Reuben Ranzo

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: The Sandman
Date: 31 Dec 23 - 08:34 AM

Harry Copper killed a nigger,
       Johnny boy, hellow!
Skinned him for his hide and taller,
       Johnny boy, hellow.
Oh! you Harry Copper!
       Johnny boy, hellow.
Oh! you Harry Copper!
       Johnny boy, hellow.
If i was singning this i would alter NIGGER, in my opinion a much more important alteration, than singning reuben ranzo or robin ransor

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Dec 23 - 08:12 AM

Especially interesting in the light of Rutzebeck's "Robin Ransor," upthread.

My own guess, however, would be that "Reuben Ranzo" preceded both "Robin Ranger" and "Robin Ransor."

Consider that what's written as "Ranger" would, in nineteenth-century AAVE, most likely have been pronounced more like "ra(y)njah," i.e. non-rhotic, which brings it closer to "Ranzo."

For that matter, "Ransor" may have been non-rhotic too, making it almost identical to "Ranzo."

FWIW

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Dec 23 - 04:53 AM

The following describes antebellum corn-shucking song. We see the pattern of complaining about the master (cf. Abrahams) and a "Johnny...Hilo" chorus in the first example. My curiosity here, though, is piqued by the "old Robin Ranger" in the second song. Old Reuben Ranzo?

“Maryland in the Olden Time.” Democratic Advocate [Maryland], 24 November, 1877: 1.

//
While they husked corn the negroes would sing, the whiskey bottle, or rum or apple jack circulating round and round among the huskers the while. The pile was divided by a rail or pole; captains were chosen and a match was made as to which party whould finish its end of the pile first. The victors would set their captain on their shoulders and march round the barn yard in triumph, singing as they went. Challenges often were exchanged beyween them, and the husking sometimes wound up in a free fight. But, if everything went harmoniously and pleasantly, the husking ended with a grand banquet of roast turkey, roast pig, pot-pie, ducks, chickens, ham, coffee, bread and butter, and, if convenient to the rivers, fish and oysters. While one table was feasting, those waiting their turnwould be beating juna and dancing on the potato-hole in the kitchen which was usually covered over with stout boards forming part of the floor. The banjo was a favorite instrument on such occasions, the dancers keeping time with their feet. The practical jest and the loud laugh filled up the time between the dances, and men and women vied with each other as to which should excel. The whites were frequently spectators, at a respectful distance, of their extravagant mirth and merrymaking.

I have said that the corn-songs very frequently contained taunting or bitter allusions to enemies or those whom the singers disliked. A specimen of this kind recurs to my memory. A farmer in the neighborhood had the reputation of being a hard task-master and cruel to his slaves. One of their songs lampooned him for it in this wise:

Harry Copper killed a nigger,
        Johnny boy, hellow!
Skinned him for his hide and taller,
        Johnny boy, hellow.
Oh! you Harry Copper!
        Johnny boy, hellow.
Oh! you Harry Copper!
        Johnny boy, hellow.

        In singing this song one person would sing the first line, and then all would join in the chorus of “Johnny boy, hellow.” Sometimes the “unlettered muse” would attempt something of a higher order of composition than the simplicity of the foregoing song. The following specimen was sung as a kind of recitative or chant, by one person, the company all joining in the refrain of “Oh ho-o-o-o-o” at the end:

Old Robin Ranger
Stole Loney’s horses
Carried ‘em down to the drawbridge
To get ‘em shod and plated
Going out to war, man!
        Oh ho-o-o-o-o!
Going out to war, man!
//

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 05:22 AM

Some guesswork:

The article "On Shanties" in _Once A Week_ 1 August, 1968, mentions, in one breath,

"Land ho, boys, Land ho; Haul away, my Josey; and Boney was a Warrior".

I wonder is "land ho, boys, land ho" was the author's hearing of "ranzo, boys, ranzo."

This was the same author that heard "Oh Shanandore" as "Oceanida," so...

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 01:51 PM

I like it!

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Sep 23 - 08:59 AM

David W. Bone, "The Lookoutman" (1923), referring to ca1890:

"I should like to hear 'Reuben Ranzo' once again, before I forget it.
There are many verses, but only three remain with me.

      But Ranzo was no sai-i-lor,
          Ran-zo, boys, Ran-zo!
      No use aboard a whai-i-lor,
          Ran-zo, boy-es, Ran-zo!

[Similarly:]

      But th' Mate he wos a go-o-d'un...
      An' taught 'im, nav-i-gai-ishun...
   
      Now 'e's Captin of a Black-Ball li-i-ner...
      An' nothing could be fi-i-ner...

"We were rarely allowed to finish the last verse. and that was a pity, for in it lay the whole substance of the song. Certainly it was only a repetition, but we invested it with tremendous ironic emphasis to call forth an angry and stentorian 'Belay!' from the officer.

      But Ranzo was no sai-i-lor,
          Ran-zo, boys, Ran-zo!
      No use aboard a whai-i-lor,
          Ran-zo, boy-es, Ran-zo!"

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 30 Sep 23 - 08:59 AM

David W. Bone, "The Lookoutman" (1923), referring to ca1890:

"I should like to hear 'Reuben Ranzo' once again, before I forget it.
There are many verses, but only three remain with me.

      But Ranzo was no sai-i-lor,
          Ran-zo, boys, Ran-zo!
      No use aboard a whai-i-lor,
          Ran-zo, boy-es, Ran-zo!

[Similarly:]

      But th' Mate he wos a go-o-d'un...
      An' taught 'im, nav-i-gai-ishun...
   
      Now 'e's Captin of a Black-Ball li-i-ner...
      An' nothing could be fi-i-ner...

"We were rarely allowed to finish the last verse. and that was a pity, for in it lay the whole substance of the song. Certainly it was only a repetition, but we invested it with tremendous ironic emphasis to call forth an angry and stentorian 'Belay!' from the officer.

      But Ranzo was no sai-i-lor,
          Ran-zo, boys, Ran-zo!
      No use aboard a whai-i-lor,
          Ran-zo, boy-es, Ran-zo!"

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 01:51 PM

I like it!

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 03 Sep 23 - 05:22 AM

Some guesswork:

The article "On Shanties" in _Once A Week_ 1 August, 1968, mentions, in one breath,

"Land ho, boys, Land ho; Haul away, my Josey; and Boney was a Warrior".

I wonder is "land ho, boys, land ho" was the author's hearing of "ranzo, boys, ranzo."

This was the same author that heard "Oh Shanandore" as "Oceanida," so...

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: SPB-Cooperator
Date: 21 Feb 23 - 07:57 AM

I used to introduce this as being about someone who got to the top through nepotism.

