favorite sea songs. It has been recorded by Róisín White on her album The First of My Rambles. In the first line of the fifth verse Róisín sings "bought her gloves" which I though I heard as "bought her doves." Cathal McConnell also recorded this song on one of the Boys of the Lough albums. Radriano |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE OCEAN QUEEN From: radriano Date: 08 Aug 02 - 05:11 PM THE OCEAN QUEEN Was in the winter season, all in the frost and snow We leave our noble harbour and down to Georges go Where winds do loudly whistle, blow heavy on our sail As we go off a-spouting just like a frightened whale Our sails are always good and strong, made of the best of duck Our rigging is manila and rove through patent block Our vessel built of white oak and finished with great taste To ride the heavy norther gale and stand the winter's test And on the banks of Georges no tongue can e'er describe The roughness of the weather, the swiftness of the tide Where ice congeals like mountains and heavy winds do blow And we poor sons of Neptune great hardships must go through Hail, rain and thunder, and breakers on each side But yet our noble vessel majestically do ride But hark one moment, listen, for what I say is true The Ocean Queen is missing, and have drowned all her crew Nine there were in number, all in the prime of life Commanded by a captain who leaves a tender wife One fortnight whey were married; from her he did depart And now she's left a widow with a sad and broken heart It's true she's not the only one who's left alone to weep There's fathers, sons and brothers that drowned in the deep But I hope God will reward her for we know the grief she feeled There is a balm of Gilead that every wound can heal I found this song in Helen Creighton's book, Songs & Ballads from Nova Scotia. Ms. Creighton collected it from Mr. Ben Henneberry of Devil's Island whose story was that "this boat was so exceptionally fine that nine captains sailed in her as crew, going from Gloucester to the Banks of Georges off Cape Sable, from which they were never heard of again." It's a curious song in that the Ocean Queen is not mentioned until the end of the fourth verse and almost no detail is offered about the disaster. What I was drawn to was the description of the ship that the song's narrator is on and the marvelous phrases "where ice congeals like mountains" and "as we go off a-spouting just like a frightened whale" Radriano |
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Subject: Lyr Add: SALTPETRE SHANTY From: radriano Date: 09 Aug 02 - 11:27 AM SALTPETRE SHANTY For the Spanish main we are bound away Chorus: Oh roll For the Spanish main we are bound away Chorus: Oh roll We are sailing away at the break of day Where the swift bonitos and dolphin do play Full Chorus: Oh roll, rock her bars Heave her high, oh, rock her, oh roll l To old Callao we are bound away (2x) We're bound away from Liverpool Bay Where the flash girls o' Chile will steal all our pay Old Pedro the Crimp, boys, we know him of old (2x) He's primin' his vino and dopin' his beer To the Chinchas he'll ship us if we don't steer clear Them flash girls of Chile, they're hard to beat (2x) They'll greet us and love us and treat us to wine But the bastards are robbin' us most of the time So keep a sharp watch and a keen weather-eye (2x) On the girls from Coquimbo to old Coronel With their red-hot senoras from the far side o' Hell When the order comes round for to sail away home (2x) From some old seaport on the west coast of hell We'll sing adios and say fare thee well This capstan shanty is also known as Slav Ho or Slav Oh and comes from the Saltpetre and Guano Trades of the West Coast of South America. My version is melodically much the way it is done by The Boarding Party on their recording Fair Winds and a Following Sea, Folk-Legacy Records, 1987. Barry Finn posted a thread about the song on the Mudcat Café Forum back in 1998, Saltpeter Shanty. The lyrics I sing, in typical shanty man fashion, are my favorite verses from several versions I have heard. I've also heard this shanty on recordings by Pint and Dale and Stormalong John. Here are the liner notes about Saltpetre Shanty from Fair Winds and a Following Sea: "Spike Sennit was his name. He was an able-bodied seaman, much of whose experience had been amassed while serving in the guano-and-saltpetre trade along the west coast of South America. Many sailors had followed that route, carrying cargo that would become fertilizer and other products. Few shanties have been preserved in print that reflect the travails of that