Lyr Req: Let the Bojine Run? / Let the Bulgine Run

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Bojine Run? / Let the Bulgine Run
From: GUEST,999
Date: 30 Jan 12 - 07:45 AM

This is a great read about the Black Ball Line[s]. It's worth it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Bojine Run? / Let the Bulgine Run
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:49 PM

To whom it may concern:
I just found the song Eliza Lee. That song has the lyrics of the song that are So clear ther track let the Bulgine run.
Look at: http://www.contemplator.com/sea/elizalee.html
I hope this helps.

Sincerely:
Carl K.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Bojine Run? / Let the Bulgine Run
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:34 PM

The Bullgine / Clear Away the Track
yar.
shanties : A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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URL: http://www.arrr.net/shanties/clear_away_the_track.shtml
Oh! The smartest packet that you could find
A hey, a ho, are you most done
Is the old Wild Cat of the Swallow Tail Line
Clear away the track and let the Bullgine run
To me, hey rig-a-jig in low back car
A hee, a ho, are you most done
Liza Lee all on my knee
Clear away the track and let the Bullgine run
Now Liza Lee if you were mine
I would dress you up in silk so fine
Well the prettiest sight that you could see
Is that Liza Lee all on my knee
Well in Liverpool town them girls hang 'round
And it's there my Liza will be found
When I come home from across the sea
Lliza Lee will you marry me
I'll stay with you upon the shore
And it's back to sea will go no more

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Let the Bojine Run? / Let the Bulgine Run
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jan 12 - 07:29 PM

There is a song of the sea with the verse repeated. The opening verse is "Oh the smartest clipper you can find ah he ah hoe are you most done is the Margaret Evens of the black ack Line. So clear away the tracks let the bojine run with a hay rig a gig and a low back care ah he a hoe are you most done with Lisa Lee upon my knee so clear away the track let the bojine run.

This is on a tape of "songs of the Sea" in my collection of tapes.

Sincerely Carl K.

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: MarcB
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 01:45 PM

Martin,

I think the only connection between a bilge pump on ship(there were two basic designs, the one I mentioned above and a wheel type affair) and the rocker-arm rail trolleys is a matter of engineering(not my forte:) There must be some efficiency of operation that makes that particular design appropriate for the two different applications. Personally, I'm just glad I don't have to do wither for aliving.

And to ya'll, as to folk music. It is a discussion I find extremely interesting and fun to pursue, and of value for the sake of the conversation itself. I find it meaningless(and even dangerous) when we try and impose "rules" on what constitutes folk music and then judge singers/performers by our criteria.

To paraphrase Dr. Malcolm in "Jurassic Park", "the songs will find a way."

My personal criteria for folk music? - It "sounds" like a traditional folk song - I like it - Let the folk decide

When I look at my repertoire it is certainly a mix of oral tradition, composed songs, old and new. And yet it definitely has a commonality to it, all the songs fit thematically and musically into a boundary that feels traditional Anglo-Irish, and listeners seem to understand those distinctions.

Now let's talk about "The Unicorn":)

Cheers. Marc

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Bert
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 01:02 PM

Jon W.

I was just poking fun at RUS. Personally, I think that a Folk Song is any song that is sung without patronage of any kind.

I define 'patronage' to be any commercial, religious, government, educational, political or similar sponsorship.

But it doesn't really matter very much to me what you call it as long as you SING IT.

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Jon W.
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 12:12 PM

I dunno, Bert. To enter the tradition, I would say someone has to learn it without a book and then sing it. I'm still up in the air as to whether it's okay to learn it from a recording or if you have to learn it from a (live) person. Of course, the fact that a song which has previously been in the oral tradition gets published in a book, and people learn it from the book, does not take the song OUT of the oral tradition.

Jon W., once again stating his opinion as fact.

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Bert
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 11:28 AM

MarcB,
"My question is, when does a song ENTER the oral tradition."

It's when you sing it without the book. Or should I have said without THE book?

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 24 Apr 98 - 08:01 AM

MarcB Your explanation sounds right to me. Wandering around at the back of my head is a vague memory of a reference to those funny trolley-like cars used on railways, hand operated with an up-and-down motion - as seen in all the best old silent movies. Does Hugill make the connection somewhere - not in "Seven Seas"?

Regards

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: MarcB
Date: 22 Apr 98 - 06:18 PM

Yo from one who used to live in Huntsville!

Stan always said that this was a pumping shantey sung while working a hand pump in spite of the reference to Bullgine(which corresponds in my head to your notions of engines mentioned above). The rhythmn is very deliberate with a hard downbeat. "Oh the SMARTest clipper YOU can find a HEE and ho are YOU most done". The pumps were worked at three pause points - on the downbeat. At the top of the push/lift and the waist high midpoint, and at the bottom of the lift/push with arms straight down. I've done it on the Charles W. Morgan. Great song, boring task!

This is also a shantey that saw wide use so any reference to actual engines, Mobile, etc. is probably irrelevant. Like references to Santy Anna which meant next to nothing to late 19th century Anglo-Irish sailors.

This song also seems to be closely related to Donkey Riding which we learned in grade school.

My question is, when does a song ENTER the oral tradition. And if I only hear orally even though it was written or composed for some broadside ballad(or television special) does that make it orally transmitted folk song. Cover your mouth when you say that!

