Origin: Sloop John B

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: Mysha
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 12:17 PM

Phil d'Conch: I don't recall a song "God save the female". Is this about Oben am jungen Rhein? (-:

Bye,
                                                                Mysha

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 01:42 AM

You haven't answered the question.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 25 Jan 18 - 12:25 AM

Nothing substantial to add, but just to note (for whatever small it may be worth to someone reading this thread in the future) that when I was researching at the Library of Congress last year I kept on running into recordings of "John B."

e.g. (according to my sketchy notes -- I didn't take notes because the song wasn't the subject of my interest...):

- A version with string orchestra recorded "in the Caribbean" by Laura Boulton, 1938

- a 1935 version recorded by Lomax and/or Hurston and/or Barnicle, in Florida, with drums and with women joining the chorus

- June 1935, Bahamians on Lake Okeechobee in Florida, singing what I'll loosely call the "standard version"

- Cat Island, July 1935, which I suppose was the familiar Lomax recorded take

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 11:54 PM

A Prouty closing time:

He was the soundtrack to my grandparents wedding anniversaries, or so I was told, and ended every show with S.F. Smith's My Country 'Tis of Thee (America) which is also God Save the [gender du jour] in the Bahamas. Sneaky 'dem Yanks.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 11:52 PM

It looks like everything is already posted except the biographies, see above and here:
https://mudcat.org/detail.cfm?messages__Message_ID=3779899
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=159532

Le Gallienne:
Whittington-Egan, Richard, The Quest of the Golden Boy: the life and letters of Richard Le Gallienne, (Barre, MA.: Barre Pub., 1962)(not online)


Edward Warner Prouty:
Tower, Henry M., Historical Sketches Relating to Spencer, Mass., Vol. II, (Spencer, MA: W.J. Heffernan-Spencer Leader Print, 1902, pp.98-101)
(online)

Published in his third season in Nassau (at The Vic) and one year before the John B. copyright; no mention of the song.

Lofthouse has nothing to do with John B. Different thread(s). Lastly, I'm sometimes away from Mudcat for a minute. It's not about you.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 24 Jan 18 - 02:23 PM

Everytime I ask you to show me references for the claims you make, you change the subject or don't respond.

You made a claim in 2015 That the sloop John B was only widely known among the Bay Street elite. Yet there is no record at all that suggest this to be the case.

As a discographer to make the claims you make, without showing the evidence for them, proves to me you are making up false narratives.

You also stated that Charles Lofthouse was in Paris around the time, but the Charles Lofthouse who was in Paris was born in England and is not the same Charles Lofthouse who was born in Nassau.

So I will ask you again show the sources that created these claims.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 07:02 PM

"A melody familiar in the Bahamas since 1903 according to Le Gallienne, in a travelogue piece paid for by the Bay Street Boys"

Do you have links to the actual sources so I can look over them myself?

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 02:35 PM

RE: this thread's song:

"This means the song already had a melody to it and all A.G Wathall would do was write a piece to fit the melody that already existed."

A melody familiar in the Bahamas since 1903 according to Le Gallienne, in a travelogue piece paid for by the Bay Street Boys.

Which dovetails with the Prouty copyright on sheet music dedicated to the People of Nassau as a senior executive of the mainland's Flager System (in Nassau, The Colonial and The Royal Vic.)

No earlier references have been found. Prouty himself is a very recent addition to the discussion.

I say again, there isn't anything currently in the historical record, Lomax liner notes inclusive, that originates from anywhere but the Bay Street Boys tourist industry narrative.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 06:41 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAGjxqjoCko this is long but this will help you to get a good sense of songs like peas and rice.

Miss lucy hang herself in da mango tree at about 16:20, and the Blue Hill water dry part was also native to the Bahamas and was originally from Tony Mckay but from the native songs, also I went up on the hill.

