The Advent and Development of Chanties

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 11:22 PM

The Carpenter Collection contains some 98 different chanty-forms, by my tally. Here they are, followed by the numbers of time a variant of each occurs.

A ROVING (6)
ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN (2)
ALL FOR ME GROG (8)
Billibirumpidoodlupiday" ("Oh goin down the river…")
BLOW BOYS BLOW (17)
Blow high, blow low"
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (26)
BLOW YE WINDS
BONEY (8)
BOTTLE O
BOWLINE (9)
BULLY IN ALLEY (2) [remove one]
Captain row me ashore"
CHEERLY (3)
CHURCH CHAPEL
Dance Callidio"
DEAD HORSE (8) + DEAD HORSE?
Down in the Meadows" ("As I was a walking down the street")
Down in those Valleys" ("Aye, aye, aye, Bendigo")
DOWN TRINIDAD
DRUNKEN SAILOR (5)
Fire away Lily, come down below"
FIRE DOWN BELOW (5)
FIRE FIRE FIRE
FISHES + FISHES? (2)
GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN (2)
Go down below, you pretty girls, go down below"
GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL (5)
HANDY MY BOYS (3)
HANGING JOHNNY (5)
HAUL AWAY JOE (14)
Haul away Rosie. Rosie haul"
HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES (10)
Here we come home in a leaky ship"
HIGHLAND (13)
HILO BOYS
HOGEYE (4)
HOOKER JOHN (2) [remove one]
How can I row the boat ashore without a paddle or an oar"
HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING (6)
Humble-lee and a humble-lo"
HUNDRED YEARS (6)
I saw an elephant chase a flea"
In the Morning" ("I went down the river in an old steamboat")
IRISH EMIGRANT ("Lay me down") (2)
JAMBOREE (7)
John Surran was a little old man"
JOHNNY BOWKER (7)
JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO (2) + JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO?
John's a rookey ookey"
Juber mind the bee, and mind it while I sing"
Kizee, Makazee, yah"
LEAVE HER JOHNNY (6)
LONDON JULIE (2)
LONG TIME AGO (11)
LOWLANDS AWAY (2)
LUCIANNA (3) + LUCIANNA?
Mind how you swing your tail"
MR. STORMALONG (3) + MR. STORMALONG? (4)
MUDDER DINAH + MUDDER DINAH?
NEW YORK GIRLS (4)
Nothin' but a humbug"
On a Visit Sunday" ("When first in London I arrived…")
Once I had a good hat, an a good hat was he"
ONE MORE DAY (5)
OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND
PADDY DOYLE (6)
PADDY LAY BACK (5)
PADDY ON THE RAILWAY (4)
Poor little Liza, don't say so"
Pull down below" ("Johnny come down to Hilo…")
RANZO RAY + RANZO RAY? (2)
REUBEN RANZO (14) + REUBEN RANZO?
RIO GRANDE (10)
RISE HER UP ("Hoist her up from down below" )
ROLL BULLIES ROLL (2)
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN (7)
ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG (2)
ROLLING HOME (3)
ROSABELLA (2)
RUN LET THE BULGINE (5)
SACRAMENTO (7)
SALLY BROWN (14)
SALLY RACKET? ("Old mamie Hackett")
SALT HORSE RHYME? (2)
SANTIANA (13)
SHALLOW BROWN (4)
SHENANDOAH (6)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA (2)
TALLY
TEN STONE
TOMMY'S GONE (8)
VICTORIO (4)
Walk along you Saucy Anna"
We're the Boys to Drive Her Right"
Were you ever in Fairy [?]"
WHISKEY JOHNNY (17)
White Man Thinks that a Nigger Can't Steal"

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 11:10 PM

The dates indicate when the song was said to have been heard/learned or, in lieu of that, an estimate of when the singer(s) may have learned it (often based on the dates of their sailing careers). For many there was no informations, and I simply filed them under "1920s or earlier".

1846-1877

- [HOGEYE] and "Can't you give us a bucket of water, chaps/There's a fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [PADDY DOYLE] and "Hilo, boys, hilo" [HILO BOYS] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and "Juley, Juley, she bode ah-ha-a-a Juley!" [LONDON JULIE] and [HIGHLAND] and [JAMBOREE] and [BONEY] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "In eighteen hundred and fifty one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and "Hurrah, Santa Anna" [SANTIANA] and "Well done and clever, heigh ho/Cheerily men" [CHEERLY], Edward Robinson, incl. ship Halcyon? (1846), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "John Brown's body in the alley" [BULLY IN ALLEY], Edward Robinson, Sunderland/ cotton-screwing (Carpenter rec.)

1849-1879

- [HOGEYE] and [HANGING JOHNNY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "Camp Town races nine mile long" [SACRAMENTO] and "In eighteen hundred and fifty-one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN] and "I put my hand upon her toe" [VICTORIO] and "How can I row the boat ashore without a paddle or an oar" [BILLY BOY?] and "And a hoojun John, a hoojah/My Mary's on the island" [HOOKER JOHN] and [RIO GRANDE] and [DEAD HORSE] and "When first in London I arrived ('On a Visit Sunday')" and [HIGHLAND] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], Capt. Mark Page, incl. ship Smark[?], Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1854

- "Old mammie Dido had a lovely daughter" [MUDDER DINAH?], David Anton, Tayport / (Carpenter rec.)

1856 >

- "Oh, oh, I'm Billy in the Alley" [BULLY IN ALLEY], James Forman, Leith, Scotland/ (Carpenter 1928)

1856-1900-

- "Very well done, Jim Crow" [VICTORIO] and "Johnny was a warrior" [BONEY] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [BOWLINE], James Forman, Leith, Scotland/ (Carpenter 1928)

1863-1903

- "Poor little Liza, don't say so" and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [NEW YORK GIRLS] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [SACRAMENTO] and [SALLY BROWN] and "Highlow, Heelo/Tom's gone to Heelo" [TOMMY'S GONE] and "Heave away, heave away/Cause we're bound for South Australia" [SOUTH AUSTRALIA] and "I'm going on board the Rosabella" [ROSABELLA] J.S. Scott, incl. Clan Graham (Glasgow, 1903), London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1864-1911

- [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [SALLY BROWN] and [OUTWARD AND HOMEWARD BOUND] and [SANTIANA] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BOTTLE O] and [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE], James Wright, Leith/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Way, hey, hey, hey, hey/Fire, Fire" [FIRE FIRE FIRE], James Wright, Leith/ West Indian Blacks loading sugar casks, pushing, with crowbars (Carpenter rec.)

1866-1914-

- [BOWLINE] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "We're homeward bound for New York town" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [MR. STORMALONG] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], Harry Perry, incl. ship Daylight (1914), 'S.S. Leviathan'/ (Carpenter 1928)

1867-1885

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [BONEY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [HIGHLAND] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Oh shirts I've got one and the collar it's wore done" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [BOWLINE] and [RIO GRANDE] and [SACRAMENTO] and [A LONG TIME AGO] and [SHENANDOAH] and "Fire down below, walk over/Fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [A ROVING] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR], Jack Murray, incl. ship Zedring (Saint John, New Brunswick, c.1874/5), Luke Simcoe (c.1883), Star of Dundee (c.1885), Aberdeen / (Carpenter rec.)

1868 <

- "Whitee manee, he no savey! Kizee, Makazee, yah", Capt. Edward B. Trumbull, incl. barque Taria Topan (Zanzibar > Boston), Salem, Mass./ worksong of Zanzibar locals (Carpenter 1927)

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Away, haul away, haul away my Josie" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BOWLINE] and "Old horse! Old horse! How came you here?" [SALT HORSE RHYME?] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [SACRAMENTO] and [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SANTIANA] and [SHENANDOAH] and [SALLY BROWN], Capt. Edward B. Trumbull, incl. barque Taria Topan (Zanzibar > Boston), Salem, Mass./ (Carpenter 1927)

1869-1879

- "Humble-lee and a humble-lo/A-ha, humble-lay", Robert Yeoman, Dundee/ Blacks in Havana screwing sugar (Carpenter rec.)

- [TOMMY'S GONE] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO?] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BONEY] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [SANTIANA] and [HIGHLAND] and [JAMBOREE] and [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [DEAD HORSE], Robert Yeoman, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1869-1905

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [RIO GRANDE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY], George Houghton, ship Lancaster (1869), Cormarthan Castle (1905), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1870 <

- [ALL FOR ME GROG, *tallied earlier], George Methias, brigantine William & Annie (Madeira > Newfoundland) / (Carpenter rec.)

1871 <

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "As I was a walking down the street ('Down in the Meadows')" and "Tell me, Susan, tell me dear, what makes you look so gay?" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES], Roderick, Enderson, London/ (Carpenter 1928)

1872

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], James Henderson, whaler Active, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1872 <

- "A yankee ship comes down the river" [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Oh have you been in New Orleans?" [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and "Where ha ye been all the day" [HIGHLAND] and "Santy Anna sailed away" [SANTIANA] and "Ranzo, boys, a-Ranzo" [REUBEN RANZO], David Atkinson, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [DEAD HORSE] and [LONG TIME AGO] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh haul her on the bowline" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [ONE MORE DAY] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [HANGING JOHNNY] and "O Juber mind the bee, and mind it while I sing" and [SANTIANA] and [ROLLING HOME], Andrew Salters, Greenock, Scotland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)


1872-1888

- [HIGHLAND] and "From New York to Frisco, California we went" [ROLL BULLIES ROLL], Capt. H.J. Hammond, Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1872-1913

- [A ROVING] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BONEY] and "Old man come riding by" [DEAD HORSE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "All for the grog, the jolly, jolly grog" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and "'We're the Boys to Drive Her Right'" and [BOWLINE] and [SANTIANA], James Henderson, whaler Active, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1873

- "Victoria, Victoria/Very well done Jim Crow" [VICTORIO], Andrew Salters, Greenock, Scotland/ heard in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1874 <

- [NEW YORK GIRLS] and [JAMBOREE], Jack Murray, ship Zedring (Saint John, New Brunswick, c.1874/5), Aberdeen / (Carpenter rec.)

1875 <

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [JAMBOREE] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and [BONEY] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [SANTIANA], Jimmie Cronin, English ships, one American (1884), London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1876 <

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Away down South where I was born" [LUCIANNA] [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SHENANDOAH], James Garricy, Cardiff/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1877 <

- "Way sing Sunny Dore!/Bound down Trinidad to look for Sunny Dore" [DOWN TRINIDAD], Richard Warner, incl. Oxford, Cardiff/ screwing sugar in Barbados, screwing cotton in US (Carpenter 1928)

- [HANDY MY BOYS] and [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO] and "Times are hard and wages low" [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN], Richard Warner, incl. Oxford, Cardiff/ (Carpenter 1928)

c.1878

- [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "To me way-ay hilo man" [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and "For it's windy weather, stormy weather/When the wind blows, we'll haul together", William Fender, Swansea Cape Horners, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

- "Haul in the bowline, keep the ship a rollin" [BOWLINE], unknown singer/ tug of war contest in Aberdeen (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1883

"Tally-i-o, tally-i-o/Sing tilly-i-o, you know: [TALLY], James Wright, ship ACCRINGTON, Liverpool > Calcutta, Leith/ Black cook sang this chanty (Carpenter rec.)

- "Ranzo, Ranzo Ray" [RANZO RAY], James Wright, tea clipper CLETA, Leith/ windlass (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1890

- [MR. STORMALONG] and [REUBEN RANZO], Edward Robinson Jr., Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1878-1900

- "Fire in the fore-top, fire in the main-top/Fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and "Here we come home in a leaky ship" and "My dollar and a half a day" [LOWLANDS AWAY] and [BONEY] and "Aye, aye, aye, Bendigo ('Down in those Valleys')" and [MR. STORMALONG] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and "Sometimes we are bound for Liverpool town and others bound to France" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [HUNDRED YEARS] and "The bulgine's come and we all must go-o" [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [SANTIANA] and [BOWLINE] and [PADDY DOYLE], William Fender, Ship Ingomar (1880, Valparaiso), South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1879 <

- "Oh I went down the river in an old steamboat ('In the Morning')" W. Thomas, Haford, South Wales/ in a Norwegian ship (Carpenter rec.)

1879-1894

- [HANDY MY BOYS] and [A ROVING] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [SHENANDOAH] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "Mind how you swing your tail" and [DEAD HORSE], John Middleton, Leith/ (Carpenter rec.)

1879-1908

- "I went to church, I went to chapel/Pull down below" [CHURCH CHAPEL] and "The priest from the parish with his gallant band" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Johnny come down to Hilo/Oh pull down below" and [JAMBOREE] and "Whilst walking out one morning, down by the Clarence Docks" [IRISH EMIGRANT] and "This old girl, she had no hat" [NEW YORK GIRLS] and "O Sally on the mainyard picking up the bunt" [HOGEYE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and "Raise her up from down below/Haul away Rosie. Rosie haul" and "Heave away, haul away/For we are bound for South Australia" [SOUTH AUSTRALIA] and [BONEY] and [RANZO RAY?] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh, Johnny's gone, and I'll go too/John's gone to Hilo" [TOMMY'S GONE] and [HAUL AWAY JOE].
Rees Baldwyn, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "You're nothin' but a humbug!", Rees Baldwyn, South Wales/ learned from Black pile drivers, Savannah/New Orleans, (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1880-1895

- "There was a jolly ploughboy, ploughing on the land" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and "O I had a little boat, a jolly little boat" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Fire on the gundeck, fire down below" [FIRE DOWN BELOW], Willie Rennie, South Shields/ (Carpenter rec.)

1880 <

- [HIGHLAND] and "Oh now my lads be of good cheer" [JAMBOREE] and "We'll scrape her down and scrub her around" [GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN] and [ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG] and "One night off Cape Horn, I remember it well" [ROLL BULLIES ROLL], John Boyd, Belfast, Ireland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], G. Douglas, Lanarkshire/ (Carpenter 1928)

- "I shipped on board the Rosabella" [ROSABELLA] and [HIGHLAND] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR], John McPherson, ship Aristides (1880), South Shields/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [ROLLING HOME], John McPherson, ship Aristides (1880), South Shields/ marked as both forebitter and shanty (Carpenter rec.)

1880s <

- [LONG TIME AGO] and [A ROVING] and BLOW BOYS BLOW] and "Oh blow the man down, bullies, knock him right down" [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [BOWLINE] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "They call me Hangman Johnnie" [HANGING JOHNNY] and [DEAD HORSE] and "Only one more day of pumping" [ONE MORE DAY] and [PADDY DOYLE] and "Rio Grande is no place for me" [RIO GRANDE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA] and [SHENANDOAH] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "'Haul Together'" [FISHES], Stanton King, Boston/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1882 <

- "Now me boys, you need not fear" [JAMBOREE] and "I saw an elephant chase a flea" and "Oh, John Surran was a little old man" and "Oh goin down the river ('Billibirumpidoodlupiday')" and [HOGEYE], Capt. John Conway, Wiclow, Ireland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1883 >

- "Oh in eighteen hundred and forty one" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [HANDY MY BOYS] and "'I'm Just Gone Over the Mountain'" [LUCIANNA], William "Paddy" Gaul, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1883-1910

- [LONG TIME AGO] and "O there's fire in the fore-top" [FIRE DOWN BELOW] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and "I hear, old man, you've been and bought a horse" [DEAD HORSE] and "Whose that gal with the blue dress on" [SACRAMENTO] and "As I was a walking one morning in May" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Thomas Ginovan, Bristol, England/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

1885

- "I wish I was in Mobile Bay" [LOWLANDS AWAY], William Fender, ship INGOMAR > Valparaiso, South Wales/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

c.1885

- "To my hilo, to my Ranzo way" [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING], Jack Murray, AURORA, Aberdeen / American capstan shanty (Carpenter rec.)

- "Go down below, you pretty girls, go down below", Jack Murray, whaler Star of Dundee (c.1885), Aberdeen / halyards (Carpenter rec.)

1885-1902

- [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "One morning I took a ramble down by the Bramleymoore Dock" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SHALLOW BROWN] and [TOMMY'S GONE] and [SACRAMENTO] and [PADDY DOYLE] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [BOWLINE] and [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] and [RIO GRANDE] and [SALLY BROWN] and [ALL FOR ME GROG], Alexander Henderson, American ships, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1886-1919

- [SHALLOW BROWN] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO] Thomas Carfrae, Boyne of Findhom (1895), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1887

- "Down below, oh ho oh ho/ Hoist her up from down below" [RISE HER UP], J.S. Scott, GILROY, London/ halyards (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1888

- "Walk along you Saucy Anna" William Fender, South Wales/ stevedore's song in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1929)

c.1888-1889

- "Blow high, blow low/Blow high, blow low", George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ sheets (Carpenter rec.)

- [LONG TIME AGO], George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ heard in South of US (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [SALLY BROWN] and [ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [SANTIANA] and [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [DEAD HORSE?] and [SHENANDOAH] and [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW] and [A ROVING] and [JOHNNY BOWKER] and [ROLLING HOME], George Simpson, incl. ship Castleroy (1888), Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

1889-1894

- "I'm bound right over the mountain" [LUCIANNA], J.S. Scott, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1929)

1892 <

- "Lay me down, itchy-go, Mrs McCay" [IRISH EMIGRANT] and [HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING] John Ferries, South Sheilds/ (Carpenter rec.)

1895

- [HIGHLAND] Thomas Carfrae, Boyne of Findhom (1895), Sunderland/ (Carpenter rec.)

1920s >

- "A hundred years is a very long time" [HUNDRED YEARS] William Beggs, Belfast/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Oh row, oh row, we're bound to go/A-ha, London Julie" [LONDON JULIE] Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ heard in West Indies (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Fire away Lily, come down below", Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ attributed to Blacks screwing cotton (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [JOHNNY BOWKER] and "Have you been in Mobile Bay" [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO?] and [TEN STONE], Captain Alexander Blue, Greenock, Scotland/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Heave away me boys it's John's a rookey ookey", Joseph Bound, Pill, England/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Hurrah! Hurrah! for Old Mother Dinah/Sing Sally-O! Whack, fol-deray!"
[MUDDER DINAH] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "I have an old shoe with never a back or tongue" [ALL FOR ME GROG] and [HANGING JOHNNY] [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [BLOW YE WINDS] and "Oh Johnny's gone; what shall I do?" [TOMMY'S GONE], Harry Bowling, Los Angeles/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- [LEAVE HER JOHNNY] and [CHEERLY] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], George Boyle, Glasgow / (Carpenter rec.)

- [PADDY LAY BACK] and [SALLY BROWN], Benjamin Bright, Fairport (1908), Mafalda (Norwegian) (1910), Belmont (1911), Brynhilda, (1922), Golden Gate CA/ (Carpenter rec.)

"Oh Captain row me ashore" and [HIGHLAND], Capt. W. Dalziel, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Victorio, Victorio" [VICTORIO] and [DRUNKEN SAILOR] and [PADDY LAY BACK] and "Run with the bulgine" [RUN LET THE BULGINE] and [GALS OF DUBLIN TOWN] and [HIGHLAND] and "Oh [railroad?] had a steamboat on the old canal/But now she is the keeper of Louisiana [fal?]", James Dwyer, Glasgow/ (Carpenter rec.)

- "Where are you going to, my pretty maid" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO], Walter, Eade, Edinburgh/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [SANTIANA], A.E. Foster, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter rec. 1927, 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Old horse! Old horse! How came you here?" [SALT HORSE RHYME?] and [SALLY BROWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "The next fish that came was a hoary old shark" [FISHES?], Francis L. Herrshoff, Marblehead, Mass/ (Carpenter 1928)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], James Moncrieff, Dundee/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [MR. STORMALONG?] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] Harry Johnson, London/ (Carpenter rec. 1928)

- "Once I had a good hat, an a good hat was he" [ALL FOR ME GROG], Tom Lucas, Cricklade, England/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [REUBEN RANZO], John Macaulay, Kelvinhaugh/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [HUNDRED YEARS], Albert Morris, Marblehead, Mass, / (Carpenter rec. 1927)

- [LONG TIME AGO] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN], Capt. D.F. Mullins, New Bedford, Mass./ (Carpenter rec. 1927/28)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [LONG TIME AGO], Dennis O'Connors, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter 1927, 1928)

- [NEW YORK GIRLS] and "Sometimes we're bound for Liverpool" [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] and [FIRE DOWN BELOW], William Prosser, London/ (Carpenter 1928)

- [PADDY LAY BACK], John Vass, Invergordon/ (Carpenter rec.)

- [DEAD HORSE], James Stevenson / (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [A ROVING] and [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [SACRAMENTO] and "Where are you going to my pretty maid?" [RIO GRANDE] and [REUBEN RANZO] and [SALLY BROWN] and [BLOW BOYS BLOW], Charlton L. Smith, Marblehead, Mass./ (Carpenter 1928)

- [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and "We're outward bound for Melbourne town" [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL], Harry Turner, Sandport St./ (Carpenter rec.)

- [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] and "Oh our ship is in the harbor" [RANZO RAY?] and [LONG TIME AGO] and "Haul taut the bowline" [HAUL AWAY JOE] and [GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] and "As I was a strolling one morning in May" [RIO GRANDE] and [MR. STORMALONG?], Frank Waters, Sailors' Snug Harbor/ (Carpenter 1927/1928)

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Sep 11 - 10:54 PM

I've been trying to get my head around the Carpenter Collection, and to somehow fit that evidence into this huge survey of the chanty materials. Of course, without being on-site with the Carpenter materials, that can't be done completely. But this "phase" of the survey -- the broad strokes -- requires some short cuts! Anyway, I have been greatly assisted by prior posts by many on Mudcat and especially by Snuffy (who has done much work analyzing and organizing info related to the available recordings). Also helpful have been these articles:

1998        Jabbour, Alan and Julia C. Bishop. "The James Madison Carpenter Collection." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 399-401.

1998        Bishop, Julia C. "'Dr Carpenter from the Harvard College in America': An Introduction to James Madison Carpenter and his Collection." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 402-420.

1998        Walser, Robert Young. "'Here We Come Home in a Leaky Ship!': The Shanty Collection of James Madison Carpenter." Folk Music Journal 7(4): 471-495.