less-than-idyllic existence, however, primarily, says Stan Hugill, who got this one from Sennit himself, because not much was printable. We've bowdlerized Hugill's version one step further, in fact, using "flash girls" to replace a Spanish word [puta] that is considerably more coarse than English equivalents such as prostitute. Then there was Mike O'Rourke, another of Hugill's shipmates, who had shipped in many "Yankee blood boats" -- hard-case sailing ships from which crews would desert and fresh ones be supplied by the medium of shanhailing. O'Rourke's contribution was another shanty from the same part of the world, "Them Gals of Chile," from two of whose verses we adapted lines to add another element to Sennit's grim song. It was verse #4 that came from O'Rourke, however. The reference to "Pedro the Crimp" (essentially a kidnapper) was part of Spike's original. Doping the beer in portside hangouts could lead to drugged sailors who would wake up hours later, only to find themselves at sea in a totally different vessel, having been bought like barrels of salt-horse from procurers like Pedro. Sometimes, in fact, they might end up not at sea at all, but working ashore in such unsavory locales as Las Chinchas, a group of tiny islands off the Peruvian coast. The tune, like those of many shanties, could have come from almost any source that struck in the shantyman's mind long enough for him to feel like setting words to it. Joanna Colcord pointed out the remarkable similarity between this one (or her version, which is close) and a 16th century German folksong called "Drei Reiter am Thor" ("Three Riders at the Gate"). Nor it it all that far from some American songs such as "Cryderville Jail." You can find both Sennit's and O'Rourke's songs, by the way, in Hugill's Shanties of the Seven Seas (Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1961 and later editions), the undisputed champion of shanty collections, particularly if you want only one. More to the point, however, with a growing stack of recordings of the same finite repertoire, the book offers many lesser-known but equally exciting examples. Find a copy, take a deep breath, and start in on the ones you've never heard." And here are notes about Saltpetre Shanty from Stan Hugill's book, Shanties from the Seven Seas: "The shanty I have named Saltpetre Shanty was a great favourite with crews of ships in the Saltpetre and Guano Trades of the West Coast of South America; it is one of four shanties rarely heard in other trades, the other three being Rollocky Randy Dandy O!, Serafina, and The Girls of Chili. They were all well known to Liverpool seamen, but have rarely found their way into print owing to the difficulty of camouflaging them: they were all obscene to a degree, even the refrains and choruses being extremely bawdy. Captain Robinson in The Bellman is the only person who has 'had a go' at titivating them up. As he points out: 'many of these bawdy refrains were nothing more than Sailor John's obscene renderings of snatches of "Dago" phrases picked up in the Chilean ports.' I had this one from Spike Sennit, an old sailing-ship A.B. [able bodied seaman]. It was used at the capstan." Radriano Similar message in Saltpeter Shanty thread (click). |
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Subject: Lyric Add: Ilo Man From: radriano Date: 09 Aug 02 - 11:38 AM ILO MAN There's a ship in full sail And she's out upon the river Chorus: Way, hey, you Ilo man There's a ship in full sail And she's out upon the river Chorus: Way, hey, you Ilo man Heave her up, heave her high It's the best that we can give her There's a girl on the pier Don't you wish you could stay with her And the ducks and the geese are all swimming on the river And the ducks and the geese are all swimming on the river And the boys and the girls are all roving in the clover And the boys and the girls are all rolling in the clover Heave 'er up, heave 'er high, come and rock and roll me over Heave 'er up, heave 'er high, come and rock and roll me over Here's a health to each lad, to each shell back and each rover Here's a health to each lad, to each shell back and each rover I learned this capstan shanty from the recording Shipshape & Harry Fashion by The Harry Browns of Bristol. Unfortunately, the album's liner notes say next to nothing about the songs. Another version can be found on Bob Webb's album Bank Trollers, Songs of the Sea. Here's what Bob sings followed by his liner notes about Ilo Man: ILO MAN As sung by Bob Webb Oh the ducks and the geese they are swimming down the river Chorus: Way ay ay ay Ilo Man Oh the ducks