Randy Dandy O

Subject: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 10:49 AM

Some hopefully useful background for Gibb Sahib, Charley and Lighter.
It seems that this chantey was well-known as a shore song in the late 18th century. I have several versions of a shore song with similar refrains, but unfortunately as yet no tune.

The refrains are
I randy dandy, O
With my rally-pin, gally-pin, dandy, O

It would seem therefore that these are probably the origins of the 'rollocking' and 'galloping' in versions of the chantey, as the shore songs predate chanteying records. Conjecture that Hugill's informants sang 'bollocky' or 'bollocking' may well be true but the originals are much closer to 'rollocking' and 'galloping'.

Rally-pin and gally-pin may well derive from these 2 so we need to check if these actual words existed first.

I have 4 versions of the 'Countryman's Visit to Bartholomew Fair' but the oldest and longest seems to be the one printed by J. Evans and Sons of Long Lane in their songster titled 'Merry Songs' containing 19 songs of which this is number 14. But of equal interest is the song at number 18 in the same songster titled 'New Randy Dandy O' suggesting perhaps that both songs may be based on an earlier one unless number 18 is based on number 14.

Both songs to follow:-

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 11:02 AM

Countryman's Visit to Bartholomew Fair

I came to London t'other day
I randy, dandy, O
All for to sell a load of hay
With my rally-pin, gally-pin, dandy, O.

My cousin said, when I came there, I randy etc.
O cousin stop, and see the fair, With my etc.

I took my cousin Poll's advice
I sold my hay, and got my price.

Next day, oh what a great ado!
'Twas finer than a grand review.

I saw a man they call'd the May'r
He came for to proclaim the fair.

And when I saw this man approach
I wish'd to Poll I had his coach.

As soon as he was gone away,
They fools they all began to play.

The salt-box and rolling-pin,
They rattled for to call them in.

What fun it was to see the shows,
The dog bite off poor Punch's nose.

I got among the sausage stalls,
All nice and hot they loud did bawl.

I being both hungry and dry
I feasted on their stinking fry.

I lost my cousin in the fair,
Then I was shov'd I know not where.

I met a lady fine and gay,
She took me for to see the play.

The play indeed was very fine,
And the lady she was very kind.

I with this lady did regale
With wine and cake, and cake and ale.

I drank till I was almost blind
And cousin Poll I could not find.

A coach was call'd from off the rank
And drove us to Saltpetre bank.

Altho' this girl was dress'd so nice,
The bed was swarm'd with bugs and lice.

Of all the money for the hay,
I had but sixpence left the next day.

Then I did stamp and curse and swear,
I'd come no more unto the fair.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 11:38 AM

New Randy Dandy, O

A hearty lad, as mustard strong,
At mischief ever handy O.
Drunk as a fiddler all day long
I roar'd out randy dandy O.
Until a maid came in my way,
Genteel and quite the dandy O.
Dull as a cat I sigh all day,
No more sing randy dandy O.
The fops attend as thick as hail
To serve her all are handy O,
Whilst I, as dead as a door nail,
Can't roar out randy dandy O.
I'd jump about like any flea,
And buy both ale and brandy O.
Wou'd she but to my wish agree,
And again sing randy dandy O.
I'll say to her, my pretty chick
The church is near and handy O,
Let us like birds together stick,
And again sing randy dandy O.
Should she say no, I'll be sped,
A tree and rope are handy O;
But if 'tis yes -- why we'll to bed
And sing about randy dandy O.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 12:22 PM

Steve, I believe I have another "Randy Dandy" from the same period. Will check.

The OED has no entry for "rall(e)y-pin" or "gall(e)y-pin" that I can discover.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 12:53 PM

Steve-

Excellent work, and the first song is a classic!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 12:54 PM

Oh, and what is the source of your two songs?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 02:18 PM

Charley
British Library, 1077 g 47, songster 30. The best date I can at the moment give for J Evans and Sons is about 1815. This particular series of songsters, 34 of them, are full of mostly songs from the pleasure gardens such as Ranelagh and Vauxhall. They each have about 20-25 songs in them.

Will check my cant dictionaries for the 2 terms. Dandies of course were showily dressed OTT playboys of the time and at their peak round about then in London. There are numerous song titles that start with 'The Dandy .....' and a randy dandy seems pretty obvious.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Charley Noble
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 03:39 PM

Steve-

What a find!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 09:47 PM

THE NEW PORTABLE PILLORY.
         A late Adventure rhymified.

