Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jan 02 - 05:18 PM

Oops. That was me on netscape without a cookie. Maggie

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW)
From: artbrooks
Date: 17 Jan 02 - 06:21 PM

Yeah, I remember that it was named after a typewriter manufacturer (anybody still OWN a typewriter?). I recall when our office moved into the "new" Federal Building at 2nd and Madison. I resolved to get into Human Resources (then called "Personnel") since the Personnel Officer had a corner office on the 13th floor with a beautiful view of Elliot Bay. That was before they built at least one additional row of high-rises between that building and the water. And Starbucks was a little hole in the wall on Marion just below 1st that sold only solid coffee. No lattes in sight.

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW)
From: Haruo
Date: 30 Jan 02 - 03:54 AM

An acquaintance on Ishmail, the Melville email list, just supplied me with a link to the Sedro-Woolley poem I cited early on in this thread. Here it is. He says he's going to ask local musicians if there's a tune for it.

Liland

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW)
From: Deckman
Date: 30 Jan 02 - 09:37 AM

That's a fine poem. I'm not aware of a melody for it tho. Thanks for posting it. CHEERS, Bob

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jan 02 - 10:23 AM

I agree, very nice poem. I like the dimensions of the salmon (!). And as someone who was "local" for many years, because the Sedro Woolley post office serves much of Skagit County east of Mt. Vernon and serves a big chunk of Whatcom County (at the south end of Lake Whatcom) and along Hwy 9 possibly as far north as Acme), I, like many neighbors, would talk in casual conversation about going down to Sedro, dropping the Woolley. (Take a breath, and don't try to diagram that sentence).

I'll have to look through Dad's papers to see if he ever did anything with that poem. It sure looks like something he would have fiddled with tune-wise. He did write songs about the area, including the "Blue Canyon Mining Disaster." And there's one about the little ferry that used to run up and down the lake--I don't remember the name of that one right off of the top of my head.

Maggie

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry (Pacific NW)
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 06 Oct 02 - 07:00 PM

Refresh. The school bus thread led me to look for the words to Fred Small's song about Sequim, which led me to this thread, which I think is worth bringing back.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest
From: Stewart
Date: 01 Nov 14 - 10:52 PM

At long last, here it is

Ballad of the Merry Ferry – words by Emma Rounds ("Rainbow in the Sky", ed. by Louis Utermeyer, Harcourt Brace, Inc. New York, NY, 1935); music by John Dwyer (1978). From "The Rainy Day Songbook" by Linda Allen

Sing hey, and sing ho, and sing down-a-down-derry,
Oh, what is so merry as missing a ferry?
A nice wintry morning so jolly and freezing,
A dear little cold keeps you coughing and sneezing,
And everyone mirthful and happy and gay,
As we all watch the ferry go puffing away.

Sing hey, and sing ho, and sing down-a-down-derry
Oh what is so merry as missing a ferry!

Cheers, S. in Seattle
and this is a great thread to refresh!

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 07:42 AM

[slaps forehead] Odd to realize that it took all of this time to put up the lyrics. I should have done it in the first post.

SRS

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest
From: Stewart
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 03:13 PM

And here is the Ballad of the Merry Ferry as sung by John Dwyer, who put the poem by Emma Rounds to music in 1978. I just got the sound clip from Bob (Deckman) Nelson - recorded at a Seattle hoot in 1978.

And a couple other of John Dwyer's Pacific Northwest songs sung by John Dwyer (also recorded at the same hoot in 1978).

Notice to Mariners

San Juan Pig

More Pacific Northwest songs are on the PNW Folklore Society web site here.
In the next issue of the NW HOOT - at the end of November - Bob Nelson will have an article about John Dwyer - SEATTLE FOLKSINGERS,
THOSE WHO LED THE WAY.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest
From: Deckman
Date: 02 Nov 14 - 04:28 PM

Good job Stew ... thanks ... bob

Subject: RE: Ballad of the Merry Ferry -songs of the Northwest
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Nov 14 - 12:12 AM

He put that to music way before 1978, it was probably his earliest marriage of poetry and music. I remember riding the Fauntleroy ferry in Seattle over to Vashon Island prior to 1965. We were singing it back then in the family station wagon. Probably at the top of our lungs.

It was on a similar ferry ride when my sister, four years younger, spotted a deckhand working the lines and asked if he was a "dirty little cabin boy." Hilarity ensued!

:)

SRS