Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Cuilionn
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 08:48 AM

Time to cast the (inter)nets wide!

On April 16th, 2010, the last sardine cannnery in Maine--and, I've heard, in the United States--closed its doors, ending a way of life and putting more than 100 people out of work.

Maine poet and Instigator of Sundry Artistic Outpourings & Expressive Outrageousness, Gary Lawless, grew up in a sardine-canning town and has been working on a series of public events to commemorate and celebrate this important element of Maine's history and culture. He notes that the plants employed mostly women, providing a rare source of woman-earned income as well as wonderful opportunities for otherwise isolated housewives to gather, tell stories, and entertain each other in the midst of their very hard work.

Lawless been seeking out songs and poems from "sardine cultures" around the world, many of which are featured on a blog called, "Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns"

Anyone else have any sardine/herring songs/poems to share, from your culture or others? I will alert him to this thread to facilitate further artistic in-gathering.

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Cuilionn
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 08:56 AM

Note-- Credit where credit is due: The project is co-directed by Gary Lawless and Karin Spitfire. Direct submissions may be sent to them at these e-mail addresses:

Gary Lawless [e-mail]
Karin Spitfire [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 10:29 AM

Cuilionn-

Great idea! There should be dozens of ditties associated with the canning of the "silver darlin's."

The best I can come up with is the "relation once removed" song "Canning Salmon" from the Pacific Northwest.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: greg stephens
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 10:34 AM

This is not a song or poem, but a sermon. But I think it offers the last word on sardines.

The Sermon
by Alan Bennett,
from the revue Beyond The Fringe.

Take a Pew
First verse of the fourteenth chapter of the Second Book of Kings: 'And he said, "But my brother Esau is an hairy man, but I am a smooth man."' Perhaps I might say the same thing in a different way by quoting you the words of that grand old English poet, W.E. Henley, who said:
"When that One Great Scorer comes
To mark against your name
It matters not who won or lost,
But how you played the game."
'But how you played the game.' Words very meaningful and significant for us here, together, tonight. Words which we might do very much worse than to consider. And I use this word 'consider' advisedly. Because I am using it, you see, in its original sense of 'con-sid—er', of putting one's self in the way of thinking about something.
I want us here, together, tonight to put ourselves in the way of thinking about ... to put ourselves in the way of thinking about, ummh ... what we ought to be putting ourselves in the way of thinking about.

As I was on my way here tonight, I arrived at the station and by an oversight I happened to go out by the way one is supposed to come in. As I was going out, an employee of the railway company hailed me, 'Hey Jack!' he shouted, 'Where do you think you're going?' That, at any rate, was the gist of what he said! But you know, I was grateful to him because, you see, he put me in mind of the kind of question I felt I ought to be asking you here tonight: 'Where do you think you're going?'

Very many years ago, when I was about as old as some of you are now, I went mountain climbing in Scotland with a friend of mine. And there was this mountain, you see, and we decided to climb it. All day we climbed—up and up and up —higher and higher and higher—until the valley lay very small below us, and the mists of the evening began to come down, and the sun to set. And when we reached the summit, we sat down to watch this magnificent sight of the sun going down behind the mountains. And as we watched, my friend, very suddenly, and violently, vomited.

Some of us think life's a bit like that, don't we? But it isn't. Life, you know, is rather like opening a tin of sardines. We all of us are looking for the key. And I wonder how many of you here tonight have wasted years of your lives looking behind the kitchen dressers of this life for that key. I know I have. Others think they've found the key, don't they? They roll back the lid of the sardine tin of life. They reveal the sardines—the riches of life—therein, and they get them out, and they enjoy them. But, you know, there's always a little bit in the corner you can't get out. I wonder is there a little bit in the corner of your life? I know there is in mine!

And so now I draw to a close. I want you, when you go out into the world, in times of trouble and sorrow and hopelessness and despair, amid the hurley-burley of modern life. If ever you're tempted to say: 'Stuff this for a lark!', I want you, at such times, to cast your minds back to the words of my first text to you tonight: 'But my brother Esau is an hairy man, but I am a smooth man.'