Air.—"Giovanni's leading his usual life."

Last Saturday night, as a man In a gig,
Hey, randy dandy O,
From Norwich returned, with a drop in his wig,
With his galloping, randy dandy, O!

                   II.

As he cantered on gaily by Forehoe wood
Hey, randy dandy, O.
He was robbed of his cash by a very new
       mode,
With his galloping, randy dandy, O!

                   III.

First a rope slung slyly across the place,
      Hey, randy dandy, O,
Rather unceremoniously greeted his face,
And caused him to come to a stand-ie, O!

IV.
Then up jumps a fellow behind his back,
Hey, randy dandy, O, With a long wooden pincers he throttled his neck,
With bis galloping, randy dandy, O !

Some stiffen their cravats with wire
          plastic,
Hay, randy dandy, O!
And some with thin whalebone so smooth and

elastic,
Sing, galloping randy dandy, O!
             XI.

But of all the stlfTeners that dandy e 'er wore,
Hey, randy dandy, O, Who e'er beard of a stlffener of timber before ?
I appeal to any dandy, O !
Descend all ye Spirits that ever yet spread The dominion of Humbug o'er land and V. o'er sea,
Zounds, sir! he exclaims, you've forgotten Descend on our B-tt-rw-rth's biblical head, your cravat, Thrice-Great, Bibliopolist, Saint, and
m '
Hey, randy dandy, O,
Here's a new patent stock, you are
         to bave it,
Provided you tip like a dandy, O!

VI.
Poor Caddrivold sat with his head in the fork,
Hey, randy dandy, O,
Just like Mr. Dilberry drawing the cork,
With his galloping randy dandy, O !

VII.
Thought be—had I got but my pocket artillery,
Hey, rnndy dandy, O ; You should soon have a stiffening pill for your pillory,
Sweeter than sugar candy, O !
VIII.
Yet rinding himself in no humour for joking,
Hey, randy dandy, O,
He tipped up the dibs, just to save him from

.OJ •
Sing, galloping randy dandy, O!
IX.
Then freed from the pincers so lithe and so
          lim berry,
Hey, randy dandy, O,
He cantered away Ave pounds lighter to
         Kimberly,
Galloping randy dandy, O!

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 10:04 PM

Ignore that. Try again:

This is from "The Spirit of the Times" (London) (May 6, 1826), p. 466. An illustration on the previous page shows the robbery in progress. A robber is restraining the struggling victim by catching his neck from behind in large wooden pincers:

          THE NEW PORTABLE PILLORY.
         A late Adventure rhymified.

Air.—"Giovanni's leading his usual life."

Last Saturday night, as a man In a gig,
      Hey, randy dandy O,
From Norwich returned, with a drop in his wig,
      With his galloping, randy dandy, O!

                   II.

As he cantered on gaily by Forehoe wood
      Hey, randy dandy, O.
He was robbed of his cash by a very new mode,
      With his galloping, randy dandy, O!

                   III.

First a rope slung slyly across the place,
      Hey, randy dandy, O,
Rather unceremoniously greeted his face,
And caused him to come to a stand-ie, O!

                   IV.

Then up jumps a fellow behind his back,
      Hey, randy dandy, O,
With a long wooden pincers he throttled his neck,
      With his galloping, randy dandy, O!

                   V.

Zounds, sir! he exclaims, you've forgotten your cravat.
      Hey, randy dandy, O,
Here's a new patent stock, you are welcome to have it,
      Provided you tip like a dandy O!

                   VI.
Poor Caddrivold sat with his head in the fork,
      Hey, randy dandy, O,
Just like Mr. Dilberry drawing the cork,
      With his galloping randy dandy, O!

                   VII.

Thought he—had I got but my pocket artillery,
      Hey, randy dandy, O;
You should soon have a stiffening pill for your pillory,
      Sweeter than sugar candy, O!

                     VIII.

Yet finding himself in no humour for joking,
      Hey, randy dandy, O,
He tipped up the dibs, just to save him from choking,
      Sing, galloping randy dandy, O!

                      IX.
Then freed from the pincers so lithe and so limberly,
      Hey, randy dandy, O,
He cantered away five pounds lighter to Kimberly,
      Galloping randy dandy, O!

             MORAL REFLECTION.

                      X.

Some stiffen their cravats with wire made plastic,
      Hey, randy dandy, O!
And some with thin whalebone so smooth and elastic,
      Sing, galloping randy dandy, O!

                      XI.

