Lyr Add: Hen Overboard!

Subject: Hen Overboard!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 31 May 02 - 05:19 PM

No, this song not another version of "Chicken on a Raft" but a sea poem by the esteemed Maine poet Peter Tristam Coffin, of whom I have a vague memory of having attended his 90th birthday party some 40 years ago (copy and repaste into WORD/TIMES/12 to get chords right):

HEN OVERBOARD!

(By Peter Tristam Coffin © Collected Poems Adapted by Charlie Ipcar in 1995 Tune by Charlie Ipcar Key: Dm (Gm/7))


Dm----------------C
"All hands on deck!" came the cry,
-----Dm----------C
From Capt. Cobb as white as chalk;
---Dm-------------C
He spun the wheel in his broad hands;
----Dm----------------C-------Dm
"I've lost me wife's best Plymouth Rock!"


The vast white bellied sails went flat;
A hundred blocks began to whine;
The yards swung round to catch the wind,
As round-eyed sailors hauled each line.

"She was took from her setting-eggs
To sun upon the after-hatch;
The wind caught her, now look alive,
Or God knows what I'm gonna catch!"

Under Java's sky-high peaks,
In the Strait of Sunda's foam,
The prim New England biddy-hen
Squawked for help, and longed for home.

She knew this was a godless place;
She'd seen the wicked sharks at play;
She thought she'd never see her home
Twelve thousand watery miles away.

Then, the Yankee ship swooped down;
The davits shrieked, down came the boat;
They manned their oars and Capt. Cobb
Found Plymouth Rock was still afloat.

He tucked her in his best frock coat;
He soothed her woes as best he could;
Home he brought her to her nest,
New England, God, and Motherhood.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hen Overboard!
From: ChanteyMatt
Date: 31 May 02 - 05:57 PM

The tune, Charley! What's the tune?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hen Overboard!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 01 Jun 02 - 07:52 PM

CM- We're not talking about a complex tune here; it's not a traditional tune that I can identify. Run the chords with a guitar as above and meditate, or PM me and I'll send you a MP3 file in a couple of weeks; if you do that be sure to tell me something about yourself and what you do with this music. I haven't done much with this song myself, nor has anyone else with my singing group Roll & Go, but I thought someone else might be interested in it.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hen Overboard!
From: MMario
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 12:19 PM

me too! I wanna get an mp3! please?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hen Overboard!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 01:19 PM

MMario- Sure, as soon as I'm back from the Mystic Sea Music fest. Do you sing with a sea music group?

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hen Overboard!
From: MMario
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 05:21 PM

No - but I *do* like sea songs; and "Plymouth Rock" strikes a chord in a Cape Codders heart *grin* though since I was an Aggie I know it is a hen.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hen Overboard!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 Jun 02 - 08:54 PM

I never tried striking a chord with a Plymouth Rock, although when I was growing up on the farm we plucked one or two. That's PLUCKED, you snickering degenerates in the back...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hen Overboard!
From: MMario
Date: 04 Jun 02 - 05:58 AM

Was that a yolk?