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 11:55 AM

I sing a couple of Mary Garvey's songs, "Cannery Shed [Stella]" and "Astoria's Bar" -- "Cannery Shed" will definitely be sung at today's Portsmouth, NH Press Room monthly Sea Music Singaround.

I almost have learned (but not well enough to trot out without Brucing it (using the words) "16 Tons of Herring Roe" (by Kim Zander, Karen Dean and others with revisions by Rika Ruebsaat -- I got it from Rika). Maybe today...

Linn

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 12:03 PM

What about a nice Caplin Chorale?

Subject: Lyr Add: SHOALS OF HERRING (Ewan MacColl)
From: Dennis the Elder
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 12:37 PM

Heres one from England
SHOALS OF HERRING
(Ewan MacColl)
With our nets and gear we're faring
On the wild and wasteful ocean.
Its there that we hunt and we earn our bread
As we hunted for the shoals of herring

O it was a fine and a pleasant day
Out of Yarmouth harbor I was faring
As a cabinboy on a sailing lugger
For to go and hunt the shoals of herring

O the work was hard and the hours long
And the treatment, sure it took some bearing
There was little kindness and the kicks were many
As we hunted for the shoals of herring

O we fished the Swarth and the Broken Bank
I was cook and I'd a quarter sharing
And I used to sleep standing on my feet
And I'd dream about the shoals of herring

O we left the homegrounds in the month of June
And to Canny Shiels we soon were bearing
With a hundred cran of silver darlings
That we'd taken from the shoals of herring

Now you're up on deck, you're a fisherman
You can swear and show a manly bearing
Take your turn on watch with the other fellows
While you're searching for the shoals of herring

In the stormy seas and the living gales
Just to earn your daily bread you're daring
From the Dover Straits to the Faroe Islands
As you're following the shoals of herring

O I earned my keep and I paid my way
And I earned the gear that I was wearing
Sailed a million miles, caught ten million fishes
We were sailing after shoals of herring

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 01:36 PM

Link to Shoals of Herring sung by Ewan McColl.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Susan of DT
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 01:42 PM

Lots of herring songs in the DT, a couple of canning, not much mentioning sardines

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 01:46 PM

'Come all ye fisher lasses' sung by the Fisher lasses and others, featured on 'Singing the Fishing' Radio Ballad by MacColl and Parker.

Many many versions of The Herring's Head.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: sciencegeek
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 04:18 PM

a song that captures some of ironies of the industry is Stan Roger's Tiny Fish for Japan.

Be it the closure of a cannery or fishing ground, the story is much the same. And global warming will result in even more changes to where the fish and shellfish will be able to survive. What is the point of "profits" if the end result is unsustainable. We do have a talent for killing the goose that lays the golden egg.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Bounty Hound
Date: 17 Apr 10 - 06:43 PM

Three score & Ten, song about the floods on the East Coast in the early fifties, that wrecked the Herring fleet.

John

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 08:55 AM

Caller Herring by Lady Nairn (Caller means fresh) see this thread.

thread.cfm?threadid=70892#1210691

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: GUEST,Willa
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 08:55 AM

Above poster was me; will have to reset my cookie again.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 11:42 AM

We are three jolly fishermen' Check out www.yorkshirefolksong.net for an audio version and text and provenance. It is related to the song that Lady Nairn based her 'Caller Herrin' on.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Bettynh
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 12:35 PM

Jay O'Callahan's story "The Herring Shed" centers on a chant:

Thumb in the gill
Open the mouth
Slip it on the rod in the herring shed

It's the story of 15 year old Maggie Thomas from Nova Scotia in WW2 who goes to work while her brothers are away to war.

Subject: Lyr Add: SILVER DARLINGS
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 03:21 PM

Here's one (among many) from Scotland

SILVER DARLINGS

O herrings are harvests that fishermen glean
Where flashes the silver through deep ocean green,
But when herring harvests reach old Aberdeen
They're known as the silver darlings.