Of course, Bob Walser's is the most helpful, since he is working on the shanties in the archive. Yet, the article is quite old at this point. I'm assuming his work with the material has progressed very very much since then. Alas, with the online access in its current state, this is the best we bystanders have for now.

As many will know, and as reflected in the non-pukka, current online database, the Carpenter materials are often sketchy. It is often unclear who sang what. However, based on the info suggested in the database, I have collated the information of singers with songs. (I am concerned *only* with those songs marked as chanties -- inevitably that will lead to some error, but hopefully a minor one.) And, yes, the sketchy information will lead to some error about who sang what. This is a rough attempt based on available info. In light of the work needed for the total survey, I am not at this point trying to do an absolutely thorough study of the Carpenter materials!

Of the collection, Walser wrote in 1998,

the recordings of maritime material, made primarily in the British Isles, comprise about 750 items. Allowing for Carpenter's duplicating, this yields about 375 original recordings. Among these, at least 141 different songs were sung by a number of singers, 34 of whom are identified with a last name and either first name or initials. In addition, the manuscripts and typescripts include shanties gathered by Carpenter in the United States; these include only words, and come from both printed sources (for example, Alden's Harper's Magazine article) and his own collections made in Massachusetts and elsewhere.

As I mentioned, I am only concerned with the shanties. And, I am ignoring the secondary sources that Carpenter archived, as we've dealt with all those before. (One thing I have not done is compare Stanton King's shanty collection with the items he sang for Carpenter.) With this in mind, and taking into consideration that 1998 was at a much earlier stage of Walser's work with the archive, I'm not sure where he got "34" singers from. My own survey has turned up around 61 singers.

Also worth noting is that I think in the Folktrax release of Carpenter recordings, some of the songs are misattributed. However, I have taken them at face value, which means there may be some duplication of items, i.e. the same song being attributed to 2 different singers, due to the CD and archive having different attributions. In the greater scheme of things, at this stage, that error shouldn't really affect our getting an idea of the scope of the chanties represented in the collection, however.

Following will be a consolidated form of my notes mapping the repertoire represented in the Collection.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 26 Aug 11 - 03:21 AM

1903        Stone, Herbert Lawrence. "The Reckoning: A Story of the Sea." Short Stories vol. 52 (Oct-Dec. 1903). Edited by Alfred Ludlow White. New York: The Current Literature Publishing Co. 190-

Though a fictional short story, the chanties mentioned would seem to be based in reality. The material looks original, at least.

The story concerns a ship bound out of Frisco.

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY] is set at the capstan.
//
This Tam-o'-Shanter was anchored in the stream not far from the Vigilant, and as Captain Bradshaw was put aboard his own ship again, he could see her sixteen men gathered on the top-gallant forecastle, their bodies bent over the capstan bars as the cable was hove in. And the refrain of the chanty that arose therefrom and drifted across the narrow stretch of water to the listeners on the Vigilant, ran:
          —"Leave her, Johnny, leave her. 

Oh, there's six feet o' water in her lower hold, 

So leave her, Johnny, leave her."
//

Later capstan songs are "Down the Bay of Mexico", which likely refers to this song,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OilQra0NlRg
and "Walk Her Round" and "West Australia" ([SOUTH AUSTRALIA], I suppose]. And at the halyards there is [JOHNNY BOWKER] (not a customary use?) and [TOMMY'S GONE].
//
Soon the click of the iron pawl dropping into place drifts aft, then the words of "Down the Bay of Mexico" rise in loud, crude tones, followed by "Walk Her Round" and "West Australia," to the rhythm of which the shuffling feet keep time. The iron cable comes slowly in, a link at a time, grating harshly on the hawsepipe, the mate now leaning out on the bumpkin to watch it, now admonishing the men to "walk her round briskly." Suddenly he straightens up, raises a hand to the men to cease heaving and shouts aft: "Up and down, sir!"

"Break her out, Mr. Dunning," answers the captain, and the bodies bend lower over the bars and muscles swell as the strain on the capstan increases. The songs have ceased and in their places are heard, here and there, the muttered words "Heave and raise the dead," "Dig your nails in, now," "Break her out." Slowly the anchor leaves its bed at the bottom of the bay and when it is at last clear and the strain on the cable is eased, the men break into a run and soon have it, dripping and muddy, hanging at the fore-foot…

…The wind being fair, the gaskets are soon off the topsails and the sails sheeted home. The upper topsails are mastheaded to the tunes of "Johnny Bowker" and "My Tom's Gone to Hilo," the ex-boarding master being driven from one halyard to another, where he "tailed out" with the crew as well as his aching arm would allow.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:12 AM

1938        Carpenter, J.M. "Chanteys in the Age of Sail." _New York Times_ (30 October 1938). Pg. XX6.

Carpenter had around 3 more years of fieldwork under his belt when he wrote this later article. I wish, however, he'd have matched the names of his informants to the texts!

An "unfamiliar" song, and [ACROSS THE WESTERN OCEAN]:
//
During half a dozen years of knocking about British ports, by rallying the excellent memories of old salts, I have made a record of several hundred versions of chanteys not in the familiar collections.
Take this:

O I joined a ship to make a trip
Away to the Suth-ron Seas.
Blow high! Blo-o-ow lo-o-ow!

Or this:
Away, we're bound to go
Across the Western Ocean!
//

[HIGHLAND]
//
…Scottish chanteymen took aboard ship their bagpipe tune, "Hieland Laddie." And the spirited air and rhythm, born to the march-step of kilted clansmen, echoed for years to the clump of circling teet and the clack of capstan pawl as sailors weighed anchor out of the ports of the world. A Scottish chanteyman from Sunderland gave me the following version:

Whae hae ye been all the day,
Bonnie Lassie, Hieland Laddie?
I've been courtin' Allie Gray,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!

Whae, hey, and awa we go!
Bonnie Lassie, Hieland Laddie!
Hey, hey, fair Hieland ho!
My bonnie Hieland Lassie!

But in the scuffle of the Chanteyman's workaday world, most of the romance of the ballad was shorn away, as in the following stanza:

Were you ever in Quebeck,
Hieand Laddie, Bonnie Laddie?
A-stowing timbers on the deck,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!

Whay, hey, and away she goes!
Hieland Laddie, Bonnie Laddie!
Whay, hey, and away she goes,
My bonnie Hieland Laddie!
//

Tune + rhythm more important than text.
//
…For the ballad singer, having a story to tell, aimed at sense, coherency--and usually attained it. But in the chanteys tunes and rhythm count for everything; the words for next to nothing. For the chanteyman was not concemed with sense, but with sound. Occasionally he created glorious nonsense.
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
One swinging chantey tune…came obviously from Negro stevedores (in New Orleans or Mobile), sweating, laughing, showing rows of gleaming teeth as they sang:

O have you been in New Orleans!
Roll the cotton down!
O-O-O, rolling cotton day by day
O roll the cotton down!

It's there I worked on the old levee,
Roll the cotton down!
A-screwing cotton by the day,
O roll the cotton down!

Indeed, it is not surprising to find a fairly large proportion of the chanteys coming from the American South. Chanteymen were naturally
quick to press into service aboard ship the Negro gang-work songs--with their droll fun, languorous cadences, and well-worn rhythm.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
The Southern chantey that follows, sung to slow plaintive melody, suggests the shimmer of dancing heat waves and the sleepy drone of grasshoppers of a Summer day:

Away down South where I was born,
To me way, hey, hey-yah!
Among the fields of yellow corn,
A long time ago!

O they set me free from s1avery,
But they shipped me aboard and sent me to sea,

My first voyage was around Cape Horn,
Where the nights were short and the days were long.
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Belonging to this group--at least in its slow pensive tune and dreamy atmosphere--is a.curious chantey, "Low-lands." The refrain "low-land," is common to a great many songs. One Scottish song begins.

"Low in the low-lands a wee, wee boy did wander"—

And In the ballad, "The Golden Vanity"…

…Usually in the chantey the refrain seems to have been employed purely for its music and for its atmospheric effect, as shown In the following stanza, quoted from Miss Colcord's collection:

I dreamed a dream the other night,
Low-lands, low-lands, away my John!
I dreamed a dream the other night,
My low-ands, away!

To carry torward the story, stanzas from Sir Richard Terry's collection read:

All in the night my true love came;
She came to me all in my sleep.

And her eyes were white my love.
And then I knew my love was dead.


…But my version, veering away, as usual, from the romance of the
story, moves toward the sailors' world of winds and sails and seas:

One night In Mobile the Yankees knew,
Low-lands, low-lands! Away my John!
The nor'west winds most bitter blew,
My dollar and and a half a day!

Our Captain was a grand old man,
His name it was Jack Tannerand-tan.

He called us aft and to us did say
'Now, my boys, we're bound to sea.'
//

Stock verses.
//
Whatever the chantey theme, the inarticulate burden in the back of
every sailor's mind ran:

Then up aloft this yard must go,
To where the wind in the sail will blow."

Or it ran:

To the sheave hole she must go,
Let the wind blow high or low!
//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Blow, boys, blow
For Californie-O!
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of the Sacramento!
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Where are you going to, my pretty maid,
Away-ay-ay, Rio!
I'm going amilking, kind sir, she said,
On the banks of the Rio Grande.
And away Rio! Away, Rio!
Sing fare you well, my bonnie young gal,
For we're bound for the Rio Grande!
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
…The chantey usually began:

Stormalong was a good old man,
Aye, aye, aye, Mr. Stormalong!
O Stormalong was a good old man,
Heave away, Old Storm!

But the version of a typical American deep-sea sailor runs:

O Storm today and storm no more,
Aye, aye, aye, Mr. Stormalong!
We storm today on sea and shore,
To me way-ay-ay, Mr. Stormalong!
Old Stormy's dead, what shall we do?
Old Stormy's dead, what shall we do?
We'll dig his grave with a silver spade, .
And lower him down with a golden chain.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:31 PM

1932        Hutchison, Percy. "Walking the Capstan 'Round." The New York Times (20 March 1932).

Hutchison (born 1875) reviews David Bone's collection. In the course, he offers this anecdote.

//
The present writer recalls the time when he first heard a capstan chanty. He was in the roadstead of Bridgetown, Barbados, and a short distance
away lay an English brig that was getting up anchor, the crew aided by a gang from the shore that made a business of such assistance for vessels carrying few hands. Since the ship the writer was aboard, a four-masted barkentine, had a donkey-engine forward, the anchor was never handled by sailors walking the capstan 'round; and although he had for weeks listened to halyard and close-haul chanties, had himself swung on the ropes in unison with others, he was unfamiliar with the marching rhythms with which stolid men lightened their weary rounds of the fo'c's'l head. Hence a reader can imagine his pleasure when he caught the wistful strains of "Shenandoah" drifting across the water from the deck of the brig.
//

He wrote an article on chanties in 1906, so I'd guess this incident was before then.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 18 Aug 11 - 01:26 PM

The third and final article in JM Carpenter's NYT series.

1931        Carpenter, James M. "Chanteys that 'Blow the Man Down.'" New York Times (26 July 1931).

Case study of "Blow the Man Down" to show the fluid and adaptable nature of chanties. Excerpts follow.

//
"Blow the Man Down."…In its numerous versions - I have
collected thirty in the United States and the principal ports of England,
South Wales, Scotland and Irelan - it has woven into itself two fore-castle
songs, "Radcliffe Highway" and "Tiger Bay"; two ballads, "Blow the Winds Westerly" and "The Farmer's Curst Wife"; one broadside, "The Indian Lass"; a Scottish bothy song, "Erin Go Bra"; four chanteys, "Knock A Man
Down," "The Black Ball Chantey Song," "The Flying Fish Sailor" and "The Ship Neptune"; and love adventures in Radcliffe Highway, Paradise Street, Denison Street, Waterloo Road, Winchester Street, Tiger Bay, Lemon Street, Cleveland Square. Scarborough Town, the outskirts of Bristol and two or three without a local habitation or a name.
//

Review of print sources: Chambers's 1869, Alden 1882, Adams 1879. But then supplemented by field sources, finding the song attributed to mid 1850s.
//
I had thought until a short time ago that this unusual ehantey was
of recent origin. since it was not included in lists given by Chambers Journal (1869), "On Board the Rocket" (1879), and Harper's Magazine
(1882). But recently I found two saIlors, both more than 90
years old, who stated that they bad heard it In 1854 and 1855. At
all events, a stanza. learned by a sailing-ship master in 1870,

We'll blow a man down and we'll knock a man down,
Give us some time to knock a man down.

is of unusual significance in its bearing on the origin of the chantey.
For in its earliest printed form, In 1879, it appears as "Knock
a Man Down":
[quotes Adams]

With this compare the version of a sea captain from Salem, Mass.,
who first went to sea in 1868;

I wish I was in Mobile Bay,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
A screwing cotton by the day,
Give me some time to blow the man down!

"Knock a Man Down" is clearly the original form of the chantey.
The tune unmistakably is of Negro origin. probably trom the cotton
screwers of the Southern ports. Barring the chorus, the air is
closer to that of a Negro chantey that I found recently than to the
current tune of "Blow the Man Down," which first appeared with
tbe printed version of 1883 [i.e Luce's Naval Songs]. There
the piece listed as "Black Ball Chantey Song," shows signs of a
thorough over-hauling and re-working:

Come all you young fellows that follow the sea,
With a yeo, ho! blow the men down!
And pray pay attention, and listen to me;
Oh, give me some time to blow the men down! [from Luce 1883]
//

//
…An encounter with a policeman, evidently a parody on the Black
Ball version, deals with the same theme:

As I was a-walking down Radcliffe Highway,
To me, way, hey, blow the man down!
I met a policeman and to me he did say,
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down!

"I know you're a buck by the cap that you wear;
I can tell you're a buck by the red shirt that you wear.

"You've sailed on a packet that flies the Black Ball;
You've robbed some poor Dutchman of boots, clothes and all."

"Oh, no, Mr. P'liceman, you do me great wrong,
I'm a Flying Fish sailor, just come from Hongkong!"

They gave me three months in Gamboree Jail
For booting and kicking and blowing him down.

A version from ScotIand gives new detail. After the verse beginning,
"I'm a Flying Fish sailor," it continues:

"My name is Pat Campbell, I live in Argyle;
I've traveled this nation for many the long mile.

"Through England, through Ireland, through Scotland ava,
And the name I go under is 'Bold Erin Go Bra.'"

Thus is revealed the source of the chantey "Erin Go Bra," current in
Scotland as a bothy ballad, whose lively scene depicts the discomfiture
of the sailors' old enemy, the police. Two stanzas from a colorful
version that I found last Summer will illustrate the chanteyman's
method of treating his material:

Ae nicht in Auld Reekie [Edinburgh] as I walked doon the street,
A saucy policeman I chanced for tae meet;

He gloored in me faca an' I gied him some jaw;
Says, "When came ye over frae Erin Go Bra!"

The policeman goes on to say, "I ken ye're a Paddie by the cut o' yer
Hair," and he concludes that "since ye're a Paddie, ye sudna be here." But

A switch o' black thorn that I held in my fist.
I made it aroon his big body tae twist;

The blood frae his napper I quickly did draw,
I showed him a game played in Erin Go Bra.
//

//
A fanciful version of "The Fish of the Sea," sung by an American
chanteyman to the tune of "Blow, Boys, Blow," was popular once
both in England and the United States. It seems better adapted to
the movement ot "Blow the Man Down," as sung by a chanteyman
in the north of England:

Now pray pay attention and listen to me,
To me way, hey, blow the man down!
And I'll sing you a song of the fish of the sea.
Oh, give me some time to blow the man down!

Up jumps the cod with his big chuckle head,
He jumps in the chains for to heave the iron lead.

Oh, up jumps the flounder, the bottom to swim.
You fat-headed monster, don't do that again.

Then up jumps the porpoise with his long snoot;
He waltzes round the deck, sing" Ready, aboot!"

The next fish that came was a hoary old shark.
I'll eat you all up, if you play any lark!"

A short time ago I found a very old sea song, "Haul Together, Boys," which seems to be the source of the version quoted above. It was given to me by a fishwife, 88 years old, who learned it as a child from the "Iron Horse," another very old fishwife, so called on account of her great strength and imperviousness. to cold. The tune is the most suggestive of the sea that ever I have heard. The ballad begins:

An' it's up starts the herrin', the king o' the sea,
Singin' "Farewell to thee, boys,
Oh, farewell to thee!'"

So it's haul together, boys!
Stor-r-my weather, boys!
Let the wind blo-o-ow!
Stor-r-rmy weather, boys!
We shall sail slo-ow!
//

//
The sailors found keen amusement in the old ballad "The Farmer's
Curst Wife," just as the ballad singers of Scotland enjoyed "The
Wee Cooper of Fife," a ballad with a kindred theme. "The Farmer's
Curst Wife" appears in varying forms in four versions of "Blow the
Man Down," two from America and two others, more regular, from
England. Richard' Warner's version, one of the English renderings,
runs:

Now listen to me, and a story I'll tell,
To me way, hey, blow the man down!
Oh, listen to me, and a story I'll tell,
Give me some time to blow the man down!

There was on old farmer, as I have heard tell;
He had on old wife and he didn't wish her well.

Now the Devil he came to him one day at the plough;
"I want your old woman, I've come for her now.

"And if you're not civil, I'll take you as well."
So off with the old woman, right straight down to Hell.

There were three little devils chained up to the wall;
She took off her clog and she walloped them all.

Now these three little devils for mercy did bawl,
"Chuck out the old hag, or she'll murder us all!"

The American versions are rather more vigorous and colorful, showing, in one instance, the sailor's leaning toward a racy sea yarn:

As I was a-walking one morning in Spring,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
I walked into a country inn,
Oh give me some time to blow the man down!

I set meself down, and I called for some gin,
And a commercial traveler next came in.

We talked of the weather and things of the day;
Says he, "My friend, a story I'll tell.

"lt's of an old tailor in London did dwell;
The Devil came to him one day out of Hell.

"Says he, 'My friend, I've come a long way
Especially you a visit to pay.'"

Thereupon the frightened tallor calls out, "Oh, please, Mr. Devil,
don't take me away," and Satan replies soothingly:

"It's not you nor your daughter nor your son that I crave;
It's your grumbling old wife, the drunken old Jade."

The story continues as in the former rendering, but with ingeniously
improvised incident and vigorous idiom. …

A Scottish version adds a quaint touch. After the devil had pronounced his ultimatum and delivered the unwanted woman to her husband, the narrative concludes:

She was seven year gaun an' seven year comin'
An' she cried for the sawens she left in the pot.
//

//
…But among the chanteys' motley array of renderings, perhaps the
drollest portray the cruises down Tiger Bay, Radcliffe Highway.
Paradise Street, and numerous other landlocked harbors well
known to sailors. The taste for the incongruous, even to the point
of the grotesque, which preferred to "blow" rather than "knock" a
man down, to regard the fishes of the sea as sailors and the latter as
hangmen Johnnies or a "mixture of an Indian, a Turk, and a chimpanzee,"
would be expected to find in a drab London alley "flash-looking"
packets.

An incident of a land cruise related of a chanteyman illustrates the nature ot the raw material that was finally etherealized into the body...or the epics. For ten years he had been a packet sailor under the rough-and-ready code of ethics which deprived the men at the forecastle "of the pleasure of stealing from each other." During an
amour ashore, therefore, he stole a gold watch belonging to his sweetheart's mistress. His thick, massive shoulders and powerful stature, even at 86, lent easy credence to the story told by one of his mates that the chanteyman, entrapped the following evening by several men who were awaiting his return, smashed off the cumbersome part of a chair against a wall and used the long slats to the complete discomfiture of his adversaries.

So with contagious enthusiasm and picturesque symbolism the
chantey singer tells his crew:

I'll put on my long boots, and I'll blow the man down,
Way, hey, blow the man down!
I'll put on my long boots and I'll blow him right down,
Oh, gimmie some time to blow the man down!

As I was a-cruising down Paradise Street,
A flash-looking packet I chanced for to meet.

I fired off my bow gun to make her heave to,
She backed her main topsail. The signal she knew.

I hailed her in English and asked her the news,
"Thia morning from Sally Port, bound for a cruise."

Then I hove out my tow-rope and took her in tow,
And yard-arm to yard-arm to the grog shop did go.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Aug 11 - 04:53 PM

Copied from Vaughan's post above, for a point of reference on the "3 informants" that Carpenter was saying, in his article, were on the sea by 49/50...well, 2 of them. Not sure who the third was (yet), or if I misread something.

* Edward Robinson - born 1834 - to sea 1846
* Mark Page - born 1835 - to sea 1849
* James Forman - born 1844 - to sea 1856.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 14 Aug 11 - 04:43 PM

Carpenter's writing is of much interest for its role in the discussions both of how chanties developed and how *writing about* chanties developed. His belief was that African-American work songs were a major contributing element to the form of chanties, and that chanties did not exist in great numbers until after Dana's time. These are the sort of ideas that have been voiced on this thread (though all may not agree, it is my opinion at least), after studying the literary evidence available. What is significant is that Carpenter arrived at those ideas without so much of a literary survey (though he did read certain things, say Alden's 1882 article, though I'm not sure of the extent of what else). Rather, his material was the recordings he gathered and the statements of his informants. Living at the time he did, he was able to do real ethnography and oral history. The troupe of folklorists in Sharp's school did also do fieldwork, but their style differed in that they always accomopanied their discussions with a run-down of what prior authors on the subject had said. I think that all that secondary reading, though necessary in scholarship, colored their presentations in a way that Carpenter's, perhaps, was not.

Carpenter, Gordon, and to some extent, Lomax, all ended up with similar thrusts of emphasis and conclusions about chanty development. These, I think, were on a different "track" than those of the early British folklorists *and* the writers who followed in the vein of what one might call "secondary-source collating." It may be significant that all three men were American and all did extensive field recording in America.

1931        Carpenter, James M. "Lusty Chanteys from Long-dead Ships." New York Times (12 July 1931).

1st of 3-article series.

Notes that 3 of his informants were on the sea by 1850.