Subject: RE: RUEBEN RANZO
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Feb 23 - 09:24 PM

Re: RUEBEN RANZO

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Feb 23 - 12:54 PM

Here's another case of "Ranzo" being extended to show his benevolence, not his bastardy:

Hugh St. Leger, "Chanties," Black and White (July 2, 1892):

"...after a few more stanzas, we find him an excellent skipper.

    'Now Ranzo is our old man (Captain),
    Ranzo - boys - Ranzo.'

This lyric goes on to say that Ranzo was a captain who supplied his men with a generous amount of grog,...and the lines alluding to this trait are sung in a very pointed manner when the captain is near, on a ship where no grog or very little is allowed."

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 29 Jan 23 - 03:04 PM

To my mind the most useful and interesting point from the last 2 posts is the 'ploughboy' mention. White tells us R was a ploughboy and Haswell tells us he sold his plough and harrow. We have plenty of ploughboy turned sailor ballads but none that mention a Ranzo/Lorenzo that I know of.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Jan 23 - 08:34 AM

Rutzebeck’s tune, like Haswell’s, is recognizably the “same.” I haven’t found my copy of Sampson’s “Seven Seas Shanty Book,” but I’m confident that it also is the “same.”

Here is Haswell’s full text - reprinted by Graham Seal from the “Paramatta Serio-Comic Sun” in “Ten Shanties Sung on the Austraian Run 1879” (1992).


                   RANZO

Oh! poor old Reuben Ranzo!
Ranzo, boys! Ranzo.        

He sold his plough and harrow….

Ranzo was no sailor….

He shipped on a Yankee whaler….

He could not do his duty….

He could not furl a “Royal.”…

The “Mate” he was a bad man….

The Captain was a good ‘un….

They took him to the gangway….

And gave him six and thirty….

He was taken in the cabin….

And there had wine and brandy….

And they taught him navy-gation….

Now, he’s skipper of a whaler….

I wish I was old “Ranzo’s” son….

I’d build a ship of a thousand ton….

I’d give my sailors plenty of rum….

Old “Ranzo” was a good old man….

But now old “Ranzo’s” dead and gone….

And none can sing his funeral song….

[Note:] Ranzo is suspiciously like a “crib” from a well-known old sea song concerning a certain “Lorenzo”, who also “was no sailor.” -Mus. Ed.


****
I too have looked in vain for that "old sea song" about "Lorenzo," allegedly known to Mark Twain or Bret Harte. (Maybe it was in the pre-Civil War song book where Whall saw “Shannadore.” Yeah, right.)

The anonymous author of "Man Overboard" may have had a muddled understanding of the difference between a "chantey" and a "fore bitter."

(Compare William Fender's chantey chorus recorded by Carpenter in the '20s:

"To me way, hey-ay-ay-ay, high low man!")

"Orlonzo" now lets us speculate that the real Ranzo was named Orlando Ranzo, which sounds more likely than Reuben Lorenzo. (Just messin' with your mind.)

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Jan 23 - 07:20 AM

So, to follow up on the "wellknown [sic] old sea-song," there's this.

[no name] Man Overboard. London: F.V. White & Co., 1887.

This novel was published in or before May 1887. It's shipboard but not a working context. Indeed, the song is implied to be a "fore bitter" (something for entertainment) though our chanty chorus is there.

Pp 61-62
//
Then there was a long silence. No one seemed inclined to break the ice. At last the Captain called out to the First Officer.
“Come on, Mr Beattie; if nobody else will sing, you must, for the honour of the ship;” and Mr Beattie, a jovial, good-natured seaman, was dragged out to the piano by half-a-dozen willing hands.
“Give us a fore bitter!” cried O'Shea.
“Yes, a fore bitter, a fore bitter,” repeated a dozen voices.
“All right. What will you have ?” asked he good-humouredly. "'High randy dandy high-ho Chiliman,' or what? And who'll play my accompaniment?”
“Give us Orlanzo,' and Mr Oxenham will accompany you on the banjo. Never mind the piano: we're not educated enough for that,” said the impudent O'Shea; “but we'll give you a chorus, at any rate."
“All right,” said Beattie; “anything to oblige. Will you play, Mr Oxenham?”
“Oh, do,” said Grace Chippendale; "you play so beautifully, Mr Oxenham."
A remark which her mother unfortunately overheard, and thereupon looked poison at her.
“Here you are,” said a young passenger, who had run to Hugh's cabin and fetched the banjo. “You have no excuse now; and we must have your own song afterwards."
So, after Hugh had put the instrument in tune, he played a bar or two of the accompaniment, and then Beattie struck up in a manly bass the simple and affecting ditty: “Orlanzo was a Ploughboy," and every one in the cabin, with the exception of Mrs Chippendale and half-a-dozen others, perhaps, joined in the not too scientific chorus of "Orlanzo, boys, Orlanzo;” and the watch below, most of whom were on deck this hot night, could be heard echoing it in the distance.
This song brought down the house. The veil of stiffness, if not of propriety, which Mrs Chippendale had thrown over the performances of the evening, was torn completely aside, and it seemed as if the audience were now really going to enjoy themselves.
//

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Jan 23 - 06:40 AM

George Haswell's exposition of chanties in the shipboard newspaper _The Parramatta Sun_, 1879, includes the note (reproduced in LA Smith),

//
Ranzo is suspiciously like a 'crib' from a wellknown old sea-song concerning a certain 'Lorenzo,' who also 'was no sailor.' However the versions of Reuben Ranzo may alter one salient point in each remains, and that is the fact of 'his being no sailor.'
//

What is that well known old sea-song?

I don't have Haswell's full text. These are the lyrics I have:

//
O poor old Reuben [Ruben?] Ranzo
   Ranzo Boys Ranzo
O poor old Reuben Ranzo
   Ranzo Boys Ranzo

[...]

I wish I was old 'Ranzo's' son.
“I'd build a ship of a thousand ton;

I'd give my sailors plenty of rum
Old 'Ranzo' was a good old man,

But now old 'Ranzo's' dead and gone,
And none can sing his funeral song.
//

Thus, it ends with a typical "Stormy" theme.

TUNE:
M/F S F M / R D M - /
/R R R - / M R - /
R/R M F MR / D l s - /
/D M S M / R D - (-)//

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Jan 23 - 06:03 AM

Alden

D/ M M MR DR/ M- R D/
/R R R D/ M - R - /
R/ R R RD lt/D - s - /
/D M M D/ R D - (-)//

LA Smith - This tune's notation is messed up. Smith (or the singer) got turned around and switched keys mid-stream; it makes no musical sense. It doesn't even match the rhythm of the text. She's got the key signature in Bb but clearly starts the tune in F, goes somewhere, and ends in Bb.