CHORUS:

Silver darlings on Aberdeen quay,
Brought by the fisherman home from the sea
To the city that stands 'twixt the Don and the Dee,
The home of the silver darlings.

The boats leave the harbour, their wake spreading wide
And empty they roll with the swell of the tide.
O soon may their hatches be thrown open wide
For a catch of the silver darlings.

With ice in the rigging and death down below,
The gales screaming wild and the glass hanging low,
The wives and the widows are women who know
The price of the silver darlings.

CC

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Charley Noble
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 09:47 PM

CC-

Nice one!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: mg
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 10:56 PM

I have a newish one about a relative from Croatia who actually did fish the sardines in the Adriatic. Then he comes to Seattle (by way of South Africa where he acquired diamonds) and works on the docks as a fish packer and his brother was a box builder, or vise versa.

Tune is I ride an old paint

I maka the box I packa the fish
I lay them out nice and tight flat as you wish
I take to the market I pack in the ice
Oh my dear fishes now don't you like nice

Swim around, swim around
The country we live in is called Puget Sound

I come from the old world I fish the sardine
They call me a WOP here now what do that mean
I work with the Chinaman Musselman Greek
All color they come in all language they speak

Swim around swim around
The country we live in is called Puget Sound

My brother Domingo he work on the docks
He painta the picture that go on the box
He make the fish happy he jump in the air
Oh my dear fishes I catcha you there

Swim around swim around
The country we live in is called Puget Sound

I tella my sons you go to the sea
You be the captain not fishpack like me
I sitta them down and many times told
The sea is the silver the fish is the gold

Swim around swim around
The country we live in is called Puget Sound

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 05:24 PM

Commander Crabbe, 'The Silver Darlin's' is a song by Brian McNeill (lyrics) and Dougie Pincock (tune).

Give me a little time and I'll post a song called 'Ein Hering und eine Makrele' (A Herring and a Mackerel) about a submarine courtship and its dreadful end.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 05:58 PM

"Herring Croon", performed nicely by Gordon Bok. I am unsure if he wrote the tune/lyrics, but some googling should discover the credit.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 19 Apr 10 - 08:05 PM

Further to my earlier post here it is on the tube! for those who want the tune.

Silver Darlings - Bruce Davies (Halfin, Hulskramer, McLean)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Klgk2ojkQU

CC

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 05:58 PM

Apologies, CC - I was referring to The Silver Darlin's

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: iancarterb
Date: 20 Apr 10 - 10:54 PM

guest mg, I don't know what fishery prompted your Cannery Shed, but it's one of my favorites. It can surely be fitted to many dangerous and endangered occupations and resources.
Carter

Subject: Lyr Add: THE FISH GUTTING LASSIE
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 05:10 PM

Suzanne, no apologies needed.

Here's another two.

THE FISH GUTTING LASSIE
(Believed to be from Orney Folk Group FRIDERAY but I may be wrong)

I'm a fish-guttin' lassie, guttin' herrin's me trade
I'll never be wealthy, nae fortunes I've made
For tenpence a barrel is all we are paid
Life's hard wi' the herrin' shoal

Chorus:
For we'll gut an' well clean an' we'll salt them away
Fill all the barrels and get a day's pay
And when the job's over we'll be on our way
We'll follow the herrin' shoal

For the work is gey hard and the weather is cauld
But we sing as we wait for the catch of pure gold
When the drifters sail in, what a sight we'll behold
Hurrah for the herrin' shoal

For we'll gut and we'll clean in the sun and the rain
Back almost breakin', hands stiff wi' pain,
But when next season comes, we'll be back here again,
Along wi' the herrin' shoal

Well the season is over the work is all done.
The men with their boats and the herring have gone.
We'll pack up our kit and then head away home.
Along wi' the herring shoals.