Now I am much to young to tell you when these songs first appeared but I grew up playing them in schools, my mom remember them from her school days and I am pretty sure my granny remembers them also.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 06:10 AM

For example tony mckays Blue Hill water dry lyrics in Brown Girl in the ring was stolen by Boney. M and I do recall reading that he had attempted or did sue the group but I am not sure what came out of that.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 05:55 AM

Also in the 1950's and 60's Calypso music is a big market and Bahamians produced some original songs and some came from Trinidad and Jamaica. Lazy man by George Symonette is definitely Bahamian because it is still only found here as it never caught on.

Lazy man however is not by George, Lazy man was a Bahamian ring dance song that Bahamian women would sing. My mama told me 3 years ago, I must not marry no lazy man, no lazy man no lazy man, no lazy man. Another Bahamian folk song, just didn't go international like peas n rice, and John B.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Emmie
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 05:47 AM

I read the American song book and what it says is that they had learn to sing it on their treasure island in the west indies. This means the song already had a melody to it and all A.G Wathall would do was write a piece to fit the melody that already existed.

She did say time and usage has given the song almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau. This is a reference to there not being any radio or any means of mass communication, when she says Nassau, she is talking about New Providence or the entire island not Bay Street.

Art label didn't produce any songs they sought out artist in clubs who already had songs. http://www.bsnpubs.com/florida/art/art.html

"The Art label specialized in recording the lounge and club acts that were appearing in South Florida hotels and clubs, clubs across the water in the Bahamas, and by 1955, artists in Panama. Much of the time, these recordings were "live" recordings of their lounge acts, manufactured to be sold by the artists themselves at their club appearances. Because of this, a much, much greater percentage of records on the label are autographed by the artists. In fact, most albums feature a small box on the back of the album with the notation "For Autographs"."

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 23 Jan 18 - 02:00 AM

With all the renewed discussion I decided to review what Alan Lomax actually had to say about the origins of John B, as opposed to its 1935 recording location.

A Bahamian ballad made world-famous by the Weavers in the early 1950's. Their Decca recording was based on a version from a collection by Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag, published in 1927. "The John B. was an old sponger boat whose crew were in the habit of getting notoriously merry, whenever they made port," say the notes to an album of Blind Blake, a popular Nassau entertainer who recorded a string band version with the Royal Victoria Calypsos in 1952 (Art ALP-4). The unaccompanied version from Cat Island presented here is perhaps the earliest recording of this song.

[Bahamas 1935: Chanteys and Anthems from Andros and Cat Island, Rounder, CD, 11661-1822-2, trk. 7 (AAFS 418 B2), released 1999]

The Rounder liner notes are credited to Anna Lomax Chairetakis.

Sandburg's Songbag provided zero originality to the narrative. It's verbatim McCutcheon. The arrangement therein is credited to A.G. Wathall of WGN-AM Radio, Chicago (owned by McCutcheon's employer the Trib.)

Art ALP-4 is the product of American Recording Transcriptions, Miami-Nassau (former CBS-AM Radio engineer Hal Doane's one-man-show) and the Royal Victoria Hotel and Gardens (Songs of the Islands Ltd., Nassau.) Doane outrecorded Lomax about 100:1 in the Bahamas, albeit three decades later.

So it would appear, for now, that even the one historically significant off island recording of John B relies entirely on the Bay Street Boy tourist narrative for its backstory and Alan Lomax didn't actually say it.

Still checkin'.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 12 Jan 18 - 02:16 PM

And before the pedants chime in, no, Sands didn't head up the board in '13 at age two. His era came later. Charles on the other hand, had just returned from his musical finishing education in Paris (Ballymena anyone?) and was very much a player at the time.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 12 Jan 18 - 01:57 PM

ref Emmie's questions in the Brown Skin Girl thread here:
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=137067&messages=63&page=1&desc=yes

"HOIST THE JOHN B. SAILS"

"See how the mainsail sets,
Send for the Captain ashore
I want to go home, I want to go home,
I feel so break-up, I want to go home!"
                        BAHAMIAN FOLK SONG

Ah, but the real charm of these quaintly appealing Bahamian songs, is not one of words at all, but of tropic moonlight, and soft throbbing guitars, and silver bubbles that sweep your bows with a sound like fairy bells. And the memory of these ecstatic nights on tropic seas stay with one always - only lovelier and more insistent each day than the last. It is like a Kipling calling "Come you back to Mandalay!"