Cheers. Marc

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 22 Apr 98 - 02:14 PM

Sorry, T., I don't know anything about the port of Mobile; I'm in Alabama, but just barely so--in the Muscle Shoals area, right in the northwest corner.

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Art Thieme
Date: 22 Apr 98 - 01:56 PM

Hey, I'm the guy who thought that Bill Broonzy's line about, "It's all folk music; I never heard a horse singin'" --was O.K.!

Was just trying to stir the pot.

Art

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: T. in Oklahoma
Date: 22 Apr 98 - 10:39 AM

Bill in Alabama: One version of "Clear the Track" (elsewhere known as "Liza Lee". You'd think "The Margaret Evans" would be a good title, too) explicitly mentions the port of Mobile. Do you know if steam engines (I suppose they'd be diesels now) on tracks (other than for shipment of goods overland to and from the port) are or were part of the port's apparatus?

Art Thieme: Your criterion of illiterate transmission doesn't bother me. I simply dissent from it. Folk music, as I've said elsewhere in this forum, is music that folk use simultaneously with some other activity. Beethoven's 6th Symphony is not folk music if you listen to it in the concert hall. It becomes folk music if you listen to it while vacuuming your living room.

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Art Thieme
Date: 22 Apr 98 - 01:13 AM

On rivers like the Mississippi and the Illinois most locks on tne upper river are not large enough for a "double tow"---15 barges pushed by a diesel towboat. The first nine barges are pushed into the lock chamber, the other six barges and the towboat are detatched. The first 9 are then pulled through the lock (after the lock water is cycled) by a small electric winch engine. Then the boat and the other 6 barges are locked through also, reattached and it all goes on it's way. On the Mississippi, while singing on the Julia Belle Swain and the Twilight over the last decade, I have heard a lock worker call that winch the BULLGINE---but only once!

Also, Sam Hinton's fine Decca LP __A Family Tree Of Folksongs__ shows how this song was related to other folksongs. That's what the oral tradition is all about. Serious folkies know that only songs in that oral tradition are real folksongs no matter what other things are called "folk" at any given moment on the time line!!

If that statement bothers some, well, so be it! IT'S THE TRUTH!

Art Thieme

Subject: Bullgine or Bulgine
From: Bill in Alabama
Date: 21 Apr 98 - 04:35 PM

Bullgine is, indeed a term applied a small steam loco- motive which runs on short tracks and is usually used to haul ships through locks and canals. A donkey engine is a stationary engine which might be used on board ship to power a winch or to run a pump; it has no tracks, tending to be portable, if not mobile. A pony engine is a similar small locomotive built to use regulation-gauge railroad rails, and used for moving cars in a railroad switchyard. The earliest entry I could find for the word in a quick search was 1846; it was in use as late as 1939.

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: T. fro Oklahoma
Date: 21 Apr 98 - 12:37 PM

I too have long been puzzled by the refrerence to a "track" in the song, "Clear the track let the bull-gine run". I have assumed the engine was on a short track which allowed it to slide to different positions on the ship's deck. Does anyone have any precise information on this?

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Bert
Date: 21 Apr 98 - 09:54 AM

Dick, would that be like "Moose Turd Pie" by Utah Phillips? :-)

Subject: Bullgine Pie (Bulgine Pie)
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 21 Apr 98 - 12:18 AM

Literal meanings, in shanteys, were not terribly critical, as long as the words sounded good and had a good swing. Stan Hugill sang a songabout "Bullgine Pie"--a confection of which I think everyone's unaware.

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Barry Finn
Date: 20 Apr 98 - 05:11 PM

Joe & Ron my apologies, (I'm sorry I have sinned big time, forgive me all) from Hugill's Shanties of the Seven Seas, I was referencing the song prior to this Run, Bulgine Run, not Clear The Track as I thought. Thanks for calling me up on it so quick, the longer my error the greater my embrassment. Ron as far as I know a bulgine is an engine that could adapt it uses, similar to anchor winches of today, except I thought they were temporary on dockside or pier. Shamefully Barry

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Apr 98 - 04:42 PM

LET THE BULGINE RUN is in the database. From everything but the "clear the track' line, I'd say this is a song about a packet ship. don't know of any trains that go from liverpool to New York, even in these days of advanced technology.
but where does the "clear the track" reference fit in? Are they talking about a train that carried freight to the ship?
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: RonU
Date: 20 Apr 98 - 04:21 PM

That is interesting, Barry. I was told the other night that the Bojine had something to do with hoisting the sails. ????

Subject: Info: Clear The Track, Let The Bulgine Run
From: Barry Finn
Date: 20 Apr 98 - 03:16 PM

"Clear The Track, Let The Bulgine Run" enter Bulgine in the upper right hand corner for a search & you'll find a version in the database. Bulgine, according to Hugill was an American slang word for a railroad engine (Shanties of the 7 Seas), I was always under the impression it was similar to a Donkey engine, used for hoisting. Probably orginating from Afro-Americans working the railroads. Barry

Subject: RE: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: PKD on Teesside
Date: 20 Apr 98 - 03:02 PM

Do you mean "Let the bow-line run" ?? I'm sure there is a song with that in, but I can't bring it to mind.

Subject: Let the Bojine(?) run
From: RonU
Date: 20 Apr 98 - 02:01 PM

I'm looking for info on the song that contains the words, "let the bojine run". Thanks in advance. RonU