Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: GUEST,Maid Marian
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 07:25 PM

Fantastic having the lyrics! I was really curious what the numbers are all about? Do they mean or refer to anything?
Thanks
Maid

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 10:33 PM

Belated thanks for the link to the Carpenter recordings. I must have missed this posting while I was off to the Mystic Sea Music Festival last June.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 27 Aug 04 - 07:02 PM

Another text of "Tiger Bay" is among the Robert W. Gordon papers at the Library of Congress. Gordon got it from Joe McGinness of Brooklyn, N. Y., in the 1920s. If memory serves, it is quite similar to the Hugill version but less complete.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 13 Jun 03 - 04:09 AM

I heard Stan Hugill sing it in Seattle, around 1990 or so I believe. It's on his 1989 collection, "A Salty Fore Topman", which I'm sure is available through Camsco. Here's what Stan has to say about it:

"A forebitter sung to the tune (nearly) of The Spanish Lady. I've known it partly (from my father) for many years but it wasn't until I saw Roy Palmer's book that I got the final theme. Tiger Bay in London is near the Ratcliffe Highway."

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 12 Jun 03 - 06:48 AM

There is a version of "Tiger Bay" on Calennig's CD: 'Trade Winds'.The album features a selection of South Wales seasongs recorded by American folkorist, James Madison Carpenter.

Calennig learned Tiger Bay from the singing of Stan Hugill at The Tall Ships event at Milford Haven in 1991.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 07:49 PM

Thanks for that Joe, that sounds like it could be the one but the CD is in the car at the moment, so I can't check it out.

There are several versions in the Carpenter collection, most with different opening lines, but the 3'25" version on the CD is by John Gerries (or Ferries on the liner notes!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 07:44 PM

Charlie

The Carpenter catalogue is here www.hrionline.ac.uk/carpenter/

And you can view the full folktrax catalogue here www.folktrax.freeserve.co.uk/menus/main.html.

disks 0141 and 0142 are 146 tracks of wax cylinder recordings from 1928/9 of singers from England Scotland and Wales.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 04:31 PM

Charlie--
Surprise! CAMSCO (800/548-FOLK) carries all the Folk Trax titles. As well as everything else in print. When will they ever learn....?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 04:19 PM

Just to clarify, "Tiger Bay" in the film of that title (1959 with Hayley Mills, John Mills & Horst Bucholz) was set in the Cardiff 'Tiger Bay', Some of the landmarks, such as St Mary's Church, where Hayley mills had a gun in her choir robes, are still to be seen

Nigel

Subject: DTADD: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 02:02 PM

TIGER BAY

'Twas early in 'eighty-two, and I think on March the twentieth day
So I thought I'd have a little cruise from the Well Street Home down Tiger Bay.
I had not then been long at sea when I was met by a pretty maid
She had on a rare red dress and around her neck a tartan plaid

Whack for the lura the lura laido, whack for the lura lura lay
Whack for the lura the lura laido the pilots down to Tiger Bay

Now when we set sail it was the hour of ten at night,
And we never tauted a tack or sheet till we got to the house of Mother Wright;
And I was shown a cosy room, and there reserved to stop next day
I gave her ten bob for me harbour dues and she piloted me down to Tiger Bay

Now in the morning I awoke, I found myself in the doldrum grounds,
And I didn't think I'd let her go until that day I'd spent ten pounds
Said to meself: 'This'll never do. I'll quit this barque without delay.'
I made a tack for the Well Street Home from the rocks and shoals of Tiger Bay.

Now when I arrived at the Well Street Home I met my chum in the smoking room
For he yells out: 'Jack, where have you been? You seem to be in ballast trim.'
I hung me head, not a word did say, but I got another ship that day
And if ever I get to London again I'll have a good cruise in Tiger Bay

Now all you young men in this room I just got a word to say:
Now whenever you meet a pretty little girl, lead her gently on the way
For many's the ups and downs in the world, and many's the pretty girls down the highway,
But the prettiest one that e'er I met was me pilot down to Tiger Bay

Now all you young girls in the room I've only got a word to say:
Oh whenever you meet a sailor hard up, oh give him a leg up by the way;
For if you do you'll never rue, for Jack'll have more money some other day,
And he'll pay you back when he hoists his jack for a pilot down to Tiger Bay.


Wellclose Square, near London docks, was known as Tiger Bay, a sobriquet also applied to districts in Cardiff and Belfast. The song, which appears to be unique, was recorded by James Carpenter in the 1920s from John Gerries, a seaman from South Shields. The tune is a variant of 'The Spanish Lady'

from The Oxford Book of Sea Songs, Roy Palmer, 1986

---

Alan MacLeod does a nice job of this on Holdstock and MacLeod's Deepwater Songs.

---

Note: I can't seem to get the MIDI to work on "Spanish Lady," so I'll ask Jeff if he can fix it. In the meantime, you'll find Galway City/Dublin City will sound just about the same.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 01:17 PM

Thread Drift Alert!

Snuffy, where does one acquire the Folktrax CD based on the 1928 wax cylinder recording from the Carpenter collection? I would dearly love to hear that. I'm convinced that several sea shanties from that collection have been mistranscribed, at least from what I've been able to "channel" from the original singers.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Snuffy
Date: 11 Jun 03 - 08:30 AM

That link doesn't work any more, and I've had no luck with Google.

I've got a Folktrax CD with a 1928 wax cylinder recording from the Carpenter collection, and can't make out many of the words. But definitely uses the Spanish Lady tune.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 06:09 PM

Thanks Ed its one Evans and Doherty sang I found it on a CD they made for CBC I like their version which is different to the one you posted but they are related. On the CD it says variation of The Spanish Lady an Irish song. Thanks Mate.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Ed Pellow
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 03:11 PM

Dave,

Do you want 'The Pilots of Tiger Bay?' If so it's here

Ed

Subject: Tiger Bay (sea shanty)
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 03:02 PM

Anyone direct me to the lyrics for this one? I have only heard Evans and Doherty sing it and want the lyrics to sing it on hearme....Aye. Dave