NASSAU-BAHAMAS

is Kipling, Stevenson, Herman Melville and Charles Warren Stoddard too. It is tropics de luxe and tropics au naturel, - with a winter climate unequaled even by Madeira or the Cote d'Azur.

But two-and-a-half days from New York, or fifteen hours from Miami, Florida, Nassau, with its surf bathing, sailing, fishing, tennis, golf, riding, motoring and polo in one of the acknowledged sporting centers of the world.

Illustrated booklets and complete travel information will be mailed upon request.

BAHAMAS GOVERNMENT AGENT
450 Fourth Avenue, New York City


[Display Advertisement, The Sun (New York,) 26 Dec., 1915, sec.2, p.13 (Sporting & Automobiles)]



Conchy Notes: The Bahamian government's Tourism Development Board also ran display adverts in the N.Y. Tribune at about the same time.

The man behind the scenes at the Development Board was a very young and just starting out, (Sir) Stafford Lofthouse Sands (1913-1972,) a name familiar to most Bahamians.

Much less familiar, his cousin Charles Lofthouse, The Bahamian composer of the first half of the 20th century.

See my previous posts (above) for your questions re: Bostonian Prouty & the Southern Floridian "Flagler System."

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: akenaton
Date: 14 Jul 17 - 03:54 PM

Ach! away wi' ye, yer only a wean......no' a wrinkle in sight....well no' thit a've seen enyweys :0)

See ye in the Coopie hen!

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 14 Jul 17 - 03:27 PM

Hi again Ake --- I used to wonder that too, but as far as I know it is a coincidence. Gordon had much knowledge of a wide range of issues, urban folk tales etc, not just song writing and singing. He was also involved in all the anti nuclear stuff. Were you at the concert in Glasgow a few years ago, might have been anniversary of Ding Dong Dollar (or anither yin!)
We are losing far too many of these folks, canny believe the number of folkies' funerals I've been at in the last two or three years. Always a brilliant ceilidh afterwards - - but it would be so much better to have the main person present and singing with us! So I propose that we should all start having a series of 'wakes' in advance of our deaths, while we are still able to sing / play and remember the fun.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 14 Jul 17 - 09:17 AM

To muddy the waters even more and go back to my posting in 2001, I have multiple recordings of this by Donegan. Some have the "Sandburg/Hays" attribution, some just have "Trad", some "Trad/Donegan", some "Trad arr. Donegan" and, in the case of the Belfast Skiffle Sessions, "Trad arr. Donegan/Morrison." so you take your choice!
RtS

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: akenaton
Date: 13 Jul 17 - 06:35 PM

Sorry to hear that A. I did see him on TV some time ago and thought that he did not look well.....I loved his rendition of "Waes me for Prince Cherlie" on the Exiles "Freedom come all ye" LP

I always wondered if he was related to the lovely Gordeanna.

Thanks for letting me know....see you aroon the toon suppose Take care A.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 13 Jul 17 - 06:17 PM

Ake, did you hear the sad news of Gordon's death?
He had been ill and frail for some time, but it was still a shock to us all to hear he had passed.
I saw him only a few weeks earlier at Ronnie Clark's celebration / commemoration (another unexpected ending)
There was a small family funeral for Gordon, and there will be a concert/celebration of his life a bit later in the year.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: akenaton
Date: 13 Jul 17 - 02:28 AM

Thanks both, I think Bobby may have joined up when Josh and Enoch went on to form the Exiles with Gordon Mc Culloch ?