and the geese they are swimming down the river (timme!) Chorus: Way ay ay ay Ilo Man And the boys and the girl they are playing in the clover And the boys and the girl they are playing in the clover I wish I was down on the old plantation (timme!) Oh where there is no temptation (timme!) I courted a girl and she was very pretty 'Twas down in a place, it was on the Mississippi As I strolled out one bright May morning (timme!) Just as the early day was dawning (timme!) I met a young couple and they were spooning I met a fair young couple and they were spooning Oh the ducks and the geese they are swimming down the river And the boys and the girls they are playing in the clover Liner notes from Bob Webb's album: "This capstan shanty, a variant of Huckleberry Hunting, was sung by William Fender of Barry, Wales, who quit the sea in 1900. Bob Walser unearthed it from the James Madison Carpenter Collection at the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress. It begins with the customary "hitch," the wild yell that Stan Hugill called "the very essence of the shantyman's art"." Stan Hugill, in his book Shanties from the Seven Seas also gives a version of the shanty Huckleberry Hunting that he calls We'll Ranzo Way. Here are Hugill's notes from his book: "Another shanty which mentions our hero Ranzo is the one variously known as We'll Ranzo Way, The Wild Goose Shanty, or Huckleberry Hunting. This was sung at windlass and capstan, but Doerflinger gives it as halyards and pumps - in other words it appears to have been used for every shipboard job with perhaps the exception of tacks and sheets, and hand-over hand! My version is as follows" We'll Ranzo Way Alternative titles: Sing Hilo, Me Ranzo Ray, Huckleberry Hunting, The Wild Goose Shanty O-oh, I'm shantyman of the working' party Ch:Timme way, timme hay, timme hee-ho hay! So sing, lads, pull lads so strong an' hearty Ch: An' sing Hilo, me Ranzo way! I'm shantyman of the Wild Goose nation Got a maid that I left on the big plantation Oh, the sassiest gal o' that Wild Goose nation Is her that I left on the big plantation Oh, the boys an' the gals went a huckleberry huntin' The gals began to cry an' the boys they dowsed their huntin' [stopped their huntin'; stopped their courtin'] Then a little gal ran off an' a little boy ran arter The little gal fell down an' he saw her little garter Said he, 'I'll be yer beau, if ye'll have me for yer feller,' But the little gal said, 'No, 'cos me sweetheart's Jackie Miller.' But he took her on his knee, an' he kissed her right an' proper She kissed him back agen, an' he didn't try to stop'er An' then he put his arm all around her tight an' waspy waist Sez she, 'Young man, you're showing' much too great a haste!' [The underlined words in this shanty are the places where the sailors would all pull together. R.A.] The remaining verses are mainly obscene and much the same as those used in the bawdy version of A-rovin'. Davis & Tozer [in Sailors' Songs or "Chanties" - 1910] give a theme about 'Minnie and the Wild Geese' which has not an authentic ring, appearing to me as being entirely composed and not merely camouflaged. Bullen gives one verse only, 'Oh, what did yer give for yer fine leg o' mutten?' Terry says that the verse about 'huckleberry hunting' was rarely omitted, but he never heard this theme further developed. Whall, Sharp, Doerflinger, and Miss Colcord all give this verse. Terry gives the shanty as windlass and capstan, Whall doesn't state its usage, Sharp gives it as capstan, but Miss Colcord, like Doerflinger, gives it as halyards. Bullen also presents it as windlass and capstan. Most forms indicate a Negro origin, as far as the tune and refrains are concerned, but the words of the solos savour of a Down East or Nova Scotia source. Most versions refer to the 'Wild Goose nation.' This mysterious race of people often crops up in shantydom and also in nigger minstreldom, and many theories have been put forward regarding its origin, none, I'm afrain, very convincing. Doerflinger maintains that in minstreldom, the phrase refers to Southern or Indian-inhabited country. Miss Colcord rather fancies Ireland as the source, since she has discovered that the phrase 'Wild Goose nation' was used as a poetical name for the Irish, in particular for the Irish Guards who fought the French in the wars of 1748, and refers the reader to Kipling's poem, 'The Irish Guards.' Then again the Irish connection with the phrase may come from an historical incident which happened when George III, I believe, desired the Irish regiments to swear allegiance to the English flag. The