One went to sea in 1846. Sang:
[HUNDRED YEARS]
//
'Watchman, watchman, don't take me,
O-o-o, yes, O!
I've got a wife and a small family,
A hundred years ago.
//

More chanties…

[HOGEYE]
//
Oh, the hog-eye men are all the go
When they come down to San Francisco!
With a hog-eye!
Railroad niggah an a hog-eye!
Row the boat ashore in a hog-eye!
O-o-o! An She wanted was a hog-eye man!
//

On the advent of chanties – arising in era of packet and clipper ships. Maybe 10 of the known chanties were from an earlier time.
//
As a natural consequence of the greatly increased crews of the clippers and large packets, with their massive spars and enormous spread of sail. there arose the chanteys. Perhaps half a score are of earlier origin, but by far the greater number belong to this period. For out of the twelve "choruses" listed by Dana…only one has come down to us, "Cheerily Men." And of these "choruses" "Cheerily Men" was the only one known to the three veteran sailors I have mentioned, who were at sea in 1849, although two of them gave me twenty-seven chanteys that were current during the period, and had heard six others. One of these men, who was at sea from 1846 to 1877, sang seventeen that are among the best known of the chanteys, and had heard seven others. So It is safe to say that the
greater majority arose between 1836 and 1877, the period of the clipper
ships.
//

Sailors "discovered" Black work songs.
//
These working choruses, frequently taken from the Negro laborers of different countries, especially the Southern States, existed in large numbers, for the Negro required a song to lighten his work. I have found scores that have never been published. Most of them are of the simplest nature, being little more than a rhythmical, melodious drone of nonsense syllables. But created In the midst of toil and chanted over and over again for the brief respite that they gave trom its weary monotony, they bear a hidden charm that the sailor was quick to discover. In the more pensive ones he must have found something of the strange satisfaction and restfulness of the chant.
//

Mentions sugar screwing here. I don't recall (though I wasn't looking for it?) Carpenter OR Gordon talking about cotton-screwing. The narrative of chanties developing from cotton screwing was there in writing about chanties, and the fact (?) that these two researchers aren't quick to relay that narrative MAY suggest that they were relatively uninfluenced by the published narratives. By the same token, drawing the comparison to sugar screwing, may suggest that Carpenter independently arrived at a similar idea.
//
A good example is furnished by a "sugar-screwing" chorus picked up
from the Negroes of Havana. Four men, gathered about a large press,
swung the four handles of a horizontal plane, one leading the chant,
the others failing in on the refrain:

A-hum-bl-ee! A-hum-bl-o! (solo)
Ah-ha! And a-hum-bl-ey! (refrain)
A-hum-bl-ee! A-hum-bl-o!
Ah-ha! And a-hum-bl-ey!

But here more than in other songs the words are futile without the
tune.
//

A hammering song is compared.
//
Another, taken from Negro pile drivers of the Southern ports, illustrates a rhythm adapted to the alternate blows of two laborers as they struck the same pile with huge sledges:

You's nothin' but a humbug! (First Singer.)
So they say! So they say! (Second Singer.)
You's nothin' but a humbug!
That's all I know!

This was sometimes varied so that it went:

Catfish grow on a huckleberry vines!
So they say! So they say!
Catfish grow on a huckleberry vines!
That's all I know!
//

And an actually capstan chantey, which Carpenter implies may have been a Black work-song:
//
A slightly more potent type came to be used aboard ship as a capstan
chantey:

Oh, I went to church. 1 went to chapel!
Pull down below!
And on the road I found an apple!
Pull down below!
Oh, hee-dle-allie!
Pull down below! (Crew)
Oh, hee-dle-allie in the valley!
Pull down below!
//

More chanties. [A-ROVING]
//
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
Mark well what I do say!
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
And she was a mistress of her trade,
And I'll go no more a-roving
With you, fair maid.
A-roving, a-roving,
Since roving's been my ruin!
I'll go no more a-roving
With you, fair maid!
//

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
Oh, Tommy's gone, what shall I do!
Hilo! Hilo!
My Tommy's gone and I'll go, too,
My Tom's gone to Hilo!
//

A very interesting statement of opinion on the songs of Dana's voyage, and their contrast with later songs:
//
And with each racing voyage around the boisterous Horn, across
the world to Australia, or through the typhoon-infested China Seas,
larger, faster, and more beautiful ships were constantly appearing, creating for the seafarer a new world. It is little wonder that the insipid "Yo-heave-ho" ing and the characterless "choruses," "Heave Round Hearty," "Heave to the Girls," and "Hurrah. Hurrah, My Hearty Fellows," that had served the drab decades preceding should give place to the virile, exuberant, and colorful cbanteys, "Blow The Man Down," "Sally Brown," "The Rio Grande" and "Shanadore."
//

Making the point that chanty texts weren't much about "the sea" per se.
//
Approached, then, as records of absorbing interest, they are at first
a little baffling in that they deal with almost every topic besides the sea. For despite the fact that they were created upon the sea, sung
upon the sea and handed down from chanteyman to chanteyman
for decades upon the sea, the 340 versions that I have collected mention
the sea in the most casual way only eighteen times. The expressions
are: "Went to sea," "bound to sea," "across the sea," "out to sea," "ready for sea," "across the Western Ocean," and, in a banterIng
tone, "the briny sea."

Obviously the sailors felt no need for lengthy descriptions of the sea, since the wild rude rhythm of their melodies and the bald, disjointed
meter of their verse entailed and inevitably had the wash and roll of the sea as an accompaniment.

If not the sea, what, according to their records, was uppermost in
their minds? A cross-section from their favorite chanteys will best
answer:… [chanties already quoted elsewhere]…

Here then, in the first stanzas of their favorite chanteys, is a fair
answer: Ships, "blowing the man down," drinking, love adventures,
burlesque heroes and real heroes.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: RTim
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:38 PM

This Thread should be printed as a book!!!!!!!

Tim

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:30 PM

1977        Jones, Bessie & The Georgia Sea Island Singers. _Georgia Sea Island Songs_. New World Records 80278.

From the Notes by Alan Lomax.

1960 Lomax made his first trip to the Sea Islands and recorded people led by singers surviving from Parrish's day.
//
Lydia (Mrs. Maxfield) Parrish, wife of the painter, had much to do with the authenticity of the songs in this collection…

She sponsored the formation of a society of the best singers and dancers, the Spiritual Singers of Georgia, whose members each received a button distinguishing him or her as a "Star Chorister" and signified that he or she was a folk singer and dancer in the old tradition. The regular meetings and performances of this group afforded an opportunity for the best singers on the island to continue their art and to keep alive a
remarkable body of songs and an even more remarkable musical style, very African in character. I first heard them when I visited St. Simons in l935, in the company of Zora Neale Hurston, the great black folklorist, who had worked with Mrs. Parrish. When I returned twenty-five years later with a stereo rig adequate to record this multipart music, I was greeted as an old friend. During that visit I recorded Group A (as designated in the notes that follow), led by surviving members of the original island singers, Joe Armstrong and Willis Proctor.
//

Later, the group "the Sea Islands Singers," was formed to tour the country and present the style, composed of Big John Davis, the community leader; Bessie Jones, song leader; Peter Davis, bass; Henry Morrison, Emma Ramsay, and Mable Hillary.

A few work songs are on the album, but I've only seen fit to excerpt two here. And the first, "Raggy Levy," is only to elucidate Parrish's text. Though classified it under the category of chantey, I am having a hard to envisioning it as the sort of song that could correspond with sailor worksongs. It has the "grunt" that, like in menhaden chanties, comes *after* a line of singing. The performers are the touring troupe: John Davis, leader; Peter Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morrison, and Willis Proctor.
//
Raggy Levy

In this black stevedore's song (part of the family that inspired so many better-known chanties) made for lifting or pulling heavy weights, the pulls come at the end of every pair of lines. The meaning is obscure. The song peers back into a long-dead time of rising soon (early) in the morning to sit by the fireplace and breakfast off sweet potatoes roasting in the ashes, and of fences built by hand of piled-up stones. Who Mr. Sippelin was or what ill fate overtook poor Raggy Levy to reduce him to a
jaybird's condition I could not determine. However, it's a great song for singing.

Leader: Oh, Raggy Levy,
Group: Oho! Raggy Levy,
L: Oh, Raggy Levy,
G: Poor boy, he's ragged as a jaybird.

L: In the mornin',
G: Oho! soon in the mornin',
L: In the mornin'
G: When I rise, I'm goin' ta sit by the fiah.

L: Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi gonna build me a stone fence,
(Repeat)

L: Sweet potato,
G: Oho! Sweet potato,
L: Sweet potato,
G: Poor boy, got two in the fiah,

L: Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi gonna build me a stone fence.

L: Sweet potato,
G: Oho! Sweet potato,
L: Oh, sweet potato,
G: Poor boy, got two in the fiah.

L: Old Mr. Sippelin,
G: Hi build another stone fence.

L: Raggy Levy,
G: Oho! Raggy Levy.
L: Raggy Levy,
G: Poor boy, just raggy as a jaybird.
//
When Lomax said that this kind of song inspired chanties, I think perhaps he is just vamping off the idea, so far as that formally the genres are a bot different. However, Lomax's choice of wording, "the pulls come at the end of every pair of lines," reminds me of Nordhoff's description of cotton screwing. Perhaps it was that the cotton screwers did not exert themselves at timed points within the text, but rather after the lines, with a grunt. If so, that would alow for songs to be sung slow, ametrically, and with rubato/melisma. Nordhoff didn't mention grunts ("hunh!"), but then again, neither does Lomax, here.

One can hear a sample of the track and the following one here:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/georgia-sea-island-songs-r88371

The other chantey is [MONEY DOWN]. This rendition, I believe, is a sort of reproduction of the version collected by Parrish. Recorded in 1960, with Joe Armstrong, leader; Jerome Davis, John Davis, Peter Davis, Bessie Jones, Henry Morris, Willis Proctor, and Ben Ramsay.
//
Pay Me
(arr. Lydia Parrish)

A stevedore song long ago preempted and made famous by the Weavers…

Chorus
Pay me, oh, pay me,
Pay me my money down.
Pay me or go to jail,
Pay me my money down.

Think I heard my captain say,
Pay me my money down,
Tomorrow is my sailin' day,
Pay me my money down.
(Chorus)

Wish I was Mrs. Alfred Jones's son,
Pay me my money down.
I'd stay in the house and drink good rum,
Pay me my money down.
(Chorus)
//

I am surprised they are also singing this with "hunh!" Parrish did not indicate that. And yet (unlike Raggy Levy), this does have a halyard chanty form and would not seem to call for the grunts.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 08:20 PM

I realize that the posts I've been making recently may seem haphazard. This is partly because I am going through bits here and there where I've noted references to chanties, and just now trying to consider them.

But the other thing I am working on, slightly more coherent, is the recorded field sources. These included:

-The stuff from Library of Congress on the American Sea Songs and Shanties album (posted earlier)
-A couple more tracks from Capt. L. Robinson from those sessions
-Gordon collection stuff
-Carpenter collection stuff
-Lomax stuff

These are what's on my radar right now. I'd appreciate other sources.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 04:53 PM

Thanks, Charley.

That brings up the question of whether Colcord went to Florida, or if the information Davids gave was purely through written correspondence.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 04:23 PM

R. M. Davids is acknowledged, among others, as an informant and a former seafarer who had "swallowed the anchor." Preface, p. 11, Songs of American Sailormen, Joanna C. Colcord, Bramhill House, NYC, © 1938.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 03:57 PM

Hi guys,

I am just collating this material from online. It's starting to make a little more sense to me now that I have a better perspective on Gordon's bio. The retrospective album on Gordon's work is here:
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/Gordon/AnnotationsandTexts.html

And a reproduction of the Inferno collection is here:

http://www.horntip.com/html/books_&_MSS/1910s/1917-1933_gordon_inferno_collectio

I drew out only the texts I considered to be relevant to chanties development. There are of course other sailor-ly songs like Abrahm Brown, Madamoiselle from Armentierres, etc.

In addition to these, there are the texts from Gordon's 1927 NYT articles, that I put above.

There are Gordon's articles in _Adventure_ magazine.

There's the 1938 book, which I haven't seen, based on stuff Gordon Collected, _Folk-Songs of America_.

Lighter provided a list of shanties recorded by Gordon, posted upthread on Feb. 22. However, I am confused by the discrepancy between that number of items and the supposedly "over 300" sailor song items that the LP liner notes say he recorded.

If you guys have any other texts from the Gordon manuscript collections (there are supposedly hundreds?), picked up here or there, please consider posting them.

To answer your question, Charley, my guess is that Colcord collected some "unprintable" songs during her research. I seem to remember my friend Revell Carr saying these unprintable songs were gathered somewhere in manuscript form. I don't know if the one's she sent to Gordon, i.e. those in Inferno collection, correspond. The Inferno has 13 items, but I only considered 1 (A-Roving) to be useful here.
I know there has been discussion of this, but don't remember where. The question would be whether any of Colcord's informants would have sung indecent songs in her presence. If they didn't perhaps it is only these 13 items that she got, which had to be written down and "submitted" by someone else to alleviate the awkwardness. Just speculating.

I don't have Colcord's book with me. Is RM Davids mentioned as an informant?

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 11:30 AM

Gibb-

Do we know any more about "R.M. Davids, Cross X Ranch, Woodmere Florida, c. 1924"?

I suppose if the Colcord archives at the Penobscot Maritime Museum were in any kind of order, one could find some information there. But unfortunately they are in almost total disarray.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: John Minear
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 11:01 AM

Gibb, thanks for putting up the Carpenter and the Gordon materials, especially from Gordon's "Inferno" collection. At least we know that there were chanties being sung in San Francisco area in the 1920's! I don't suppose Gordon gives any indication about how far back these songs might go in that area. This is the kind of material that I had hoped to find 75 years earlier, but without success on the "San Francisco to Sydney" thread.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 03:21 AM

I have included here the chanties or chanty-relevant songs contained in Gordon's manuscript collections that were filed in the bawdy-songs "Inferno" collection. This was only because that collection was available to me on-line. Does anyone know if transcripts of the other manuscripts are publicly accessible on-line, or must one go to the Library of Congress?

Written down by R.M. Davids, Cross X Ranch, Woodmere Florida, c. 1924. Sent in to R.W. Gordon by J.C. Colcord 12/21/29.

[A-ROVING]
//
I'LL GO NO MORE A ROVING
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

Now mark well what I say.

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

And she was mistress of a trade.
I'll go no more a roving, for you fair maid,

I'll go no more a roving, for rovings been my ruin,

I'll go no more a roving, for you fair maid.

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,

And she did have a maidenhead.
I laid this maid down on the bed,
 

And slote away her maidenhead.
I laid this maid over in such style

That in nine months she had a child.
//


Texts acquired by Robert Winslow Gordon while he lived in California, ca. 1920-23.

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN] Contributor unidentified.
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN.---
Oh blow the man down, bullies blow him away

To my Way-Hay-ay Blow the man down

Oh blow the man down, bullies blow him away

Give me some time to blow the man down.

As I was a walking down Paradise Street

A pretty young damsel, I happened to meet.

I said where are you ging, my pretty maid

I'm going a-milking, kind sir she said.

Then I smiled at this damsel, so beautous to see

And said-pretty maiden will you milk me.

Oh no Sir she answered, oh no sir not I

If I was to milk you I'd milk you too dry.

I gave her 5 shillings, she took me in tow

And away to her stateroom we quickly did go.

As I stripped off my dunnage and jumped into bed

This fair maid she scared me till I was nearly dead.

Her catheads came off when she took off her dress

Also with her bonnet came off her bright tress.

Then she unscrewed her left leg-unhooked her right ear

By that time believe me, I was feelin' dam queer.

When she spat out her teeth, and gouged out her right eye,
I grabbed up my dunnage, and left her to die.

Take warnin' my hearties, when you go ashore

Steer clear of false riggins & moor to a whore.

A.M. Turner, 8/24/23.
[FIRE DOWN BELOW] "Pumping or Capstan chanty"
//
FIRE DOWN BELOW
Oh there's fire in the fo'c'sle, all hands on deck

Fire down below

There's fire in the fore-peak, comin' thru the deck

There's fire down below.

There's fire in the fore-top, fire in the main

We thought we had it drownded, there it comes again.

There's fire in the cabin, fire in the poop,

There's a fire in the galley, burnin' up the soup.

The old man he's a terror, allays cussin' at the crew,

If this old wagon burns, me boys, he'll only get his due.

The old woman she's a pissin', she's spoutin' like a whale

The ocean is a risin' way 'bove the t'gallant rail.

Pass along the buckets boys, and let the old girl spout

Double bank the pump my sons, we'll drownd the ----- out.
//

[HANDY MY BOYS] "To' gallan's'l halyards chanty."
//
HANDY, ME BOYS, BE HANDY.
As I was a strollin' one fine summer day

So handy, my boys, so handy,

A rosy cheeked damsel, I met on the way

By handy, me boys, be handy.

She passed out her hawser and took me in tow

I shortened all sail and away we did go.


She led me to her father's halls

To a beautiful garden inside the walls.

And there I embraced this pretty maid

And love me, Oh love me, kind sir, she said.


Then she led me to her snowhite bed

And I hugged her there till she was dead.
//

[BLOW YE WINDS] "Fragment—Capstan Chanty"
//
Three times they give you peasoup

Three tines they give you duff

On Saturdays they give you rice

To make you blow and puff .
So blow ye winds in the mornin'
Blow ye winds Aye Oh

We're outward boun' in the ship Renown

To the port of Callao.
//

[SACRAMENTO]?
//
RIKKI DIKKI DOO DA DAY
One night I slept with an English maid

Dooda dooda

A virgin pure as the snow--she said

Rikki dikki doo da day.

She swore that I was her very first love

And gave me her maidenhead by the Gods above.

I spent all my payday in buying her clothes

But all that she gave me was a dam dirty dose.

So every night when I go out to piss

I curse the whore who gave me this.

Now all you young sailors take my advice

Don't play with virgin women, for you'll have to pay the price.
//

J.N. West, Bayonne, New Jersey, 11/10/24.
[SALLY BROWN]
//
SALLY BROWN
Oh Sally Brown my love grows bigger

But for Heavens sake don't f-ck that nigger.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A LONG TIME AGO
I wish to God that I'd never been born

To me way-hey-heyan.

To go rambling round and round Cape Horn,

A long time ago.

Around Cape Horn where the wild winds blow,

Around Cape Horn through sleet and snow.

It's a long, long time since I've had a glass rum

Oh, if I was the skipper I'd give the crew some.

Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a "short time".
[This and some more lines of like character were repeated twice.]
Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a good "f-ck",

Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a good "f-ck".


And it's a long, long time since I've had a sore cock.


And it's a long, long time since my last "chancre" went.


Oh, it's a long, long time since I've had a "whole night".
//


[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] with (?)[GO TO SEA NO MORE]
//
"I cannot remember some lines that are missing and
anyway this whole thing seems garbled to me but that's
how I heard it from an old Irishman."

ROLL THE COTTON DOWN
Oh, when last I was in Frisco Town

Roll the cotton down,

I never ever will forget

Oh, roll the cotton down.

I was drinking steam beer all day long

Until I could drink no more, no more.

And I felt in my mind full inclined

That I would go to sea no more.

Oh, last night I slept with "Angelina"

An' she was afeared and wouldn't turn in.

But when I woke up next morning

All my clothes and money then had fled.

Oh, when I was walking down the street

All the whores and pimps were roaring.

See there goes poor Jack to sea once more

So I went down to a boarding house.

Which was kept by Mister "Shang Haj" Brown

Says he, I'll give you a chance and take your advance.

And send you to sea once more

So he shipped me on a whaler.

Who was bound for the cold antartic seas

An' I had no money to buy clothes.

And Lord almighty how I froze.
//


John R. Spears, Utica, New York, 3/20/25.
[RIO GRANDE]
//
"Then they began at the top and sang it over again
until the cable was up and down. They were supported—
at least once I remember--by the captain--a Norwegian.-
I remember that when I went to Greenland on the bark Argenta for a load of cryolite the sailors usually sang
Sunday School songs, learned at the bethels, instead of
chanteys, and those were sung at the windlass only.
They never sang when making sail. On smother bark in
the port (Ivighet [?]) the men sang 'Away Rio' over and
over again--no other song of any kind."

AWAY RIO
Oh where are you going to my pretty maid?

Away Rio!

Oh where are you going to my pretty maid?

And we're bound to Rio Grande.

"I'm going out milking, sor," she said.

May I go with you my pretty maid?

"Oh, yes, if you please, kind sir," she said.

Well then will you diddle me, my pretty maid?

"Oh, yes, if you please, kind sir," she said.
//


R.W. Yearley, Quincy, Illinois, 5/28/26
[SLAPANDER]
//
A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,

A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,

A young Dutch soldier came over the Rhine,

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -,
Schnapoo, schnapoo,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Schnapoo.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
No, my daughter is too young,

Schnapoo, schnapoo,
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

O no, mother, I'm not too young,

O no, mother, I'm not too young,

Oh no mother, I'm not too young,

It's often been tried by Richard and John,

//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 02:32 AM

1978        Rosenberg, Neil V. and Deborah G. Kodish, ed. _"Folk-songs of America": The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932_. Library of Congress. LP.

Two major phases of Gordon's work seem of most interest to this topic. One is his collecting in the San Francisco Bay area; the other is his collecting in Georgia. As seen in the 1927 article of his posted above, he connected deepwater chanties with Black folk songs.

From the Introduction of the liner notes:

//
…Gordon spent much of his time collecting songs on the Oakland and San Francisco waterfronts, where he won the cooperation of stevedores, sailors, captains, hoboes, and convicts…

During his years in California, 1917-24, Gordon gathered more than one thousand shanties and sea songs, at least three hundred of which he recorded on cylinders, making his the largest collection of maritime songs then in existence. Gordon was not interested in the sheer number of texts; instead he hoped to learn from this large body of data something of the role that Afro-American traditions and popular minstrel show materials played in the development of the sea shanty. He was successful in his fieldwork, but most of his colleagues in Berkeley's English department failed to recognize it. Few of them knew what he was doing on the waterfront, and many expressed the wish that he would spend his time in more orthodox academic pursuits…
//

Here are the relevant items on this album.