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 08:22 PM

there's info about The Reivers on Tobar an Dulchuis (which I may not have spelled correctly! Try Kist o' Riches - - -- )

Seems Norman formed the group for a tv programme - perhaps from his school Ballads Club? or from a Glasgo folk club? -- guess I should have read it more carefully - - anyway the original group was:
Josh MacRae   Enoch Kent    Rena Swankie Mona Flannigan

line-up may have changed later on?

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 07:48 PM

Sorry, dropped a sentence or two there:

Norman Buchan is mentioned in the EP liner notes. No image or performance.

The Reivers were a quartet at times but I don't remember the fourth or know if they recorded anything.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 07:22 PM

Ake:

My Reivers EP looks just like this and sounds like:

YT: The Reivers - The Wreck Of The John B

The B-side was also a single (45-JAR-244, 1959)

All the Top Rank stuff was the trio you mention. I'm not sure Norman Buchan ever recorded for a commercial label.

Bobby Campbell maybe?

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: akenaton
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 04:02 PM

Think your right Phil, my record was a 45.....was norman actually on it or was it just a sleeve picture?

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 02:28 PM

My copy of the Reivers is "....grandfather and me..." (Top Rank International ‎– JKR 8026, trk. B1, 1959.) I don't think Top Rank ever put out 78s.

Lonnie Donegan (I Wanna Go Home) did sing it as "grandpappy" for sure but again, dunno about a Canadian 78.

I don't think he was the only one to sing it that way.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: akenaton
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 11:37 AM

First heard the song on a TOP RANK EP by the Reivers(Josh Macrae, Enoch Kent, Rena Swankey....Maybe Norman Buchan?) around 1957.
They had the words "Granpappy and me" Josh also did a great version of "Champion at keepin' em rollin'", "Johnny lad" and "Wark o' the weavers"......I think the EP was titled ...."Work o' the Reivers"

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Jul 17 - 10:42 AM

I remember my aunt gracie coming from Canada with a 78 recording of
sloop john b don't know who was singing it there was a verse which said ""the captain's a wicked man gets drunk any time he can
he don't give a damn about granpappy and me

don't see the word granpappy anywhere in all the info I love the idea of it being carribean and black people singing it way back. My aunt came here to die from cancer wanted to be buried in Scotland this all started in 1947 We used to sing it as children and the words are etched into my brain cant stop singing that verse about the captain being drunk etc so much so that in our karaoke times people in the star bar "old Glasgow pub" call me captain Jim we all get up and pull on imaginary ropes it's a great song with a rich history don't care who sings it Sadly I don't have the original 78 any more Jim Rae p.s. Ironic thing my aunts grandfather "Jimmy Goldie" captained a sailing ship all around the south China sea i'm named after him see my e mail [e-mail] My best Captain Jim

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 04 Apr 16 - 02:25 AM

Prouty, Ed. W.; Prouty Music Publishing Co.; Fisher, E.S.
USA, MA, Spencer; Bahamas, New Providence, Nassau
1903
Paper
14 x 10-5/8 in.
        

"Sheet music, "Hoist the John B. Sails", two step for piano; composed by Ed. W. Prouty; published Spencer, Mass., by Prouty Music Publishing Co., 1903; dedicated to the citizens of Nassau, N.P., Bahamas; 2-color (blue on white) lithograph cover illustration by E.S. Fisher of shells and rope motif, with inset photograph of ketch THE JOHN B., and dinghy; 3 pages."

2007.100.6

http://mobius.mysticseaport.org/detail.php?t=objects&type=browse&f=maker&s=Fisher%2C+E.S.&record=1

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 04 Apr 16 - 02:23 AM

See the "correct title" question in thread.cfm?threadid=79656&messages=61 and Le Gallienne's claims the song was known since 1903 (above.)

Putting the "John B." reference materials back in the file I couldn't help notice the similarity in the title of the 1935 Lomax field recording "Histe Up the John B. Sail" and the earlier 1915 Bahamas Development Board slogan "Hoist the John B. Sails" from the tourist adverts. Checked the usual sources and up popped this little ditty:

Prouty (Eddy Warren)
Spencer, Mass.
Hoist the John B. sails; two step for piano, by Ed. W. Prouty. 19970
C 46639,Apr.25,1903;2c.Apr.25,1903.