/D R D t / l - t - /
/l l t - / l - t - /
/D R D t/ l - t -/
/D R M - /R - D - //

RC Adams (1876)

/M S F M / R - M - /
/R R R - / M R - /
s/D - D l/ D - s - /
/D M M - / R D - (-)//

Walton

M/F S F M / R - M - /
/R R R - /M R - /
MR/D R D R/ D l s - /
/D M S - / M D - (-)//

Robinson - Puts key signature as G but tune is in D

/F S F M / R - M -/
/R R R - / M - R - /
/D l D l / D - s - /
/D M S - / R D - - //

Stanton King

M/F S F M / R D M - /
/R R R D /M R - /
MR/D R Dt ls / D - s - /
/D M S - / M D - (-)//

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Jan 23 - 05:04 AM

Gardiner

s/M S F M / R D M - /
/R R R - / l R - - /
/R M RD l / D - s - /
/D M S M / R D - (-)//

Colcord

M/F S F M / R - M -/
/R R R - / M R - /
D/ M R D l / D - s -/
D M S - / R D - (-)//

Whall (1910 etc)

M/F S F M / R D M RD/
/R R R D / M R - /
MR/ D D t lt / D - s -/
D M S - / R D - (-)//

Davis/Tozer

S/M S F M/ R - M - /
/R R R D / M R - /
R/D R D l/ D - s - /
D MS S M/ R D - (-)//

Bullen

/F S F M / R - M - /
/R R R - / M R - - /
/R M RD l / D - s - /
/D M S - / R D - - //

Dick Maitland

RM/F S F M / R - M - /
/R R R - / M R - - /
RM/F S F M / D - s - /
/D MS S - / R D - (-) //

P Tayleur

S/M S F M/ R D M - /
/R R R D / M R - /
DR/R M RD l/ D - s - /
D M S F/ MR D - (-)//

Hugill

S/M S F M/ R D M - /
/R R R - / M R - /
MR/D R D l/ l - s - /
D M S -/ R D - (-)//

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Jan 23 - 01:32 AM

Linscott

/F S F M / R D M - /
/ t t D - / M R - - /
/S S F M / D - s - /
/D M S - / R D - - //

Noble Brown

/F S F M / R - M - /
/R R R - / M R - - /
/R M R D / t - s - /
/D D S - / M D - - //

Tim Radford :)

M /M S F MR / R M M - /
/R R R - / l R - - /
/R M RD l / D - s - /
/D M S M / R D - (-)//

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 29 Jan 23 - 01:03 AM

Tim, I believe the simple answer is, "They are all similar."

Verbose, opinionated answer: I consider it to be all one tune, "THE" tune, where the differences between performances aren't significant enough to say "Ah, that's a different tune." I don't actually think there's really such a thing as "versions" of chanties. (For the most part. There are probably exceptional cases that aren't coming to mind.) Because that "certain degree of variability" is built in, on the one hand, and on the other hand you need "the" tune to anchor you; the tune itself "is" the chanty. (Whereas, as an example of contrast, the narrative text "is" a ballad, and when you see either the narrative going in divergent directions OR the text is set to clearly different tune, we begin to talk of "versions.") So it all comes down to what degree of difference one thinks is significant. If I say "water" and you say "water," there *is* a difference in sound. But for most situations we're concerned with, they are the "same"; it's only in some arcane context (like a linguist mapping regional phonology) that their difference is significant.

(Yes! I did just write a whole paragraph basically stating the obvious. Good thing Mudcat doesn't charge me by the word.)
***

Here are the texts mentioned so far, I think, that have information about tune. I can have a look at each of them later.

Gordon (This is a recording. I transcribed the lyrics from the recording at LoC. Looking in my notes, however, I see that I wrote down the tune for other songs I listened to at that time, but didn't do it for this. Which tells me I didn't think the tune was notably different from the most popular way people now sing Reuben Ranzo).

Noble Brown

Gardiner

Linscott

Adams - I remember that the second half stands out a bit. Subjectively and without strong argument as to why, I think something sounds "older" or more "authentic" about it and I like to sing it.

Whall

Bullen

Davis and Tozer

Masefield

LA Smith

Alden

Dick Maitland

Tayleur

Rutzebeck- I don't have this. Is there a tune?

Robinson

Walton

Hugill

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: RTim
Date: 28 Jan 23 - 09:45 PM

With all these different versions of the Reuben Ranzo texts..do we also have multiple tune versions also....or are they all similar..??

Tim Radford
(If this has been addressed early....I am sorry if/that I missed it!)

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Jan 23 - 08:19 PM

Hugill, 1961 (and 1969):He also gives some miscellaneous extra verses, plus a Sicilian fisherman's song to clearly the same tune. Which song came first is uncertain.

Oooh! poor ol’ Reuben Ranzo
– RANZO, boys, RANZO!
Ooh! poor ol’ Reuben Ranzo
– RANZO, boys, RANZO!

Oh, Ranzo wuz no sailor,
He wuz a New York tailor,

Though Ranzo wuz no sailor,
He shipped aboard of a whaler.

The ‘Pierre Loti’ wuz a whaler,
But Ranzo wuz no sailor.

Ranzo joined ‘Pierre Loti’,
Did no’ know his dooty.

Shanghaied aboard of a whaler,
They tried to make him a sailor.

Ranzo couldn’t steer ‘er—
Did ye ever know anything queerer?

The mate he wuz a dandy,
Far too fond o’ brandy.

Put him holystonin’,
An’ cared not for his groanin’.

They said he wuz a lubber,
And made him eat whale-blubber.

He washed once in a fortnight,
He said it wuz his birthright.

They took him to the gangway,
An’ gave him lashes twenty.

They gave him lashes twenty,
Nineteen more than plenty.

They gave him lashes thirty,
Because he wuz so dirty.

Reuben Ranzo fainted,
His back with oil wuz painted.

The Capen gave him thirty,
His daughter begged for mercy.

She took him to the cabin,
An’ tried to ease his achin’

She gave him cake an’ water,
An’ a bit more than she oughter.

She gave him rum an’ whisky,
Which made him feel damn frisky.

She taught him navigation,
An’ gave him eddication.

They gave him an extra ratin’
An’ made him fit for his station.

They made him the best sailor,
Sailin’ on that whaler.

Ranzo now the skipper
Of a Yankee whaler

An’ when he gets a sailor,
Who’s iggerant on a whaler,

He takes him to his cabin,
An’ larns him navigatin’.

