Lyr Req: Where Am I to Go? (chantey)

Subject: Where am I to go
From: Kelly Dunkelberger
Date: 23 Jul 98 - 01:46 PM

Last fall I heard a song by the Wood's Tea Company in Vermont called (I think) "Where am I to Go." It seems to me this is a traditional sea shanty, but I haven't been able to find the lyrics or melody anywhere on the web. Anyone know?

Subject: RE: Where am I to go
From: Barry Finn
Date: 23 Jul 98 - 02:46 PM

Enter into the search box, Where Am I To Go Me Johnnies, & you'll find it there along with midi music. Hugill doesn't say much about this halyard shanty except that he got it from a fellow shantyman, Harding the Barbarian from Barbadoes, a Black sailor who had shipped on Yankee, Brittish, Bluenose & West Indian vessels, a fine shantyman & a 1st rate sailor. He also says he never seen it in print. Barry

Subject: RE: Where am I to go
From: Barbara
Date: 23 Jul 98 - 04:44 PM

Gordon Bok sings it, too, and it's on one of his CDs or albums. That's probably how it got to Vermont.
Barbara

Subject: RE: Where am I to go
From: Barry Finn
Date: 23 Jul 98 - 04:56 PM

Barbara, not to split hairs with ya, but Gordon's not really a collector of shanties, though he does a bit of them , he'd be more a writer of sea music. Being the next state over I'd give credit to the Wood's Tea Company for finding their own material & I'd say we're not limited to Bok material up here in Northern New England, though we are known to push about some of the local stuff. Barry

Subject: RE: Where am I to go
From: Barbara
Date: 24 Jul 98 - 02:20 AM

No, I wouldn't call Gordon a shantyman either. It's more that he's pretty well known, and I've had a tape of his around for years that has him singing "Where am I to go." Think it probably came out in the 70's, and I was guessing that he'd popularized it, especially locally. It's certainly been my experience that when I find and fall in love with some REALLY obscure song, and all of a sudden EVERYONE knows it, it's been because Gordon Bok got ahold of it and put it on an album or CD. And I live on the west coast.
Wasn't meaning to impune Wood's Tea Company's collecting ability. Maybe he learned it from them.
Blessings,
Barbara