Origins: John Kanaka

Subject: RE: Origins: John Kanaka
From: Joe_F
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 02:10 PM

Oddly, both the version in the DigiTrad and those reproduced here are missing a commonly encountered verse that happens to be my favorite:

I'm New York born and New York bred....
I'm thick in the arm and thick in the head....

Subject: RE: Origins: John Kanaka
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 08:32 AM

Gibb Schreffler writes some more about the song and Stan Hugill on his "HultonClint" YouTube page :
"HultonClint" John Kanakanaka 
where he is also recording all the other '7 Seas' shanties : go to 'Playlists' 

(Also see -The Old Salt Blog- )

Subject: RE: Origins: John Kanaka
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 07:30 AM

More info and a copy of Creighton's text is here:

http://www.shanty.org.uk/archive_songs/john-kanaka.html

I don't have a copy of Minstrelsy of Maine handy, so I can't absolutely confirm the website's information, but of special interest is that Creighton "said that the song never failed 'to bring down the house when sung by a few old salts that know how to get the funny yodel-like notes that were common in the good old times of the down-east square-rigger.'"

Those "funny yodel-like notes" must have been what Hugill called "hitches."

Apparently Eckstorm and Smyth's source was not the elder Creighton but one of his sons, born after 1850. According to the website, E & S collected the song in 1925

Subject: RE: Origins: John Kanaka
From: Lighter
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 07:15 AM

Eckstorm & Smyth, Minstrelsy of Maine (1927), a short version titled "Jan Kanaganaga," coll. from Capt. James A Creighton, at sea in the 1850s and later. No tune is given.

James Revell Carr discusses some aspects of the chantey (inconclusively, IMO) in Hawaiian Music in Motion (2014), pp. 73-74.

Subject: RE: Origins: John Kanaka
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 12 Jul 15 - 05:07 AM

Stan Higill, Shanties ffrom the Severn Seas page 288

Subject: RE: Origins: John Kanaka
From: GUEST,Anon
Date: 11 Jul 15 - 09:06 PM

Pleased you have found the shanty I wrote in a previous existance.

Joe lists the earliest date as 1977 but I know my alter ego was singing it in 1968 and it was not new then by any means.

Perhaps Shanty Jack or Steve Gardham can be more forthcoming.

Subject: RE: Origins: John Kanaka
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jul 15 - 03:59 AM

Not much on this song in the Traditional Ballad Index, but a bit:

John Kanaka

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Characteristic line: "John Kanaka-naka, too-li-ay." The sailors describe how they will "work tomorrow but no work today!" Some details of their trip around the horn on a Yankee ship are given
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1926 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: sailor shanty work
FOUND IN: West Indies(Barbados) US(NE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 288-289, "John Kanaka" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p.212]
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 94-95, "John Kanaka" (1 tet, 1 tune)
Fahey-Eureka-SongsThatMadeAustralia, pp. 50-51, "John Kanaka" (1 text, 1 tune)
Thompson-BodyBootsAndBritches-NewYorkStateFolktales, p. 219, "(No title)" (1 short text, which lacks the chorus but has the same first line as the Maine version of this song; it is too short to classify otherwise)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, p. 210, "Too-Li-Aye" (1 text)
Heart-Songs, pp. 72-73, "A Yankee Ship, and a Yankee Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, JONKANAK*
Roud #8238
NOTES [190 words]: "Kanaka" was a term applied to Hawaiian men. Whether this song is referring to that or to "Canucks" (French-Canadians) is obscure. - PJS
The term is used in Australia for Polynesians in general, especially those who worked in the Queensland sugar plantations. (It is said to mean simply "man.") I have to suspect that the song originally referred to the Polynesians, though of course northern sailors might have thought it meant Canucks.
Edward E. Morris, A Dictionary of Austral English, 1898 (I use the 1972 Sydney University Press with a new foreword but no new content), p. 229, defines it as "n. and adj. a labourer from the South Sea Islands, working in Queensland sugar-plantations. The word is Hawaaian (Sandwich Islands)." The first use of the word in Hawaii is dated to 1794.
The version in Heart-Songs, "A Yankee Ship, and a Yankee Crew," is implicitly lumped here by Roud. I'm far from sure I agree -- "John Kanaka" is not mentioned, and the chorus form is different -- but I'll file it here to let you think about it. But I used the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine version as the earliest date, because it's certainly this. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: FaE050

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Here are the Digital Tradition lyrics that we have:
JOHN KANAKAa

I heard, I heard, the old man say,
John Kanaka-naka tu-lai-ay!
Today, today is a holiday,
John Kanaka-naka tu-lai-ay!

