Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??

Subject: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: WyoWoman
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 11:31 AM

I saw a film the other night (the name of which escapes me right now) that took place in Scotland. The story was set in a small village and at one point one of the women said to another younger one, "Our men have always gone away, first to the sea, now to work on the rigs. You will just have to pull yourself together and get used to it..."

And it set me wondering if there are now the oilfield equivalent of sea chanteys, in the same way some of the chanteys became railroad songs?

WyoWoman

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Wolfgang
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 12:43 PM

Not just a shanty, but a song on working on the oil rigs:
Men of Worth
it is in the database, but in a version with a couple of wrong lines, so for the correct version go to the Forum search and enter Men of Worth for Joe's or Jeri's version.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 12:50 PM

Hey Wolfgang- Why not just post (or send me) the corrections? BTW Many thanx for the printed tunes you sent me...Most of them are in the DT now, and the rest will follow.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Wolfgang
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 01:03 PM

Dick, the correct version is already in the Forum, posted by Jeri (Men of Worth). Sorry if my remark sounded reproachful, it was merely meant as an information for WW. I know that a correction from July 1999 cannot be in the database by know. Even for the fall update it might be too late.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Wolfgang
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 01:06 PM

and I see now, in a second reading, that one more correction came later in that thread after Jeri's version.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: sheila
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 02:21 PM

Who Pays the Piper (Flames on the Water), by Nancy Nicolson. The McCalmans have recorded this one.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Mary
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 02:32 PM

what's the name of that one by Matthew??? "like oilmen they walk and like Yankees they talk..." I forget the name but I have seen it on the DT and it was mentioned in the fishsongs link..and there are great ones out of Newfoundland...the oil rig alphabet and perhaps others by Jim Payne...

mg

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: lamarca
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 05:54 PM

That's Matt Armour's "Generations of Change", MaryG - good song!

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Margo
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 06:19 PM

WW, you can listen to Men of Worth at Shanghaied on the Willamette. Shanghaied is a duo; Jonathan Lay and Gordy Euler. Men of Worth is one of my favorite songs...

Margo

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: InOBU
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 08:15 PM

I used to build and race Irish currachs (ocean pulling boats) We had a few international crews here in NYC, and one, a Turkish crew, fell in love with the song, Men of Worth. Lavant Karaolu especially would sing it with half the words he knew and a sprinkling of Turkish. Id give anything to have recorded his version. Hanging out with Irish boatmen had a profound affect on Lavant. When he met us, he happily told us he was looking forward to military duty. The first time Turkish rowers heard our Irish songs about war, all of them sad, they were dumbfounded. The Eric Boggal, Band Played Waltzing Matilda, espcially confused them, as it was about a battle they knew well... They asked if we ever sang about victories, and we told them, we would let em know after the first. A few seasons of hearing war from an Irish perspective, Lavant informed us, he wasnt as hot on the military. Leave the fishing Trade, theres money to be made the handline and (Turkish words for a bit) Heres to Lavant, where ever he is... Larry Otway

Subject: Lyr Add: THE KELLY'S TURNING
From: Stewie
Date: 04 Dec 99 - 08:56 AM

Here's a GREAT oil drilling song. Unfortunately, I have no recorded reference. A friend of mine, Mick Fahey, used to sing it at the folk club here in Darwin (top of Oz). I am chasing up printed music (which a friend has promised me) or a cassette recording (there's a sparsely indexed folk club library and a chance Mick was recorded singing this), which I will forward in due course, because I reckon this is a fabulous chorus song that deserves wider exposure than it has had. All I know is that it was written by a Larry King. I was told he was Australian, but the reference to 'boomers and boll weevils' suggests an American origin, but who knows - I would certainly like to. I don't know about the word 'krog' but that is what is on scruffy copy of the lyrics I have preserved for many years. Does anyone know this song or anything about Larry King? Surprisingly, my wife loves it too - she's mostly into bluesy material and normally quite lukewarm about stuff like this. If you think I'm enthusiastic about this song - too bloody right I am!

THE KELLY'S TURNING

We're meeting by the riggin'
For the word has passed around
We'll drink our spree on Texas tea
So the drills are goin' down
Men roll in from everywhere
From France and England too
Boomers and boll weevils that make up the drillin' crew

The kelly's turnin', the drill rod churnin'
The metal burnin' as she breaks the hard back floor
Rough voices grumblin'
The diesel's rumblin'
The kelly fumblin' with the key to Satan's door

There's Hank and Mac and Paddy
From across the sea they've come
With Czechs and Swedes, all kinds o' breeds
They share a common bond
It's music in the air to men
Followin' the call
When high upon the christmas tree
They hear the driller call

