Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion

Subject: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: GUEST,King Knapperty
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 12:36 AM

I just realized that in the A.L. recording on "Blow boys, Blow" the lyrics for Whup Jamboree are:

Whup Jamboree, Whup Jamboree
A long-tailed black bird come up behind


For years I thought this lyric was:

Whup Jamboree, Whup Jamboree
A long-tailed black man come up behind


That never really sat right with me until I finally looked it up. Glad I did.


Anybody else have this confusion? If I ever performed this song I would probably say "Blue bird" just in case.

His Highness King Knapperty

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Leadfingers
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 03:39 AM

I first learned this as

With your Pig Tailed sailor hanging down behind

But always remember that yuour average shanty predated Politicsl correctness by several years

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: GUEST,King Knapperty
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 07:09 AM

Ah, I love the variations in these songs. I think that might be my favourite part about the folk tradition.


Political correctness can sod off

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 08:25 AM

got it in one, King!

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: GUEST,Peter
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 09:27 AM

The version I half remember has "pig tailed sailor" too.

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: meself
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 09:31 AM

There's at least one very long, detailed, thorough thread on this subject in the archives. If you're genuinely interested, do a search in the little search box top left home-page.

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 09:58 AM

Are you sure someone hasn't recently altered the lyrics?

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: GUEST,threelegsoman
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 10:16 AM

In the version I found on http://shanty.rendance.org, the line is:
Oh a long-tailed sailor man comin' up behind.
The Spinners sang the song as Whip Jamboree and sang:
With your pig-tail, sailor, hanging down behind
Metrolyrics.com have it as:
Long-tailed black bird come up behind
jwpepper.com have it as
Oh you some-time sailor haul upon the line.
Genius.com has:
Oh a long-tailed black man come up behind
thejovialcrew.com have:
With a long-tailed sailor man comin' up behind!

These are just the variants found on the first page on the google search engine.

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Jeri
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 10:53 AM

Lots of people avoid having to explain it. It was explained to me that the "long-tailed black man" was the devil, who was often depicted as black. Not dark brown, not racially pigmented, but ink black.
Old woodcut

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Anglogeezer
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 11:46 AM

In the SHANTY BOOK Part II, by Richard Runciman Terry, (1926) the line is .......

"Oh you long-tailed black man, poke it up behind"

Jake

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: meself
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 12:01 PM

As I say, this has all been hashed out at great length previously. But carry on.

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 01:13 PM

Up and chuck your roast beef sandwich

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Apr 17 - 08:31 PM

The "Mitchell Trio Songbook" (1964) has it as:

Big round fat man come up behind

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Apr 17 - 01:16 PM

it all sounds somewhat improper

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Reinhard
Date: 26 Apr 17 - 02:13 PM

King Knapperty, where did you look A.L. Lloyd's lyrics up? And did you really just look them up or did you *listen* to his recordings? I may have been accused of embarrassing mishearings printed on my website but I'm sure that in this case Lloyd is singing "a long-tailed black *man*".

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Rumncoke
Date: 26 Apr 17 - 07:10 PM

I fondly remember some strapping young men singing

Oh please whip me oh please whip me
With your big black boots running half way up your thighs
Oh please whip me oh please whip me

- quite brought a blush to my maidenly cheeks I tell you.

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: GUEST,King Knapperty
Date: 26 Apr 17 - 11:13 PM

I listened quite carefully and I hear black bird these days.



Lyric sites are notoriously flawed

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Lighter
Date: 27 Apr 17 - 08:21 AM

I heard "black man" when I was a teenager, and I hear it beyond any doubt today.

Lloyd sings it on "Blow Boys Blow."

You can hear the line clearly at Amazon digital music.

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: GUEST,1950s Schoolboy
Date: 29 Aug 26 - 06:37 PM

We sang this song at school. It was definitely "Oh you long tailed black man poke it up behind". It's clearly a bawdy sea shanty so Jenny's oatcake likely means her vagina.

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Aug 26 - 07:51 PM

A minstrel song called "Jenny, Get Your Hoecake Done," with unrelated words and melody, appears in The Ethiopian Glee Book (1848).

"Hoecake" appears to mean "hoecake."

Lloyd's Song Book (1849) includes "Oh, Jenny, Get Your Oatcake Done."

"Oatcake" appears to mean "oatcake."

On the American ship Akbar in 1878, Frederick Pease Harlow heard a chantey he called "Johnny, Get Your Oatcake Done."

"Whup Jamboree" also existed in a perfectly clean version, as printed in the N.Y. Tribune, Dec. 12, 1913. The refrain is "Jimmy, get your oatcake done."

Subject: RE: Whup Jamboree - Lyric confusion
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Aug 26 - 11:50 AM

The New York Tribune text, from "I. O. I":

“I inclose a copy of one of the chanties that was very popular [in the early 1860s] in the days of the Black Ball and Swallow Tail and Tapscot lines – a capstan chanty sung while warping ship into the Liverpool docks.

"The chanty man sat on the capstan head and sang the song, while the men at the bars, some thirty or forty of them, sang the chorus. There was always a crowd of people on the dock to hear the chanties sung….

                           A CAPSTAN CHANTY
                Now, my boys, be of good cheer.
                 For the Irish coast is drawing near:
                In a few days more we’ll sight Cape Clear.
                  So Jimmy, get your oatcake done.

                Now, my boys, we are all right,
                     For I think I see the Tusker light;
                We’ll make Holyhead before daylight.
                  So, Jimmy, get your oatcake done.

                Now, my boys, we’re round the Head;
                  No more we’ll eat old Tapscot’s bread;
                A hand in the chains to heave the lead;
                  So, Jimmy, get your oatcake done.

                And now I hear the welcome cry,
                  That right ahead is the old Bell Buoy;
                “Keep her east-southeast!” the pilot cries;
                 So, Jimmy, keep your oatcake done.

                And now, my boys, we’re ‘round the Rock,
                  Right straight into the Waterloo dock.
                With hammocks lashed and chests all locked;
                  So, Jimmy, get your oatcake done.

                        Chorus after each verse

                Jamboree, oh, jamboree!
                  Go away, black man!
                Don’t-cher come nigh me!
                  Jamboree, oh, jamboree!
                Jimmy, get your oatcake done!