Two chanties in Frisco Bay.
//
…almost certainly recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area, probably in Oakland, in the early twenties. The singer appears to have been a veteran of sailing ships, for he begins the first song with appropriate instructions to the short-haul crew.
//

First, a relative if [ROLL THE WOODPILE], in a sweating-up style.
//
…Aside from it's use as a shanty, it has stylistic and historical connections with the minstrel stage. Doerflinger (p.350) dates it from an 1887 songster, Delaney's Song Book No.3, where the words are credited to Edward Harrigan. Sheet music copyrighted in 1887 by William A. Pond & Co., New York, also credits the words to Harrigan, gives the score to Dave Braham, and adds the information "As sung in Edward Harrigan's drama, "Pete"(in Harrigan and Braham's Popular Songs As Sung by Harrigan and Hart, Volume 2, New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co., 1892, pp.51-52)…

HAUL THE WOODPILE DOWN
Gordon cyl.50, ms. Cal. 104B 

Anon,
Bay Area, California,
Early 1920s

Spoken:
Cast her up! Sweat up that weather main brace.
Fetch on there, boys, look to it, come on,
Shake a leg, all together now.

Sung:

Yankee John with his sea boots on,

Haul the woodpile down.

Yankee John with his sea boots on,

Haul the woodpile down.

Way down in Florida,
Way down in Florida,
Way down in Florida,

Haul the woodpile down.
//

[ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT]
//
"Roll the Old Chariot Along" has direct connections with black folk music of the nineteenth century, appearing in most of the standard collections of spirituals (Dett, pp. 192-93; Fenner and Rathbun, pp. 106-7; Johnson, pp. 110-11). Sandburg published a variant (pp. 196-97), and it has also been noted by collectors of shanties, including Hugill (pp. 150-51) and Doerflinger (pp. 49-50, 357). A version of this was sent to Gordon by an Adventure reader (3758) and he collected another text in California (Cal. 243). There were many black sailors on the crews of nineteenth-century vessels. They brought with them traditions of work songs, and their songs, religious and secular, were usually rhythmic and thus suited for the many kinds of gang labor needed on the big sailing ships. Gordon devoted a chapter in Folk-Songs of America to "Negro work songs from Georgia" (pp. 13-19).

ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG
Gordon cyl. 50, ms. Cal. 104A

Anon,
Bay Area, California,
Early 1920s

Roll the old chariot along

And we'll roll the old chariot along

And we'll roll the old chariot along

And we'll all hang on behind.
If the devil's in the way,
We'll roll it over him

If the devil's in the way,
Why we'll roll it over him,

If the devil's in the way,
We'll roll it over him.

And we'll all hang on behind.
//

Continuing Gordon's bio,
//
By Christmas 1925, Gordon had been living away from his family for more than a year. The separation was difficult, emotionally and financially, and he decided to move to a field station on the southern coast of Georgia--to Darien, the childhood home of Mrs. Gordon. The reunited family occupied a two-room house, and Gordon resumed work, eagerly setting out to record the Afro-American traditions of the Georgia coast. The rowing songs and the boat songs which he discovered are represented on this record by the performances of Mary C. Mann and J. A. S. Spencer. Mary Mann, a deaconess at a local black church, had organized a school in Darien in which she taught young black women the domestic skills they needed to find employment. Mary Mann had a large repertoire herself, and she encouraged her students and members of her church to contribute their songs to Gordon as well…

In July 1928, Herbert Putnam, the Librarian of Congress, appointed Gordon "specialist and consultant in the field of Folk Song and Literature." Gordon later proposed a title that he thought would appeal more to the imagination of the general public: director of the Archive of American Folk Song.
During the first year of the archive's existence, Gordon remained in Darien collecting the shouts, rowing songs, rags, reels, and turning songs that were of primary importance in the study of American folk song and of special significance in learning how folksongs start and spread….
//

One recorded example is a rowing song.
//
Mary Mann's second song is, in her words, a "boat song". Such songs are familiar in the Georgia Sea Islands. In "Negro Work Songs From Georgia," Gordon described the rowing songs which he collected. He found them "very close to spirituals—some of them are spirituals slightly made over." …
This song, like Mann's first, shares the non-stanzaic construction noted by Gordon for rowing songs. The contrast between strophic construction found in European folksong and the litany form found in Africa supports Gordon's argument that these songs in Mann's repertoire represent an early stage in the progress from African to Afro-American folksong traditions. Gordon collected several other rowing songs from Mann; he also collected another version of "Finger Ring" from a Darien informant (A285, GA75). Mann's statement at the end refers to Mrs. (Roberta Paul) Gordon, whom Mann had known since childhood.

FINGER RING
Gordon cyl. A345, Item GA122

Mary C. Mann,
Darien, Georgia,
April 12, 1926

I lost mama's finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring,

I lost mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring,

I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I know how, I know how to row the boat,

I know how, I know how to row the boat,

I know how to row the boat,
I can row the boat just so, finger ring, the finger ring.

I can row the boat just so, finger ring, the finger ring.
I can row, I can row the Bumble Bee,

I can how, I know how to row the Bee,

I know how to row the Bee, Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.
I know how to row the Bee, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I know how to row the boat, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I know how to row the boat, the Bumble Bee, the Bumble Bee.

I lost mama, I lost mama finger ring,

I lost mama, I lost my mama finger ring, finger ring,
the finger ring, finger ring, the finger ring.

I know how to row the boat, Bumble Bee, Bumble Bee.

Spoken:
This is Miss Roberta Paul's, Paul's "boat song" that I have sung just now—the "Finger Ring."…
//

Then come tracks from Georgia of shanties.
//
From rowing songs to sea shanties in black song tradition is a logical step, for during the nineteenth-century black seamen and dock workers had an important effect upon shantying traditions.
//

First version of [BLOW BOYS BLOW]:
//
J. A. S. Spencer's "Blow Boys Blow" is what Gordon called a "quick time" shanty (Gordon, p. 14) with an unusual text and a familiar refrain. Doboy sound is on the Atlantic coast of Georgia, just north of Darien.

BLOW BOYS BLOW (1)
Gordon cyl. A479, Item GA252

J. A. S. Spencer
Darien, Georgia [?]
 May 11, 1926

The prettiest girl in Doboy town,

Blow, boys, blow.

Her name is fancy Nellie Brown,

Blow, my bully boys, blow.



Heave her high and let her go,

Heave her high and let her blow,


The prettiest girl I ever knew,

She wear the red morraca shoe,

The prettiest girl I ever saw,

She's always riding the white horse,


The prettiest boy in Doboy town,

His name is Little Johnny Brown,

Heave her high and let her go,

Heave her high and jam her low,
//

Second version of [BLOW BOYS BLOW]:
//
It is not known where or when Gordon recorded A. Wilkins, who sang good versions of both "Blow Boys Blow" and "Haul Away" in a splendid voice. Adventure correspondents sent Gordon four other versions of this "Blow Boys Blow" (770, 1033, 1642, 2362). …

BLOW BOYS BLOW (2)
Gordon cyl. G100, Item Misc.188

A. Wilkins [?]
Place and date unknown

Oh, blow, my boys, for I love to hear you,

Blow, boys, blow;

Oh blow, my boys, for I long to hear you,

Blow, my bully boys, blow.

Oh, a Yankee ship dropping down the river,

It's a Yankee ship dropping down the river,

Now, how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?

Her spars and decks they shine like silver,
Oh who do you think was the chief mate of her?

Oh, Skys'l Taylor, the Frisco slugger,

And who do you think was the chief cook of her?

Oh big black Sam, the Baltimore nigger,

And what do you think we had for dinner?
A monkey's legs and a monkey's liver,

And what do you think we had for supper?

The starboard side of an old sou'wester,

//

[HAUL AWAY JOE]
//
…The testimony of sailors is that this song was one to which improvisation occurred freely, and the verses which Wilkins sings here are a mixture of the familiar (verse one) and the novel (verse two). …Gordon collected a version of this in California (Cal. 249).

HAUL AWAY
Gordon cyl. G100, Item Misc.190

A. Wilkins [?]
Eastern U. S. [?]
1930-32 [?]

Away, haul away, a-haul away, my Rosie,

Away, haul away, a-haul away, Joe.

I wish I was in Ireland, a diggin' turf an' taters,


But now I'm in a Yankee ship, a-pullin cleats [sheets] and braces,


Once I loved an Irish gal and she was double jointed,


I thought she had a double chin but I was disappointed,


Away, haul away, the old man he's a-growlin',


Away, haul away, our oats are growing mouldy;


Away, haul away, the bloody ship is rollin',

//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 12 Aug 11 - 04:38 AM

In 1931, JM Carpenter published a series of 3 articles on his shanty research in the NYT. Here are excerpts from his second article. I've not yet attempted to collate these texts with others appearing in his collection.

1931        Carpenter, James M. "Life Before the Mast: A Chantey Log." New York Times (19 July 1931).

This installment describes typical chanteying events, supported by text examples. The surrounding notes are rather generic and I've not reproduced them.

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Boys, man the capstan and let us away.
Away-ay-ay-ee, Rio!
Boys, man the capstan and let us away.
For we're bound for the Rio Grande.
Then away-ay, Rio!
Away-ay-ay-ee, Rio!
Sing fare you well, my bonny young gal,
For we're bound for the Rio Grande!

Where are you going to, my pretty maid!
I'm going a milking, kind sir, she said,
//

Continues the capstan scene with [SACRAMENTO]
//…the crisp staccato of "The Banks of the Sacramento," which, with its Negro exuberance, tickles the heels of the sailors as they grind around the capstan:

When I was young and in my prime,
And a-hoo-dah! And a-hoo-dah!
I served my time in the Black Ball Line,
And a-hoo-dah, hoo-dah-day!
For Californi-o-o!
Blow, boys, blow!
There's plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento!

Punkin puddin', an' a Injun pie,
De black cat kick out de gray cat's eye.
Oh, my ole missus she tole me
That when she die, she gwina set me free.
//

Doesn't say this verse from [BANKS OF NEWFOUNDLAND] was a chanty, but I think its being in the article implies it.
//
As I was a-lying in my bunk
And lying there alone,
I dreamt I was in Liverpool
Or down in the Marlebone,
With a rosy lass upon my knee,
And her at my command.
//

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
Oh, whisky is the life of man
Whisky, Johnnie!
Oh, I'll drink whisky when I can,
Whisky for my Johnnie!

And when we doubled Old Cape Horn,
I was so cold and, oh, forlorn.

I wish I had some whiskey now,
I'd tip her up, and down she'd go.

Whisky made the Old Man cough,
Whisky made the bo's'n laugh.

Oh, my Old Duchess she likes gin,
And gin she'll have when she's got the tin.
…
Whisky killed my poor old dad,
Whisky druv my mother mad,
//

[HAUL AWAY JOE]
//
Way. haul away, Oh, haul away,my Rosy!
Way, haul away! Haul away—Joe!

Oh, once I had an Irish girl, and she was fat and lazy,

And then I had a Scotch girl, and she was thin and crazy,

And next I had a Yankee girl, and she was just a daisy,

And then I had a nigger girl, and she drove me ravin' crazy.

Oh, will you haul away, we will either bust or bend her,

Oh, will you haul away, if we bust her we can mend her.
//

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
A Yankee ship comes down the river,
Blow, boys, blow!
Her masts and yards they shine like silver,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

Then came tbe question, "Who d'ye s'pose wsa ca.ptaln of her?" To
this there was a a series of ribald answers, such as:

One-eyed Kelly, the bowery runner,
Snowball Sam, the flat-foot nigger,
Bully Jones, the California digger,
Bully Brown, the limejuice robber,
Captain Drunk, the horse-bull driver.

And after that the chanteyman had more fun with the query,
"What d' ye s'pose they had for dinner?" Here imagination ran
riot with responses like:

Pickled eel's feet and nigger's liver.
Monkey's gizzard and cock-a-roach liver.
Mosquito's heart and sandfly's liver.
Belaying pin soup and monkey's liver.
The starboard side of an old sou'-wester.
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
Oh, poor old Ruben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Oh, pity poor Ruben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

Oh, Ranzo was no sailor,
He might have been a tailor,

Now Ranzo took a notion
That he would plough the ocean.

So he sold his plough and harrow
And his pony to a laidy.

He went to London City
Where the barmaids are so pretty.

And now he's Captain Ranzo,
And he ploughs the briny ocean.
//

[HANGING JOHNNY]
//
Oh, they call me Hanging Johnnie,
Hurrah, hurrah!
Because I hang so many,
So it's hang, boys, hang!

Oh first I hung my mother
And then I hung my brother.

I hung my sister Sally;
I swung her in the galley,

I hung my brother Billy
Because he seemed so silly.
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
We're homeward bound for New York Town.
Good-bye, fare you well! Good-bye, fare you well!
We're homeward bound lor New York Town.
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!

And when we arrive in the Carrier Dock,
There the boys and girls around us will flock.
And one to another you'll hear them say,
"O here comes Jack with nine months' pay!"
Now it's "John, get up and let Jack sit down,
For you know that he is homeward bound!"
//

[ROLLING HOME]
//
Call all hands to man the capstan,
See your cable runs all clear,
For very soon we'll weigh our anchor,
And for Old England we will steer.
If you all heave with a will, boys,
We will soon our anchor trip,
And upon the briny ocean
We'll steer our gallant ship.

Rolling home, rolling home!
Rolling home across the sea!
Rolling home to dear Old England,
Rolling home, dear land, to thee!
//

[JAMBOREE]
//
Now my boys, be of good cheer,
For the Irish lands are drawing near;
Tomorrow night we'll rise Cape Clear,
Oh, Jenny, get your hoe-cake done!
//

[ONE MORE DAY]
//
Only one more day, me Johnnie,
One more day!
Oh, come rock and roll me over.
Only one more day!

Only one more day a-reefing,
Only one more day a-furling.
//

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
//
The work was hard, the voyage long,
Leave her, Johnnie, leave her!
The seas were high, the gales were strong,
It's time for us to leave her!

The skipper's name was Bully Brown,
If you looked at him, he would knock you down,
//

[GO TO SEA NO MORE]
//
While my money did last, I went full fast;
I got drunk as drunk could be;
I was roving round all day, me boys,
And at night I did far more.
Then I made up my mind with fellows blind
To go to sea no more.

No more, no more!
No more, Oh, no more!
If ever I'm landed safe again,
I'll go to sea no more!
…

I'll take your advance and give you a chance
Once more, once more!
Once more, Oh, once more!
To try the sea once more!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 04:54 AM

Gordon published a series of articles related to his work in the NYT in 1927. My last post comes from the first, introductory article in the series. The following is his work-songs article, which is focused on songs collected from Black men in the Southeast U.S. Evidently, though he uses the term "chantey" for these (yet also says they are "related to chanteys"), he has kept them distinct from the deepwater songs he collected.

1927        Gordon, Robert W. "Folk Songs of America: Work Chanteys." _New York Times_ (16 Jan. 1927).

Observes that texts are fluid. Only rhythm, basic tune, and refrain remain the same.

Section: "Related to Chanteys"

Songs collected on southern coast of Georgia,
First 2 are pulling chanteys.

Says "Riley" is
//
…in fact an adaptation of the white chantey "Old Stormy" though the tune is different. "Hilup, Boys, Hilo" probably came to the negro through the crew of some timber schooner. "Zekiel" is pure negro.
//
These seem to me poor examples in supporting an argument of the adaptation of White men's songs. The only connection I *see* to "Stormy" is the verse about wishing you were Such-n-such's son. But Gordon goes through pains to emphasize the fluidity of texts, so I see no reason to suggest it is an "adaptation" of the "white chantey"!

"Riley": "typical song often used on the docks". I think it has the flavour of [TOMMY'S GONE]:
//
Riley, Riley, where were you?
        Ho, Riley, ho, man!
Riley, Riley, where were you?
        Ho, Riley, row!

Riley gone to Liverpool. [x2]

Wish I were Cap'n Riley's son.

I'd lay down town an' drink good rum.

Riley lived till his head got bald.

Got out de notion o' dyin' at all.

Think I heard my captain say
"Tomorrer is our sailin' day!"
//

"quick time" chanty [HILO BOYS]. Is this the original source of a similar song that Charley has in his notes (supposed to have been reproduced in Southern's _Music of Black Americans_)?
//
O dis de day to roll an' go,
        Hilup, boys, hilo!
O dis de day to roll an' go,
        Hilup, boys, hilo!

De captain say "Tomorrow day"
"Tomorrow is my sailin' day"

O hit her hard and jam her lo.
O roll dat cotton in de hol'.
//

for slow time:
//
O Zekiel, when de Lord called Zekiel
        Tell dem dry bones live again!
O Zekiel, when de Lord called Zekiel
        Tell dem dry bones live again!

Think I heard my captain say, sir,
"Tomorrow is our sailin' day, sir,"

Think I heard my header say, sir,
"In de hold his [dis?] piece mus' go, sir"

Noble cap'n an' a bully crew, sir,
Need a bar to make him go, sir,

…
Ole hen cackle an' de rooster crow, sir
In de hol' dis a piece a mus' a go, sir,

Think I heard my captain say, sir,
One more heave an' dat will do, sir,
//

Notes that songs used in hammering are quite different. They have the coordinated grunt rather than a chorus.

Section: "Haunting Rowing Songs"

Formerly used along coastal regions of Geogia and the Carolinas. "…there is in many of them a depth of feeling not to be found in the other work songs." Suggests they are like "spirituals slightly made over". Too late to collect them, long boats with 6-8 men have pract disappeared. Up to Civil War, great island plantations had boat crews that took intense pride in both their rowing and singing skill.

On "Butler's" they wore uniforms. Largest boat of that plantation was called The Whale (destroyed in 1898) – but long before that singing crews were a thing of the past.

Leader sang in tenor, response in lower key. Lines overlapped "with curious effectiveness." All three of the following songs were sung to Gordon by men who had rowed in The Whale.

"Kneebow/kneebone". Feels a bit like [SHALLOW BROWN]

//
Kneebow when I call you,
        O Lord, kneebow!
Kneebow, O knee bow,
        O Lord, kneebow ben'!

Kneebow in baptism groun'.
Kneebow to de buryin' groun'.

Kneebow, O kneebow.
Kneebow to the elbow.

Bend my knees in de mornin'.
Kneebow ben' to save my soul.

Bend my knees in de evenin'.
Kneebow ben', de soul set free.

Elbow, O elbow.
I bend my knees, de boat do fly.
//

"My Army Cross Over"
//
O Lord, my army.
        My army cross over!
O Lord, my army.
        My army cross over!

How you do de crossin'?
Jedus [sic] help me over.

Cross him once a'ready.
Cross de mighty water.

Cross de river of Jordan.
Cross de mighty water.

Help me cross de ocean!
Jedus help me over!

Tell my Sister Sarah good-bye
Tell my sisters good-bye.

Cross dat mighty water. [x2]

Humor seldom appears in the rowing songs. Most are sad in tone and sung to slow and rather mournful tunes.
//

an exception:
//
Sandfly bite me, sen' for de doctor.
        Farewell, Lord, I gwine!
Sandfly bite me, sen' for de doctor.
        Farewell, Lord, I gwine!

O-o-oh, carry me over! [x2]

When I git over yonder I kick back Satan!
Git over yonder I kick back Satan!

O my lovin' mother!
I done forever!

Sandfly bite me, sen' for de doctor.
I done forever!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 02:16 AM

Brief statement on how RW Gordon viewed (part of) the development of chanties.

1927        Gordon, Robert W. "The Folk Songs of America: A Hunt on Hidden Trails." _New York Times_ (2 Jan. 1927).

//
With the sailor chanteys he did much the same thing [as with camp-meeting hymns > spirituals]. The negro on the docks heard them sung by white sailors. He borrowed them with minor variations. Those he liked he rebuilt to suit better his own tasks and later he invented new chanties on the old model.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 02:00 AM

The first "chantey sing"?

1926        Unknown. "Sea Chanteys Kept Alive. Sailors' Club in London is Collecting and Preserving the Old Songs of Sail." New York Times (7 Nov. 1926).

Seven Seas Club of London, holding monthly dinners. After formalities, people invited to sing chanteys. Examples mentioned: [BLOW THE MAN DOWN] ("O Blow the man down from Liverpool Town…") and [JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO] ("I nebber see de like since I bin born, When a big buck nigger wid his seaboots on, Says Johnny come down to Hilo, Poor ole man…") and "The Stately Southerner" (author of this article mixes up work and non-work songs) and [SACRAMENTO] ("As I was walking on the quay, Hoodah, to my hoodah…") and [SANTIANA] ("He won the day at Monterey, All on the plains of Mexico…") and [BONEY] ("Prooshians…") and [REUBEN RANZO] ("Now he's Captain Ranzo…") and [DRUNKEN SAILOR}and [SHENANDOAH] and [WHISKEY JOHNNY] and [ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] and [A-ROVING] and [HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] ("Heave Away! My Bullies" and [RIO GRANDE] and "High Barbaree."

They were singing "Terry's" version of "JCD to Hilo".

This is the group for which Sampson was requested to compile his shanty book.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 01:18 AM

1850[Sept. 1849]        Melville, Herman. _Redburn: His First Voyage_. New York: Harper & Bros.

Singing out at a rope, evidently for sweating up. pp.63-64.
//
While I stood watching the red cigar-end promenading up and down, the mate suddenly stopped and gave an order, and the men sprang to obey it. It was not much, only something about hoisting one of the sails a little higher up on the mast. The men took hold of the rope, and began pulling upon it; the foremost man of all setting up a song with no words to it, only a strange musical rise and fall of notes. In the dark night, and far out upon the lonely sea, it sounded wild enough, and made me feel as I had sometimes felt, when in a twilight room a cousin of mine, with black eyes, used to play some old German airs on the piano. I almost looked round for goblins, and felt just a little bit afraid. But I soon got used to this singing; for the sailors never touched a rope without it. Sometimes, when no one happened to strike up, and the pulling, whatever it might be, did not seem to be getting forward very well, the mate would always say, "Come, men, can't any of you sing? Sing now, and raise the dead." And then some one of them would begin, and if every man's arms were as much relieved as mine by the song, and he could pull as much better as I did, with such a cheering accompaniment, I am sure the song was well worth the breath expended on it. It is a great thing in a sailor to know how to sing well, for he gets a great name by it from the officers, and a good deal of popularity among his shipmates. Some sea-captains, before shipping a man, always ask him whether he can sing out at a rope.
//

pg. 156
//
A thorough sailor must understand much of other avocations. …he must be a bit of a musician, in order to sing out at the halyards.
//

[CHEERLY} again for catting anchor. pg.303
//
Owing to a strong breeze, which had been blowing up the river for four days past, holding wind-bound in the various docks a multitude of ships for all parts of the world; there was now under weigh, a vast fleet of merchantmen, all steering broad out to sea. The white sails glistened in the clear morning air like a great Eastern encampment of sultans; and from many a forecastle, came the deep mellow old song Ho-o-he-yo, cheerily men! as the crews catted their anchors.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 11 Aug 11 - 12:09 AM

The following reference suggests that the word "chantey" was still somewhat obscure for the general public. Recall that in the 1880s, several authors used the term, however these were mainly nautical writers, and the term was used in quotes. Here, in 1890, it is still being treated as something that would be unfamiliar to readers.