The kelly's turnin', the drill rod churnin'
The metal burnin' as she breaks the hard back floor
Rough voices grumblin'
The diesel's rumblin'
The kelly fumblin' with the key to Satan's door

Devil's getting' angry
There's a rumblin' in the well
For men are cruel who steal the fuel
That feeds the fires of hell
His heart is big and black as soot
And darker is his soul
And when he cries, he fills the skies
With tears as black as coal

The kelly's turnin', the drill rod churnin'
The metal burnin' as she breaks the hard back floor
Rough voices grumblin'
The diesel's rumblin'
The kelly fumblin' with the key to Satan's door

Well, now the drillin's ended
So we'll pack our things and go
We've drawn a million barrels
From a thousand feet below
So it's bound for eastern cities
Our hard-earned cheques to spend
On girls and grog and fancy krog
Till the word goes out again

The kelly's turnin', the drill rod churnin'
The metal burnin' as she breaks the hard back floor
Rough voices grumblin'
The diesel's rumblin'
The kelly fumblin' with the key to Satan's door

We're meeting by the riggin'
For the word has passed around
We'll drink our spree on Texas tea
So the drills are goin' down
Men roll in from everywhere
From France and England too
Boomers and boll weevils that make up the drillin' crew

The kelly's turnin', the drill rod churnin'
The metal burnin' as she breaks the hard back floor
Rough voices grumblin'
The diesel's rumblin'
The kelly fumblin' with the key to Satan's door

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: WyoWoman
Date: 04 Dec 99 - 12:40 PM

Thanks, all. I ordered that CD from Shangaied on the Willamette (and having lived in Oregon, I even know how to pronounce it!).

Stewie, I'd love to hear that tune. If you have any ideas how I could do it, I'd be appreciative.

I grew up in the oilfield and it is really surprising to me, given the importance of that industry to every nation, how little has been written about it and how few songs have come out of it. I mean, even in country/western it's only mentioned peripherally. And the movies that have been made about it are generally really stupid to anyone who knows anything about the oil business.

I liked "Local Hero" a lot, but it only touched on the actual oil bidnez, as they say where I came from, and in "Five Easy Pieces" they portrayed some fairly accurate characters on the low-life end of the scale. But, music and literature about this particular world seem to be quite limited.

Thanks for these suggestions, and I'll keep checking the thread to see what transpires here.

WW

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SILVER DARLIN'S
From: Susan A-R
Date: 04 Dec 99 - 07:39 PM

There are a couple about leaving fishing for the oil. I believe Stan Rogers did one Free in the Harbour. In the introduction he talks about how there are more Newfoundlanders in Edmonton than in St. John, there to work the oilrigs. The song's on his Northwest Passage album. There's also a lovely one that I heard on the radio (and taped and wrote lyrics out to).

Between the beggar's mantle and the Lights o' Peterhead,
The fisherfolk were heroes and the herring was the creed.
The herring paid the factor and the herring fed the wains (we uns?)
But now the herring's gone and the fishing's no the same.

The likes o' me was put to sea as soon as I could stand,
Tae catch the silver darlings for the folk upon the land.
With half a mile o' net between the bottom and the keel,
And half a score o' years between the cradle and the creel.

And among the rigs o' barley, among the rigs o' rye,
Among the rigging o' the masts all dark against the sky,
But the lads who used to work them all, they've gone for better pay,
And the rigs that work the oil are all the rigs you'll see today.

So dinna blame the fisher folk for taking to the oil,
For if they couldna find the fish, they'd nothing for their toil,
And there's still as many families and as many mouths to feed
Between the beggar's mantle and the lights o' Peterhead.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 9-Oct-02.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Susanne (skw)
Date: 04 Dec 99 - 09:00 PM

Susan, the latter song could be 'The Silver Darlin's' by Brian McNeill and Dougie Pincock, sung by the Battlefield Band on 'A Celebration of Scottish Music' (which was, I seem to remember, written for a TV programme about Scotland and had several outstanding performers beside the Batties). I haven't got the words down, but I'll check yours. - Susanne

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Musicman
Date: 05 Dec 99 - 05:18 AM

Also on Stan's 'Northwest Passage'is a song called 'The Idiot' about a man who left the east coast to hold a steady job in Alberta on the rigs.....rather than go on the Dole....(UIC or EI as they call it up here now)

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: robinia
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 06:24 PM

Hey, a big difference between sea chanties and "oil songs" is that the chanty accompanied real physical work (and the work came first; in fact leading a working chanty can be surprisingly difficult ...). Of course, there're lots of seafaring songs that aren't "chanties"; the sea does seem to inspire strong (ambivalent) feelings (my favorite is the Arcadian "Allons la mer est belle")...

