ADD: The River Lea

Subject: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: Jeri
Date: 19 May 01 - 06:21 PM

I heard this song last weekend, and would love the words. The tune I heard was a modern one, and apparently the song has an older, traditional tune.

The only bit I can recall is from the chorus:

I'll go to sea no more
?? down the Bay of Fundy
(dum - dee - dum - dee - dee)
And I'll go to sea no more.

That's not much to go on, but I hope it rings some bells. (Not Cape Breton's) I did a search of the database for [bay of fundy] and it didn't turn up in the results.

Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 19 May 01 - 07:51 PM

Jeri. Contact George Seto I'm sure he has this song. Yours, Aye. Dave

Subject: Lyr Add: THE RIVER LEA
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 20 May 01 - 04:43 PM

I checked with Dennis Cook, who sings this song (and from whom you heard it the other weekend).

The song is The River Lea from Joanna C. Colcord's Songs of American Sailormen, p. 181, although the tune he uses is not the one in Colcord's book, but rather, learned from [a tape by] Jim Douglas. The words transcribed from Colcord follow:

THE RIVER LEA

It was one fine day in the month of May,
And I was outward bound.
I hadn't any tin to buy some gin,
So I walked the street all around.
My shoes was out at the elbows,
And I was sore in need
So I shipped as a jolly sailor
On board of the River Lea.

No more I'll go to sea,
beat down the bay of Fundy.
Forever more I'll stay on shore,
I'll go to sea no more.

No more I'll take my first lookout
No more I'll take my wheel.
No more at the cry up aloft I fly,
While "Ay, ay, sir!" I squeal.
No more I'll reef those topsails,
For it is no more my trade.
No more I'll brail that spanker in
On board of the River Lea.

No more I'll pull on the lee fore brace
Nor by royal halliards stand,
No more I'll ride those swifters down
With a tar-pot in my hand.
No more I'll cross those royal yards
Nor furl that flying jib.
No more I'll shift gaff-topsail tacks
On board of the River Lea.

I've crossed the Western Ocean,
I've sailed the raging main
But I've made it a rule that I won't be a fool
And go to sea again.
I'll stay at home in comfort
And good advice I'll give:
Don;t ever ship as a sailor
On board of the River Lea.
^^
Colcord's notes:

The next song was composed by a contemporary shantyman, named Sam Peck. Like all songs of this nature, it goes back for its inspiration to one still earlier--the adventures of poor Ben Brace, who was robbed of his clothes by a San Francisco lady named Angelina, and had to ship out on an Arctic whaler. Unlike the original, Mr. Peck's song is quite fit to print! The original song, portions of which Mackenzie gives under the title "Dixie Brown," is frequently confused with "Greenland Fishery," (page 151 [in Colcord]) but I think there is no connection between the two.

--Charlie Baum

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: Snuffy
Date: 20 May 01 - 07:13 PM

Is Colcord referring to "Go to Sea No More" where Angeline (not Angelina) is from Liverpool?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: Charley Noble
Date: 21 May 01 - 06:49 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: Jeri
Date: 21 May 01 - 07:10 PM

Charley, as in Noble, thanks for refreshing, or I might have missed this.

Charlie, as in Baum - thank you, thank you, thank you!!! (Actually, it was Cliff Haslam who sang it.) Now if I could just remember the tune to more than the chorus. (I still had the tune when I posted the request, but it's since gone out of my head.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: ollaimh
Date: 22 May 01 - 05:13 PM

does anybody have the tune--i've never heard this but i grew up on the bay of fundy, i feel honor bound now to learn this. there is a song about parsborro also t5hat i've forgotten anyone know that?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: GUEST,Guest Gina Dunlap
Date: 23 May 01 - 02:34 PM