He married the Old Man’s daughter,
An’ still sails on blue water.

He’s known wherever them whalefish blow
As the toughest bastard on the go.

Hurrah for Reuben Ranzo,
Hurrah for Captain Ranzo!

The "Pierre Loti" is presumably the steel French whaling barque of that name, sunk by a German cruiser in January 1915.

The "dandy/brandy" couplet which we've seen before, also appears in the foc's'le song "The Campanero."

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 28 Jan 23 - 08:12 PM

Once one puts narrative in a song, it gives it some stability and discourages any improvisation aside from superficial variations... unless there is co-exists the memory of the genre as one meant for improv.

The following specimen uses the Solomon Grundy ~narrative again (seen above in L.A. Smith).

I know nothing of the author. It's a pseudonym, and the book is fiction. It's set first in the 17th century and then jumps to the 19th; Fitzerse is a time-traveller. "Ranzo" is first included in the 17th century part, and then comes back. The words, while typical enough, don't obviously match any prior publication that I know of. The author might just as well have cribbed them from a piece of writing as heard them sung by sailors directly.

Fitzerse, Alfred [pseudonym]. The Trance of Fitzerse: A Tale of Two Centuries. London: The London Literary Society, 1888.

pp 37-38
//
        The incidents of the voyage, with very few exceptions, were such as have often been related of others. The utmost order prevailed. The weather was favourable, though at times the wind was high and the sea rough. Alfred Fitzerse was not long in making friends with all on board, and growing accustomed to this new life. He was greatly interested in the manners and customs of the sailors, whom he found, in general, to be good-natured men, though somewhat rough and overbearing towards each other. What struck him most was their cheerfulness, by which he thought they had fairly earned their common title of jolly tars. Whenever they were called upon to act in concert, they always supported each other by singing some song, the refrain of which was the signal for a united effort. One such song in particular impressed itself upon his memory, and it may be interesting to some who read these lines:

“Ranzo was born on a Sunday,
   Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo !
He went to school on a Monday,
   Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo !
He ran away on a Tuesday,
   Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo !
He went to sea on a Wednesday,
   Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo !
He was rated mate on a Thursday,
Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo !
   He was cast away on a Friday,
Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo !
   He skipped the deck on a Saturday,
Ranzo, Boys, Ranzo!”

   The sailors could not give any coherent account of the origin of this song. They said they had picked it up from one another, and that they supposed Ranzo, if such an individual had ever existed, was some Portuguese sailor of whom his shipmates had made a kind of hero.
//


Pp287-8
//
While we were still engaged in conversing upon indifferent matters, my ear caught the strain of another song the sailors had started on deck and I thought I would go and listen to it. On reaching the place I was nearly thrown off my balance by what I heard, acting as it did in the way I have found any sudden reminiscence of my former state to do upon my mind. Could I believe my senses? There was the whole history of Ranzo, the mythical Portuguese, from his cradle to his watery grave, recited in the same sing song strain which I had often heard on board the “Trustwell.” The same emphatic chorus, too, confirmed it, as the singers hauled together with a will:

Ranzo, boys! Ranzo!

   “That's an old song,” I remarked to the third officer who was standing by. “Do you know where the sailors picked it up?"
   "Hard to tell that,” said he. “Old Blowhard there would say, if you asked him, that Shem, Ham and Japhet had sung it in the Ark when Adam was an oakum boy in Chatham Dockyard."
//

The text also quotes "Haul the Bowline" in the 19th century episodes.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Jan 23 - 03:21 PM

Since they didn't come from books, all chanteys must originally have been improvised.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 28 Jan 23 - 03:11 PM

There also seems to have been occasional self-aware composition and subsequent memorization. That's how I account for the unique set of lyrics sing to Ivan Walton by Great Lakes sailors Harry and George Parmalee in 1932:

Oh, poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Oh, poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

Oh, Ranzo came up to the Lakes,
Where sailors live on prime beefsteaks.

Now it's a widespread rumor,
That he shipped aboard a schooner.

But Ranzo was no sailor,
For Ranzo was a tailor.

The Old Man set him wheeling,
For Ranzo was appealing.

But he could not rock or shake her,
For Ranzo was no sailor.

His course was up Lake Erie,
But he grounded on Point Pelee.

The Old Man loud did curse him,
Oh, how the Old Man cursed him.

He kicked him to the galley,
With pots and pans to dally.

When they came into a grain port,
The Old Man cut his sailin' short.

But Old Ranzo became the owner,
And the Old Man now works for him.


Familiar thematically but lyrically unique.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 27 Jan 23 - 09:51 PM

Lighter,

re: Improvisation

My tentative theory about this runs as follows:

Early chanty singing included improvisation as one of its values. My biases incline me to suppose that this may have been because much African American music, as a generalization, tends to value improvisation highly. This is in no way to say that other cultural musical orientations would not value it, but rather only to note that its value in African American music is tangible and its presence in chanties could be said to be in accord.

At some point, the "art" of chanty singing (or of being a chantyman), I propose, undergoes a shift. The singing of chanties expands greatly to a sort of "user-base" that is far beyond the smaller set of earlier singers (both Black and White) who would have cultivated those earlier aesthetic values. An exponentially larger body of participants go on to receive the repertoire and the working techniques of chanties once the genre had become so ubiquitous in sailing vessels that everyone (no matter their background and experience) entering that space would find themselves in the position of performers. Finding themselves in the position of performers, however, would not mean, in such a diffuse environment, that they would learn to cultivate all the values that earlier singers felt were important. To them, chief values would include the value of chanties to get the work done, whereas the finer details of aesthetic values might remain unknown.

I propose that what I described in the preceding paragraph was happening concurrently while other singers still cultivated the value of improvisation.

I have documented (more tangibly) a similar sort of minimizing of aesthetics in the drumming of Punjab, as, in the last couple decades, performing has expanded from a set of exclusive "hereditary-professional" musicians to the general public.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 27 Jan 23 - 05:36 PM

We now see clearly that improvisation and variation in chantey performances, even in this basically narrative song, were more common than most people think - including people like me and an actual chantey man like Stanton King.

But many singers would mostly stick to a congenial text. Linscott's Captain Smith had also sung for James M. Carpenter about ten years before. Though the later one improves on one or two lines, Smith's two sets of mainstream lyrics are essentially the same.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: GUEST,Wm
Date: 27 Jan 23 - 02:28 PM

This seems like another independent reference: VEINS OF IRON: THE PICKANDS MATHER STORY, Walter Havighurst, 1958, page 41. Link at archive.org.