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Gareth
Date: 28 Apr 02 - 06:32 PM

Structurally Stewies "The Kelly's Turning" is very similar to Max Boyce's "Sirhowey Hill", in particular the chorus. Vocalising the tume fits well.

Any thoughts or comments ?

Gareth

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: sledge
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 03:44 AM

Seeing this got me thinking, I've been in the oil business now for 11 years and I've never come across any musical side to a working rig either on or offshore. I've worked with quite a few different nationalities around the world and there seems to be a complete lack of it.

This might be explained by the fact that a 12 hour shift on the rig floor can be very tiring and seeing as most crews work a minimum two week tour, then the end of the day means a shower , a meal and then sleep. Music being met by the ubiquitous walkman. A shanty was also most often a work song, sung to aid hard labour, on a rig these days most heavy work is machinery assisted, it is also loud so a lot of communal singing would be drowned out by the rig engines and lifting gear. Finally when working the rig floor you need your wits about you, and singing would be a dangerous distraction, it is no surprise to me that men who work the floor can often be seen with the odd missing finger, or bit of finger from a moments inattention.

Cheers

Sledge

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Hrothgar
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:37 AM

"The metal's burnin' as she breaks the hard rock floor"

- I think

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: greg stephens
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 07:45 AM

Amadee Ardoin (early cajun/zydeco hero) recorded a "Petroleum Blues": landbased rather than rigs at sea, no doubt, but an early example of folk reaction to the new industry.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Teribus
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 11:11 AM

Like Sledge, I also work in the oil industry and would like to thank Wyo Woman for the warning.

Have you ever noticed? but most industries/trades/etc, that have "folk songs" associated with them have all gone down the pan???

Merchant Navy, coal mining, fishing, spinning and weaving, to name a few.

Relating to the oil industry - Men of Worth has to be the ultimate thin end of the wedge! - any song in this day and age that relies on Lah-la-lah-la-lah's for lyrics can't be a serious contender, so our second oil boom might just last long enough after all - All of us who experienced the first one have all promised not to piss this one up against the wall.

Cheers,

Bill.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 11:51 AM

I agree with Hrothgar that "The metal's burnin' as she breaks the hard ROCK floor" makes more sense than "The metal's burnin' as she breaks the hard BACK floor" in the song "The Kelly's Turning." Easy to confuse words when one is transcribing.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: pattyClink
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 01:07 PM

Great thread, I had no idea there were any more ex oilfield trash at the Mudcat! The "Kelly's turning", anyone know how old that might be? Doesn't sound American to me, I defy you to find a self-respecting Texan who will put the word 'grog' in a song.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Dead Horse
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 04:37 PM

Shanties about oil?
Esso-kibo river she's the queen ob rivers all
Johnny Come Down To Oil-o
Diesel & Shale
Nodding Donkey Riding
(R)Oil Oak
Barrets Privateers (B P)
Paddy Oils Boots
SeraFINA
Cape Cod (Liver-pool version)
Tom's Gone To Oil-o
Oil Away, Joe
And as a forebitter, how about Roll Out The Barrel?
Those are all the clean versions, if you want crude........

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: The Pooka
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 08:05 PM

Dead Horse, LOL! *Very* good. ("Crude", indeed. "Oil Away Joe", to be sure!)

OK, here I goes: many and many a year ago there was a television commercial for some oil company (don't remember which), featuring their huge tankers---consisting entirely of film footage of the ships *accompanied by a "seafaring" song*. Not legitimately one, I'm sure; written for the commercial, no doubt; indeed, a capitalistic Sellout, I should think. Though the "artists" were unidentified & not shown, I will *swear* they were The Clancy Bros. & T. Makem. If so, the lads must've run through the Columbia Records cash and been hard up. If *not*, somebody was doing a perfect imitation of their voices. I remember only the undistinguished chorus (a Googlesearch turns up nothing, not surprisingly):

Bringin' home the oil, me boys, bringin' home the oil,
Sailing into Bantry Bay, bringin' home the oil,
Workin' on a giant ship, it's very hard we toil,BR> Sailin' into Bantry Bay, bringin' home the oil.

Can anyone corroborate this? (Does anyone care?:) I'm sure I didn't dream it. I remember being pissed off about it at the time.

Subject: RE: Help: Sea-faring songs go Oilfield??
From: Stewie
Date: 29 Apr 02 - 08:06 PM

The transcription that I gave was from a photocopied page from a printed source (I believe from an Australian Broadcasting Commission songbook). The word on the printed page is 'back' although I agree that 'rock' seems more appropriate. I have learned that Larry King is most definitely Australia, but have yet to unearth anything further about him. I intend to use his song in a presentation of Australian songs at the Top Half Folk Festival here in the Northern Territory in June so I will continue searching for information about him.

--Stewie.