[Catalogue of Title Entries of Books and Other Articles, Vol. 36 Musical Compositions, Washington: GPO, 2 April 1903, p.452]

Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway & Hotel Co. ("The Flagler System") owned both the Colonial and the Royal Victoria in Nassau. The E.W. Prouty Orchestra and Concert Co., Boston, Mass. provided the lion's share of the music for Flager's ballrooms and steamships and dozens of other venues from the Catskills to Cuba.

The "Great Fire of 1901" ended Prouty's personal eighteen year run at Jacksonville, Florida's old St. James Hotel and he took Flagler up on an offer to open in Nassau for the next few seasons while JAX recovered & rebuilt.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil the Conch
Date: 01 Jul 15 - 03:52 PM

A. Leopold Richard (1883-1954,) The "John B" sheet music:

Alonzo Leopold Richard was a vaudeville-theater organist and composer. Born in Ottawa, the son of a professor of languages and emigrated to Chicago by way of Detroit (c.1895.)

Richard provided the music for somewhere over nine hundred songs. All of them published by Legters Music Co in Chicago in a three year span (1919-22.)

As mentioned above, the lyrics were claimed by "F.W. Clark." If anybody has any background-bio on Clark please post it here. Nobody in the Bahamas ever claimed him from what I know.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil the Conch
Date: 01 Jul 15 - 03:48 PM

Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947,) The "John B" meme:

He was a romantic poet, author and literary agent born in Liverpool. In the gay, naughty or yellow nineties (depending on your continent) Le Gallienne was hanging with Barrett, Beardsley, Yeats and Wilde and living the good life in London.

In 1903, after the deaths of several friends and associates and the breakup of his second marriage he bought a ticket for America. His poetry, essays and travelogues began appearing in American newspapers and Harper's Weekly (A Journal of Civilization) not long after his arrival. He was a sport fisherman but nobody I know, who ever stood a watch, ever got that "authentic" warm fuzzy reading Le Gallienne.

"...and the Colonel—who has a very winning way with him, and is used to handling negroes—did much to restore harmony by suggesting a song, and starting it himself."

[see lyrics above: 06 May 10 – 06:37 PM]

"A negro, particularly a Bahaman negro, is very much of a child—ready to be diverted by the first sign of any fun of the simplest character, and very susceptible to the humorous aspect of things."

(Coral Islands..., Harper's Dec. 1916, pp.82-83)

"Pieces of Eight" was written at the same time; published the following year and reprinted-translated several times thereafter. But there is no vessel come to grief. It's just a bummer of a cruise. Still no music either for that matter. Not until the third or fifth printing.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 05:25 PM

Phil, we know little of that of which you speak. If there's a social dynamic about Sloop John B, we'd love to know about it, and as an anonyme like myself, there's no one can call you to account for it. So spit it out, spill the beans, tell us what is the social status of the Sloop, its lyrics, its putative remains, its legacy, in modern Bahamas or wherever else you might be. And tell us why Bay Street is special, because we don't know.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil the Conch
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 12:52 AM

"John B" certainly was a Nassau "anthem" but only amongst the Bay Street elite. Both Gallienne's "Pieces-of-Eight" and fellow vagabond-poet Bliss Carman's "A Winter's Holiday" (1898) were required reading in most Bahamian schools right up through the United Bahamian Party days.

Carman gave us the now forgotten poem "On Bay Street" aka: "John Camplejohn."

Gallienne gave us the lyric to Sloop John B in 1916. The 1921 music was by A. Leopold Richard a professional composer based in Chicago (Legters Music Co.)