Down the lakes went the rich Gogebic cargoes. They averaged 60–65 per cent iron, with 2 per cent silica and .03–.04 per cent phosphorous—all well within the Bessemer limit, and the furnacemen were clamoring for Bessemer ore. To carry the tonnage Pickands Mather bought additional shares in the Ketchum and new interest in the steamers Robert. R. Rhodes and Samuel Mather, both of them wooden vessels, 246 feet long, built in Cleveland in 1887. The Rhodes had a roomy forward cabin with a large square pilothouse and square portholes; she had a clear cargo deck with masts fore and aft and a tall black stack at her stern. The Samuel Mather, the first of four vessels to bear this name, had three masts and topmasts for auxiliary sail and twin black stacks for her twin boilers. She had cabins fore and aft and a deckhouse amidships, housing the lamproom and quarters for the firemen. She towed the barges Red Wing and Newcomb, under canvas. On the Mather they ran the halyards to steam winches and made sail with a clatter, but the barges used manpower. Over the water came the old halyard chantey:

They paid us off in Liverpool,
Ronzo, boys, Ronzo—

In those years the fo'c's'les were full of shellback sailors from the coast. The first Samuel Mather had a short life. In a thick fog in 1891 off Port Iroquois in Lake Superior she collided with the steamer Brazil loaded deep with iron ore. She sank like a stone.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 27 Jan 23 - 01:18 PM

Great sleuthing, Wm. It's an enlightening desription, and the date (1865) makes this the earliest known specific performance.

Enlightening too (and unique) is the "Tommy's Gone to Hilo" theme of the verses.

Moreover, chanteying aboard a vessel of the U.S. Navy has not otherwise been recorded. The reason for its singing here may be that the ship in question, the wooden screw-steamer "Mary Sanford," was a transport and not a ship of the line. Another valuable insight.

Just before the Civil War, John Robinson went to sea at the age of fourteen. Nearly sixty years later he recalled these verses in "The Bellman" of July 21, 1917:

Oh, poor Reuben Ranso,
Ranso, boys, Ranso,
Oh, poor Reuben Ranso,
Ranso, boys, Ranso.

Ranso was no sailor.
He shipped on board a whaler.
He could not do his duty.
They took him to the gangway,
And gave him five and forty.

Robinson also wrote that he'd learned a "good many chanties which I have never forgotten" on his first voyage from Will Halpin, an elderly shellback (and the earliest known chanteyman) who'd been on the ocean since about 1800.

Unfortunately Robinson doesn't say which chanteys. Nor, maddeningly, does he give any hint that Halpin ever mentioned whether chanteying had existed before ca1830..

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: GUEST,Wm
Date: 27 Jan 23 - 08:11 AM

Below is Mary Cadwalader Jones, recalling a voyage taken with her father on a Union blockade ship between Charleston and Havana, April 1865, published in 1924 in Volume 59 of the literary journal The Bookman. Found on page 160 at Google Books, here.

--

I think the crews liked the company of a young girl who was frankly interested in whatever they could show her, and I can honestly say I have never been in better mannered company. Sometimes when they were in the full swing of a chantey they would suddenly mumble a verse, or evidently jump it, if I came near, but I never heard a word which could shock the most Victorian propriety. One of the chanties, about Ronzo, was a favorite, for it had a lilting tune, and gave a chance for improvisation. It began:

Ronzo was a tailor,
Ronzo, boys, Ronzo,
But now he is a sailor,
Ronzo, boys, Ronzo,

and went on to take Ronzo “round the Horn, where we showed him many a storm”, and “round the Cape, where he with fear did shake”, and to every place to which a rhyme, good or bad, could possibly be tagged, ending in a fine full burst:

But now he is a sailor,
Ronzo, boys, Ronzo,
And not a damed old tailor,
Ronzo, boys, Ronzo.

(They tried to sing “darned” on my account, but they often forgot.)

--

Google Books has provided a few other leads on “Ronzo” texts that I am tracking down in full.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Jan 23 - 07:54 AM

Tayleur's version especially seems to combine accurate recollection with some on-the-spot improv.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Jan 23 - 10:03 PM

Thanks for those texts, Gibb. Valuably early, full, and authentic.

The Danish-born Hjalmar Rutzebeck (1889-1980) was known as the last American chanteyman. He went to sea before World War I. His chantey texts are often highly idiosyncratic, but his “Ransor” [sic] is pretty mainstream, combining familiar and novel elements.

From “Chantey-Man” (1969):


Oh poor old Robin Ransor
    Ransor, boys, Ransor.
Oh poor old Robin Ransor
    Ransor, boys, Ransor.

Oh, Ransor was no sailor….            [twice]

He was a New York tailor….            [twice]

One day he met a sailor….             [twice]

A sailor from a whaler….             [twice]

He shipped aboard the whaler….       [twice]

On shore he was a good tailor…
At sea he was no sailor…

The captain made him climb the mast….
All he could do was to hold fast….

A sea sick man has little worth….
They scoffed at him and called him turd….

A happy day to Robin came….
He was as good as any man.

(The meeting with a sailor resembles a similar line in L. A. Smith's version of 1888.)

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 25 Jan 23 - 05:13 PM

From Doerflinger, "Shantymen and Shantyboys" (N.Y.: Macmillan, 1951):


"An almost perfect work song is ‘Reuben Ranzo’ with its swinging solo lines building up to a savage release of power in the refrains.

         REUBEN RANZO (I) [From Richard Maitland, b. ca.1860]]

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 in a whaler.
He could not do his duty.

So they put him to holy-stoning.
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.



REUBEN RANZO (II) [From Captain Patrick Tayleur, b. ca.1856]

O, poor old Roving Ranzo, Hey!
Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!
O, poor old Roving Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!

Now Ranzo he was (Aw, Ranzo was) no sailor,

So pore [sic] old Roving Ranzo.

Now (So) they shipped him on board of a whaler.

Now the captain he liked Ranzo.

So the captain 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 sailor.

He sure became a Ranzo!"


(The Charles W. Morgan was launched in 1841 and retired from the sea in 1921. As most of us know, you can go on board her at Mystic Seaport Museum. South Georgia whaling barely existed before about 1905.)

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Jan 23 - 01:49 AM

Very slightly notable about the preceding is that Briggs claims that "Reuben Ranzo" could be for hoisting *and* windlass. I'd have to check if there are any other ascriptions to the windlass, but even if so, my memory tells me that it's rare.

The significance is that, for windlass work, we'd expect the song to have to be continued at length.

In the case of a topsail halyard hoist, approximately 10 verses would serve--just enough for Reuben's story. However, the little narrative would soon run out when operating the windlass. So, that might explain the large number of verses that Briggs gives and what looks to be "stringing out" (repeating each line). Incidentally, I'd have no trouble fitting the words in the verses that Briggs said were difficult!