And

WHAUR WILL WE GANG
(Andrew Mitchell, Ullapool)

I mind the days when they worked at the driftnet
All the Clydesmen and the herring sae fine
But a' these tried methods have been overtaken
For the sake o' fortune and keeping wi' time

And what will we dae when the Minch is a' finished
And what will we dae when the herrin's a' done
And whaur will we gang wi' oor pursers and trawlers
And how will we ever pay off the bank loan

There's still some fine shotties o' mackerel off Cornwall
So we'll a' head doon sooth and scrape off what's left there
We'll fill the fishhold and we'll nae fear the future
And soon there'll be mackerel aff Cornwall nae mair

And what will we dae when the mackerel's all finished
And what will we dae when the herrings's all done
And whaur will we gang wi' oor pursers and trawlers
And how will we ever pay off the bank loan

Blue whiting's in season oot there aff St. Kilda
So we'll rig a deep trawl and we'll all head out west
With tow after tow that's been landed for fishmeal
Blue whiting will go just the same as the rest.

I mind the days when they worked at the driftnet
All the Clydesmen and the herring sae fine
But a' these tried methods have been overtaken
For the sake o' fortune and keeping wi' time

CC

Subject: Lyr Add: WHAUR WILL WE GANG (Andrew Mitchell)
From: Commander Crabbe
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 05:25 PM

OOPS!

Missed a verse from the second one, corrected version;

WHAUR WILL WE GANG
(Andrew Mitchell, Ullapool)

I mind the days when they worked at the driftnet
All the Clydesmen and the herring sae fine
But a' these tried methods have been overtaken
For the sake o' fortune and keeping wi' time

And what will we dae when the Minch is a' finished
And what will we dae when the herrin's a' done
And whaur will we gang wi' oor pursers and trawlers
And how will we ever pay off the bank loan

There's still some fine shotties o' mackerel off Cornwall
So we'll a' head doon sooth and scrape off what's left there
We'll fill the fishhold and we'll nae fear the future
And soon there'll be mackerel aff Cornwall nae mair

And what will we dae when the mackerel's all finished
And what will we dae when the herrings's all done
And whaur will we gang wi' oor pursers and trawlers
And how will we ever pay off the bank loan

Blue whiting's in season oot there aff St. Kilda
So we'll rig a deep trawl and we'll all head out west
With tow after tow that's been landed for fishmeal
Blue whiting will go just the same as the rest.

And what will we dae when the blue whitings all finished.
And what will we dae when the blue whitings all done.
And whaur will we gang wi' oor pursers and trawlers
And how will we ever pay off the bank loan

I mind the days when they worked at the driftnet
All the Clydesmen and the herring sae fine
But a' these tried methods have been overtaken
For the sake o' fortune and keeping wi' time

CC

Subject: Lyr Add: HERRING CROON (Gordon Bok)
From: GUEST,julia L
Date: 21 Apr 10 - 05:36 PM

Gordon Bok's Herring Croon



HERRING CROON
Gordon Bok


Where do you go, little herring?
What do you see, tail-and-fin?
"Blue and green, cold and dark,
Seaweed growing high,
Hills a hundred fathom deep
Where the dead men lie,
Dogfish eyes and mackerels' eyes,
And they hunger after me;
Net or weir, I don't care,
Catch me if you can."

Where do you go, little boat?
(Tar and timber, plank and sail)
"I go to green bays,
Lift them under me,
Cold grey combing seas
Come to bury me,
Rocky jaws and stony claws,
And they hunger after me;
Harbors cold and deep and bold,
Wish that I could see."

What do you see, fisherman?
(Poor old sailor, blood and bone)
"Mackerel skies, mares' tales;
Reef and furl and steer.
Poor haul and hungry days.
Rotten line and gear,
Snow wind and winter gales.
And they hunger after me;
Net or weir, I don't care,
Catch you if I can.

Where do you go, little herring?
What do you see, tail-and-fin?
"Blue and green, cold and dark,
Seaweed growing high,
Hills a hundred fathom deep
Where the dead men lie,
Dogfish eyes and mackerels' eyes,
And they hunger after me;
Net or weir, I don't care,
Catch me if you can."