Both volumes were all but banned after the 1960s Progressive Liberal Party election wins. By 1998's now standard reference "Islanders in the Stream, Vol. II," Craton and Saunders go 550+ pages with but a single semi-complaint about Carman's non-residency. "River of Song," Lomax, Gallienne, Stearns and Charters all get zippo. Sad but true.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil the Conch
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 12:30 AM

"..."John B." sounds too much like "jumby" -- a west african (Wolof/Bambera) term referring to this undead thing we've anglicized to "zombie" -- apparently it won't do to mention these creatures; "speak of the devil," and all that."

Fwiw:
Bahamian (albeit non-native) jumbey trees (L. leucocephala) are considered symbols of the strength and unity of the Afro-Bahamian people. Good spirits as it were. For background look into Edmund Moxey's (R.I.P.) renfairesque "Jumbey Village" inspired by the "Jumbey Festival" on New Providence.

Fwiw2:
In the 1950-60s there was a whole fleet of "Jimbos" (Mama Jimbo; Papa Jimbo; Big Jimbo; ad naseum.) Nada problemo.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Phil the Conch
Date: 27 Jun 15 - 12:19 AM

"...weathered ribs of the historic craft lie imbedded in the sand at Governor's Harbor" in Nassau..."

FYI:
Governor's Harbor, Eleuthera: 25.194078, -76.251091
Nassau, New Providence: 25.066667, -77.333333

If anybody has any court documents; coast pilots; sailing directions; chartage; whatever to support the later addition of "Wreck" to the title and liner notes please post a ref. here.

Subject: RE: Origin: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Steven Strauss in Oakland CA
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 04:37 PM

Don't forget Alphonso "Blind Blake" Higgs and his banjo-centric version. This is the oldest recording of the song in my collection, but the 1951 record by the Weavers may indeed predate it.

https://youtu.be/Kk7I_KWkswQ

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: mousethief
Date: 07 May 10 - 11:35 AM

Interesting how the Beach Boys version seems to be closer to the 1916 version than to any of the intermediary ones.

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: GUEST
Date: 07 May 10 - 11:03 AM

The Bud & Travis version, from the live concert at Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, contained an added verse:

"The stewardess, she got stewed,
Ran 'round the poop deck nude
The constable had to come and take her away.
Sheriff John Stone,
Why don't you leaver her alone?
Well, this is the worst trip,
Since she been born."

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: meself
Date: 07 May 10 - 10:45 AM

I vunder if the Le Gallienne version vas sung by Scandinavians, or Germans?

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Alan Dean Foster
Date: 07 May 10 - 09:30 AM

Yes, the version of the song used in my Spellsinger book was the Beach Boys version...the only one I knew. And now,l thanks to this thread, I know the song's history. My thanks to all who contributed.

Subject: Lyr Add: SLOOP JOHN B (from Le Gallienne, 1913)
From: Lighter
Date: 06 May 10 - 06:37 PM

Le Gallienne printed an earlier version in "Coral Islands and Mangrove Trees" in Harper's (Dec., 1916):


Come on the sloop John B.,
My grandfather and me,
Round Nassau town ve did roam.
Drinking a11 night, ve got in a fight,
Ve feel so break-up,ve vant to go home.

Chorus
So hoist up the John B. sails,
See how the mainsail set,
Send for the captain ashore—let me go home.
Let me go home, let me go home,
I feel so break-up, I vant to go home.

The first mate he got drunk,
Break up the people trunk,
Constable come aboard, take him away—
Mr. Johnstone, leave me alone,
I feel so break-up, I vant to go home.                  

(Chorus)

The poor cook got the fits,
Throw away all o' my grits,
Captain's pig done eat up all o' my corn.
Lemme go home, I vant to go home,
I feel so break-up, I vant to go home.

(Chorus)

Steamboat go by steam,
Sailboat go by sail,
My girl's hat ain't got no tail.
Lemme go home, I vant to go home,
I feel so break-up, I vant to go home.                  

(Chorus)

Send all the things from ashore,
Let all the breezes blow,
I'm so sorry that I can longer stay,
Good-by to you— Tra-la-la-lu,
This is the vorst trip since I vas born.                  

