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Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey)
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Subject: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Noreen Date: 16 Apr 02 - 06:13 PM BILLY RILEY Oh Billy Riley, Mister Billy Riley Oh Billy Riley oh Billy Riley, Mister Billy Riley Oh Billy Riley oh Oh Billy Riley was a dancing master Oh Billy Riley oh Billy Riley was a dancing master Oh Billy Riley oh Oh Billy Riley shipped aboard a droger Oh Billy Riley oh… Oh Billy Riley wed the skipper's daughter Oh Billy Riley oh… Oh Mrs Riley didn't like sailors Oh Mrs Riley oh… Oh Mrs Riley had a lovely daughter Oh Mrs Riley oh… Oh Missy Riley, pretty Missy Riley Oh Missy Riley oh… Oh Missy Riley, screw her up to Chile Oh Missy Riley oh… Oh Billy Riley, Mister Billy Riley Oh Billy Riley oh… Shanty, as sung by Mitch Reynolds with the Shellback Chorus. According to the dictionary, a droger is a West Indian coasting vessel, with long masts and lateen sails (from the Dutch droogen -to dry- originally this was a vessel on which fish were dried.) NK Can anyone tell me more about this, particularly the meaning of "screw her up to Chile"? |
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Subject: Tune Add: BILLY RILEY From: Snuffy Date: 16 Apr 02 - 07:55 PM Great song, Noreen. I learned it from Michelle and have sung it out a couple of times. Any idea where she got it from? Here's the tune
X: 36 WassaiL! V |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: nutty Date: 17 Apr 02 - 01:10 AM It's been around for a long time Snuffy, but usually under the title of OLD BILLY RILEY Here's a link to an A.L.LLOYD recording and sound clip Old Billy Riley |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: masato sakurai Date: 17 Apr 02 - 04:22 AM Billy Riley "A song popular in Green's Blackwall ships sailing from London in the 1850s. It started life as a cotton hoosiers chant, and is obviously African American in origin. Later it went to sea and became one of the most popular halyards shanties of the day." (From HERE) ~Masato
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: English Jon Date: 17 Apr 02 - 05:00 AM I understood it to be Drohger - a dutch clipper used for fishing around the west indies. Think it might be "screw her up so cheerily" then again, could be a mondegreen. Have you heard A.L.Lloyd do this? Very fast! EJ |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: nutty Date: 17 Apr 02 - 06:09 AM I've had a sleepless night trying to remember the words of the song "BILLY RILEY" which a lady used to sing at our fo;k club. It was not a shanty but a love song and each verse used to end in the refrain ....BILLY RILEY. Has anyone any idea what the words are ....I would love to sing it. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 17 Apr 02 - 08:17 AM Nutty, I wrote a song called "Billy Reilley" which I used to sing with the harp around the folk clubs when I performed with Packie Byrne. Various people picked it up, and a friend reported to me that it was introduced - in all good faith, I'm sure - by a singer as being a traditional song from the Famine era! In fact it only dates back to 1979, and deals with a young man of that name who leaves Ireland as part of the great exile after the terrible defeat at Limerick. The girl character who is narrating the song summons him back, and therein lies the tale. And every verse does end with the echo, "Billy Reilley".
Is this the one you meant? I plan to re-record this song before too long. Let me know if it is and I can type it out. But if anyone is singing it or putting it into DigiTrad, PLEASE credit me as the author because I did write it! All the best, Bonnie |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Snuffy Date: 17 Apr 02 - 08:26 AM Nutty, I know that there's a Billy Riley in Hugill (which I borrowed once to make ABCs of all the tunes), but I think Michelle's tune is different. I'll check it out tonight, and post Hugill's tune if it is different. What I really meant to ask was not "Where does the song come from?", but "Where did Michelle get her version?" WassaiL! V |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Paddy Plastique Date: 17 Apr 02 - 12:51 PM So that's where yer man Will Oldham got it from... He sings a snatch of it in one of his early songs - 'Riding'. I knew it sounded old-timey or maritime. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: nutty Date: 17 Apr 02 - 01:20 PM Bonnie ...... I'm almost certain that your song is the one I was remembering but would love to see all the words here as I'm sure others would too. That way you could be sure of getting all the credit that's due to you. By the way 1979 was 23 years ago and some Mudcatters were not even born then ....... It's easy to overlook the passage of time. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: BILLY REILLEY (Bonnie Shaljean) From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 17 Apr 02 - 01:44 PM Here it is, Nutty. Glad to oblige! (23 years, Gawd!!) BILLY REILLEY Copyright 1979 Bonnie Shaljean (Blue Crescent Music Ltd.) Billy Reilley at thy rest Your father calls you from the past His voice is loud but you are blessed With sleep and cannot hear him He doesn't talk much anymore, Billy Reilley Long time ago you courted me In the summer days when the world ran free And love hung ripe on the rowan tree You played your father's pipes And all my joys abounded, Billy Reilley But time and other dreams took hold The land grew ill and the sky turned cold And all the things that make young men old Must send the wild geese flying You left me with your child, Billy Reilley Your father raged and made me swear I'd never tell you but I couldn't bear Unspoken names and whispering stares And worst of all the nights O curse the hour that I wrote you, Billy Reilley You sailed for home with the next tide in But the ship was lost and all men within And now all Ireland's grace can't win you From the sullen ocean My heart lies dead at my feet, Billy Reilley Your father curses the rolling sea The stormy winds, fair France, and me And I curse love and my own baby And life is not the short thing That they would have you believe, Billy Reilley The pipes will sing you fast asleep Where'er you lie in the ocean's keep Forgive me if I no longer weep As year by year I stay here Imprisoned by my sins, Billy Reilley You'd never recognise me, Billy Reilley |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: nutty Date: 17 Apr 02 - 01:50 PM That's the one Bonnie ...... a wonderful song ...... hope I can remember the tune now. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Date: 17 Apr 02 - 01:54 PM BILLY RILEY O Billy Riley was a dancing master O Billy Riley, O A nice master and a master of a daughter O Billy Riley, O A fine daughter but we can't get at her O Billy Riley, O Screw her up and away we go boys O Billy Riley, O One more pull and then belay, boys O Billy Riley, O Screw? Dunno, but I'll guess. Sailing up Chile a ship would have a partly following, partly onshore wind most of the time. It requires searoom to avoid trouble. The passage in some ways could be likened to a screw. On the other hand, how old is the slang word screw for intercourse? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 17 Apr 02 - 02:08 PM I THINK (but am not sure) that "screw" referred to the propulsion of a ship in Ye Olde Days [cleverly avoids giving an actual date]. I seem to remember that Fulton (he of steam-power fame) happened to see a ship's screw that had been broken off and hence was shorter, and this gave him the idea for his invention. I know I'm leaving out loads of details and may be getting it a bit wrong, but I believe that "screw" was the term used in relation to this propulsion mechanism, which Fulton then improved upon. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Date: 17 Apr 02 - 02:54 PM Do shanty singers even mention the "Age of Steam"? A screw or a propellow has nothing to do with clipper ships, and such like. Of course some of them modern things with both... |
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Subject: Tune Add: BILLY RILEY From: Snuffy Date: 17 Apr 02 - 07:05 PM Here's Hugill's tune, which is a mixture of 3/4 and 4/4
X: 190 WassaiL! V |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: MartinRyan Date: 17 Apr 02 - 07:48 PM Cotton was "screwed" into the hold of a ship using a kind of enormous horizontal jack. Its the "Chile" that puzzles me. What does Hugill have? Regards |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: MartinRyan Date: 17 Apr 02 - 07:51 PM Found it... He has "Screw him up so cheerily" with "walk" as an alternative. No Chile... cool! Regards |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: MartinRyan Date: 17 Apr 02 - 07:54 PM Mind you... Hugill also glosses "shebang" as "Irish name for a shack where illicit whiskey was distilled"! So don't believe everything you read in bibles! Regards |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Noreen Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:16 AM *grin* so cheerily doesn't sound the sort of thing that salty sea dogs would sing... is this something else that Hugill has Bowdlerised, I wonder? (From something else rather than Chile or cheerily, I mean.) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: GUEST,Charley Noble Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:33 AM "So cheerily doesn't sound the sort of thing that salty sea dogs would sing." "Cheerily" is, indeed, an expression traditional sailors would use, or their officers, as meaning "with a will" or "quickly." There is even a hayyard shanty called "Cheerily." Cheerily, Charley Noble, Roll & Go |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Ian Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:44 AM I too have vague memories of a song Billy Riley about the progress through life/work of a man from leaving school through an apprenticeship ending with the only line i remember "your the gaffer Billy Reily" Heard in Stoke Folk Club in the late 60s sung by Eric Wain. Can anyone help with this one |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Ian Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:44 AM I too have vague memories of a song Billy Riley about the progress through life/work of a man from leaving school through an apprenticeship ending with the only line i remember "your the gaffer Billy Reily" Heard in Stoke Folk Club in the late 60s sung by Eric Wain. Can anyone help with this one |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Noreen Date: 18 Apr 02 - 08:56 AM Thanks, Charley, I shall learn this cheerily! Noreen |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Dead Horse Date: 18 Apr 02 - 01:42 PM They used Jackscrews to pack the cotton into the holds of vessels, to ram them up tight and so get more in the cargo hold. Lots of negroes were used in this labour, and their chants turned into shanties when the sailors used them for other jobs, often the *tune* remained and the words were changed to suit Sailor John. Negroes formed a large part of the crew of some vessels, and took their chants to sea with them, and a hell of a lot of "white mans shanties" had negro origins. I don't think the Blackball Line had similar origins......... ;-) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Snuffy Date: 16 Sep 03 - 08:44 AM Apparently anyone singing "to Chile" has got it directly or indirectly from a mis-hearing of Jim Mageean. At Bromyard last weekend he told me he actually sang "so cheerily", but many people could not make out the right words. WassaiL! V |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: GUEST,AR282 Date: 16 Sep 03 - 07:39 PM Johnny Collins appears to say "so cheerily." A. L. Lloyd also has a line about being bound for Antigua. Screws are the props of the ship but few ships from that time period had them. