Lyr Correction: Old Fid

Subject: Old Fid lyrics correction ^^
From: radriano
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 02:09 PM

I saw Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman at a house concert yesterday. They sang "Old Fid" with a different word in the second verse. The line in question is:

Whether spices from Java or copra from Yap

The version in Digitrad has:
Whether spices from Java or copra from Yat


When I learned the song originally (transcribed from a tape), I thought Dave and Anni were singing "cobras from Yat." Copra, it turns out, is the dried meat of the coconut, eaten as a food, and the source of a yellowish oil, called copra oil, used in making soap, candles, etc. Jap is an island just north of Timor, somewhere between Borneo and New Guinea, according to the Times Atlas of the World.

Radriano
^^

Subject: RE: Old Fid lyrics correction
From: radriano
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 02:12 PM

Yikes, correction on my correction. That's the island of Yap not Jap.

Radriano

Subject: RE: Old Fid lyrics correction
From: Naemanson
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 02:15 PM

That's correct on Yap. And it is the place where they use huge stone rings as money. I once worked for a guy who spent some time at a Navy installation on Yap and had pictures of the stone rings. These are not even small/light enough to carry in a pickup truck. They are inherited by the families and used more as security on loans than as money.

Subject: RE: Old Fid lyrics correction
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 05:37 PM

Thanks for the correction and explanation. I haven't sung this at the chantey sing in fear that someone would ask me to explain words such as "yat." I couldn't explain Yap either, but now I can.

Subject: RE: Old Fid lyrics correction
From: kendall
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 09:51 PM

shouldn't that be spices from Java or Guava from Yap? The island of Yap is part of Micronesia..

Subject: RE: Old Fid lyrics correction
From: radriano
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 11:23 AM

Actually, I was a bit off with the Atlas there. The island of Yap is just east of Mindenao (sp?). It's part of the Caroline Islands in the South Pacific.

Subject: RE: Old Fid lyrics correction
From: radriano
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 11:26 AM

The author of the song who is someone that Dave Webber and Anni Fentiman know wrote the phrase as "copra from Yap." Whether that's factually accurate is another matter, I guess.


Radriano

Subject: RE: Old Fid lyrics correction
From: MMario
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 02:37 PM

as a matter of fact - Yap was a producer of copra - though production has dropped due to low prices and a problem with their trees going sterile

Subject: RE: Old Fid lyrics correction
From: Melani
Date: 24 Apr 03 - 11:34 PM

So sing it already, Chanteyranger!