Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version

Subject: Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version
From: llareggyb (inactive)
Date: 16 Jun 09 - 08:11 PM

This an authentic trad. version of the familiar "Blow the Man Down", with some quite different lyrics, and a reference to Broughton Street in Victoria, courtesy of The British Columbia Folklore Society (http://www.folklore.bc.ca/folksongs.htm). The tune is the same as the original.

BLOW THE MAN DOWN (7)
Trad., B.C. Version

1. As I was a-walking on down Broughton Street,
      To me, way, heigh, blow the man down,
I went into Speedie's me shipmates to meet,
      Gi' me some time to blow the man down.

2. Well the crowd was all there, pretty tough-looking crew,
To have our peasoup and salt horse for to chew,

3. Well the Old Man is tough and a hard-looking guy,
To get more than your whack there is no use to try,

4. Well the duff is like rubber and heavy as lead,
With roaches in plenty for raisins instead,

5. Well the cook is a soaker who loves a good booze,
Twixt him and the steward there's little to choose,

6. And talk of the Bo'sun, he's tougher than tough,
In handling poor sailors he's much more than rough,

7. Supercargo is stingy with stores he is mean,
On robbing poor sailors he's awfully keen,

8. I don't like to sail in this rotten old tub,
With no grog allowed and the poorest of grub,

9. When we get to port I am leaving the sea,
I'll get work on land and a farmer I'll be,

10. And now I have come to the end of me lay,
For the topsail's aloft and the Mate said, "Belay!"

@sailor @work @shanty @BC @PNW

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version
From: meself
Date: 16 Jun 09 - 08:19 PM

Thanks for that, shipmate!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Jun 09 - 08:42 PM

Do tell us a little more about yourself and what is going on in Victoria since C. Fox Smith was there from 1904 to 1913.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, who will be re-visiting Victoria in September

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version
From: iancarterb
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 12:04 AM

a)Llareggyb (or anybody else) know where Speedie's is/was on Broughton?
b)Charley, when in September will you be in Victoria?
Carter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 09:53 AM

Carter-

It would be nice to meet you.

We'll be working our way up to Victoria from Seattle September 21, with stops at David Hancock Publications (Songs of the Pacific Northwest by folklorist Phil Thomas) to see if he's interested in re-publishing C. Fox Smith's Pacific Coast poems. Then I'll be the featured performer at a concert at the Boathouse sponsored by the Steveston Folk Guild on Thursday, September 24. Then we ferry over to Vancouver Island the next day and settle into Victoria. I'll be sitting in at the gathering at the Bent Mast Pub on Saturday and the VFSS Richard Grainger concert on Sunday. I'll be primarily singing songs based on C. Fox Smith's Pacific coast poems from the early 1900's.

My wife and I will also be visiting with some of the eagle watchers in the area; she's an administrator on the Hancock Wlidlife Forum which has some of the best webcams for observing eagle nests.

I'll start a separate thread about this foray in August.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version
From: iancarterb
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 09:41 PM

Next week I'll definitely look up a drinking establishment named Speedie's at the Maritime Museum and/or Royal BC Mus. I really like that set of words too.
Charley, I'll pm you a couple of phone numbers for the WA side and the BC side. No eaglecams on any local Doug firs on Bainbridge Island (that I know of), but enough eagles to hear and see every day around us. Skagit Valley at salmon time it's not:)
Carter

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Jun 09 - 10:27 PM

Carter-

I never ran across a bar named Speedie's in any of C. Fox Smith's Victoria poems, nor in my archival research from 1904 to 1913. The insurance maps in the archives have a lot of taverns named but unfortunately the names were not searchable as in a database.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Blow the Man Down, Pacific NW version
From: iancarterb
Date: 18 Jun 09 - 10:38 PM

Charley- Oh well, a lot of things and names and happenings move geographically quite briskly through oral transmissions. If you have any suggestions for the search other than my readily available ones of Maritime or Royal BC museums, let me know. I have some favorite places on Broughton I would LIKE it to have been in historical progression.:)
Carter B