1890[July]        Unknown. "Jack Tar's Vernacular." _New York Times_ (20 July, 1890).

"Some of the Odd Words and Phrases Used at Sea. A Dialect which the Landsman Could Never Hope to Master Except on Shipboard."

//
Jack's ditties, too, are frequently vehicles of his emotions. When he does not know how to "growl" fairly, he will put his feelings into a topsail-halyard song, and often has the anchor come up to a fierce chorus compounded of improvised abuse of the ship and the skipper, to which expression could not be given in a quieter method. Unfortunately the list of melodies is somewhat limited, but the lack of variety is no obstruction to the sailor's poetical inspiration when he wants the "old man" to know his private opinions without expressing them to his face, and so the same "chantey," as the windlass or halyard chorus is called, furnishes the music to as many various indignant remonstrances as Jack can find injuries to sing about.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 10:48 PM

Sounds good, Charley. And thanks for that info, Lighter, that would explain things somewhat -- insofar as the chanty lyrics have a nice "ring" of authenticity for the most part, though there are also probably some borrowings going on to beef up the presentations. It would also rule out Terry as a possible source of borrowings.

If you you guys have a notion, I'd be curious to get your reaction to Frothingham's (King's?) presentation of "Tom's Gone to Ilo," which I've posted to the "Origins: Hilo" thread. My opinion is that it's very likely not "from tradition," in which case that confirms that Frothingham/King's chanties were influenced by publications.

One of my interests, as you know, is to get some semblance of an idea of what chanties were commonly sung and where/when/etc. That explains why I am interested in monitoring whether certain print appearances are all or "mostly" drawn from earlier publications, i.e. so the "tally" does not get too skewed.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 09:44 PM

IIRC, Frothingham's shanties are all taken from Stanton H. King's _Book of Chanties_ (Boston, 1918).

During WWI, the U.S. Merchant Marine Shipping Board Recruiting Service named King its "official chanty-man," though I believe it only meant that he led sailors in mass singing, a popular morale-builder of the day.

According to King's preface, "The chanties in this book are as I heard them sung, and have often sung them myself when a sailor on our deep water American sailing ships."

According to Who's Who in New England (1909), King was born in Barbados in 1867. He apparently went to sea in 1880, served six years in merchant ships and then six more as an enlisted man in the U.S. Navy. Who's Who lists him as a "sailors' missionary." He was Superintendent of the Sailors' Haven, Charlestown, Mass., for many years.

Carpenter recorded some material from King in the late '20s.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 07:58 PM

What interests me about Frothingham's publication is that it appeared in the middle of the whast I consider the first revival of sea shanties, as entertainment rather than for assisting with nautical work. His readers were supposed to be people who would want to sing these songs.

The bulk of the book is nautical poetry, and I found that part interesting in identifying forgotten nautical poets such as Bill Adams, Harry Kemp, and Burt Franklin Jenness who had experience at sea. Much of their poetry I've since posted to Allpoetry.com, and some I've set to music.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 09 Aug 11 - 06:43 PM

1924        Frothingham, Robert, ed. _Songs of the Sea and Sailors' Chanteys_. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Contains a section with chanties (i.e. in addition to the nautical poetry that fills the rest).

The chanty selections look like they are based in various secondary sources, especially Davis & Tozer (the formatting of titles and such use it as a guide, at least), along with Masefield and RR Terry. However, the author has also taken the liberty of ~improving~ the songs a bit. Tunes are changed, perhaps based on what Frothingham believed they "should" have been. In "Tom's Gone to Ilo," for example, the contour follows D&T, but rather than the distinctive leaps between 6th and tonic, it has the major 7th degree in there – odd, I think, and contrived.

Did Frothingham have any access to primary sources, or any personal experience with these? He came out with numerous poetry/song anthologies on various themes, so I am assuming at this point that he was a compiler without significant first-hand knowledge. Would like to know more.

Hugill made use of plenty of the verses from this when harvesting for his SfSS collection.

Here is a list of the chanties. They are "typical", and, in my opinion, probably don't add to our historical knowledge of the genre. This evidently was, however, a work that was read and used as a source for later writers.

pg241. SAILORS' CHANTEYS [With score.]

LONG DRAG

[LONG TIME AGO] A Long Time Ago
[BLOW BLOYS BLOW] Blow, Boys, Blow
[BLOW THE MAN DOWN] Blow the Man Down
[BONEY] Boney Was a Warrior
[DEAD HORSE] Dead Horse
[HANGING JOHNNY] Hanging Johnnie
[LEAVE HER JOHNNY} Leave Her, Johnny, Leave Her
[REUBEN RANZO] Reuben Ranzo
[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] Roll the Cotton Down
[TOMMY'S GONE] Tom's Gone to Ilo
[WHISKEY JOHNNY] Whisky for my Johnnie

SHORT DRAG

[HAUL AWAY JOE] Haul Away, Joe
[BOWLINE] Haul the Bowline
[JOHNNY BOWKER] Johnny Boker
[PADDY DOYLE] Paddy Doyle

CAPSTAN

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL] Homeward Bound
[SACRAMENTO] Hoodah-Day
[SANTIANA] The Plains of Mexico
RIO GRANDE] Rio Grande
[SALLY BROWN] Sally Brown
[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] We're All Bound to Go
[SHENANDOAH] The Wide Missouri

PUMPING

[ONE MORE DAY] One More Day
[MR. STORMALONG] Storm-Along

OLD SEA SONGS

A-Roving
Spanish Ladies
Farewell, and Adieu to You
Rolling Home
High Barbaree
The Golden Vanity

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 04:04 PM

Maybe Jenny was chawin' terbaccer, not gum.

"Johnny Fill Up the Bowl" was the immediate melodic predecessor of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Both are frequently mentioned in Civil War memoirs, and the choruses were often blended together.

Carpenter also collected a brief shanty version.

JL

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 03:56 PM

From one of Gordon Grant's sketchbooks:

1931        Grant, , Gordon. _Sail Ho!: Windjammer Sketches Alow and Aloft_. New York: W.F. Payson.

Pg 6. For brake windlass.
//
"Some say we're bound for Liverpool,
Some say we're bound for France,
I think we're bound for Frisco boys,
To give the girls a chance.
…
Heave away! my bully boys;
Ho! Heave and bust her!
Hang your beef, my bully boys;
Ho! Heave and bust her!"
//
Hugill printed this, saying, "A capstan shanty, the verses of which are related to the former song ["The Gals of Dublin Town"], has been sent to me by Mr. W.A. Bryce of Sutton Coldfield. Unfortunately he could not remember the tune..." Evidently Bryce had taken it from this book.

A sweating up song.
//
SWAYING OFF

They have set the main topgallant staysail…

"Ho, Molly come down,
Come down with your pretty posey,
Come down with your cheeks so rosy.
Ho, Molly, come down.
He O! He O!"
//
Hugill also mentioned this in connection with a similar sing out by Harlow and with the "Bunch of Roses" chanty. Mr. Bryce also sent him this.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 03:54 PM

Thought I had caught all the Folk-Song Society articles, but here's one more!

1928        Thomas, J.E., Lucy E. Broadwood, Frank Howes, and Frank Kidson. "Sea Shanties." Journal of the Folk-Song Society 8(32):96-100.

Collected in West Cornwall by J.E. Thomas

Sung by Mr. W. Tarr, 27 May 1924.
//
Whisky, You're My Darling

For 'tis good-bye Mick and good-bye Pat, and good-bye Mary Ann,
I'm goin' away this very day to the dear Americo,
For the ship lies in the harbour, As ev'rybody knows,
And here's to good old Ireland where the dear old shamrock grows. Whisky, you're my darling, Whisky, you're my friend,
Whisky, you're my darling drunk or sober.
//

The following two songs were sung by John Farr (age 76), 6 Dec. 1926.

[SALLY BROWN]
//
Sally Brown

O Sally Brown was a creole lady,
Way O roll and go,
Sally Brown was a creole lady,
Spent my money on Sally Brown.

Sally Brown is a captain's daughter (twice)

Sally Brown is a bright Mulatter,
She drinks rum and chews terbaccer.
//

Not a shanty.
//
The Banks of the Newfoundland

O you Western Ocean Labourers, I would have you all beware,
That when you're aboard of a packet-ship, no dung'ree jumpers wear,
But have a big monkey-jacket always at your command,
And think of the cold Nor'westers On the banks of the Newfoundland.

2 As I lay in my bunk one night
A-dreaming all alone,
I dreamt I was in Liverpool
'Way up in Marylebone,
With my true love beside of me
And a jug of ale in hand,
When I woke quite broken-hearted
On the banks of Newfoun(dland.

3 We had one Lynch from Bally Ack
Jimmy Murphy and Mike Moore,
'Twas in the year of 'sixty-two
And the sea-boys suffered sore.
For they pawned their clothes in Liverpool,
And sold them right out of hand,
Not thinking of Newfoundland.
4 We had one female passenger,
Bridget Riley was her name,
Unto her I promised marriage,
And on me she had a claim.
For she tore up all her petticoats
To make mittens for my hand,
Saving "I can't see my true-love freeze
On the banks of Newfoundland."

5 And now we're round Sandy Hook, my boys
The Island is covered with snow,
The steam-boat she's ahead of us
And to New York we will go.
So we'll rub her round and scrub her round
With holy stone and sand,
And say farewell to the Virgin Rocks
On the banks of Newfoundland.
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES] Sung by John Farr, 10 Jan. 1926.
//
Heave Away, My Johnny

Sometimes we're bound for Liverpool town,
sometimes we're bound for France,
Heave away O my Johnny, heave away
Sometimes we're bound for Liverpool town,
sometimes we're bound for France,
Heave away O my jolly boys we're all bound to go.
//

[MR. STORMALONG] Sung by John Farr, 25 Jan 1926.
//
Mister Stormalong

O whisky is the life of man,
Hi! hi hi! Mister Stormalong,
O whisky is the life of man,
To my way-o Stormalong.

I wish I was old Stormy's son,
I'd give the boys a plenty of rum.

Old Stormy he is dead and gone (twice).
//

Sung by John Farr, 7 Feb. 1927.
[LOWLANDS]
//
Lowlands Away

Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John,
I thought I heard our captain say.
Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John,
We're sailing straight for Mobile Bay,
My dollar and a half a day.

I thought I heard our captain cry
A dollar and a half is a whiteman's pay.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 09:35 PM

1927        Eckstorm, Fannie Hardy and Mary Winslow Smyth. _Minstrelsy of Maine: Folk-songs and Ballads of the Woods and the Coast_. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin.

[Some question marks due to illegible spots in my copy.]

Deep-Sea Songs:

The Stately Southerner
The Flying Cloud
Tacking Ship Off Shore
The Banks of Newfoundland
Sailors' 'Come-All-Ye'
Old Horse
The Greenland Whale Fishery
The Pretty Mohea
The Sailors' Alphabet

Chanteys:

Contributed by Laura E. Richards of Gardiner, ME, March 1926. Said the verses were learned by her mother in 1852, on board a sailing vessel from Italy to America.

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
Tom's Gone Away

Oh, Tom he was a darling boy,
        Tom's gone away!
Oh, Tome he was the sailor's joy,
        Tom's gone away!
And hurrah for Jenny, boys,
        Tom's gone away!
And hurrah for Jenny, boys,
//

[HELLO SOMEBODY]
//
Hilo

Arise, old woman, and let me in!
        Way! hi-lo!
Hi-lo, somebody! hi-lo!
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago

I wish I was in Baltimore,
        I-i-i-o!
A-skating on the sanded floor,
        A long time ago;
Forever and forever,
        I-i-i-o!
Forever and forever, boys,
        A long time ago!
//

Mrs. Seth S. Thornton of Southwest Harbor, Maine, Nov. 1926. Said this topsail halliards chantey "used to be sung on board ship in my father's day."

[CLEAR THE TRACK] is the dominant bit of this, but it also has aspects of "Mobile Bay" and "Roller Bowler."
//
Mobile Bay

Was you ever in Mobile Bay?
        A hay! a hue! Ain't you most done?
A-screwing cotton by the day?
        A hay! a hue! Ain't you most done?
Oh, yes, I've been in Mobile Bay
A-screwing cotton by the day;
So clear the track, let the bullgine run,
With a rig-a-jig-jig and a ha-ha-ha,
Good morning ladies all!
//

Contributed by Frank Stanley of Cranberry Isles, Maine, Nov. 1925. Looks like Stanley took all these texts from Clark's _The Clipper Ship Era_.

[LOWLANDS AWAY] [PADDY DOYLE] "Rolling John" [PADDY ON THE RAILWAY] [WHISLEY JOHNNY]

From Captain J.A. Creighton of Thomaston, Maine, Aug. 192?. Wrote, "This is a chanty the writer has never seen in print but [?-ed] to sing over forty years ago. There must have been fifty verses to this chanty, and it told of a sailor's life from beginning to end and was one of the best chanties the writer ever heard…"

[LIVERPOOL GIRLS]
//
First to California, Oh, Fondly I went

First to California, oh, fondly I went,
For to stop in that country it was my intent;
But the drinking of whiskey, like every damn fool,
Soon got me imported back to Liverpool.

Refrain:
Singing, Row, Row, Row, bullies, Row.
Oh, the Liverpool girls they have got us in tow,
Singing, Row, Row, Row, bullies, Row.
Oh, the Liverpool girls they have got us in tow.

And now we are down and on the line,
The Captain's a-cursing, he's all out of wine,
We're hauling and pulling these yards all about,
For to give this flash packet a quick passage out.

And now we are down and off Cape Horn,
The boys have no clothes for to keep themselves warm,
She's diving bows aunder and the decks are all wet,
And we're going round Cape Horn with the main skysail set.
//

//
Too-li-aye

A negro chantey. Of this and the preceding, Captain Creighton wrote, 'These two chanties do not amount to much without the music, but they never fail to bring down the house when sung by a few old salts that know how to get the funny yodel-like notes that were common in the good old times of the "down-east square-rigger."'

A Yankee ship and a Yankee crew,
Jan Kanaganaga too-li-aye.

Refrain.
Too-li-aye, too-li-aye,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

A Yankee ship with a lot to do,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

A Yankee ship with a Yankee mate,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.

If you stop to walk he'll change your gait,
Jan Kanaganaga, too-li-aye.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
//
…learned by the [??] editor's grandmother, probably considerably over a hundred years ago as she used to hear the sailors singing as they tacked in going up the Penobscot.

What shall we do with the drunken sailor?...
So early in the morning?

Put him in the long-boat and let him bail her;

Ay, ay, up she rises!
//

A "coastwise chantey". Sung by Capt. Rufus H. Young of Hancock Maine, Oct. 1925, 92 years old. Said was favorite for "getting under way". Had 40-50+ verses. Girl is chewing gum (!). So, not until after 1870, maybe not even till after 1890s. Tune is "When Johnny comes marching home."
//
Johnny, Fill Up the Bowl

Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
Hoorah! Hoorah!
Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
Hoorah! Hoorah!

Johnny and Jenny by the fireside say,
And Johnny saw Jenny's mouth open and shet,
And Johnny saw Jenny's mouth open and shet,
[??..] all drink stone-blind,
Johnny, fill up the bowl!
//

Taken down ca.1904 by WM Hardy of Brewer, Maine, from the singing of Captain William Coombs of Islesboro, Maine. The following 2 are local fishermen's chanteys. Short because the small sails were quickly hoisted.
//
Isle o' Holt (Highland Laddie)

Was you ever on the Isle o' Holt,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie?
Where John Thompson swallowed a colt,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie?
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie;
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.

I opened an orange and found a letter,
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie.
And the more I read it grew better and better,
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie laddie, Hielan' laddie,
Hurroo, my dandies O!
Bonnie Hielan' laddie.
//

//
Church and Chapel

I rode to church, I rode to chapel,
Pull down!
With a hickory horse and a white-oak saddle,
        Pull down below!
Pull down, pull down, pull down together,
Pull down, pull down, my dandy fellows,
        Pull down!
//

From L.I. Flower of Central Cambridge, New Brunswick, 1926, who thought these were the favorite chanties among guys in the lumber woods.

[SHENANDOAH]
//
Shenandore

Heave her up from down below, boys!
Hooray, you rolling river!
Heave her up and let her go, boys!
Aha! Bound away o'er the wild Missouri.

Shenandore, I long to see you! X2

Shenandore! I love your daughter,
I love the roar of your rushing waters,
//

Only the chorus remembered. This is connected to a Great Lakes song, "The Cruise of the Bigelow," which was probably not a chanety
//
Buffalo

Stop her! Catch! Jump her up in a juba-ju!
Give her the sheet and let her go!
We are the boys can crowd her through.
You ought to have seen her travel, the wind a-blowing free,
On her passage down to Buffalo from Milwaukee!
//

Says the Black Ball Line sailed from Saint John (New Brunswick), and he remembers them from 55 years ago.
//
Blow the Man Down

'Twas in a Black-Baller I first served my time,
To my yo-heave-ho! blow the man down!
'Twas in a Black-Baller I wasted my prime,
O! give me some time to blow the man down!

'Twas when a Black-Baller was leaving the land,
Our captain then gave us the word of command,

'Lay aft,' was the cry, 'to the break of the poop,'
'And I'll help you along with the toe of my boot,'

'Twas when a Black-Baller came home to the dock,
The lad and the lasses around her did flock,
//

From Susie C. Young of Brewer, Main, 1926.
[HIGHLAND]
//
Highland Laddie

Was you ever to Quebec,
Halan' Laddie, bonnie Laddie!
Where they hoist their timber all on deck,
With a Halan' bonnie Laddie?
Heave-O! me heart and soul,
Halan' Laddie, Bonnie Laddie,
Heave-O! me heart and soul,
To me Halan', Bonnie Laddie.

Was you ever to the Isle of France,
Where the girls are taught to dance
//

Young said apparently of Negro/West Indian origin, sung in Orland for several generations. Thinks her grandfather may have learned it at sea.
//
Shove 'er up! Shove 'er up!
Keep shoving of 'er up!
Shove 'er up! Shove 'er up!
Keep shoving of 'er up!
Shove 'er in the gangway!
Shove 'er in the boat!
I'd rather have a guinea than a ten-pound note.
        Though a guinea it will sink
        And a note it will float,
I'd rather have a guinea than a ten-pound note.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 02:16 AM

cont.,

Sung by Noble B. Brown at Woodman, Wisconsin. Recorded by Helene Stratman-Thomas and Aubrey Snyder, 1946.

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
BLOW, BOYS, BLOW!

A Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, boys, blow,
A Yankee ship came down the river,
Blow, boys, bonny boys, blow.

And how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?
Oh, how do you know she's a Yankee clipper?

The stars and bars they flew behind her, [x2]

And who do you think was the skipper of her?
A bluenosed Nova Scotia hardcase.

And who do you think was the chief mate of her?
A loudmouthed disbarred Boston lawyer.

And what do you think we had for breakfast?
The starboard side of an old sou'wester.

Then what do you think we had for dinner?
We had monkey's heart and shark's liver.

Can you guess what we had for supper?
We had strong salt junk and weak tea water.

Then blow us out am blow us homeward,
Oh, blow today and blow tomorrow.

Blow fair and steady, mild and pleasant,
Oh, blow us into Boston Harbor.

We'll blow ashore and blow our pay day,
Then blow aboard and blow away.

We'll blow until our blow is over,
From Singapore to Cliffs of Dover,
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
REUBEN RANZO

Poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boy, Ranzo,
Poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boy, Ranzo.

He shipped aboard a whaler,
But Ranzo was no sailor,

He could not do his duty,
For neither love nor beauty.

He could not find his sea legs,
Used clumsy, awkward land pegs.

He could not coil a line right,
Did not know end from rope's bight.

Could not splice the main brace, [laughs]
He was a seasick soft case.

He could not box the compass,
The skipper raised a rumpus.

The old man was a bully,
At sea was wild and woolly.

Abused poor Reuben plenty,
He scourged him five and twenty.

He lashed him to the mainmast,
The poor seafaring outcast.

Poor Reuben cried and pleaded,
But he was left unheeded.

Some vessels are hard cases,
Keep sailors in strict places.

Do not show any mercy,
For Reuben, James, nor Percy.

The ocean is exacting,
Is often cruel acting.

A sailor never whimpers,
Though shanghaied by shore crimpers,

"I learned that aboard a sailing ship on a voyage from San Francisco to Falmouth, England."
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (I )

…The first version, sung by Noble B. Brown, is rather unusual because of the use of "heave away" rather than "to me way hay" in the first chorus line. …

We will haul, we will pull, we will all heave away,
Heave away, away, blow the man down,
We will haul in the night and we'll pull during day,
Oh, give us some time to blow the man down.

We will pull, we will haul, hearty, healthy, and gay,
Like husky strong seamen to earn able to pay,

We will pull, the commands of our skipper obey,
We will haul till we hear the command to belay,

We'll expend all the energy we can afford,
We'll joyfully heave the dead horse overboard.

We will heave with all might, we will heave with all main,
We will heave till the main brace needs splicing again.

We will heave when we're sickened by roughness of sea,
We will heave when recovering from a big spree.

We will heave when the salt horse and hog becomes rank,
We will heave for good treatment -- our officers think.

To heave is what seamen should know how to do,
And sometimes a vessel is forced to heave, too [heave-toJ•

We'll heave heaving lines to a tender ashore,
Leave heaving of cargo to strong stevedore.

We will heave everywhere on the world's surface round,
We will heave the most joyfully when homeward bound.

Blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down,
We'll heave the most joyfully when homeward bound,
//


Capt. Leighton Robinson.
First set at Mill Valley, California, 1951. Recorded by Sam Eskin.

THE SAILOR'S ALPHABET – not a shanty.


[DEAD HORSE]
//
THE DEAD HORSE

"They would get a tar barrel and get 'Chips' to make a horse's head to it, and put a tar brush in the stern of it and for a tail•••and then they would mount it on this thing [a sort of cart], and generally the shantyman would get astride of it and, as I say, it being fine weather, why they'd start and pull this thing along the deck. And then the shanty-man would sing the song, what they called 'Poor Old Man' or 'The Burying of the Dead Horse.' Having worked up thirty days, why, then the next day they were going on pay. They were really earning some money then. 'Course they'd be into the slopchest probably for a few beans, but at the same time they'd feel that they'd begun to earn their money. And this is the way that that went•••

A poor old man came riding along,
And we say so, and we hope so,
A poor old man comes riding along,
Oh, poor old man.

Poor old man, your horse he must die,
Poor old man, your horse he must die,

Thirty days have come and gone.

Now we are on a good month's pay.

I think I hear our old man say.

Give than grog for the thirtieth day.

Up aloft to the main yard arm.

Cut him adrift, and he'll do no harm,

I might explain to you that we hoisted him up to the main yard arm, and then there was a fellow up there•••we generally used the clew garnet, you know, just to hoist him up there, we had to put a strop around the barrel ••and then they would just cut him adrift. And then you'd see this old thing floating astern."
//

[JOHNNY BOWKER] Seems to make an assumption about Robinson's "shore" singing, based on what he'd read.
//
JOHNNY BOKER

…Capt. Robinson, in his shore singing of it, lengthens the do! beyond the normal manner in which it would have been sung at sea. References: Doerflinger, p. 9; Colcord, p. 44.

"…Well, that's a shanty, of course, when you're taking a drag on the main sheet. You get all hands, say, on deck about the time when you're changing the watches•••and you don't want to put a watch tackle on it or take it to a capstan, and it's not blowing too hard, why, you can get a short drag on that and get a little slack in."

Oh, do, my Johnny Boker, come rock and roll me over,
Do, my Johnny Boker, do!

Oh, do, my Johnny Boker, we're bound across to Dover,
Do, my Johnny Boker, do!

//

The following were recorded at Belvedere, California, 1939, by Sidney Robertson Cowell. The younger Robinson does seem a bit more lively – than the other singers, too.

//
RIO GRANDE

Oh, Rio Grande lies far away,
'Way Rio!
Oh, Rio Grande lies far away,
And we're bound for the Rio Grande.

Chorus: And away Rio, it's away Rio!
Singing fare you well, my bonny young girl,
And we're bound for the Rio Grande.

I thought I heard our old man say,
I thought I heard our old man say,

Two dollars a day is a sailor's pay.
So it's pack up your donkey, and get under way.

Oh, I left my old woman a month's half pay.

So heave up our anchor, away we must go,
Oh, heave up our anchor, away we must go,
//

//
WHISKY JOHNNY

Oh, whisky here, and whisky there,
Whisky Johnny,
Oh, whisky here, and whisky there,
Oh, whisky for my Johnny,

Oh, I'll drink whisky when I can,
Oh, I'll drink whisky while I can,

Oh, whisky gave me a broken nose.

And whisky made me pawn my clothes.

Oh, if whisky were a river, and I were a duck.

I'd swim around till I got right drunk.

Oh, whisky landed me in jail.

Oh, whisky in an old tin pail,
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
ROLL THE COTTON DOWN

Oh, away down South where I was born,
Oh, roll the cotton down,
Away down South where I was born,
Oh, roll the cotton down.

A dollar a day is the white man's pay,
Oh, a dollar a day is the white man's pay,

I thought I heard our old man say.

We're homeward bound to Mobile Bay.

Oh, hoist away that yard and sing.

"That's enough."
//

[ROLLING HOME]
//
ROLLING HOME

Pipe all hands to man the windlass, see our cable run down clear,
As we heave away our anchor, for old England's shores we'll steer.

Chorus: Rolling home, rolling home, rolling home across the sea,
Rolling home to merry England, rolling home, dear land, to thee.

Man your bars, heave with a will, lads, every hand that can clap on,
As we heave away our anchor, we will sing this well known song.

Fare you well Australia's daughters, fare you well sweet foreign shore,
For we're bound across the waters, homeward bound again once more.

Up aloft amongst the rigging, where the stormy winds do blow,
Oh, the waves as they rush past us seem to murmur as they go.

Twice ten thousand miles before us, twice ten thousand miles we've gone. Oh, the girls in dear old England gaily call us way along.

'''Vast heaving!"
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
HOMEWARD BOUND

We're homeward bound, I hear them say,
Goodbye, fare you well, goodbye, fare you well,
We're homeward bound, I hear them say,
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

We're homeward bound this very day,
We're homeward bound this very day,

We're homeward bound for 'Frisco town.

Oh, heave away, she's up and down.

Our anchor, boys, we soon will see.

We're homeward bound, 'tis a joyous sound.

Oh, I thought I heard our old man say.

Oh, 'Frisco Bay in three months and a day.

Oh, these 'Frisco girls they have got us in tow.

And it's goodbye to Katie and goodnight to Nell.

Oh, it's goodbye again and fare you well.

And now I hear our first mate say.

We've got the fluke at last in sight,
We've got the fluke at last in sight,

" 'Vast heaving!"
//

WHEN JONES'S ALE WAS NEW, forecastle song, sung by John M. (Sailor Dad) Hunt of Marion, Virginia. Recorded at Washington, D.C., 1941, by John A. Lomax.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 02:13 AM

1951[reissued 2004] Various Artists. _American Sea Songs & Shanties_. Duncan Emrich, ed. The Library of Congress, Archive of Folk Culture. Rounder, CD, 18964-1519-2.

Incidentally, this is one of the recordings I listened to in college that got me interested in singing chanties.

The author of these notes made great use of Doerflinger, Colcord, and Masefield in order to write the intro notes to each song. These notes are not of much use to us; I am focused on the content of the recordings, some of which includes explanations by the singers.

Notes the slow tempo of the singers.
//
To those who may be acquainted with certain of these songs through the radio or from the singing of trained vocalists, one thing is at once apparent --the slow tempo of the singing. This tempo is true to the tradition, and any faster tempo is a falsification of the shanties. The shanties were work songs, and the work was slow and arduous; …
//

Richard Maitland. Rec by Alan Lomax, 1939.

[BOWLINE]
//
HAUL THE BOWLINE

This is the oldest known short-haul shanty, and, according to John Masefield, goes back to the days of Henry VIII. …

"Now this is a short song that's usually used in pulling aft a sheet or hauling down a tack."

Haul the bowline, the long-tailed bowline,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul. (That's the chorus")

Haul the bowline, Kitty, oh [YOUR], my darling,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

Haul the bowline, we'll haul and haul together,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

Haul the bowline, we'll haul for better weather,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.

Haul the bowline, we'll bust, we'll break our banner, [or bend her]
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul.
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
//
THE DRUNKEN SAILOR

"Now this is a song that's usually sang when men are walking away with the slack of a rope, generally when the iron ships are scrubbing their bottom. After an iron ship has been twelve months at sea, there's a quite a lot of barnacles and grass grows onto her bottom. And generally, in the calm latitudes, up in the horse latitudes in the North Atlantic Ocean, usually they rig up a purchase for to scrub the bottom. You can't do it when the ship is going over three mile an hour, but less than that, of course, you can do so. But it all means a considerable walking, not much labor, but all walking. And they have a song called 'The Drunken Sailor' that comes in for that."

Now what shall we do with the drunken sailor,
What shall we do with the drunken sailor,
What shall we do with the drunken sailor
Early in the morning?

Oh, chuck him in the long boat till he gets sober,

Ay hey and up she rises,

Oh, what shall we do with the drunken soldier,

Oh, put him in the guardhouse and make him bail her,
Put him in the guardhouse till he gets sober,
Put him in the guardhouse till he gets sober
Way hey and up she rises,

Oh, here we are nice and sober,

Oh, way hey and up she rises,
//

[A-ROVING]
//
A-ROVING

"Now this is a song that we usually sing on the capstan, heaving the anchor up, before the days of steam come in to help us out•••also to heave the ship in from different parts of the dock to other berths made for her, when she had to shift around."

In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
And she was mistress of her trade,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid;
For a-roving, a-roving, since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid.

Her eyes were like twin stars at night,
And her cheeks they rivalled the roses red,

I asked this fair maid where she lived,
She rooms up on Skidansky Dyke.

I took this fair maid for a walk,
For I liked to hear her loving talk.

I placed my hand upon her knee,
Says she, "Young man, you're getting free."

This last six months I've been to sea,
And, boys, this gal looked good to me.

In three weeks time I was badly bent,
And then to sea I sadly went.

On a red hot Yank bound 'round Cape Horn,
My clothes and boots were in the pawn,
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
//
HEAVE AWAY

One morning as I was a-walking down by the Waterloo Docks,
Heave away, my Johnny, heave away,
I overheard an emigrant conversing with Tapscott,
And away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go.

"Good morning, Mr. Tapscott, good morning, sir," says she,
"Oh, have you any ship or two that'll carry me over the sea?"

"Oh, yes, my noble young Irish blade, I have a ship or two,"
"One is the Joshua[y] Walker, and the other's the Kangaroo,"

"Now the Joshua[y] Walker on Friday she will make sail,"
"The present day she's taking on board a thousand bags of male,"

Bad luck to the Joshua[y] Walker and the day that she made sail,
For the sailor's got drunk and broke upon the trunk, and stole all me yallow male!
//

//
PADDY DOYLE

"Now this is a song that's just used in the one place•••on the•••when the men are all together on the yards, one of the lower yards. they call it the main or foreyard •••and they're rolling up the sail. They get the sail all ready for the one big bowsing up, and the man in the bunt will sing•••

Way ay ay yah,
We'll all fling dung at the cook!

With that last word, 'cook,' all hands gives a bowse on it, and that hauls the sail up•••but you'll never get it up with one pull, so the man sings out then…

Way ay ay yah,
Who sold poor Paddy Doyle's boots?

And another pull. Well, if it isn't satisfactory, if you want one more •••

Way ay ay yah,
We'll all go down and hang the cook.

Well, if the sail is bowsed up, that's all there is to be said about it•••but there's never any more than about six verses to that same song."
//

[PADDY LAY BACK]
//
PADDY, GET BACK

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

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

("This is a capstan shanty now•••")

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

M: "Now this song•••I forgot to explain it in the first place•••it commences•••The solo is sung by the shantyman sitting on the capstan head, where he always does sing•••sit in case of singing shanties. The shantyman sits there and does nothing, while the crew, walking around the capstan, are singing. The chorus begins at:

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

L: "And show us where the pull.••where the••.comes•••"
M: "That's what I'm telling them now. This 'Paddy, get back' is the chorus••• "
L: "And that's where they pull?"
M: "There's no pull in a capstan shanty! They're walking around the capstan with the bars!"
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
BLOW THE MAN DOWN (II)

As I was a-walking down Paradise Street,
Way hey, blow the man down,
A dashing young damsel I chanced for to meet,
Give me some time to blow the man down.

I hailed her in English, and hailed her all 'round,
I hauled up alongside, and asked where she was bound,

She'd left the Black Arrow bound for the Shakespeare,
We went in and had two big glasses of beer,
//

[HANDY MY BOYS]
//
SO HANDY, ME BOYS, SO HANDY

Now handy high and handy low,
Handy, me boys, so handy,
Oh, it's handy high and away we'll go,
Handy, me boys, so handy.

Hoist her up from down below,
We'll hoist her up through frost and snow,

We'll hoist her up from down below,
We'll hoist her and show her clew.

One more pull and that will do.
Oh, we'll sing a song that'll make her go.

Now it's growl you may, but go you must,
If you growl too much, your head they'll bust.

Now one more pull and then belay,
And another long pull and we'll call it a day.

Now handy high and handy low,
Oh, one more pull and we'll send her alow.

We'll hoist her up and show her clew,
And we'll make her go through frost and snow,

Lomax: What kind of a shanty is that?
Maitland: Well, that's a pulling shanty. You see where they --"handy, me boys" Is that thing going?
L: Uh-huh.
M: That's a hoisting shanty, it goes -- you can either take a single long pull except when the mate is out of humor, and he sings out to "double up, double up," then you take a pull at "handy, me boys, so handy."
L: Was that a very popular shanty?
M: Yes, sure it's very popular!
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A LONG TIME AGO

Maitiand: Now this is a song that's very popular in the vessels bound across with cotton from Mobile, New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, any place where they load cotton, and it's usually sang with a gusto when they do sing it.

Way down South where I was born,
Way ay ay yah,
I've picked the cotton and hoed the corn,
Oh a long time ago.

In the good old State of Alabam' ,
So I've packed my bag, and I'm going away,

When I was young and in my prime,
Oh, I served my time in the Black Ball Line.

I'm going away to Mobile Bay,
Where they screw, the cotton by the day.

Five dollars a day's a white man's pay,
And a dollar and a half is a black man's pay.

When the ship is loaded, I'm going to sea,
For a sailor's life is the life for me,
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 11:50 PM

1851[Oct.]        Melville, Herman. _Moby-Dick_.

The first reference is to a windlass song mentioning girls of Booble Alley. Stuart Frank (1985) drew a connection to "Haul Away Joe," but IMO that part of his article is weak. He seemed to base it on revival versions of the song, which may have been influenced by Sharp's presentation of John Short. So, not to say that "Booble Alley" could not or was not referenced in potentially any chantey (John Short's is proof), but rather that a connection to "Haul Away, Joe" is unlikely. We have seen that Maryat in 1837 also referenced that place, in his description of [SALLY BROWN] at what seems to have been the newly patented brake windlass. [98 in my Signet edition]
//
…the hands at the windlass, who roared forth some sort of a chorus about the girls in Booble Alley, with hearty good will.
//

The next reference tells us that singing happened at the pumps [pg 238]
//
Nor in the solitary and savage seas far from you to the westward, gentlemen, is it altogether unusual for ships to keep clanging at their pump-handles in full chorus even for a voyage of considerable length;
//

Singing is mentioned during the "cutting in" process of a whale. They are heaving at the windlass while singing a "wild chorus" (in order to flense the animal by means of tackle fastened to blubber) [294-296]
//
And now suspended in stages over the side, Starbuck and Stubb, the mates, armed with their long spades, began cutting a hole in the body for the insertion of the hook just above the nearest of the two side-fins. This done, a broad, semicircular line is cut round the hole, the hook is inserted, and the main body of the crew striking up a wild chorus, now commence heaving in one dense crowd at the windlass…

….The heavers forward now resume their song, and while the one tackle is peeling and hoisting a second strip from the whale, the other is slowly slackened away, and down goes the first strip through the main hatchway right beneath, into an unfurnished parlor called the blubber-room. Into this twilight apartment sundry nimble hands keep coiling away the long blanket-piece as if it were a great live mass of plaited serpents. And thus the work proceeds; the two tackles hoisting and lowering simultaneously; both whale and windlass heaving, the heavers singing, the blubber-room gentlemen coiling, the mates scarfing, the ship straining, and all hands swearing occasionally, by way of assuaging the general friction.
//

[CHEERLY] is used at braces. [Pg492]
//
Instantly the yards were squared, to the lively song of "Ho! the fair wind! oh-he-yo, cheerly men!" the crew singing for joy, that so promising an event should so soon have falsified the evil portents preceding it.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 11:45 PM

1847[March]        Melville, Herman. _Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas_. London: John Murray.

Written in 1846. Melville's sea experience was 1841-42, in whaling ship to South Pacific (Marquesas). He'd also seen Liverpool.

The chanteying references are consistent with what we know about chanteying for the time period, i.e. the popularity of "Cheer'ly Man," the vague "singing" of untitled (and perhaps non-distinct) songs, and, indeed, the overall lack of references to familiar chanteys. Melville was such a richly descriptive writer, and it would be surprising if there was lots of notable chanteying going on but he did not make effort to explain it. On the other hand, maybe he just wasn't interested in dotting his prose with verse all the time, unlike lots of other 19th century authors.

First reference is to [CHEERLY] while catting anchor. [151]
//
The decks were all life and commotion; the sailors on the forecastle singing, "Ho, cheerly men!" as they catted the anchor;
//

In the other reference, sailors ashore are "Farming in Polynesia." They decide to try to make the work of clearing land go more smoothly by brining in one of their windlass songs. "Shorty" in the passage is a Cockney character. [206]
//
"Give us a song, Shorty," said the doctor, who was rather sociable, on a short acquaintance. Where the work to be accomplished is any way difficult, this mode of enlivening toil is quite efficacious among sailors. So, willing to make every thing as cheerful as possible, Shorty struck up, "Were you ever in Dumbarton?" a marvellously inspiring, but somewhat indecorous windlass chorus.
//

Stuart Frank notes that Doerflinger collected "Were you ever in Dumbarton?" from a lumberjack. But while the line is reminiscent of "Highland Laddie" and other chanties, they don't resemble each other in other ways that I can see. Rather, Doerflinger notes the similarity between this and the song in 1832's _The Quid_, i.e.

"Oh! if I had her,
Eh then if I had her,
Oh! how I could love her,
Black although she be."

The similarity comes in the chorus of "Dumbarton." I must say that the "Quid" lyrics do scan quite nicely over the version of "Dumbarton" collected by Doerflinger. I'm even more enthusiastic about the similarity than Doerflinger seemed to be. Doerflinger's is in 3/4 meter. Though tempo comes into play as a variable, my guess is that such a song would not have worked well at the brake/pump windlass, but would have been just fine at the spoke windlass. My hunch is that Melville's ship(s) would have still been fitted with the spoke windlass. I've said before the idea that the adoption of the new brake windlass may have been a factor in ushering in the new kind of worksongs. Perhaps, by the same token, the obsolescence of the old windlass contributed to older songs dying out.

Doerflinger called "Dumbarton" a Scottish folk song, which seems reasonable based on its content, however, I'm not finding any info on the song outside of references to Omoo and Doerflinger's book.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 06:01 PM

Somehow along the way I forget to register the chanteying references in Melville. (Lighter's recent post about use of chanties in a new Moby-Dick film reminded me.) I'm going to dig those up now, with the help of Stuart Frank's essay,

1985        Frank, Stuart M. "Cheer'ly Man": Chanteying in Omoo and Moby-Dick. The New England Quarterly 58(1) (Mar., 1985), pp. 68-82.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 04:39 AM

1942        Parrish, Lydia. _Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands_. New York: Creative Age Press.

Parrish first heard this music in Feb. 1909 when she took up residence on St. Simon's Island. However, she's not specific about when particular items were heard, and her presentations may be based on several hearings. Some items were recorded in the 1930s.

Music transcribed by Creighton Churchill and Robert MacGimsey.
Chapter 6 on "Work Songs".

She read Colcord and Terry, and Allen's _Slave Songs_. Also Fanny Kemble's _Journal_. Quotes NGJ Ballanta who wrote of the connection between song and work in Africa.

Talks about field-calls, which include a break in the voice. Says that these "old ways" died after 1880s in her neighborhood (Southern New Jersey).

//
In Brunswick, vessels are still loaded to the musical chant of "Sandy Anna"; freight cars at the sugar terminal are shunted for short distances to the rhythm of "Old Tar River," and the cabin in front of my house was moved on rollers from Kelvin Grove to the significant tune of "Pay Me My Money Down!"
//

Joe Armstrong and Henry Merchant of St. Simon's Island were both at one time leaders of stevedore crews. Loaded lumber, stowed cotton.
Floyd White, Henry Merchant, and others gave her shanties. Employed "the old-fashioned falsetto tones"

"Free at Last" used for "blockin' timber."

[BLOW BOYS BLOW] Used to hoist the gaff:

//
What do you think he had for dinner?
Monkey soup an' gray molasses.
Blow, my bully boys, blow!
//

And

[CLEAR THE TRACK]
//
Clear the track an' let the bullgine back.
//

And

//
O bring me a 'gator
O gal when you come off the islan'.
A ring-tail 'ator
O gal when you come off the islan'
A Darien 'gator
O gal when you come off the islan'
//

[HANGING JOHNNY] Used in loading timber on board vessel, 6 men on each side of rope hauled.
//
Call me hangin' Johnny
        O hang boys hang.
You call me hangin' Johnny
        O hang boys hang. [etc]
Yes, I never hang nobody
I never hang nobody
O we'll heave an' haul together
We heave an' haul forever
They hang my ole Grandaddy
They hang him for his money
O they hang him for his money
They hang him for his money
They call me hangin' Johnny
O I never hang nobody
//

[SANTIANA]
//
Sandy Anna

Seaman, what's the madda?
        Hoo-ray 'o-ray
Seaman, what's the madda?
        Hooray, Sandy Anna.

Seaman stole my dolla'
He stole it in Savannah

He spend it in Havana
I caught 'im in his colla'

I shake 'im till he holla'
Seaman stole my dolla'
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
KNOCK A MAN DOWN

Whoever heard talk about Little Johnny Brown
        Oh Ho knock a man down
        Knock a man down from London town
        Oh gimme some time to knock a man down.

Knock a man down bullies an' kick him aroun'
        Oh Ho knock a man down
        Knock a man down from London town
        Oh gimme some time to knock a man down.

Y'u ever hear dtalk about Little Johnny Brown
        Oh Ho knock a man down
        Fines' cap'n on Doboy Sound
        Oh gimme some time to knock a man down.
//

[MONEY DOWN]
//
PAY ME MY MONEY DOWN

Pay me, Oh pay me
        Pay me my money down
Pay me or go to jail
        Pay me my money down.
Oh pay me, Oh pay me
        Pay me my money down
Pay me or go to jail
        Pay me my money down.