(Chorus)

Le Gallienne called it "the best known" of Nassau Negro songs, which, he said, "though crude as to words...have a very haunting barbaric melody." His "Pieces of Eight," published in book form in 1918, claims the song was known in 1903.

An arrangement of the song was copyrighted by F. W. Clark in 1921.

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,Greg
Date: 06 May 10 - 04:16 PM

A version of John B Sails (Wreck of the John B)
first verse and chorus from the novel 'Pieces of Eight' by Gallienne and the rest from the Blind Blake Higgs (1915-1985)version.
In the style of The Beach Boys (c.1965)

(?) transcribed from an old recording so unsure of these words of Higgs

G D G G

(G)Come on the sloop John B. My grandfather and me,
Round Nassau Town we did (D) roam
Drinkin all (G) night ve got in a (C) fight (Am)
(G)Ve feel so break up (D) ve vant to go (G)home

(G)H'ist up the John B sails
See how the mainsail set
Send for the Captain - shore let us go (D)home
Let me go (G)home
Let me go (C)home (Am)
(G)I feel so break up (D)I vant to go (G)home

(G)I bought me a brand new pants I started to go to a dance
Too much that darn(?) my pants burst I had to go (D) home
I had to go (G)Home, I had to go (C)home (Am)
(G)Because my pants burst (D) and I had to go (G)home

(G)Hoist up the John B sail
Lets see how the mainsl set
Send for the Captain shore let me go (D)home
I wanna go (G)home
I wanna go (C)home (Am)
(G)I feel so break up (D)I wanna go (G)home

(G)The Capt'n and the mate got drunk
Broke up the people trunk
The police came on board and take him(D)away
And take him to (G)jail without any (C)bail (Am)
(G)I feel so break up (D)I wanna go (G)home

(G)The cook he had the fits
He started pointing(?) out the people grits
The captain peeked(?) and eat up all of our (D)corn
Say Mr John(G)stone please let me (C)alone (Am)
(G)We're gonna sail home (D)high lay to(G)day

(G)Sailboat go by sail and steam boat go by steam
Round Nassau Town we did (D)roam
Been drinking all (G)night and we got into a (C)fight (Am)
(G)I feel so break up (D)I wanna go (G)home

Chorus

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,TJ
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 12:59 PM

If you look and listen carefully the the KT version of this, or any of their songs from the archives, they were careful to alter them just enough to allow for copywriting their version. I don't know if the producer, Frank Werber or Bob Shane was behind that ploy, but it worked well for them.

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: SharonA
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 09:36 AM

Here's a brilliant update on the song that someone posted on YouTube: a mix of the Beach Boys version of John B with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, entitled Smells Like Sloop John B

Nice to see the young folks keeping traditional songs alive! :-)

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: SharonA
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 09:25 AM

This is a fascinating thread! I learned a lot here -- thanks, everyone!

Mr. Happy's link to YouTube led me to listen and then to check out a clip in the "Related Videos", a 1952 recording by The Travelers which has a variation in the "corn" verse that I didn't see listed here yet:

"This is the worst trip since I been born"

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 07:35 AM

There is a humerous part in one of Alan Dean Foster's "Spellsinger" SF series when "Jontom" the erratic musical magician sings the song (probably the Beach Boys version). He wants to conjure up some transport and so thinks of a song about a ship but forgets about the lines saying that the crew get drunk and it's the worst trip he's ever been on.

Subject: RE: Sloop John B
From: Mr Happy
Date: 01 Jul 08 - 06:15 AM

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hkCwY9kdgDg

Subject: RE: Origins: Sloop John B
From: toadfrog
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 11:16 PM

I sometimes miss stuff on long threads, but no one seems to have mentioned that it was recorded by the Weavers in 1951 and was a popular song a long time before there was a Kingston Trio. I didn't know about the Weavers, but I did know the song because everyone I knew in High School was singing it--in the early 1950's.

Subject: RE: Origins: Sloop John B
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 10:05 PM

My version is "Beach Boys" however, it includes the corn variation.

Sincerely,

Gargoyle