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: mg
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 01:20 AM

Here is a you tube one sung and???written?? by John Connolly..Grimsby Lads..not sure it is about herring but could be perhaps.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3riwciAx6Sk&feature=related

Someone was asking about cannery shed...that is about salmon on the lower Columbia river. ..at Stella near my hometown. mg

Subject: Lyr Add: EIN HERING UND EINE MAKRELE
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 07:15 PM

EIN HERING UND EINE MAKRELE
(Trad)

Ein Hering und eine Makrele
War'n ein Herz sowohl als auch Seele
Er schwamm mit ihr durch die Kanäle
Damit der Makrele nichts fehle

Sie kamen ins offne Gewässer
Da wurde der Hering schon kesser
Er sprach, Sei mein Weib, das wär besser
Sie sprach, Ah du süßer Erpresser

So wurde die Ehe geschlossen
Sie haben das Leben genossen
Er küsste ihr ganz unverdrossen
Die Kiemen, das Maul und die Flossen

Was nützt es, dass ich es verhehle
Sie wurde nun bald Ma-Makrele
Er sprach, Eh ich mich drum quäle
Erlaubt mir, dass ich mich empfehle

Sie senkte gekränkt ihre Lider
Und blickte empört auf ihn nieder
Ihr Mannsleut seid herzlose Brüder
Im Fischgericht seh'n wir uns wieder

Der Schuft wurd' geschnappt in den Fjorden
Dort fängt man den Hering in Horden
Makrelchen ist irgendwo im Norden
Goldbraun geräuchert geworden

Ein Wiedersehn gab's, wenn's auch spat war
Im Fischgeschäft, das delikat war
Erkannt sie ihn, weil sie auf Draht war
Obwohl er schon Heringssalat war

Tone: satirical
And for all those who learned German at school: No, it isn't always grammatically correct, but that's part of its charm. I learned it in childhood and didn't realise I've still got it by heart.

Rough translation:
A herring there was and a mackerel
Falling in love head over heel
Together they swam the canals
He provided well for his girl

But when the open sea beckoned
His manner became much more forward
He said, Be my wife, fellow sailor
She called him her sweet blackmailer

Eventually the wedding went through
They enjoyed their life to the fu'
He never tired of kisses
To her gills, her mouth and her finsses

It's no good me trying to conceal
That soon she became a mum-mackerel
He said, This is not what I wanted
Allow me to make my exit

She turned her sad eyes upon him
In outrage looked down upon him
You menfolk are a heartless horde
I'll see you again at the fish court*

They captured the cad in the fjords
Where the herring is caught in hordes
Our mackerel was smoked up north somewhere
A deliciously golden brown colour

They did meet again in the fall
At the front of the fishmonger's stall
She spotted him with her canny eye
Even though he'd been turned into fish pie

(*untranslateable wordplay on the fact that dish and judicial court are the same word in German: Gericht)

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: mg
Date: 24 Apr 10 - 07:20 PM

Is the boatie rows about herring? I don't know. Lots of Scots fishing songs it seems are..wasn't that the biggest fishery? I don't know. Maybe mackeral?

The boatie rows the boatie rows the boatie rows full weel
And muckle lighter is the load when love bears up the creel

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 25 Apr 10 - 07:58 PM

Correction - the herring and the mackerel aren't trad. The tune is by Richard Germer (who popularised the song in the Sixties), the lyrics by Benno Strandt.

Also, I missed the fourth verse. Would some mudelf please put it in its place in my post above? Thanks.

Sie flitterten woch in den Wogen
und als ein paar Wochen verflogen,
da wurde ihr so seltsam im Rogen,
sie hat keine Miene verzogen.

They honeyed the moon in the ocean
And when a few weeks had gone by them
Her roe behaved stranger than she did
She never even batted an eyelid

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 Jul 10 - 03:18 PM

Not a song, that I could find, but maybe there should be one about the following (this seemed a likely thread for it.