flag was hoisted on a hill and the regiments had two alternatives - either to pass the flag on the left and thereby swear allegiance, or to march to the right and downhill to the waiting French frigates which were to carry them to France and exile. Many regiments accepted the latter course and became mercenaries in Europe, never being allowed to return to their wives and children or their native heath. This going into exile is often referred to as 'The Flight of the Wild Geese.' But all this is rather far removed from the sailor's shanty - unless it came to the shanty by way of an Irish forebitter, and to my knowledge no forebitter, Irish or otherwise, includes such a phrase. Some authorities seek further afield and suggest that it may mean Ashanti or some other Guinea Coast locality, homeland of the original Negro slaves of America. Radriano |
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Subject: Lyr Add: MORNING SHANTY (Sharyn Dimmick) From: radriano Date: 09 Aug 02 - 01:17 PM MORNING SHANTY Author: Sharyn Dimmick Won't you come down to the shore? Chorus: Watching I will sail away once more Chorus: In the morning We have sung through half the night Chorus: Watching For the coming of the light Chorus: In the morning For the friends who now have gone Chorus: Watching For the friends returning home Chorus: In the morning But the clock upon the wall Chorus: Watching Steals the time and gives it all* Chorus: To the morning At my window I will be Chorus: Watching For your ships to sail to me Chorus: In the morning Composed by my dear friend Sharyn Dimmick on May 26, 1986 while taking the Anacortes ferry to Victoria after a late evening singing party at the Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, Washington. I originally recorded this song as a solo singing lead myself but I was not satisfied with how it sounded. I thought it might sound nice with Suzanne Friend singing lead with an all women's chorus. The chorus lineup would include Marla Fibish, Patrice Haahn, Sharyn Dimmick, and perhaps one or two other singers. Then Suzanne announced that she would be moving to Eureka, California almost immediately and I had to rethink everything. Suddenly there was no time to schedule rehearsal sessions and Suzanne's imminent move meant that the Out of the Rain songs (The Grimsby Lads and Time Ashore is Over) needed to be finished as soon as possible so we recorded Morning Shanty at the same time with Marla, Patrice, and myself as the chorus. Suzanne's interpretation of Morning Shanty is a bit different timing-wise from Sharyn's original version in a couple of places. You can hear Sharyn's recording of her song on her cassette tape I Am You Winter Lover which, I believe, you can only get through her. Sharyn can be reached by e-mail at: sharyn@usisp.com Radriano
But the clock upon the wall Chorus: Watching Steals our time and gives it all* Chorus: To the morning |
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Subject: Lyr Add: ROLL BOYS ROLL From: radriano Date: 09 Aug 02 - 01:22 PM ROLL BOYS ROLL West Indian halyard shanty Sally Brown, she's the girl for me, boys Chorus: Roll boys, roll boys roll Sally Brown, she's the girl for me, boys Chorus: Way high, Miss Sally Brown Oh way down South, way down South boys Oh bound away, with a bone in her mouth boys Oh we're rollin' down to Trinidad to see Miss Sally Brown Oh rollin' down to Trinidad to paint the bleedin' town She's lovely up aloft, an' she's lovely down below She's lovely all the way, me boys, it's all you want to know She's lovely on the foreyard, lovely on the main She's lovely in the summertime, she's lovely in the rain Ol' Captain Baker, how do you store yer carga Some I stow for'ard, boys, an' some I stow arter (arta) Oh, there's forty fathom or more below, boys Oh, forty fathom or more below, boys Oh, way high ya, an' up she rises Oh, way high ya, the blocks is different sizes Oh, one more pull, don't ya hear the mate a-bawlin? Oh, one more pull, that's the end of all the hawlin' Shay Black kindly loaned me a copy of a cassette tape recorded by Stan Hugill when he was touring with Stormalong John as his chorus titled A Salty Fore Topman which Shay thought had the shanty Roller Bowler on it sung by Stan. Roller Bowler wasn't on the tape but Roll Boys Roll was. Roll Boys Roll is one of the best of the "Sally Brown" shanties although the song is no longer about her after the fifth verse. I sing the song now with many more "hitches" and "yelps." The lyrics shown in this thread are transcribed from Stan Hugill's tape - I tend not to sing in dialect. It's a great shanty