Tu-lai-ay, Oh! Tu-lai-ay!
John Kanaka-naka tu-lai-ay!

We'll work tomorrow, but no work today,
We'll work tomorrow, but no work today.

We're bound away for 'Frisco Bay,
We're bound away at the break of day.

We're bound away around Cape Horn,
We wish to Christ we'd never been born!

Oh haul, oh haul, oh haul away,
Oh haul away, an' make yer pay!

@sailor
filename[ JONKANAK
TUNE FILE: JONKANAK
CLICK TO PLAY
BR

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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'john Kanaka'
From: GUEST,Wolfgang
Date: 15 May 00 - 06:04 AM

George,
I could repeat your error easily. However, it is in the DT and you get it via the alphabetic list. Funny thing a database. Even funnier: Both entering 'John Kanaka' and entering 'Kanaka' in the search find me the song title in the database, but only the first search leads to the error described by George. The second search finds the song.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'john Kanaka'
From: The Shambles
Date: 15 May 00 - 05:48 AM

Andy G kindly posted the words on this thread, Narrowboat Songs

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Thread #11090   Message #228125
Posted By: AndyG
15-May-00 - 05:09 AM
Thread Name: Narrowboat songs
Subject: Lyr Add: JOHN KANAKA-NAKA^^^

Hi,
I don't see a narrowboat connection, but here y'go:

JOHN KANAKA-NAKA

I heard, I heard the Old Man say,

John kanaka-naka too-ri-ay.

Today, today's an holiday,

John kanaka-naka too-ri-ay.

Too-ri-ay, O - oh, too-ri-ay,

John kanaka-naka too-ri-ay.

We'll work tomorrer but not today,
We'll work tomorrer but not today,

We're bound away for Friso Bay,
We're bound away at the break of day,

We're bound away around Cape Horn,
We wished to God we'd never been born,

AndyG

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'john Kanaka'
From: paddyc
Date: 15 May 00 - 12:33 AM

Check out Liam Clancy's website. They got lyrics to all his shantys and songs. Click HERE.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'john Kanaka'
From:
Date: 14 May 00 - 11:13 PM

Funny, I couldn't call it up in the Database.

I did get this error message

An error has occurred while processing the expression:
URLEncodedFormat(Title)

The error occurred on (or near) line 13 of the template file
C:\webserver\mudcat\htdocs\@displaysong.cfm.

But I did find the song here:

http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~andrew/shanty/kanaka.html

It's a Shanty Database at Memorial University in Newfoundland.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'john Kanaka'
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 14 May 00 - 11:00 PM

Also, if you forget any lyrics while singing it, you can always borrow lyrics from other chanteys that rhyme in a similar manner. "Around Cape Horn we all must go. Around cape horn through frost and snow" is a real standby. If you're singing it with kids, there is an opportunity to make up verses using kid's names, or borrowing verses from the Cape Cod chantey, such as: "Cape Cod kids don't use no combs, they comb their hair with codfish bones." Check out that chantey. John Kanaka is a great chantey to be creative with. If you want to e mail me a personal message through this site, I would be glad to send you some verses I do with kids.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: 'john Kanaka'
From: Stewie
Date: 14 May 00 - 06:40 PM

There is a set in the DT. Just put John Kanaka in the Digitrad and Forum search box on the main forum page.

--Stewie.

Subject: 'john Kanaka'
From:
Date: 14 May 00 - 06:32 PM

Can anyone help me with lyrics to 'john kanaka' ?