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Jan 23 - 01:38 AM

And the "ahs" might be the remnant of an earlier "Lorenzo" - or not.

Same here—sorry to jump the chronological gun, but it's worth grouping this with the above in that respect; see second version, below.

Briggs, L. Vernon. _Around Cape Horn to Honolulu on the Bark “Amy Turner” 1880_. Boston: Charles E. Lauriat Co., 1926.

The bark left Boston in July 1880 and arrived Honolulu later that year. Here's a photo of Lloyd Vernon Briggs (1863-1941).
I no longer have the book in my hands (I'm going from my notes here), but I believe Briggs was a passenger on his way to med school in Hawai'i...

[begin excerpt]
During the four weeks that we were off Cape Horn we heard the shanties every time the men were able to get on deck and pull at a rope. Such songs as “The Ship Neptune”, “Here Comes Old Wabbleton a-Walking the Deck”, “Wey, Hey, Knock a Man Down”, “Whiskey for My Johnny” or “Orenso was no Sailor, Boys”, encouraged the sailors to lay out twice their usual strength.
...
Many of these shanties (or “chanteys”) are quaint and very old. Their verses are legion and vary on every ship. I will give some of the words sung on the “Amy Turner”, which I have taken down or had written for me by the sailors.
...

A hoisting and windlass shanty frequently heard in bad weather was:

RANZO

Solo: Oh Ranzo was no sailor, boys—
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!
Solo: Oh Ranzo was no sailor, boys—
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo!

He shipped aboard a whaler, boys—

And he could not do his duty—

Oh, they took him to the gangway,

And they gave him one-and-twenty.

Oh, the Captain was a good man,

And he took him to the cabin,

And he taught him navigation.

Oh, the Captain had a daughter,

And she loved poor Reuben Ranzo—

Oh, poor Reuben Ranzo!

Oh, he now sails captain of her,

And he thinks of the times he used to have

While he hugs the Captain’s daughter.

Three cheers for Young Reuben Ranzo!

And I’ll bid adieu to the girl I loved—

Adieu to the girl with the red topped boots

We touch our glass with a good-bye lass—

(These words are as copied for me by a sailor. The last two lines are apparently improvised and difficult to fit to the tune.)

Another version of the same shanty was written for me by Lawrence, an old sailor of our crew.

ORENSO

Solo: Orenso was no sailor—
Chorus: Orenso, boys, Orenso!
Solo: Orenso was no sailor—
Chorus: Orenso, boys, Orenso!

He was apprenticed to a tailor—

And he did not like his master—

So he thought he’d be a sailor,

And he shipped on board, a whaler—

He shipped as able seaman.

And he could not do his duty.

The Mate he was a bad man;

He lashed him to the capstan,

And he gave him six-and-thirty.

The Captain was a good man;

He took him to the cabin,

And he learned him navigation;

And he had a only daughter—

Orenso used to court her.

Now he’s married the Captain’s daughter.

Now he sails the South Seas over.

He is captain of a whaler,

And when he gets a sailor

That can not do his duty,

He takes him down the cabin

And learns him navigation.
[end excerpt]

That added syllable in Alden has prompted me (but probably no one else!) also to consider the added syllable in the various "ju-ranzo" choruses.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Jan 23 - 03:39 PM

Alden, Harper's Mag. (July, 1882):

"Quite as popular as Stormy was another mysterious person — Randso. Of this person it is 'alleged in an unusually coherent narrative song that 'he was no sailor"; that, nevertheless, 'he shipped on board of a whaler,' and as 'he could not do his duty,' he was brought to the
gangway, where 'they gave him nine-and-thirty.' Obviously Randso was not a model for sailors.

O Randso was no sailor,
Ah, Randso, boys, ah, Randso.
He shipped on board of a whaler,
Ah, Rando, boys, ah, Randso."

(Much like Adams, but the "Randso" spelling suggests an independent source. And the "ahs" might be the remnant of an earlier "Lorenzo" - or not.)

C. Fox Smith, "A Book of Shanties," (1927) is nearly identical to Davis & Tozer. She concludes (from nothing) that the "real" Ranzo "may have been a Russian or Polish Jew named Ronzoff."

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Jan 23 - 02:23 PM

Laura Alexandrine Smith, Music of the Waters (London: Kegan Paul, 1888).

Either Smith or an informant seems to have glued two sets of lyrics together, the first of which belongs to the nursery rhyme "Solomon Grundy":

“‘Reuben Ranzo’ is, perhaps, the greatest favourite with the men of all the chanties. The tune is mournful and almost haunting in its monotony:

Pity Reuben Ranzo,
Chorus.- Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo,
Oh, pity Reuben Ranzo,
Chorus.- Ranzo, boys, a Ranzo.

Reuben was no sailor.
Reuben was no sailor.          [sic
By trade he was a tailor.
He went to school on Monday.
Learnt to read on Tuesday.
He learnt to write on Wednesday,
He learnt to fight on Thursday,
On Friday he beat the master.
On Saturday we lost Reuben,
And where do you think we found him?
Why down in yonder valley,
Conversing with a sailor.
He shipped on board of a whaler;
He shipped as able seamen do;
Oh, pity Reuben Ranzo.
The captain was a bad man,
He took him to the gangway.
And gave him five-and-forty.
The mate he was a good man.
He taught him navigation;
Now he's captain of a whaler.
And married the captain's daughter,
And now they both are happy.
This ends my little ditty,
This ends my little ditty.                  [sic

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 24 Jan 23 - 02:10 PM

John Colgate Hoyt, "Old Ocean's Ferry" [sic] (N.Y.: Bonnell, 1900):

        Ranzo was no sailor--Chorus (very hearty) Ranzo, Ranzo.
        He shipped with Captain Tailor, Ranzo, Ranzo.
        He could not do his duties, Ranzo, Ranzo.
        They took him to the guard-house, Ranzo, Ranzo.
        He ate up all the codfish, Ranzo, Ranzo.
        They took him to the gangway, Ranzo, Ranzo.
        They gave him six and tharty, Ranzo, Ranzo.   [sic]


("Guardhouse" is a peculiar word choice.)

