Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM

Sorry, there's no online cip availble - my technical knowledge doesn't stretch that far. The tune and verses 1-4 of the recording were from Hugill - I added a fifth verse to indicate how the song might (and probably did) progress.

At the time it was the only known recording of the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Mar 09 - 01:05 AM

Hi SPB-Cooperator,

I noted the Shanty Crew recording when I posted my version, as it was the only other recording I could discover. However, I have still never heard it. Is there a sample clip somewhere that we can hear?

More importantly, can you shed any light on where your performance comes from? Was it re-created from Hugill's written text, or had you heard someone else perform it? thanks for the help

Gibb

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 09:28 PM

Hugill said "Doodle Let Me Go" "may be related" to "Do Let Me Lone..." (p. 380, "Shanties Fron the Seven Seas"). Both in Sharp.

Can't find any more certain information.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 13 Mar 09 - 07:51 PM

it was recorded by your truly on the Shanty Crew recording "Where Am I To Go" - Brewhouse Records.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: GUEST,EBarnacle on a friend's machine
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 10:30 PM

Hmmm...Seems like a variant on Doodle let me go. If so, I wonder when they diverged.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 09:30 PM

Gibb, "Trinidadian Americans" website has picked up your video. Also, a group called the "Shanty Crew" has put the song on cd (not heard).

Trinidadian

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: Barry Finn
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 06:55 PM

I'm not gonna doodle with this one

Barry

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Mar 09 - 05:08 PM

Nothing close in Abrahams. There may be something in the Lomax recordings, but I don't have them. Not much in print about these West Indian songs, most is about calypso and its following styles.

One can only do what you did, sing it the way you feel it, guided by what one can glean from records of the people who used it. I also liked your notes, it's good to have the explanation with the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 05:51 PM

Thanks for adding these, Q.

I recently added a rendition of this to Youtube, if anyone is interested checking it out, HERE Following, the cues Hugill gives, I made my own lyrics, with slightly bawdier ambiguity.

It appears this one has only very rarely been recorded. Does anyone know if Stan Hugill ever performed (or even recorded) it? Or is it just one of those rare chanteys notated for posterity in his text. If the latter, we pretty much just have to make educated guesses about a fitting style (as I tried to, here).

Gibb

Subject: Lyr Add: Do Let Me Lone, Susan (halyards)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Mar 09 - 04:24 PM

Lyr. Add: DO LET ME LONE, SUSAN
(Hooraw, me Looloo Boys (Gels)

Do let me lone, Susan, Oh! do let me lone!
Ch. Hooraw! me loulou boys, Do let me lone!
When I put my arm round Jinny's waist,
Oh, Jinny jumps about,
Ch. Hooraw! me loulou boys! Do let me lone!
When I put my hand on Jinny's head,
Oh, Jinny jump away,
Ch. Hooraw, me loulou boys! Do let me lone!
2
Do let me lone, Flora, oh, do let me lone.
Ch. Hooraw, me loulou boys (gels), do let me lone!
When I put me hand on Jinny's cheek,
Oh, Jinny jump about,
Ch. Hooraw, me loulou boys (gels), do let me lone!
When I try to play with Jinny's ear,
Oh, Jinny jumps away,
Ch. Hooraw, me loulou boys (gels), do let me lone!
3
Do let me lone, Rosy, oh, do let me lone,
Ch. Hooraw, me loulou boys (gels)!
When I put my arm round Jinny's waist,
Oh, Jinny jumps about,
Ch. Hooraw, etc.
When I stroke my Jinny on the back,
Oh. Jinny jumps away,
Ch. Hooraw, etc.
4
Do let me lone, Judy, oh, do let me lone,
Ch. Hooraw, etc.
When I put me hand in Jinny's lap,
Oh, Jinny jump about,
Ch. Hooraw, etc.
When I kiss my Jinny on the lips,,
Oh, Jinny jump away,
Ch. Hooraw, etc.
5
Do let me lone Mary, etc.

Hugill- "I had it from the Barbadian shantyman Harding, who had often sung it at halyards in both British and American ships. It is of Spanish-American origin and similar in timing to a Trinidadian calypso. Much of it is unprintable, since it refers to all the parts of the human anatomy! A common trick of the Negro shantyman was that of jumping to a higher key every alternate verse."

Stan Hugill, 1961, "Shanties from the Seven Seas," Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., London. Pp. 379-380.