Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor

Subject: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 12:00 PM

I have a video from CDSS of The Seven Champions Molly Dancers dancing to this tune (their musician is a woman who sings while they perform-it's really quite wonderful to see). I cant quite make out the lyrics. Does anyone know them? Julie Ja

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: allanwill
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 12:27 PM

The song is on the Morris On album, put together by Ashley Hutchings post-Steeleye and pre-Albion Band.

The album features the likes of Richard Thompson, Barry Dransfield, John Kirkpatrick, Shirley Collins, etc. Great song, great album.

Haven't found the lyrics yet.

Allan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 02:47 PM

Try searching 'go and list for a sailor' it changes.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 03:07 PM

I think it's also called by a girls name, rather than anything to do with sailors.

LTS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: Les from Hull
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 03:36 PM

There's a web site - http://www.lanng.demon.co.uk/scframe.htm - so you could always ask them. If I was sure they use the version from Morris On (a brilliant album, by the way) I could get you the words from there.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: allanwill
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 03:53 PM

It starts out something like this:

Oh 'list, oh 'list to me sorrowful lay
and attention give to me song, I pray
when you've heard it all, you'll say
that I'm an unfortunate sailor

Once I was happy as a ????????
my Sarah was all un the world to me
now I'm cut out by a son of the sea
so I'll go and "list for a sailor

I've got the words at home - bring them in tomorrow.

Allan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: Snuffy
Date: 31 Mar 02 - 06:16 PM

Posted here in the forum by Malcolm Douglas.

WassaiL! V

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: GUEST,Nerd
Date: 01 Apr 02 - 02:44 PM

Here's the version I have, in case it's different from Malcolm's

Oh, 'list, oh 'list to my sorrowful lay,
And attention give to my song I pray,
When you've heard it all you'll say,
That I'm an unfortunate tailor.

Oh once I was as happy as a bird in a tree,
My Sarah was all in the world to me,
Now I'm cut out by a son of the sea,
And she's left me here to bewail her.

Why did my Sarah serve so?
No more will I stitch, no more will I sew,
My thimble and my needle to the winds I'll throw,
And I'll go enlist for a sailor.

Now my days were honey and my nights were the same,
'Till a man called Cobb from the ocean came,
With his long black beard and his masculine frame,
The captain on board of a whaler.

Well, he spent his money both frank and free,
With his tales of the land and his songs from the sea,
And he stole my Sarah's heart from me,
And blighted the hopes of a tailor.

Oh, once I was with her when in came Cobb,
"Avast" he cried, "You lubbery swab!
If you don't knock off, I'll scuttle your nob!"
And Sarah smiled at the sailor.

So now I'll cross the raging sea,
For Sarah's proved untrue to me,
My heart's locked up and she's the key,
What a very unfeeling jailor!

And so now, kind friends, I'll bid you adieu,
No more my woes shall trouble you,
I'll travel the country through and through,
And I'll go enlist for a sailor.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: I'll Go Enlist for a Sailor
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 01 Apr 02 - 09:00 PM

That would be the set edited from a couple of traditional versions from the Hammond-Gardiner collection by Frank Purslow and later altered and recorded by John Kirkpatrick, with "masculine" misheard for "muscular" somewhere along the line, I suspect.  See the link above given by Snuffy.