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Jan 23 - 04:05 AM

A 1873 arrangement of _Oh! Hush! or, The Virginny Cupids_, a long-running minstrel skit (since 1833, TD Rice's time), includes several songs, including the one Hugill called "Roller Bowler" and this one with a "Johnny, my lango" chorus:

De greatest man dat eber libed was Day and Martin,
Johnny, my lango la !
For he was de lust ob de boot black startin'.
Johnny, my lango la !
Did you eber see a ginsling made out ob brandy,
Johnny, my lango la !
Did you eber see a pretty gal lickin' lasses candy ?
Johnny, my lango la.
[...etc]

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 24 Jan 23 - 03:33 AM

From "Ranzo Ranzo Ray" and my lasted posted "Rango, rango oh," we get to a chorus of "Jango, my rango, hey!"

Symmes, Elmore. “Aunt Eliza and Her Slaves.” _The New England Magazine_ 15.5 (January 1897): 528-537.

Describing dances among slaves living a bit south of Louisville, KY, after 1838:

//
In learning particulars of Aunt Eliza and her slaves, an effort was made to obtain some of the old darkey songs they once sang. Those they composed were generally destitute of rhyme, and after every line there was a refrain, as “Jango, my lango, hey!” or “Ho, Jamboree!” repeated some five or six times.
//

Some partial music notation is given for the "Jango" song. The line is sung over an arpeggio of a major chord from low to high. However, the lyrics under the notation change jango to "jingo."

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 07:28 PM

Two from 1909:

James H. Williams, "The Independent" (July 8, 1909). "Rauzo" is presumably a proofing error.


                     REUBEN RAUZO. [sic]

                   (Hoisting Song.)

Oh, Rauzo was no sailor;
    Rauzo, boys, Rauzo!
He shipped in a Yankee whaler
    Rauzo, boys, Rauzo!

But he could not do his duty,….
But he could not do his duty….

Now the mate he being a hard man,...
He took him to the gangway….

He took him to the gangway,...
And he gave him five and forty….

Poor old Reuben Rauzo!....
Oh, poor old Reuben Rauzo!...

But the captain being a good man,…
He took him to the cabin….

He took him to the cabin….

And gave him wine and brandy….

And he taught him navigation….
And raised him in his station….

Hurrah for Captain Rauzo!...
Hurrah for Captain Rauzo!...
         
                   (High! Make fast!)

**********


H.C. Jay, "Master, Mate, and Pilot I (Apr., 1909):

After each line the chorus was repeated as follows.

Pity poor Ruben Ranzo,
Chorus: Ranzo, boys, Loranzo.    [sic

Pity poor Ruben Ranzo.
Loranzo was born in Boston.
He went on a visit to New Bedford.
They shanghaied him on a whaler,--
No, Loranzo was no sailor;
He could not do his duty.
The mate, he being a bad man,
He took him to the gangway
And called out for the bos’n
Who lashed him to the grating.
“Now bos’n do your duty.”
He gave him nine and thirty.
He could not give him forty.
Because he had fainted.
They put him in the galley
To make hash for the sailors,
But he almost set them crazy.
So they threw him out of the galley.
The Captain being a good man,
He took him to the cabin
And learned him navigation;
And now he is Captain Lorenzo.
He’s married the Captain’s daughter.
So hurrah for Captain “Ranzo!”
    Ranzo, boys, Loranzo!

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 05:33 PM

Its brevity and banality make the authenticity of John Masefield's text (1906) unusually certain:

O do you know old Reuben Ranzo?
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo;
O do you know old Reuben Ranzo?
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.

Old Ranzo was a tailor.

Old Ranzo was no sailor.

So he shipped aboard of a whaler.

But he could not do his duty.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 01:49 PM

You didn't even have to be named "Reuben":

Capt. Charles Henry Robbins (1822-1909), "The Gam" (New Bedford: Hutchinson, 1899), p. 140:

O Johnny was no sailor,
(Renso, boys, Renso)
Still he shipped on a Yankee whaler.
(Renso, boys, Renso.)

He could not do his duty….

And he tried to run away then….

They caught him and brought him back again….

And he said he never would go again….

They put him pounding cable….

And found him very able….

He said he’d run away no more….

He only waited to get on shore….

So when he put his foot on shore….

A-whaling he would go no more….


Robbins went to sea (if we can believe this semi-autobiographical fiction) in 1837. He has whalers singing the chantey while working the windlass to raise a dead whale.

Just when he first heard the chantey, Robbins doesn't say.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Lighter
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 12:25 PM

Bullen gives only the first stanza ("Poor old Reuben Ranzo!," etc.) and hasn't anything further to say. Nor does he include "Ranzo Ray/Way."

Davis & Tozer give the following, which is slavishly copied by Basil Lubbock in 1902 - in an account of his actual voyage around Cape Horn in 1899! Since Lubbock's text is word-for-word identical to Davis's, there's no doubt that he used the book.

My feeling is that the nature of Davis's version - not flowery, for one thing - makes his Ranzo very likely to have been based substantially on an informant's authentic lyrics:

Hurrah! for Reuben Ranzo.
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.
Hurrah! for Reuben Ranzo.
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo.

Ranzo was no sailor….
Ranzo was a tailor….

Ranzo joined the “Beauty,...”
And did not know his duty….

His skipper was a dandy…
And was too fond of brandy….

He called Ranzo a lubber….
And made him eat whale blubber….

The “Beauty” was a whaler,...
Ranzo was no sailor….

They cared not for his groaning,...
And set him holy-stoning….

They gave him “lashes twenty,...”
Nineteen more than plenty….

Reuben Ranzo fainted,...
His back with oil was painted….

They gave him cake and whisky,...
Which made him rather frisky….

They made him the best sailor…
Sailing on that whaler….

They put him Navigating…
And gave him extra rating….

Ranzo now is skipper…
Of a China clipper….

Ranzo was a tailor,...
Now he is a sailor….

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 08:04 AM

(I too once sang "Ringo," but only in my own head.)

Otherwise these are exceptionally interesting tidbits.

Though Harlow gives both "Reuben Ranzo" and "Hilo, My Ranzo Way," he notes in between them (a little strangely) that:

"Ranzo is purely a Southern [N]egro term used in the cotton ships at Mobile and New Orleans, and also sung by 'Badian [N]egros at the fall."


Stanzas of "Ranzo Ray" do relate to the Mississippi - which doesn't ordinarily appear in chanteys. And they never mention "Reuben Ranzo."

The presence of the same unusual

I don't have Bullen at hand at the moment. Will check after lunch to see if he was Harlow's source.

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: GUEST,The Sandman
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 05:57 AM

I heard one singer, sing, Ringo. Presumably a fan of the Beatles

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 05:39 AM

Including this to show how a known "Ranzo" song was rendered, by one singer, as "rango."