Think I heard my captain say
T'morrow is my sailin' day

(chorus)

Wish't I was Mr. Coffin's son
Stay in the house an' drink good rum

(chorus)

You owe me, pay me
Pay me or go to jail

(chorus)

Wish't I was Mr. Foster's son
I'd set on the bank an' see the work done
//

//
DEBT I OWE

Debt I owe, Lord, debt I owe
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
Debt I owe, Lord, debt I owe
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
        Debt I owe in Brunswick sto'e
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
O Mister Watchman don't watch me
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
Watch that nig'ah right behine that tree
I ain' gonna pay no debt I owe
//

//
RAGGED LEEVY

Ragged Leevy! Oh—Ho!
        Do ragged Leevy
Ragged Leevy! O boy!
You ragged like a jay bird!
Mr. Sipplin! Han-n-nh
Goin' to buil' me a sto'e fence
In the mornin'—Oh—Ho!
Soon in the mornin'.
Hos' an buggy—Oh—Ho!
Hos' an' buggy
Hos' an' buggy—O boy!
Dey's no one to drive 'um.
Mr. Sipplin' Ha-n-nh
In de mornin'
When I rise
I goin' to sit by de fire.
In the mornin'—Oh—Ho!
O soon in the mornin'
In de mornin'
When I rise I goin' to sit by de fire.
Mauma Dinah Oh—Ho!
Do Mauma Dinah
Mauma Dinah
O gal I can't suppo't you.
Mr. Sipplin! Ha-n-nh
Do Mr. Sipplin
Walkin' talkin'!
O buil' me a sto'e fence.
Sweet potato Oh—Ho!
Sweet potato
Sweet potato O boy
There's two in de fire.
Mr. Sipplin! Ha-n-nh
Goin' to buil' me a sto'e fence
In de mornin' Oh—Ho!
When I rise I goin' to sit by de fire.
//

//
OLE TAR RIVER

Chorus: O, On the ole Tar river
        O-e-e-e
O, On the ole Tar river
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river
Tar river goin' run tomorrow
        O-e-e-e-
Tar river goin' run tomorrow
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river.

Tar river run black an' dirty
        O-e-e-e
Tar river run black an' dirty
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river
Tar river goin' to water my horses
        O-e-e-e
Tar river goin' to water my horses
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river

Ole Tar river is a healin' water
        O-e-e-e
Ole Tar river is a healin' water
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river
Ole Tar river run free an' easy
        O-e-e-e
Ole Tar river run free an 'easy
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river

Chorus: Way down, way down in the country
        O-e-e-e
Way down, way down in the country
Lord, Lord, the ole Tar river
//

Bit similar to TOMMY'S GONE.
//
GOOD-BYE MY RILEY O

Riley, Riley where were you?
        O Riley, O man!
Riley gone an' I'm goin' too
        Goodbye my Riley O!

Riley, Riley, where were you?
Riley gone to Liverpool

You Democrat Riley
You Democrat Riley

Riley, Riley, where were you?
When I played that nine spot through
//

[SHALLOW BROWN]
//
SHILO BROWN

Shilo Ah wonduh what's tuh mattuh?
        Shilo, Shilo Brown.
Shilo Ah wonduh what's tuh mattuh?
        O Shilo, Shilo Brown.

Stivedore's in trouble [x2]

Take yo' time an' drive 'um [x2]

Shilo gone to ruin
Shilo gone to ruin I know
//

//
THIS TIME ANOTHER YEAR

This time another year
I may be gone
In some lonesome graveyard
O Lord how long!
My brother broke the ice an' gone
O Lord how long!
My brother broke the ice an' gone
O Lord how long!

Befo' this time another year
I may be gone
In some lonesome graveyard
O Lord how long!
Mind my sister how you walk on the cross
O Lord how long!
Your right foot slip an' y'ur soul get los'
O Lord how long!
//

[SOUTH AUSTRALIA]
//
HAUL AWAY, I'M A ROLLIN' KING

Haul away, I'm a rollin' king
        Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
Yonder come a flounder flat on the groun'
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
Belly to the groun' an' back to the sun
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
Ain' but one thing worry me
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
I leave my wife in Tennessee
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
Haul away, I'm a rollin' king
Haul away, haul away
I'm boun' for South Australia.
//

//
SUNDOWN BELOW

This tune was sung at the end of the day as a hint to the captain, when the hold was too dark for the stevedores to see what they were doing.

Sun is down an' I must go
Sundown
Sundown below
Sun is down in the hole below
Sundown
Sundown below
I hear my captain say
Sundown
Sundown below
Sun is down an' I mus' go
Sundown
Sundown below
//

//
MY SOUL BE AT RES'

One a dese mornin's—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
One a dese mornin's—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
Be at res'—goin' be at res'
        My soul be at res'.
Be at res' till Judgement Day
        My soul be at res'.
It won't be long—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
Be at res' till Judgement Day
        My soul be at res'.
One a dese mornin's—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
Goin' t'hitch on my wings an' try the air
        My soul be at res'.
One a dese mornin's—it won't be long
        My soul be at res'.
You a'ks fo' me an' I'll be gone
        My soul be at res'.
//

//
ANNIBELLE

Of all the shanties, this concerning Anniebelle appears to be adaptable to the most varied uses, and to be the most widely distributed. Joe tells me he learned it over forty years ago from the stevedores who loaded lumber on the vessels at the Hilton-Dodge mills, but its main use was for "spikin' steel" on the railroads. I notice, however, that he puts the song to equally good use in chopping wood or swinging the weed cutter. In the mines it is called a "hammerin'" song."

Anniebelle
        Hunh!
Don't weep
        Hunh!
Anniebelle
        Hunh!
Don't moan
        Hunh!
[etc]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:50 AM

Captain Barker gave the sing-out:

//
Hellie hellie shumra, shumra, shumra,…[etc]
//

Hugill reproduced it. It goes something like this:
Hellie hellie shumra


And that's it for my notes on Doerflinger.

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:43 AM

Eliezer Zinck, Nova Scotia

[SUSIANA]
//
Susiana

We'll heave him up from down below
[Hooray, oh, Susiana!]
We'll heave him up and away we'll go,
[Away right over the mountain!]
//

**********

Jones O. Morehouse, Sandy Cove, Digby Neck, Nova Scotia.

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
Homeward Bound (III)

"We're homeward bound," I hear our captain say:
Good-bye, fare ye well, good-bye, fare ye well!
"We're homeward bound for Liverpool town,
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!"

When I get home I will tell my mama
That the girls in Liverpool won't let me alone!

As I walked down Ratcliffe Highway
A pretty maid I chanced for to meet.

[etc, milkmaid lyrics]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:40 AM

Captain James P. Barker (ca.1875, Cheshire, England-1949), master of America's last commercial ship TUSITALA of NY. Went to sea 1889. Commanded British ships in Cape Horn trade, later became American citizen. Rounded Cape Horn 41 times.

[LONG TIME AGO] There is a tune variant here – I've used the TUNE in this recording:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q25dLNyaBK4
//
A Long Time Ago (VI)

Then up aloft this yard must go,
[To me, way, ay, ay, yah,]
Then up a-loft this yard must go,
[For it's a long time a-go.]

I placed my hand upon her knee

"I think, young man, you're rather free!"

Then one more pull and that will do.

Oh, one more pull and then it's belay!
//

[HELLO SOMEBODY] One of the best shantymen he'd known was American Negro, "Lemon" Curtis, crew of ship DOVENBY HALL of Liverpool in the 1890s. Barker heard him, and no others, sing this one.
//
Hello, Somebody

[intro] [Hello, Somebody, hello!]
There's Some-bod-y knock-ing at the garden gate;
[Hello Somebody, hello!]
There's Somebody knocking at the garden gate;
[Hello Somebody, hello!]

Somebody wants to know mah name

It's Nigger Dick from New Brunswick
//

[RISE HER UP] Pulling and Walkaway Shanty. Sung by Barker in the style of Curtis
//
Rise Me Up From Down Below

Oh, I come from the world below.
That is where the cocks do crow.
[Whis-key oh, John-ny oh!
Oh, rise me up from down below,
Down below, oh, oh, oh, oh
Up aloft this yard must go, John!
Rise me up from down below!]

I come from the world below!
That is where the fires do roar.
//

[HIGHLAND] The men sang it in chorus throughout.
//
Highland Laddie

Ay, Ay, and away she goes,
Bonnie laddie, Hieland laddie,
Ay, ay, and away she goes,
Bonnie Hieland laddie!

'Way she goes, heels and toes,

This is the day we sail this way,
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:32 AM

From Adolph Colstad of Sailors' Snug Harbor.

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
Blow, Boys, Blow (IV)

I served my time in the Black Ball Line

A Yankee ship comes down the river

[Etc. dinner, then Sailor's Grace lines]
//

**************

William Laurie, born 1862 in Greenock, Scotland. Went to sea circa 1876.

Doerflinger recorded him in 1940 at Sailors' Snug Harbor.

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago (I)

Away down South in Old Tennessee,
[Way, hay, hay, yah,]
Away down South in old Tennessee,
[Oh, a long time a-go]

It is a long time, a very long time
A long time, a very long time

Since my young lady has written to me, (twice)

Saying, "Willie dear, come home from sea." (twice)

It is a long time, a very long time,
Oh, a long time, a very long time

If ever I get my foot on the shore (twice)

Oh I will go to sea no more!
Oh I will go to the sea no more!

If ever I get my foot on the land, (twice)

I will be some lady's fancy man!
Oh, I will be some lady's fancy man!

It is a long time, a very long time
It's a long time, a very long time, etc.
//

[GIMME DE BANJO] Laurie first heard it around age 15 in 1877 on American ship _Kit Carson_. Checkerboard watch.
//
Gimme de Banjo

Oh, dis is de day we pick on de banjo
[Dance, gal, gimme de banjo!]

Oh, dat banjo, dat tal-la-tal-la-wan-go

Oh, dat ban-jo, dat seben-string ban-jo

I was only one an' twenty

Ah was sent to school fer to be a scholar!

Mah collar was stiff, an Ah could not swaller.

Oh, dere's mah book, down on de table

An' you kin read it if you're able!
//

[SOUTH AUSTRALIA]
//
South Australia

Oh, in South Australia where I was born,
Heave away, haul away!
In South Australia 'round Cape Horn,
I'm bound for South Australia!
Heave away, you ruler king,
Heave away, haul away!
Heave a way, don't you hear me sing?
We're bound for South Australia!
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:26 AM

Leslie Nickerson of Freeport, Nova Scotia. Followed the sea "for some years." No dates given. Doerflinger met him in 1930. 2 chanties.

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
Blow the Man Down (IV)

Verses from the ballad "The Twa Corbies".

There was three crows sat on a tree,
Way, hay, blow the man down,
And they was black as black could be.
Gimme some time to blow the man down!

[etc]
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN] w/ Captain Weber.
//
Blow the Man Down (V)

Old Horse, Old horse, what brought you here,
[Way, hay, blow the man down,]
After ploughing the turf for many a year;
[Gimme some time to blow the man down!]

With kicks and cuffs and sad abuse,
We're salted down for sailor's use.

Between the mainmast and the pump,
We're salted down in great big hunks.

And when the mate comes from the rudder
He takes a piece of this old blubber.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:22 AM

Captain Patrick Tayluer. Born in Eastport, Maine, but spent a good deal of life in parts of British Empire. Frist went to sea circa 1885. American and British vessels. His recordings are in the Archive of American Folk-Song, Library of Congress.

Seemed to have been a great improviser, and some of his chanties are quite extensive in their verses.

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
Blow the Man Down (I)

Now, come all you young sailors and listen to me,
With your way, hay-y, blow the man down,
Ah, come all you young sailors and listen to me,
And we'll give 'em some time for to blow the man down!

[etc, boot him around, home from Hong Kong, Ratcliffe Highway, both bound to hell]
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
Reuben Ranzo (II)

Oh, pore old Roving Ranzo,
[Ranzo, boys, a-Ranzo]
Oh, pore old Roving Ranzo
[Ranzo boys, a-Ranzo!]

Now, Ranzo he was (Aw, Ranzo was) no sailor.

So pore old Roving Ranzo,

Now (So) they shipped him on board of a whaler!

Now the captain he liked Ranzo.

So the captain he taught him how to read and write.

He taught him navigation.

when he got his first mate's papers,

He became a terror to whalers!

He was known all over the world as

As the worst old bastard on the seas!

He would take his ship to Georgiay.

And there he'd (he would) drag for sperm whale.

He lost the only ship he had
His first and last and only ship

Was the Morgan, and she's known everywhere.

Now (oh), he's gone to hell and we're all glad!

Now, I've told you he was no sailor.

He was a New York tailor.

Whether (oh, whether) a tailor or a sailor

He sure became a Ranzo!
//

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
Blow, Boys, Blow (III)

Now, it's blow, you winds, 'Ow I long to hear you;
Blow, boys, blow!
Oh, blow, you winds, 'Ow I long to hear you;
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

[etc yonder in the river, bronco mate, Massandatter, Boston slugger, donkey's liver, dirty big brother]
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago (IV)

Oh, a long, long time and a very long time,
[To me way, ha-ay, hay yah!]
Oh, a long, long time, and a very long time
[Oh, a long time ago]

Old Noah, he built a Hark for to sail (to go)

Around (Oh, around) the world and home again

Now I wend down to the docks one morn for a ship

There was an old wooden packet a-lyin' there,

So I wnet on board and sked for a job.

Oh, it (she) must have been the old Ark that Noah built.

Her hatch you had never saw nothing before!

About thirty-six feet long and nowhere insured.

Oh, her knees were so thick that you could not discern.

It's a long, long time and a very long time

Now this is the hatch (where) the animals must have gone down.(went down)

The gangway it was built of timber six foot high

I thought that I had struck an 'ome at last,

Where I could make a pay-day and go

Out to the western shores and away

But I had (I had) made a mistake when I judged her that way,

For at last, when we got out and to sea

Her bow it was bluff and her counter was round

Her fores'l would come to within about six points,

Her fo'c'sle was low and her poop was so high

That she looked just like a Dutch galley-old-yacht [galleotte]

So it's a long, long time and a very long time
Oh it's a long long time and a very long time, etc.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago (V)

[One strung-out verses, the repeat often began with "Oh"]

There was an old lady who lived in Dundee,
[To me way, hay, hay, yah]
There was an old lady who lived in Dundee,
[Oh, a long time ago]

Now her sons (they) grew up and they all went to sea

One became mate and the other a sailor

But the one that I'm going to tell you of, the story is:

He joined a Hark bound out for the East

And not as a sailor nor yet as a mate

He joined as the master of that fine clipper ship

Now, you all remember the ship that I mentioned.

'Twas the Catty Sark, (and) her name was so high

Now (Oh) he took her out East and he lost his old ship (his whole trip)

He took her out East as these words I have told you

Out to Foochow and then home again

Now, un'appily for him, he married out there

A nice little girl with a long pigtail!

Oh, she wore the trousers and he wore the shirt

But when I can tell you the voyage 'e made 'ome.

Now it's a long, long time and a very long time
Oh a long, long time and a very long time

One hundred and eight days, (oh)he did sail.

And 'e used to look at 'is Chinese wife and say,

If it 'adn't a been for your unluck on board!

Now, a long, long time and a very long time.

Now, I told you he was always a-growlin' at 'is wife,

But when in London he did arrive,

The owners they told him he had made a record voyage!

So what did he do but he's blessed his young wife

And instead of callin' her Mong Sallee

He called her the sweet name of Mong Cutty Sark
//

[A-ROVING]
//
A-Roving (II)

[intro] Now, a-roving, a-roving, Since roving has been my downfall,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid!
Mark well what I do say!
[cho.] Oh, a-roving, a-roving
Since roving has been my downfall,
I'll go no more a roving with you, fair maid!

1. When I laid my hand upon her knee,
She said, "Young man, you're being rather free!
Won't you please go 'way and leave me, your fair young maid?"

2. Now, when I laid my hand upon her old bustle,
She said, "Young man, you're a-goin' to have a tussle!"
So we'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid!

3. So at last we chatted and chaffed away;
She said, "Young man, you're a-goin' today!"
When all I want to leave is for me, fair maid.

4. When I laid my hand on her shoulders then,
She looked at me and gently cried,
"You're going away today, you are, so farewell now!"
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Rio Grande (I)

Heave away, Rio! Heave away, Rio! 

Singin' fare you well, my bonnie young gal,

And we're bound to Rio Grande! 



"May I come with you, my pretty maid?" 

Heave away, Rio! 

"Oh, may I come with you, oh, my pretty maid?" 

When you're bound to Rio Grande! 



"You can please yourself, young man," she did say, 


Now, when I can come to you with open arms, 
 


God bless you, may I only hope for your hand, 



Now, there is one thing that I would like to say, 
 


I pray you tell, oh, may I have your hand? 
 



Now, if you'll come back, as you went away-- 


I'll marry you when I come back and we'll say, 
 

//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Sacramento (I)

It was in the year eighteen hundred and forty-nine,
With me hoodah, and me hoodah,
It was in the year eighteen hundred and forty-nine,
A-with me hoodah, hoodah-ay!
Blow, boys, blow, for Californiay!
Ah, there is lots of gold, oh, so I've been told,
Upon the banks of the Sacari-mento!

[Etc, Horn and home again, one day in May, there did sail, a quartering waind, dipped her nose, we took them in, climbed for a week]
//

[SALLY BROWN]
//
Sally Brown (II)

Aw, Sally Brown, well I loves your daughter,
[next line was "too forthright to print"]

Aw, Sally Brown, I been a long while a-courtin' ya,

Aw, Sally Brown, you know you didn't ought to do,

Etc, court of the sailormen, for fourteen years have I been courtin' ya, buyin' joolery, ]
//

[SANTIANA]
//
Santy Anna (II)

[Solos begin with "Oh" when repeated]

Oh, Mexico, my Mexico,
Heave away, Santy Anno!
Oh, Mexico, my Mexico,
All along the plains of Mexico.

The ladies there, oh, I do adore,

Where I began my lifelong store.

Now, the girls are pretty with their long black hair.

[etc, I do belong, senora right there, you know what you are, you've taught me well, Sannajooves tonight, tight-waisted girl]
//

[CAMPANERO]
//
The Campañero

Intro:

Oh, whenever I went away, The story I'd like to tell,
About an 'andy little bark, the Campanero.

Chorus:
Oh, it's between the cook and the pump,
Well they drive me off me chump
On the 'andy little bark, the Campanero!
If I ever go to sea,Well, it won't be up to me
To go in that handy little bark, the Campanero!

Oh, the skip-per he is a bulldozer, And you never did hear
The words that come from a man's mouth so often
The mate he wants to fight, and then durin' every night,
the boys around the hatch they all surround him.

Well, I'd have you all to know that wherever you do go,
If you see the name a-running fore-and-aft her,
Don't jine her anywhere, or you'll never forget the day
That you jined that 'andy little bark, the Campenaro!

You may ring around the world, and go just where you please,
She's a livin' at a single time for days and months.
But if you';; take a sailor's advice, you'll get married once or twice
Before you jine that 'andy little bark, the Campanero!
//

[JA JA JA] Pump shanty.
//
Ja, Ja, Ja!

O mitsch mein inkum stinkum buckerroom and mein ja, ja, ja,
Mitsch mein inkum stinkum buckerroom and mein ja, ja, ja,
Vell, ve'll git up on der shteeples and ve'll spit down on der peoples,
Mitsch mein ja, ja, ja!
//

[LEAVE HER JOHNNY]
//
Time For Us to Leave Her (Leave Her, Johnny)

Now, the time are hard and the wages low,
Leave her, Johnny, leave her!
Ah, the times are hard and the wages low,
It is time for us to leave her!

Oh, we'll leave her now and we'll leave her very soon.

Oh, no more cracker-hash and dandyfunk!

[etc. give us our pay, leave her very soon, it's this old way, along to the Horn, left her for good]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:12 AM

Harry Steele (b.1869), Sailors' Snug Harbor. Was a deep-water sailor 1886-1910. Born in erstwhile Prussia, came to America in 1886 and sailed in American, British, Canadian, German vessels.

He led this one chanty.

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
Whiskey, Johnny (III)

Whiskey is the life of man,
Whiskey, Johnny
Oh, whiskey is the life of man,
Oh, whiskey for my Johnny!

I'll drink whiseky when I can,
I'll drink whiskey out of a big tin can,

Whiskey killed my poor old dad,
Whiskey drove my old girl mad.

[Etc., brother Ben, whiskey mill, tell me true]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:05 AM

John O'Brien, Sailors' Snug Harbor, contributed the solo on 3 chanties for Doerflinger. They are all rather short.

[WHISKEY JOHNNY]
//
Whiskey, Johnny (I)

Whiskey here and whiskey there,
Whiskey, Johnny!
Oh, whiskey her and whiskey there,
Whiskey for me Johnny!

'Twas whiskey made me wear old clothes.
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
Roll the Cotton Down (I)

Oh, roll the cotton, roll me, boys,
[Roll the cotton down;]
Oh, roll the cotton, roll me, boys,
[Oh, roll the cotton down.]

2.When I was young and in my prime,

3. I thought I'd jine the Black Ball Line.
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
Homeward Bound (II)

"We're homeward bound," I hear them say:
Good-bye, fare you well, good-bye, fare you well!
"We're homeward bound," I hear them say:
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound!

[etc., nine months' pay, New York town, near broke my heart]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 01:02 AM

Richard Maitland (1857, NY-1942). Went to sea at 12 (circa 1869/70) as a trainee in NY schoolship MERCURY for 2 years, at which time interest in shanties began. Art of shantying was at its peak then, and older sailors took pains to teach the boys. Frisco, Liverpool, Hong Kong voyages, in American and Bluenose ships.

Doerflinger recorded him at Sailors' Snug Harbor, Staten Island. If I counted correctly, this represents a repertoire of 32 chanties.

[HAUL AWAY JOE] Hauling aft the foresheet. Dorian mode.
//
Haul Away, Joe (I)

Away, haul away, rock and roll me over,
Away, haul away, haul away Joe! (or pull!)

Away, haul away, roll me in the clover,
Away, haul away, haul away Joe! (or pull!)

[Etc, around the corner Sally, Saccarappa sailors, turf and praties, Irish gal, German girl, Yankee gal/ break or bend, haul away for roses, haul together, better weather]
//

[BONEY]
//
Boney (I) (Jean François)

Boney was a warrior
Way-ay-yah,
A reg'lar bull and tarrier,
John François!

He beat the Austrians and Rooshians,
The Portugees and Prooshians.

Boney went to school in France,
He learned to make the Prooshians dance.