Hello Mudcat, I thought I would clarify the information on the song Go to Sea No More. I wrote the tune way back in 1983 when I was in a band called Kincora with Jim Douglas. Shortly after the band broke up I moved to England. When I retuned 5 years later I found that Dave Peloquin & Compass Rose had been doing it for all those years and it is now on their latest C.D. It has also been recorded by Mystic's Forebitter and by Geoff Kaufman on his new solo C.D. and I believe that Cliff Haslam is doing it as well. I am in a group called Shipping News and it's on our CD "Wives Tales" and songs of the sea. We are on the bill at Mystic Sea Music Festival coming up in a few weeks. If anyone else out there is doing the song , I would to love to hear of it. Fair winds

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: Jeri
Date: 23 May 01 - 06:21 PM

It was Cliff Haslam I heard sing it. (He has to have my favorite voice in the whole world!)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: GUEST,Gina Dunlap
Date: 24 May 01 - 11:38 AM

The song in question is called The River Lea and also Go to Sea No more. The line 'Beat down the bay of Fundy' appears in the chorus. Hope this helps. Jeri, I agree, Cliff's voice is a force of nature. I haven't had the pleasure of hearing him do this song as yet , but we are in a workshop together at Mystic and perhaps he will do it then. The line in my earlier thread should read ..It has been recorded by Mystics's Forebitter ,solo by Geoff Kaufman and is on their new CD... Too much coffee I guess.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: Jeri
Date: 24 May 01 - 05:58 PM

Thanks for all the information, Gina. Beautiful tune, beautiful song!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bay of Fundy - not Bok
From: GUEST,Gina Dunlap
Date: 24 May 01 - 06:08 PM

Thanks for the kind words Jeri.... very nice at the end of this long day.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea / Go to Sea No More
From: GUEST,Jim Douglas
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 03:55 PM

The tune I use for The River Lea is from the wonderful singer, musician, and songwriter, Gina Dunlap. She wrote it while a member of the group I was in, Kincora, back in the 1970/80s.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea / Go to Sea No More
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Jan 18 - 10:49 PM

"Go to Sea No More" is a phrase found in more than one song. I first thought of the Stan Rogers song, which turns out to have the title "The Jeannie C," and it's a different song entirely.

The next one I thought of ends with "get married instead, spend all night in bed, and go to sea no more." (in DT - click)

But the song mentioned in this thread isn't familiar to me. Can somebody point me toward a recording?

I found a recording by Dan Milner [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ2wAFdGBIw] - is that the usual melody for this song?

I'm sure it's not the "River Lea" by Adele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxRQlvmH-Uk

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea / Go to Sea No More
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 03:26 AM

Joe
The DT link is the 'Go to Sea No more' is the one I have always known - without the repeated lines which I found made unnecessary and made the song too long
Wonderful song, probably one of the best unromantic descriptions of life at sea and ashore.
Both MacColl and Lloyd sang it, I'm pretty sure Ewan recorded it; if so you will get a copy of it when I've finished filling your disc
Jim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea / Go to Sea No More
From: Joe Offer
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 03:59 AM

Hi, Jim -
I'd agree that the repeated lines are unnecessary for a solo singer and can get tedious, but they make the song into a rollicking party if the audience sings the repeat.
In our local song circle, this song is Dick Holdstock's song, and he sings a couple versions. Here's one, although I don't think the link will play in every country:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFeMdjhznKg

The tune I'm most familiar with is this one, but with an all-singing repeat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xbEV9xiTaU

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea / Go to Sea No More
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 05:11 AM

"but they make the song into a rollicking party if the audience sings the repeat."
My point exactly Joe - make it a "rollicking party" song and the words become totally meaningless
It's a song about the desperation and misery of seafaring life - not a lot to "rollick" about
One of the greatest weaknesses of the singing of folk songs is that they lack interpretation - a subject possibly worthy of anothetr thread
Jim

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Jeri
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 09:47 AM

Joe, those songs are both "Off to Sea Once More", not "Go to Sea No More".

In your songs, he's going, in the one I started the thread to ask about, he's not.