From a newspaper clipping:

A SUB TO SEE

The Onyx, the only nonnuclear British submarine to have been used in the Falklands War, has been rescued by the Warship Preservation Trust, which plans to turn it into a tourist attraction.

The ship is nicknamed the "Sardine's Revenge" in accordance with a Salvador Dali fable in which a sardine watches a submarine pass and tells his children: "There goes our revenge, a great tin made of sheet iron in which men, covered in oil, are held inside, pressed against one another."

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: pavane
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 05:33 AM

A Dutch ancestor of mine ran the "Dutch Herring Fishery company" in Billingsgate, London between 1810-1825. He seems to have had his own boat in Yarmouth, and he pickled herrings in the Dutch manner for local consumption and for export to the West Indes. (Won a gold medal in 1814 for them).

I don't know of any associated songs, but would be interested in finding some.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: pavane
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 05:46 AM

Historical background:
The supply of Dutch Herrings, a cheap food, to Britain was interrupted by Napoleon's invasion of the Netherlands in 1795.
Quantities had been exported to the West Indies, as food for the slaves. A prize was offered for someone who could reproduce the Dutch pickling process in England.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: KathWestra
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 02:31 PM

Pittenweem Jo (recorded at least once by Scots-Texan singer/folklorist Ed Miller) has a great chorus:

Pittenweem, Pittenweem
She's every fisher laddie's dream.
She guts the herrin' doon by the quay
And she saves her kisses just for me.

The song's image of kissing someone who's been gutting herring all day is vivid. Must be true love, indeed.

My late friend Mary LaMarca and her husband George Stephens sang Pittenweem Jo and Fisher Lassies as a medley, and had a knack for finding and singing a lot of really good, if depressing, "dying industry" songs.

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 09:45 PM

Anyone know this?

I sail-a the ocean blue
I catch me a-plenty o' fish
The rain-a come down pell mell
The wind-a go through me - swish!
Oh Mary Anne my good companion
Viva Garibaldi!
Viva ! Viva! Viva 'tal-i-an! Ho!

My mom used to sing it

julia L

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 09:48 PM

Made me think of
Yo Ho Little Fishie
Don't cry, don't cry
You'll be a big fishie by and by
which I learned from Bill Bonyun..

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: GUEST,number 6
Date: 26 Jul 10 - 10:14 PM

Viva a Sardinha!


biLL

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: GUEST,George Stephens
Date: 27 Jul 10 - 12:40 AM

The first "Related thread" above has several references to Liza Carthy's version of the herring song: ("There was an old man and he came from Kinsale, sing aber um vale, sing aber o ling"... (or some such)). Anglo notes there that Banddogs (Nic Jones et al.) earlier recorded that version, noting it was the most singable they knew. Mary and I thought so too, and sang it as our one "cheerful" dying industry song.

George

Subject: RE: Sardine Songs, Herring Hymns
From: keberoxu
Date: 13 Oct 21 - 07:51 PM

Charles G. Leland wrote the following English translation of
"Häring und Auster" by Josef Viktor von Scheffel.


THE HERRING

A herring loved an oyster,
An oyster in the South;
And all the herring longed for
Was a kiss from her pearly mouth.

But the oyster, she was scornful,
And always stayed at home;
Shut up in her proud shell castle,
Where never a kiss could come.

But one summer-eve she opened
Her shell by a special grace:
For she fain in the ocean mirror
Would look at her lovely face.

The herring came swimming quickly,
And darted his head right in;
And, "Now," said he, "or never,
Sweet love, a kiss I'll win!"

But as to reach his darling,
Too far his head he leaned,
SNAP! came the shells together,
And he was guillotined.

All in the rosy sunlight
He floated from the shore;
And from his throat came gurgling,
"I'll never love oyster more!"


pages 146 - 147 of
Gaudeamus! Humorous Poems translated from the German of Joseph Victor Scheffel and others, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1872.