But of all the stiffeners that dandy e'er wore,
      Hey, randy dandy, O,
Who e'er heard of a stiffener of timber before?
      I appeal to any dandy, O!


("A drop in his wig" apparently means "tipsy.")

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 10:11 PM

And another, from "The Universal Songster, or Museum of Mirth" (London: John Fairburn, 1826), p. 394:

          FOR A PRECIOUS ROW I'M JUST IN CUE.
            Air—"Hey randy dandy O!"—-(Poole.)
   
'Tis now the very time of night,
Hey randy dandy O!
When ghosts to stalk about delight,
With their gallopping randy dandy O!

'Tis now the time when church-yards yawn,
Hey randy dandy O!
And let their tenants out till morn,
With their gallopping randy dandy O!

For a precious row I'm just in cue;
Hey randy dandy O !
Some mischief I should like to do,
With my gallopping randy dandy O!

But first I'll to my mother go,
Hey randy dandy O!
And what is what I'll soon let her know,
With my gallopping randy dandy O!

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 06 Nov 12 - 10:31 PM

And another. From W. T. Moncrieff's "operatic extravaganza," "Giovanni in London," I, ii, in "The London Stage," Vol. III (London: Sherwood, n.d. [ca1825]). The "extravaganza" was written and performed in 1817 and is based on "Don Juan."

                SONG.- [sung by] Leporello

                   Air—"Hey randy dandy,O!"

Giovanni is leading his usual life;
Hey, randy dandy, O!
He's come here to make love to another man's wife,
With his galloping randy dandy, O!

Three bottles he drank at a tavern to-day,
Hey randy dandy, O!
So it's odds, but there'll soon be the devil to pay,
   With his galloping randy dandy, O!

I've brought him a ladder, and brought him a lamp,
Hey randy dandy, O!
For a notion I have, when he means to decamp,
That he'll find them dev'lish handy, O!

I don't know how it is, but I feel to-night,
Hey randy dandy, O!
So I'll go to the whiskey-shop down by the right.
And get a few quarterns of brandy, O!


[Later:]

Like master's my spirits are wondrous prime,
   Hey! randy, dandy, O!
So the ladder and lanthorn will come just in time,
   And he'll find them both devilish handy, O!


"For a Precious Row" (above) comes originally from John Poole's "Hamlet Travestie" (London: Richardson, 1810), p. 37.


The appearance of these "Randy Dandy" songs in the 1810s and '20s suggests that the shanty (i.e., its pattern) is really one of the earliest of the genre.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 07 Nov 12 - 02:50 PM

Okay, so adding Jon's 3 songs to my 2, until further evidence surfaces here are some probabilities/possibilities.

All are roughly the same period.
They could all be inspired by an earlier song.
2 of Jon's give as the tune 'Hey Randy Dandy, O' and one of mine is titled 'The NEW Randy Dandy O' but the other one of Jon's is to another named tune 'Giovanni etc.' To me this suggests that the Norwich song might be the original. Now we have another word in the title 'Hey' we can follow this up, as well as the Giovanni connection.

Jim, Michael, Mick, Q, anything to add?

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 07 Nov 12 - 04:40 PM

Sorry Steve - I've just looked at the thread and haven't much to add.

I can't find any sources for the "Hey Randy Dandy" tune. The Poole play Hamlet Travestie (1810) seems to use existing tunes for the songs: Here We Go Up,Up,Up; Hey Randy Dandy O; Giles Scroggins' Ghost; Our Polly Is A Sad Slut; Dorothy Dumps. So I presume Hey Randy Dandy was already in existence as a tune (presumably with corresponding song!)

Mick

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 06:48 AM

The fixed 1810 date is still useful, Mick. Cheers.

Further deliberations. If we can't place 'rally-pin' and 'gally-pin' as actual words then it would seem logical to say that perhaps 'gally-pin' is a misheard 'gallopin' and that 'rallopin' is simply a nonsense rhyming word in the same vein as 'super-duper'

Alternatively another longshot 'rally-pin' could be derived from 'reloping' which would go well with 'gallopin' as both being terms associated with hunting. I have no idea what 'relope' means as I only know of its use in the Copper Family hunting song 'Sportsmen Arouse'. I'd guess it means hold back a bit, or reign in. the word isn't in my Chambers or any of my slang dictionaries.

The word 'rollocking' which features in the chanteys may turn up something in its derivation.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 08:06 AM

"Relope" is unlisted by the latest revision of the OED as well as by the magisterial, multi-volume "English Dialect Dictionary" of ca1900.