to do with general audiences because the chorus lines are short and easy to remember. The second verse contains the line "with a bone in her mouth, boys" which I first took as a very explicit sexual reference. In a house concert performance by Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman two years ago in Berkeley, California Dave sang the same line in another song. I asked him about it during a break and he said that the line refers to one of the sails (he called it the "water sail") which is slung quite low in the front of a ship. If you are looking at a ship head on when that sail is up it looks like the figurehead is holding something in her mouth. The phrase "with a bone in her mouth, boys" became a specific reference to heading southward with all sails up - the beginning of a voyage. Radriano |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 12 Aug 02 - 12:13 PM In my notes for Roll Boys Roll I gave an explanation for the phrase "with a bone in her mouth." It has been brought to my attention (see the thread titled "A Bone in Her Mouth") that this phrase actually refers to a ship going at speed, the bone being the spray of water at the bow. Richard |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 19 Aug 02 - 02:07 PM I'm still waiting for detailed liner notes info on "Firing the Mauretania" from Steven Canright. I e-mailed David Jones about the song as well. Jeff Warner was the lead singer on the song on the A Beautiful Life cassette and David says that Jeff did some research so I should be receiving some additional information soon. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: FIRING THE MAURETANIA^^^ From: radriano Date: 30 Aug 02 - 06:52 PM FIRING THE MAURETANIA Lead: Stephen Canright In nineteen hundred twenty four Found myself in Liverpool on the floor So I went to the Cunard office door Got a job on the Mauretania Chorus: Oh, firing the Mauretania She surely is a slaver To Hell with the Mauretania The Mauretania's a wonderful sight Sixty-four fires a-burning bright But you'll shovel coal from morning to night A-firing the Mauretania The coal was so hard and full of slate And that's what got to the four-to-eight It very soon wearied the four-to-eight A-firing the Mauretania The eight-to-twelve were much better men But they were weary by half part ten So tired and weary by half past ten A-firing the Mauretania The fan's on the bum and fire won't draw And that's what got to the twelve-to-four It very soon buggered the twelve-to-four A-firing the Mauretania So come all you firemen, listen to me The Mauritania spells purgatory Stick to the coast, don't go deep sea A-firing the Mauretania^^^ The correct spelling of this ship's name is Mauretania. I first heard this sung by Stephen Canright at one of the Hyde Street Pier shanty sings in San Francisco. Stephen got the song from the cassette tape A Beautiful Life by the group Bermuda Quadrangle. David Jones, one of the singers in the group thinks the song was written by Redd Sullivan who, along with his partner Martin Windsor, ran a very successful folk club, The Troubadour, in London from the early 1960s to the 1980s. Jeff Warner, who sings the lead on this song, agrees with David. The times, 4 to 8, etc., refer to the 4 hours on and 4 hours off watches. In their liner notes Bermuda Quadrangle says "The Fireman's Lament" or "Firing the Mauretania" was entered in English shantyman Stan Hugill's "The Bosun's Locker" column in Spin,The Folksong Magazine, Volume 1, # 9, 1962. Hugill's notes read: "Words collected and arranged by Redd Sullivan of the Thameside 4, sometime fireman himself. Tune: variant of "Paddy Works on the Railway." Stephen Canright, who is also the Chief Curator for the Maritime Museum in San Francisco, sent me the following notes on Firing the Mauretania: "When I first heard this song on a tape by the Bermuda Quadrangle, I was intrigued with the idea of a stoking shanty. It seemed reasonable that a rhythmic song might ease the labor of shoveling coal into the furnaces of a big steamer. Stoking was individual work, but a song might give the lads a lilt to work to and a chance to bitch about their lives. I doubt, however, that this was actually ever sung in the boiler room of the Mauretania, especially as it turns out that she was converted to oil-fire by 1921. The passenger liner R.M.S. Mauretania, launched in 1906, was the most famous ship of her time. Until 1930 she ran for Cunard between Southampton, England and New York City, carrying 2,500 passengers and a crew of 800. For twenty years she was the fastest passenger steamer on the Atlantic