From a recording in the Library of Congress:

The subject of the recording is Jim Archer, recorded May 29, 1939. His age was estimated 78-80, so, maybe he was born 1859-61. Archer was a night watchman on the Mississippi, starting 1881 or 1882 and ending maybe around 1904. Saw roustabouts carry loads from boats. The mate would load their backs, send them down the stage plank. Captain of the watch, a Black man, stood on the bank to direct the roustabouts in depositing their load, and send them back to the ship.

There was a line of “the Coast Boats” from NOLA up through the Delta. The boats, like Natchez and White, would approach the wharf (they didn’t sing the song on ALL of them) about 400-500 feet away. To discharge cargo they’d come out in a circle under the boiler deck. The captain would be on the boiler deck over head. “It was the rule of the boat to sing.” The mate was down in charge of the labor. When they got a certain distance, they’d sing the song. The roustabouts would select the best man that they had in their gang.

Archer sang, slowly, to the tune we'd recognize by the sailor chanty title as "Ranzo, Ranzo, Ray"

Captain captain gimme your daughter
        Rango, rango oh-o-o
Gimme your daughter I’ll marry her on the water
        Rango rango oh

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 05:18 AM

Continuing down the rabbit hole, here's a supporting piece.

Cameron, Anna Alexander. “Christmas on the Old Plantation.” _The Home-maker_, vol. 3, no. 3 (December 1889): 200-203.

More memories of pre Emancipation Christmas celebration in North Carolina, during the same time and places as the preceding. The author is sister of [Sarah] Rebecca Cameron, of Hillsborough (nee Hillsboro) NC, born 1845.

From UNC:
“The Cameron family of Orange County was one of antebellum North Carolina's wealthiest families. On the eve of the Civil War, Paul Cameron and his siblings owned over one thousand slaves and nearly thirty thousand acres of plantation land in Orange, Wake, Person, and Granville Counties, as well as plantations in Alabama and Mississippi.

Paul and Anne Cameron [parents of the sisters] lived at Fairntosh from 1837 until the late 1850s, when they moved back to Hillsborough.”

From the piece:

//
I allude to the custom of “Coonah dancing.” It is said to be a direct importation from Africa, and has been handed down from generation to generation.

… They bob all around, like so many tottering, awkward goblins, chanting in a low, monotonous tone, when, all at once, from amongst them, spring ten or twelve, or more…the banjos begin to play spiritedly, the bones and triangles to rattle in perfect time, and mellow voices break forth into the “Coonah” song. …

The song is very spirited and sung with an abandon of enjoyment, and yet though it is the very voice of gladness and mirth, deep in the heart of the melody is that pathetic cadence which is the soul of negro minstrelsy. …

From house to house they go, everywhere receiving more or less liberal contributions of money and Christmas cheer. …

This, amongst many other familiar customs, is now a thing of the past,…

“Dance, dance my Coonah John,
        Ho! Lady Sorna,
Coonah’s dance for one cent,
        Ho-sang-du-sanga,
Jump, jump, oh! Coonah John!
        Ho! Lady Sorna!
Pop your whip, oh! Coonah John!
        Ho-sang-du-sanga!
Turn your partner, Coonah John!
       Ho! Lady Sorna!
Hands up fo’ oh! Coonah John!
        Ho-sang-du-sanga!
Swing your corner, Coonah John!
    Ho! Lady Sorna!
Honor your partner, Coonah John!
        Ho-sang-du-sanga!”
//

"du-sanga" doesn't feel like a satisfying connection to "ranzo," unless we account that Sarah Rebecca remembered it as "du-rango," and from there to "ju-ranzo"!

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 23 Jan 23 - 04:29 AM

Following the trail of "juranzo":

Cameron, Rebecca. “Christmas on an Old Plantation.” _The Ladies’ Home Journal_, vol. 9, no. 1 (December 1891): 5.

This is the memory, I take it, of the author's childhood in pre-Emancipation times. Her father was a slave-owner on the Cape Fear River (North Carolina). At Christmas time, slaves would cut down a tree (for wood for the Yule log) “with great ceremony, while hands chanted a part of the ‘Coonah’ song:—”

‘Christmas comes but once a year
        Ho rang du rango!
Let everybody have a share,
        Ho rang du rango!’ “

We later learn what Cameron meant by "the Coonah song."

Two days after Christmas, “The John Coonahs” came. In masking attire, their procession was accompanied by banjo, bones, triangle, castanets, fifes, drums, and “all manner of plantation instruments.”

“All the while the dance was in progress the musical voice of the leader was chanting the Coonah song, the refrain of which was taken up by hundreds of voices.”

John Coonah is clearly the Christmastide mumming tradition known by various names and especially remembered, now, in the Caribbean. Jamaicans, for example, call it "John Canoe." The author of this account conjectured that it was brought to the area from Barbados, and noted that, in the time of her memory, it was found on the coast of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, as well as New Orleans.

[I have previously toyed with the possibility that John Canoe has something to do with the chanty "John Kana-Kana-ka." Of note, Hugill learned the song from his Barbadian friend. The chanty's opening lines about "Today is a holiday... we'll work tomorrow but no work today" smack of the Christmas custom: for the slaves to have a respite on the holiday.]

I think it's worth considering a connection between the phrase "du rango" in this song and the previously encountered "ju-ranzo".

Subject: RE: Reuben Ranzo
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 22 Jan 23 - 03:35 PM

Whall, 1910, presumably from recollection of the 1860s. Whall's text and speculations were often repeated.


“This was - and I daresay is - a well-known shanty. Either Bret Harte or Mark Twain - I forget which - has a character, an old skipper, who is fond of singing about the trials of a certain “Lorenzo. ” Whether this was the original name I do not know . But as far back as fifty years ago it was plain “Ranzo.” Lorenzo it might have been, for Yankee whalers took a large number of their men from the Azores, men of Portuguese descent, among whom "Lorenzo" would have been a common name enough. In the days I speak of the shanty was always sung to the regulation words, and when the story was finished there was no at

tempt at improvisation; the text was, I suppose, considered sacred.

"I never heard any variation from the words here given.

"Brisk...

"Oh, pity poor Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!
Oh, poor old Reuben Ranzo,
Ranzo, boys, Ranzo!

O Ranzo was no sailor,
He shipped on board of a whaler.

And he could not do his duty ,
So they took him to the gangway.

And they gave him nine-and-thirty,
Yes, lashes nine-and-thirty.

Now, the captain being a good man,
He took him in the cabin.

And he gave him wine and water,
Rube kissed the captain's daughter.

He taught him navigation
To fit him for his station.

Now, Ranzo he's a sailor,
He's chief mate of that whaler.


(If Bret Harte or Mark Twain ever wrote of a skipper singing about "Lorenzo," their digitized works are silent about it.)