Nor do they include anything similar.

My best guess is that "relope" was an individual mishearing (and rationalization) of "elope" (run away).

The OED derives to "rollick" provisionally from a blend of "romp" and "frolic." What is more interesting is that the word doesn't appear till the 1780s or later.

I imagine that "gally-pin" and "rally-pin" are simply intended as nonsense words, possibly inspired by "galloping" and "rollicking."

Steve, Edith Fowke collected from a Canadian lumberjack ca1960 that contains, IIRC, "gallopin', rallopin' dandy." If you're unfamiliar with it, I may be able to dig it out.

If not, I can dig it out and post it.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 01:01 PM

I've got most of Edith's stuff. What title would it be under? This would add weight to my first suggestion.

You could be right re 'elope' as in hare hunting the huntsmen would often sheer off when the hare was tiring especially if the hare had given them a good run, in hopes of it giving another good run another day. Huntsmen often give this as an excuse for what they do. They then only catch the weak ones and it's a form of culling the weak stock, ensuring a healthy stock to continue breeding. Of course this doesn't take into account the stress to the animal.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 04:05 PM

Steve, my files have become unmanageable. But the song I'm thinking of appears in Fowke's article on "Bawdy Ballads from Ontario."

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 05:10 PM

Ah no, I won't have it then. Do you mind if I put a request on Ballad List for it if you can't find it? It would be interesting to see if it was related to any of the 6 songs we have so far. Ed would surely have a copy.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 07:29 PM

Still no tune for Hey Randy Dandy, though I did come across this at Levy:

She's Sweet As Sugar Candy, Oh! or Galloping Randy, Dandy, Oh, written and composed by C.J.Sansom, published in London by H. D'Alcorn & Co., 351 Oxford St., no date.

which has the chorus:

  Oh I, oh I, oh
  She's as sweet as sugar candy, oh,
  We're going to be wed in a week or so
  Galloping Randy Randy oh.


If, as Hugill says, galloping was a camouflaged word in the printed choruses (of the shanty), it seems at least possible that it came from galloping in the first place!

Mick

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 08 Nov 12 - 07:59 PM

Steve, I'm at a loss to find it. But the article appeared in 1966 in a Festschrift for the anthologist B. A. Botkin, and the singer was named Tom Brandon.

Another version of the bawdy song is in Randolph-Legman, No. 148. The refrains there are "With a rio, rio randy O!" and "With a gallopin' roar an' a dandy O!"

Very interestingly, that singer's tune is that of the shanty, "Blow the Man Down." He learned the song in Missouri in the 1880s.

The story line and words are similar to those of Hugill's bawdy version of "Hoodah, Hoodah," which he sang at Mystic in 1988 to the tune of "Camptown Races." With three or four texts from different times and places, it seems likely that it was one of the most popular bawdy shanti, with lyrics fitted to whatever shanty tune was convenient. (Legman notes, but doesn't offer, a version he collected in 1964.)

Someone on the ballad list can undoubtedly pass you Fowke's text long before I can find it. They might even know of additional ones.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 07:54 AM

Fun to follow this discussion.

"Hugill says, galloping was a camouflaged word in the printed choruses"

I always assumed "galloping" was a substitute for "bollocking" but maybe it was the original unvarnished term.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 10:19 AM

Charlie

I did mean that (something like) bollocking randy dandy O was derived from the galloping randy dandy O of the shore songs and then camouflaged back to galloping in the printed versions of the shanty.

Mick

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 10:40 AM

Colcord gives "Galloping" without apology.

Both words were presumably in use.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 12:19 PM

Hugill refers to both his own version from Harding and the version Colcord published from Robinson as being camouflaged. ("...but I have left mine a little nearer to the original suggestive word found in one refrain (ie rollocking - MCP)...The former (ie Robinson - MCP) calls it Galloping Randy Dandy O! - the word 'galloping' being the camouflaged one"). So he presumably thought the Colcord version had been toned down too. Whether this was based on his own supposition and experience or he had any absolute knowledge of this he doesn't say.

Mick

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 12:26 PM

I don't know how he could have had absolute knowledge that "galloping" was never used, particularly since it appears in the earliest related texts.

He may never have heard it, of course. Robinson's recollection went back   to the 1860s, nearly two generations before Hugill went to sea.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 12:27 PM

Certainly no shantyman would have sung "bollocking randy dandy O" if he knew the Captain's daughter, Ms. Colcord, was up and about on deck. He would have turned beet red, if he had sung that line only to turn and see her diligently writing it down with a twinkle in her eye.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 02:41 PM

Mick, I would date that D'Alcorn piece at 1867 give or take a year or two, going by his address and the stock number. At least this shows the line was still being recycled as late as this in London.