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Ferrara Date: 16 Sep 03 - 10:31 PM Ye Mariners All sing, I *think,* "Old Billy Riley, he was the boarding master" rather than dancing master. Makes more sense. Suspect that was the original, then it changed to "dancing master" as the years went by. Here's their version: Old Billy Riley, Mr. Billy Riley (Old Billy Riley Oh! etc.) Old Billy Riley, he was the boarding master (etc) Old Mrs. Riley, she didn't like the sailors (etc.) Old Billy Riley, he had a lovely daughter (etc) He had a lovely daughter, I wish I could have caught her (etc) Old Billy Riley, Mr. Billy Riley (etc.) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Sarah the flute Date: 17 Sep 03 - 03:33 AM Bonnie, I remember you singing that song with Packie at Croydon FC in the Ship many years ago and thought it was lovely. It was a memorable night when Packie demonstrated the art of playing two whistles simultaneously through what looked like a shower attatchment. Good to hear you're thinking of rerecording the song tho Sarah |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 17 Sep 03 - 06:04 AM Thanks for the kind words! |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Noreen Date: 17 Sep 03 - 09:40 AM Rita, dancing master seems to me to fit in with other similar references in shanties where the captain (or whoever else the crew are being rude about) is described as having a soft job on shore before he went to sea. see Reuben Ranzo: Ranzo was no sailor, He was a New York tailor (lots of other derogatory folk references to tailors- but I'm starting thread drift within one post!) |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: BILLY RILEY From: Dead Horse Date: 17 Sep 03 - 02:34 PM It is most definately "cheerily" but it is pronounced "cheer'ly", and that is where the confusion stems from. "Screw him up" is an expression used aboard sailing vessels and means tighten up. It probably comes from the use of Jack Screws, which were employed to stow cargo as tightly as possible below decks - usually cotton bales, but other bulky stuff as well. Dancing Master is correct, the switch to Boarding Master is most amusing, and speaks more about folk clubs wanting to do "the right thing" and so completely missing the point. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey) From: GUEST,bubbles Date: 08 Mar 11 - 05:06 PM have loved this song for years . It does sound like very old ,quaint song.Where is Binnie from? this is the only song i know that she done and i would love to know more about her. If you are out there Bonnie tell us about yourself1 |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey) From: Bonnie Shaljean Date: 09 Mar 11 - 04:21 PM Sorry, I've only just now seen this thread! I'm originally from California, lived for a few years in Boston, then moved to London and now live on the south coast of Ireland, still playing harp & singing. I'm delighted you like the song - Jackie Oates has made a fine recording of it. My apologies for not replying sooner - not sure why I missed this thread - ??? Many thanks and all the best, Bonnie |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey) From: doc.tom Date: 10 Mar 11 - 05:38 AM It's Cheerily - but pronounced chee'ly - hence sounding like Chile - and of course, there's the shanty Cheer'ly Man (or men if you prefer the derivatives)just to prove it's a sailor's phrase. Absolutely - with a will. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey) From: Lighter Date: 10 Mar 11 - 12:15 PM The song was popularized by Lloyd on the Tradition LP "Blow Boys Blow" (ca1961). It looks as though he found it in C. F. Smith's collection of shanties, then improved the words slightly. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey) From: GUEST,Malcolm Speake Date: 13 Sep 12 - 04:37 PM I think the line 'Oh Missy Riley, screw her up so cheer'ly' could be a double entendre. The men were packing the cargo below deck and thinking about what they would like to do with pretty Missy Riley. Compared to Stan Hugill this is very clean. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey) From: GUEST,Lighter Date: 13 Sep 12 - 05:14 PM > Compared to Stan Hugill this is very clean. But compared to what exactly? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey) From: Dead Horse Date: 14 Sep 12 - 05:31 AM "I think the line 'Oh Missy Riley, screw her up so cheer'ly' could be a double entendre." Penny dropping is it? It is just that sort of expression that gives this shanty a lift above more somber numbers. A good shanty is one that gets the men to work together with a will and with hopefully a bit of humour. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Billy Riley (chantey) From: Charley Noble Date: 14 Sep 12 - 08:37 AM Always enjoyed this one. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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