run. At almost 800 feet in length, she was for a time the largest ship in the world. Her sister-ship Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in 1915 with heavy loss of life, helping to bring the United States into the First World War. The Mauretania was finally scrapped in 1935. The Mauretania was a turbine steamer. She had twenty-five steam boilers, most with eight furnaces or fire boxes, for a total of 192 furnaces. The fires were fed by stokers shoveling coal, each man tending four furnaces, so that forty-eight stokers worked each watch. The stokers worked four hours on and eight hours off, whenever the ship was at sea. It was a hard and dirty job, with gaunt, black-faced men laboring like imps in the bowels of Hell. Only by about 1930 had all of the big Atlantic liners adopted oil fire, ending this backbreaking labor." Mauretania Statistics: Gross Tonnage - 31,938 tons Dimensions - 232.31 x 26.82m (762.2 x 88.0ft) Number of funnels - 4 Number of masts - 2 Construction - Steel Propulsion - Quadruple-screw Engines - Steam turbines by Wallsend Slipway Co. Ltd. Service speed - 25 knots Builder - Swan, Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend-On-Tyne Launch date - 20 September 1906 Passenger accommodation - 563 1st class, 464 2nd class, 1,138 3rd class The following Google search for "Mauretania" gives numerous links to a wealth of information about R.M.S. Mauretania: Mauretania search To view the Mudcat Forum thread on this song click on the following link: Mauretania Thread I've put together one file of all these detailed liner notes for my album which I will distribute electronically. Anyone interested can get a copy by sending me a e-mail message at: radriano@consrv.ca.gov |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 30 Aug 02 - 07:01 PM I'm not sure why those links in my last post did not work. Here are the addresses: Google search: http://www.google.com/search?q=Mauretania&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=0&sa=N Forum thread: http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=25445#298406
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 30 Aug 02 - 09:41 PM Thanks, Richard. You've certainly done a great job on this, tracking down where this song comes from and what it means. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: GUEST,Sharyn Dimmick, sharyn@usisp.com Date: 13 Oct 02 - 06:37 PM Hello all, I am the woman who wrote "Morning Shanty" and I need to tell you that there is an error in these posted lyrics. The correct lyrics are: But the clock upon the wall Watching Steals our time, and gives it all To the morning. Please do not sing "steals the time." This is copyrighted material. Thanks, Sharyn |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Charley Noble Date: 14 Oct 02 - 09:07 AM A fine song, Sharyn, and so nice to meet you in San Francisco. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: radriano Date: 15 May 08 - 03:06 PM With apologies to Sharyn Dimmick, the lyric change was unintentional. Suzanne Friend, who sings lead on the song, did not realize she had changed that one word. |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Barry Finn Date: 16 May 08 - 01:23 AM I hope that Sharyn didn't mean to come of as hash & hard as it sounds & that it's just the internet that comes off that way & not the intent of those that use it. Barry |
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Subject: RE: New sea music CD, Time Ashore is Over From: Barry Finn Date: 17 May 08 - 01:39 AM If it's "COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL" does that mean it can ONLY be sung the way it was written? Is that how folk music now works & gets passed on? If so, it sounds to me as if it's dead in the water before it gets a chance to sink or swim. Can or should artistic control be carried this far? I know it sounds as if it was an oversight by the singer & there was an apology made but is it that important that the author should demand that it can & should be sung only that way & that is the only "right" way to sing it? Was not the original idea of copyright's intent to try to enhance the artistic flow & cause the public's creative juices to grow. Sounds more like a song in chains to me, sorry. I have this CD & IMHO I couldn't care less if a word was changed in error, I'd be dam pleased, hearing the job they did with all the songs on this, if they had covered anything I wrote. Maybe next CD you guys will consider covering one of my songs. Do you pay royalities too, to boot? He,He,He! Barry |
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