Do we have any evidence that Colcord bowdlerised? Did she leave any mss or field notes behind? Gibb would know.

Regarding Stan's writings in SFTSS, I think by now we should be taking these with a pinch of old salt. Yes, he had a lot of experience and knowledge, but he could be quite creative at times.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 03:21 PM

According to Legman, Colcord expurgated (deleted material)against her wishes and at her publisher's request.

I see no evidence that she bowdlerized (altered) what she actually printed.

I do know that at some point she received a few texts from a retired American merchant sailor that included two or three impossible-to-expurgate songs, which she did not print in any form.

She forwarded them to Robert W. Gordon, and they are among his papers. I made photocopies years ago, but I can't guarantee I know where they are.

My feeling is that if Colcord, in 1924, was ready to publish any bawdy shanties at all without alteration, they could not have been very bawdy by today's standards. ("Abram Brown" and "A-Rovin'" in relatively brief forms may have been typical.) It would nonetheless have taken a good deal of nerve to print them in full, and might even have been in violation of the U.S. postal laws of the day. (Recall Hugill's publisher-induced inhibitions forty-five years later.)

The amount of bawdy material Colcord might have learned on her father's ship in the 1890s must have been pretty small, considering the circumstances. Conjecturally the bulk of it might have come by way of her brother, Lincoln Colcord, who may have been more likely to have been within earshot when a bawdy shanty was being sung.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 04:02 PM

The Colcord Archives at the Penobscot Maritime Museum are in total disarray since the Museum had to lay off its librarian ten years ago. I tried a couple of years ago to find Colcord's correspondence with C. Fox Smith, which had been briefly quoted in one recent book, and was totally frustrated. What worse that a library not having something you want? Why knowing that it is probably there improperly shelved or lying on a table awaiting shelving...

Lincoln Colcord might have heard some bawdy shanties when he was aboard their father's ships. He was a precocious lad who soon learned to frolic in the rigging and learn everything he could from the shellbacks. He deeply regretted that the Great Age of Sail was fast disappearing.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 04:09 PM

Thanks for the info, Charley. Lincoln Colcord also became a popular "local-color" writer who wrote stories and novels of maritime life in New England.

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Peterr
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 04:39 PM

Have not visited Mudcat for a while as it seemed to be getting increasingly irrelevant to anything I was interested in, so delighted to stumble over this thread where good people are discussing songs!
'Relope, relope, retiring hare.' appears in 'Innocent Hare'
I've wondered in my innocence about the words in 'The Galloping Major' and the answer seems to be here.
Keep asking!

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Nov 12 - 05:08 PM

Welcome back Peter!

Lincoln Colcord is another of my favorite nautical writers. In Letters from the Sea one gains an appreciation of the relationship between their father, the Captain, and his growing children.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Randy Dandy O
From: GUEST,Wm
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 05:22 PM

Here is the Tom Brandon/Edith Fowke text mentioned some years back . . . not the cleverest or most enlightened stuff.

Published in Folklore & Society: Essays in honor of Benj. A. Botkin, ed. Bruce Jackson,1966; Fowke's article is called "A Sampling of Bawdy Ballads from Ontario." I've photographed the tune.

THE RALLOPING GALLOPING DANDY O

As I was walking down the street
Singing ti-ri ferrandy O,
A couple of whores I chanced to meet
With my ralloping galloping dandy O.

One was Sue and the other was Kate,
Ho ro my dandy O,
So I says to old Sue, "I'll bugger to you,"
With my ralloping galloping dandy O.

She gave me the crabs, I gave her the clap,
Singing ti-ri ferrandy O,
Straightway to the doctor I did go
With my ralloping galloping dandy O.

Oh, he threw me down on a hardwood block,
Ho ro my dandy O,
And he chopped four inches off my cock,
Off my ralloping galloping dandy O.

Then along came a witch with a needle and rag,
Singing ti-ri ferrandy O,
She sewed the cock and tied up the bag
Of my ralloping galloping dandy O.

Then I went out upon the street
Singing ti-ri ferrandy O,
Who but old Sue I chanced to meet,
With my ralloping galloping dandy O.

Away she went with a thud and a thump,
Singing ti-ri ferrandy O,
I came after her wagging the bloody old stump
Of my ralloping galloping dandy O.