[etc]
//

[JOHNNY BOWKER]
//
Johnny Boker

Do, my Johnny Boker, we'll bust or break or bend her;
Do, my Johnny Boker, do!

Oh, do, my Johnny Boker; get around the corner Sally!
//

[BOWLINE]
//
Haul on the Bowline

Haul on the bowline, the long-tailed bowline,
Haul the bowline, the bowline haul!

[Etc. bully ship's a-rollin', kitty me darlin', old man growlin']
//

[PADDY DOYLE]
//
Paddy Doyle

Way ah, we'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots!

Who stole poor Paddy Doyl's boots?

We'll bowse her up and be done!
//

[HANDY MY BOYS]
//
So Handy

Handy high and handy low,
[Handy me boys, so handy]
Oh, it's handy haigh and away we'll go,
[Handy, me boys, so handy!]

You've got your advance and to sea you must go
A-round Cape Horn through frost and snow

Growl you may, but go you must.
Just growl too much and your head they'll bust

Now, up aloft from down below,
Up aloft that yard must go.

Now, one more pull and we'll show her clew!
Oh, we're the boys that'll put her thourgh,

With a bully ship and a bully crew,
And a bully Old Man to drive her through!

We're bound away around Cape Horn,
And we'll get there as sure as you're born!

Now one more pull and that will do!
Oh, We're the gang that'll shove her through.

Now, here we are at sea again;
Two months' advance we're up against.

We're the gang that can do it again!
Oh, we're the boys that'll do it once more.
//

[DEAD HORSE]
//
Poor Old Man

As I walked out up-on the road one day,
[For they say so, and they know so,]
I saw 'n old man with a load of hay,
[Oh, poor old man!]

Says I, old man, your horse is lame,
Says I, Old man that horse will die

Now if he dies he'll be my loss
And if he lives he'll be my horse.

And if he dies I'll tan his skin
If he live I'll ride him again

Round Cape Horn through frost and snow,
Round Cape Horn I had to go.

Growl you may, but go you must
If you growl too loud your head they'll bust.
//

[BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
//
Blow the Man Down (III)

Oh, blow the man down, Johnny, Blow him right down, 

To me way - ay, blow the man down, 

Aw, blow the man down for a half a crown, 

Gimme some time to blow the man down! 



As I was a-walking on Paradise Street, 


A sassy policeman I chanced for to meet,



Says he, "You're a Yank by the cut of your hair, 

And you've robbed some poor Dutchman of the clothes that you wear." 



"Oh no, Mister Policeman, I know you are wrong! 

I'm a deep-water sailor just home from Hong Kong."
//

[REUBEN RANZO]
//
Reuben Ranzo (I)

Oh, poor old Reuben Ranzo,
[Ranzo boys, Ranzo!]
Oh Ranzo was no sailor
[Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!]

But he was a Boston tailor,
He went on a visit to New Bedford.

He was shanghaied on a whaler
He could not do his duty.

So they put him to holystoning,
They took him to the gangway,

They tied him on the grating,
And they gave him five and forty.

The captain's youngest daughter
Begged her father for mercy.

The captain loved his daughter,
And he heeded her cries for mercy.

He put Ranzo in the cabin,
And taught him navigation.

Ranzo married his daughter,
And now he's skipper of a whaler,

And he's got a little Ranzo!
And he's got a little Ranzo!
//

[TOMMY'S GONE]
//
Tommy's Gone To Hilo

From the nitrate trade around Cape Horn to the West Coast of South America came "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" (pronounced "high-lo"). Ilo, as the inhabitants call it, is the port in southern Peru. The name of any port could be worked into Tommy's travels by a resourceful shantyman.

1. My Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Away, Hilo!
My Tommy's gone, what shall I do?
Tommy's gone to Hilo!

2. My Tommy's gone to Liverpool,
My Tommy's gone to Liverpool,

3. Now, Tommy's gone and I'll go too,
My Tommy's gone and I'll go too.

4. Now, pull away and show her clew.
We'll h'ist her up and show her clew.

5. One more pull and that will do.

6. Tommy's gone to Baltimore
And where they carry the cotton shore.

7. Now, pull away, my bully boys,
Oh, pull away and make some noise.

8. Now, Tommy's gone to Mobile Bay.
Tommy's gone to Mobile Bay.

9. A-screwing cotton by the day.

10. My Tommy's gone, they sat to Bombay.
Tommy's gone, they say to Bombay.
//

[HANGING JOHNNY]
//
Hanging Johnny

Now they call me Hanging Johnny
[Away, ay-ay,]
Oh, they say I hang for money,
[Hang, boys, hang!]

They say I hung my daddy
[Hooway-ay hay hay!]
Oh they say I've hung my mam-my,
[Hang, boys, hang!]

I hung my sister Sally,
Now they say I 've hung the fam'ly

Oh, we'll hand , and hang together,
And we'll hang for better weather.

Now, get around the corner Sally
Oh, we'll make you, Saccarappa!
//

[HUCKLEBERRY HUNTING]
//
Huckleberry Hunting

Now, the boys and the girls went out huckleberry hunting,
To me Hilo, me Ranzo boy!
Oh, the girls, they fell down down and the boys they ran after them,
To me Hilo, me Ranzo boy!

One little boy he says to his beau, "I saw your little garter,"
To me Hilo, me Ranzo boy!
"If you'll take me for your beau, I'll be with you ever after,"
To me Hilo, me Ranzo boy!
//

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN] Supposedly to the tune of 'A Long time Ago'
//
Roll the Cotton Down (II)

Down in Alabama I was born,
[Roll the cotton down;]
Way down in Alabama I was born,
[And I rolled the cotton down.]

When I was young and in my prime;
[Oh, roll the cotton down;]
I thought I'd go and join the Line
[And roll the cotton down]

And as a sailor caught a shine;
[roll the cotton down]
I shipped on board of the Black Ball Line;
[and roll the cotton down]

Now the Black Ball Line is the line for me;
[roll the cotton down]
That's when you want to go on a spree
[And roll the cotton down]

In the Black Ball Line you can cut a big shine;
[oh, roll the cotton down:]
For there you'll wake at any old time,
[And roll the cotton down]

Now see the Black baller prepareing for sea;
[then roll the cotton down]
You'll split your side luaghing, the sights to see,
[and roll the cotton down]

There's tinkers and tailors, shoemakers and all,
[Roll the cotton down]
They're all shanghaied on board the Black Ball
[And roll the cotton down]

[ROLL THE COTTON DOWN]
//
Roll the Cotton Down (III)

Way down South where I was born
[Roll the cotton down:]
I worked in the cotton and the corn,
[Oh, roll the cotton down.]

When I was young and in my prime,
I thought I'd go and join the Line,

And for a sailor caught a shine,
I joined on a ship of the Swallowtail Line.
//

[ROLL ALABAMA]
//
The Alabama (I)

When the Alabama's keel was laid
[Roll, Alabama, Roll!]
They laid her keel in Birkenhead,
[Oh, Roll, Alabama, Roll!]

Oh, she was built at Birkenhead,
she was built in the yard of Jonathan Laird.

And down the Mersey she rolled away,
And Britain supplied her with men and guns

And she sailed away in search of a prize,
And when she came to the port of Cherbourg,

It was there she met with the little Kearsarge.
It was there she met the Kearsarge.

It was off Cherbourg harbor in April, '65,
That the Alabama went to a timely grave.
//

[ROLL ALABAMA] Maitland learned it on the schoolship MERCURY in 1870 or 71. Sung at pumps AND halyards.
//
The Alabama (II)

In eighteen hundred and sixty-one,
[Roll Alabama, roll!]
The Alabama's keel was laid,
[And roll, Alabama, roll!]

Twas laid in the yard of Jonathan Laird
At the town of Birkenhead

At first she was called the 'Two Ninety two'
For the merchants of the city of Liverpool

Put up the money to build the ship,
In the hopes of driving the commerce from the sea.

Down the Mersey she sailed one day
To the port of Fayal in the Western Isles.

There she refitted with men and guns,
and sailed across the Western Sea,

With orders to sink, burn and destroy
all ships belonging to the North.

Till one day in the harbor of Cherbourg she laid,
And the little Kearsarge was waiting there.

And the Kearsarge with Winslow was waiting there,
And Winslow challenged them to fight at sea.

Outside the three mile limit they fought (repeat)

Till a shot from the forward pivot that day
Took the Alabama's steering gear away

And at the Kearsarge's mercy she lay
And Semmes escaped on a British yacht.
//

[LONG TIME AGO]
//
A Long Time Ago (III)

When I was young and in my prime,
[To me way-ay-ay yah,]
I thought I'd go and join the line,
[Oh, a long time ago.]

And as a sailor caught a shine
In a lot they called the Black Ball Line

Now come all you young fellers that's going to sea,
And just listen a while unto me.

I'll sing you a song and I won't keep you long.
It's all about the Black Ball Line

Just see the Black Ballers preparing for sea
You'd split your sides laughing the sights you would see

there's tinkers 'n' tailors, shoemakers 'n' all,
For they're all shipped as sailors on board a Black Ball.

Now, one more pull and we'll let her go
We'll h'ist her up through frost and snow

Just one more pull and we'll show her clew,
And another long pull and that will do.

additional verses:

Around Cape Horn you've got to go;
That's the way to Callao.

In the Black Ball Line I served my time
I sailed in the Webb of the Black Ball Line.
//

[SHALLOW BROWN] Maitland said it was "mainly a Negro shanty." Useful when there's only half dozen pulls. Generally used, "for bowsing down tacks and hauling aft sheets."
//
Shallo Brown

Shallo Brown, now what's the matter?
[Shallo, Shallo Brown!]
Oh, Shallo Brown, what's the matter?
[Shallo, Shallo Brown!]

I'm going to leave you
[Shallo Brown]
Oh, I have left the wife and baby
[Shallo, Shallo Brown!]

The baby's in the cradle,
[Shallo, Shallo Brown.]
(Lines missing)

additonal verses

The packet sails tomorrow,
I'm leaving you in sorrow

And the baby in the cradle.
My love I won't decieve you!
//

[DRUNKEN SAILOR]
//
The Drunken Sailot, or, Early in the Morning

Oh, what shall we do with a drunken sailor…
Early in the morning?

Put him in the longboat till he gets sober,…

Way, hay, and up she rises,
//

[ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG]
//
We'll Roll the Golden Chariot Along

We'll roll the golden chariot along X3
[cho.] And we'll all hang on behind!

If the devil's in the road we'll roll it over him,

As given by 1927 Wood, Thomas. The Oxford Song Book, II. Oxford University Press.:

[cho.] Roll the old chariot along x3
And we'll all hang on behind

A plate of hot scouse wouldn't do us any harm x2
It would roll, roll, roll the old chariot along

A new plum duff wouldn't do us any harm,

A glass of whiskey hot wouldn't do us any harm, etc.
//

[PADDY LAY BACK]
//
Paddy, Get Back

I was broke and out of a job in the city of London.

I went down the Shadwell Docks to get a ship.
Paddy get back. Take in the slack!

Heave away your capstan, heave a pawl, heave a pawl!

'Bout ship and stations, there, be handy,

Rise tacks 'n' sheets, 'n' mains'l haul!
There was a Yankee ship a-laying in the basin.

Shipping master told me she was going to New York.
If I ever get my hands on that shipping master,

I will murder him if it's the last thing that I do!
When the pilot left the ship, the captain told us

We were bound around Cape Horn to Callao!
And he said that she was hot and still a-heating,

And the best thing we could do was watch our step.
Now the mate and second mate belonged to Boston,

And the captain b'longed in Bangor down in Maine.
The three of them were rough-'n'-tumble fighters.

When not fighting amongst themselves, they fought with us.
Oh, they called us out one night to reef the tops'ls.

There was belayin' pins a-flyin' around the deck.
We came on deck and went to set the tops'ls.

Not a man among the bunch could sing a song.
Oh, the mate he grabbed ahold of me by the collar.

"If you don't sing a song, I'll break your blasted neck!"
I got up and gave them a verse of "Reuben Ranzo."

Oh, the answer that I got would make you sick!
It was three long months before we got to Callao,

And the ship she was called a floating hell.
We filled up there at Callao with saltpetre,

And then back again around Cape Horn!
(Alternate last verse)


We filled up with saltpetre to the hatches

And then bound around Cape Horn to Liverpool.
//

[A-ROVING]
//
A-Roving (I)

In Amsterdam there lived a maid, And she was mistress of her trade,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid!
A-roving, a-roving, Since roving's been my ruin,
I'll go no more a-roving with you, fair maid!

This last six months I've been to sea,
And boys this maid looked good to me.

[etc, both cheeks, badly bent, red-hot Yank, up to Callao]
//

[NEW YORK GIRLS]
//
Can't They Dance The Polka!

Shipmates, if you'll listen to me, I'll tell you in my song
Of things that happened to me When I came home from Hong Kong.
To me way, you Santy, my dear honey!
Oh, you New York gals, can't they dance the polka!

As I waked down through Chatham Street, etc…

[etc, for Boston I am bound, something nice to eat, hailed a passing car, Bleeker Street, head went round and round, ship was at Shanghee, stark naked in the bed]

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
//
Heave Away (II)

Sometimes we're bound to New York town (New Orleans, etc.), and others we're bound to France,
Heave away, my jollies, heave away, ay!
But now we're bound to Liverpool to see the English girls dance
And away, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go!

The pilot he is waiting for the turning of the tide,
And then we are off with a good westerly wind.

[etc, the American Bar, look for a ship once more, John DaCosta's]
//

[RIO GRANDE]
//
Rio Grande (II)

Now I was born on the Rio Grande
Way, Rio!
I was born down on the Rio Grande,
And I'm bound for Rio Grande!
And away, Rio, Away, Rio
So fare you well, my bonny young gal,
We're bound for Rio Grande!

Rio Grande [New York town, Boston town, etc.] is no place for me;
I'll pack my bag and I'll go to sea.

The anchor is weighed and the sails they are set,
The girls we are leaving we'll never forget.

I'll ship down at New Orleans,
She's loaded with cotton and bound to Liverpool.
//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Sacramento (II)

As I was out upon the road one day,
With me hoodah, and a hoodah,
As I was out upon the road one day,
And it's hoodah, doodah, day!
Blow, boys, blow, for Californyo.
There is plenty of gold, so I've been told,
On the banks of Sacramento!

Says I, "Old man, your horse is lame,"

[etc, More verses from Poor Old Man minstrel song]
//

[SACRAMENTO]
//
Sacramento (III)

As I was walking out upon the road one day,
I met a fair maid, on her arm a milk pail,

[etc, milkmaid verses]
//

[JOHNNY COME DOWN TO HILO]
//
Johnny Walk Along to Hilo

Oh, wake her, oh, shake her,
Oh, wake that gal with the blue dress on!
Then Johnny walk along to Hilo,
Oh, poor old man!
Oh, I once knew a nigger and his name was Ned,
And he had no hair on the top of his head,
//

[JOHN BROWN'S BODY]
//
John Brown's Body

John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave
John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave
[Then it's hip, hip, hip, hurrah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Glory, glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah,
Then it's hip, hip, hip, hurrah!]

There's my girl with the blue dress on,
//

[SALLY BROWN]
//
Sally Brown (I)

Sally Brown was a gay old lady,
Way-ay, roll and go!
Sally Brown was a Creole lady,
Spent my money on Sally Brown

She had a farm in the isle of Jamaica,
Where she raised sugarcane, rum, an' terbacker.

[Etc, fine young daughter, seven long years I courted Sally, would not have a tarry sailor, married to a nigger soldier, left her with a nigger baby, why did you ever jilt me]
//

[SHENANDOAH]
//
Shenandoah

Shanadore, I love your daughter,
Hooway, you rolling river,
Oh, Shanadore, I love your daughter,
Hyah, bound away, To the wild Missouri!

For seven long years I've courted your daughter.
Oh, Shanadore, I want to marry.

Now, Shanadore, will you give me your word to?
Oh, Shanadore, give me your word to,

To marry your daughter, I love her dearly.
//

[SANTIANA]
//
Santy Anna (I)

Santy Anna gained the day,
Hooray, Santy Anna!
Santy Anna gained the day,
All on the plains of Mexico!

Santy Anna fought for fame,
That's how Santy gained his name,

'Twas on the field of Molino del Rey,
Old Santy lost his leg that day,
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Lowlands (I)

Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
Five dollars a day is a stevedore's pay;
Five dollars and a half a day.

A dollar a day is a nigger's pay.
Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
I thought I heard our old man say,
Five dollars and a half a day

That he would give us grog today,
When we are leaving Mobile Bay.
//

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Lowlands (II)

In the Virginia lowlands I was born,
Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
I worked all day down in the corn,
My dollar and a half a day.

I packed my bag and I'm going away;
I'll make my way to Mobile Bay.

In Mobile Bay, where they work all day,
A-screwing cotton by the day,

Five dollars a day is a white man's pay,
A dollar and a half is a colored man's pay.
//

[MR. STORMALONG]
//
Stormalong

Old Stormalong was a gay old man,
[To me, way, old Stormalong!
Old Stormalong was a grand old man,
[Aye, aye, aye, Captain Stormalong.]

But now he's dead, poor old Stormy's gone;
We buried old Stormy off Cape Horn,

Poor old Stormy we'll ne'er see again.
We buried Poor Stormy off Cape Horn!

We rolled him up in a silvery shroud
We lowered him down with a golden chain.

Although he's gone, he's left us a son.
How I wis I was old Stormy's son!

I'd build a ship of a thousand ton
I'd load her down with New England Rum

I'd sail this wide world round and round
And every day my crew would get their rum!

I'd pour out two drinks for the shantyman (twice)

I'd pour out drinks for every man
And a double cup for the shantyman!
//

[GOODBYE FARE YOU WELL]
//
Homeward Bound (I)

"We're homeward bound!" I've heard them say; 

Good by, fare you well, good bye, fare you well! 

We're homeward bound to Mobile Bay. 

Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound! 



When we get there, won't we fly round! 

With the gals we find there we will raise merry hell. 


When we are hauling in the Waterloo Dock, 

Where the boys and the gals on the pier-head do flock, 



And one to the other you'll hear them say, 

"Here comes jolly Jack and his eighteen months' pay!" 



Then we'll go up to the Dog and the Bell, 

And the landlord he'll come in with his face all in smiles, 



Saying, "Drink up, Jack, for it's worth your while!" 

But when you money is all gone and spent, 



There's none to be borrowed nor none to be lent. 

Then you'll see him come in with a frown, 



And then you'll hear him to the other man say, 

"Get up there, Jack, and let John sit down!" 



When your pocketbook's full and your name it is John, 

But when you are broke then your name it is Jack.
//

The following 2 come from recordings shared by Barnicle.

[BLOW BOYS BLOW]
//
Blow, Boys, Blow (I)

Oh, blow away, I long to hear you,
Blow, boys blow!
Oh, blow away, I long to hear you,
Blow, my bully boys, blow!

[Etc., today/tomorrow, grief/sorrow, Congo River, from Bangor, from Arizona]
//

[HEAVE AWAY MY JOHNNIES]
//
Heave Away (I)

As I was a-walking one morning down by the Clarence (Waterloo) dock:
Heave away, my Johnny, heave a way-ay,
I overheard an emigrant conversing with Tapscott;
And a-way, my jolly boys, we're all bound to go!

"Good morning, Mr. Tapscott… etc

[etc, carry me over the sea, Joshuay Walker and the other the Kangaroo, ton of yallow male, Channel of St. George, stole all me yallow male!, stay all my life on the shore]
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jul 11 - 12:13 AM

From manuscript of Nathaniel Silsbee of Cohasset, Mass. Silsbee learned chanties (if I may generalize) at sea in 1880s, set them down in 1893. Melodies were taken down from his singing by Mrs. George C. Beach.

[DAMERAY]
//
John Dameray

Manuscript indicates "braces".

Aloft we all must go-oh,
John come down the backstay
In hail and frost and snow-oh,
John come down the backstay,
John Dameray!

John Dameray - John come down the backstay
John Dameray - John come down the backstay
John Dameray! [all twice]

My ma she wrote to me,
"My son, come home from sea."

Got no monay and no clo'es,
Am knocking out of doors.

My home I soon will be in,
And then we'll have some gin.

From sea I will keep clear,
And live by selling beer.
//

[BUNCH OF ROSES]
//
Come Down, You Bunch of Roses, Come Down

Oh, yes, my lads, we'll roll a-lee,
[Come down, you bunch of roses, come down,]
We'll soon be far away from sea,
[Come down, you bunch of roses, come down.]

Oh, you pinks and poses,
Come down, you bunch of roses, come down.
Oh, you pinks and poses,
Come down, you bunch of roses, come down.

Oh, what do yer s'pose we had for supper?
Black-eyed beans and bread and butter.

Oh Poll's in the garden picking peas.
She's got fine hair way down to her knees.

I went downstairs and peeked throug a crack,
And saw her staling a kiss from Jack.

I grabbed right hold of a piece of plank
and ran out quick and gave her a spank.
//

Notes also that Silsbee's collection has a variant of [GIMME DE BANJO] called "Banjyee".

***

Found in a journal of the 1860s, kept at sea by Capt. James A. Delap of Nova Scotia.

[LOWLANDS AWAY]
//
Lowlands (III)

A bully ship and bully crew,
Lowlands, lowlands, hurrah, my John,
And a bully mate to put us through,
My dollar and a half a day.

I wish I was in Liverpool,
With the Liverpool girls I would slip round.

Oh, heave her up and away we'll go
Oh, heave her up from down below.

Oh, a dollar and a half is a shellback's pay,
But a dollar and a half is pretty good pay.

Oh, rise, old woman, and let us in,
For the night is cold and I want some gin.
//

Subject: RE: The Advent and Development of Chanties
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jul 11 - 11:58 PM

Doerflinger consulted the manuscript collection of James H. Williams. All of these items appeared in Williams' 1909 article in The Independent, which we've already discussed.

Haul Away, Joe (II) [HAUL AWAY JOE]
Boney (II) [BONEY]
Whiskey, Johnny (II) [WHISKEY JOHNNY]
Blow the Man Down (II) [BLOW THE MAN DOWN]
Blow, Boys, Blow (II) [BLOW BOYS BLOW]
A Long Time Ago (II) [LONG TIME AGO]