---

I deleted "Go to Sea No More" from the thread title because it's getting confused with a completely unrelated song with that title. "The River Lea" is about a ship called "the River Lea".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Jeri
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 09:54 AM

Joe again, YES - the tune Dan Milner uses is the one Gina Dunlop wrote. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 03:03 PM

And the tune Cliff Haslam sings it to is the one Gina wrote.

Linn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Charley Noble
Date: 02 Feb 18 - 10:37 AM

Gina really did a fine job in setting this song to her tune.

Charlie Ipcar

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 01 May 22 - 03:17 AM

Does anyone know anything about Sam Peck, the "contemporary shanteyman" to whom Colcord credits the lyrics?
thanks

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 01 May 22 - 10:15 AM

Cliff Haslam

Port Jefferson 2021 Cliff Haslam sings The River Lea, which is a song comprised of traditional lyrics but a melody composed by Gina Dunlap here in Connecticut. Cliff accompanied by Joseph Morneault on a Morse & Co English concertina.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Lighter
Date: 01 May 22 - 10:27 AM

On p. 11 of Roll and Go (1924) Colcord thanks "Mr. Sam Peck" as one of several "former sea-farers who have 'swallowed the anchor."

On other words, "retired from the sea."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Jeri
Date: 01 May 22 - 10:31 AM

Thank you, Henry!!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 May 22 - 01:37 PM

Jon
I have 1924 edition and there's nothing about Sam Peck or this song on my p11.

I'm not convinced what is being discussed here is all one song. I think Stan could be the culprit for mixing them up as he puts them together on pp581, 586 and 588 in SFTSS. Also as far as I can see the Roud Index follows this in giving all of them the same number 351.

'The River Lea' aka 'No more pulling on the lee fore brace' is a different song to 'We'll go to sea no more', different tunes, different chorus, different rhythm, oh and different texts! All they seem to have in common is our anchor swallower is telling us why he done it.

I'd be happy to be proved wrong though!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Felipa
Date: 01 May 22 - 01:39 PM

Adele's "River Lea" is a different song "I blame it on the River Lea"

but Dan Milner sings the go to sea no more version of The River Lea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ2wAFdGBIw
(although the album title is "Irish Pirate Ballads and Other Songs of the Sea", Dan is singing The River Lea, and not some song about the River Lee in Cork, Ireland)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 May 22 - 02:01 PM

Or indeed the River Lea/Lee in London. As it's the name of a ship it could however be named after either. We will probably never know:)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 May 22 - 02:48 PM

Oops! Correction. Just checked and the Roud Index does distinguish between the 2. There is only one entry for 'The River Lea' and it is indeed numbered 351, but 'Go to sea no more' has the number 644. I'll adjust my indexes accordingly.

However there is a one-stanza verse of 'The River Lea' titled 'No more pulling on the lea fore brace' at my collection on the BLSA site from the singing of Captain Norman Yates.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 May 22 - 03:10 PM

Hugill gives 3 versions of 351 including Colcord's. Here's the fragment Captain Yates sang me for comparison.

No more pulling on the lee fore brace, let the topsail halyards stand,
No more up aloft with a greasepot in my hand,
An' no more I'll go to sea and sail the Western ocean,
Then we'll sleep ashore, I'll go to sea no more.

The unusual format smacks of a Music Hall piece from the 1890s. The phrasing seems to change in the last line.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Lighter
Date: 01 May 22 - 03:58 PM

Steve, besides calling it "Roll and Go" instead of "Songs of American Sailormen," HathiTrust dates the 1938 edition as "1924"!

And the genuine 1924 "Roll and Go" is listed as having an introduction by "Lionel [sic] Colcord."

"Sam Peck" seems not to have mentioned in 1924.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 May 22 - 04:23 PM

Yes, I have both. I've seen the p.11 ref now. The people who transcribe these old books have little interest in or knowledge of what they are transcribing, but I for one am deeply grateful for what they do.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The River Lea
From: GUEST,Julia L
Date: 29 Feb 24 - 10:02 PM

Folks might like to know that the original tune in Colcord's book (P 181) seems to be a jolly little polka giving the song a very different mood than what we have come to know and love.