Lyr Req: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart

Subject: Lyr Req: Request for sea song title/lyrics
From: GUEST,Chanteyranger
Date: 06 May 03 - 07:44 PM

I got a call at work today from an elderly woman who's deceased husband was a merchant seaman. She has been looking for the title and lyrics to a song he used to sing to her. She only remembers these lines, which she (very poignantly)sung to me over the phone:

She was just a sailor sweetheart
He was just a sailorman
But he left her brokenhearted
He was all she ever had

It has the feel of a poem or music hall song. Do these opening lines ring a bell with anyone? If you know of this one, I'll send her the lyrics. Thanks!

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Request for sea song title/lyrics
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 May 03 - 08:06 PM

http://levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu/levy-search.html

Is this it?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Request for sea song title/lyrics
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 May 03 - 08:24 PM

Link isn't working. Here is the reference from the Levy Collection:

Title: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart. A Serio-Comic Mock Ballad. Fox Trot. A Novel, Comedy Absurdity.
Composer, Lyricist, Arranger: Words and Music by Joe Burke. Ukulele Acc. by May Singhi Breen.
May Singhi Breen Publication: New York: Leo Feist, Inc., 1925.
Instrumentation: piano and voice; ukulele
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
First Line: It was on a Tuesday ev'ning, at the home of Madge Malone
First Line of Chorus: She was just a sailor's Sweetheart
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: JR
Advertisement: ads on inside bottom margins and on back cover for Leo Feist, Inc. stock
Plate Number: 5572-4
Subject: Caricatures
Subject: Couples
Subject: Cartoons
Subject: Birds
Subject: Cigarettes
Subject: Courtship
Subject: Love
Subject: Deception
Subject: Marc Antony
Subject: Cleopatra
Call No.: Box: 156 Item: 205

For a fee, they will provide lyrics. It was published after 1923 and is not in the Public Domain.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Request for sea song title/lyrics
From: SINSULL
Date: 06 May 03 - 08:42 PM

EUREKA!
It is for sale on Ebay in this lot:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2526701478&category=157

PM me if you don't have an Ebay account. I can bid for you. It is at $4 with two days to go.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Request for sea song title/lyrics
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 May 03 - 09:14 PM

"She's Just A Sailor's Sweetheart" played by the University Six (rec. 1925) is HERE.

~Masato

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Request for sea song title/lyrics
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 06 May 03 - 10:12 PM

Thank you, SINS and arigato, Masato! I'm sure, by the title, that's the one she's looking for.

Subject: DTADD: SHE'S JUST A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 May 03 - 08:02 AM

Here's my transcription of the 1925 University Six recording at http://www.redhotjazz.com/universitysix.html

SHE'S JUST A SAILOR'S SWEETHEART

She was just a sailor's sweetheart
And she loved her sailor lad.
But he left her broke in Hartford.
He was all she ever had. (Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!)

But she still believes in sailors.
And she's true to the red white and blue.
And although she's barred from the navy yard,
Oh, she loves her sailor boy positively.

[As is typical of jazz songs of that era, the first 2/3 of the recording is instrumental. Obviously, the recording doesn't include all the words from the sheet music.

[I suspect the last line is an allusion to a positive result on a Wassermann test!]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 05:52 AM

I Googled for "at the home of Madge Malone" and found this at another forum:

It was on a Tuesday evening at the home of Madge Malone.
There was quite a celebration for her parents weren't home.
There were songs and witty stories, and a bottle on the shelf
When up sprang Dan McGrew and said, "Here's a song I wrote meself!"
"Sing it, Dan!" "Righto, I will."

She was just a sailor's sweetheart
And she loved her sailor lad,
But he left her broke in Hartford;
He was all she ever had.

But she still believes in sailors,
And she's true to the red white and blue,
And tho' she got sore,
When he broke her jaw,
Oh, she loves her sailor boy absolutely.

The person who posted it said he learned the words from a piano roll. Note the subtle changes. The text has been expurgated. I guess the publishers wanted to avoid the scene of kids gathered around the piano asking, "Mom, why was she barred from the Navy Yard?" And "positively" has been changed to "absolutely," which reinforces my interpretation of the original.

And it just dawned on me: "broke in Hartford" is a pun on "broken-hearted." That joke is relatively clean, so they left it in.

Here's a view of the sheet music cover.

I also learned that (coincidentally, I assume) MADGE MALONE is the name of a tune by Turlough O'Carolan.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart
From: Gene
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 12:40 PM

XcusaMe

without first checking for related posts, I posted a request for
help with the name of artist on the same song.

Complete lyrics for my search is posted at:

thread.cfm?threadid=113727&messages=3

G

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart
From: 12-stringer
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 03:16 PM

Cf Bluebird 6737 (rec at Charlotte, NC, 11 October 1936) by the Washboard Wonders (who also recorded as Dick Hartman's Tennessee Ramblers and Hartman's Heart Breakers). Style is 1930s hot hillbilly jazz; I don't know the ID of the hot acoustic guitar soloist.

(intro: Fiddle starts off with "Sailor's Hornpipe," then takes a straight break on the melody)

She was just a sailor's sweetheart
And she loved her sailor lad.
But he left her broke in Hartford.
He was all she ever had.

But she still believes in sailors.
And she's true to the red white and blue.
And although she's barred from the navy yard,
Oh, she loves her sailor boy positively.

(Acoustic guitar and fiddle each take a 32-bar break)

She was just a sailor's sweetheart
And she loved her sailor lad,
But he left her broke in Hartford;
He was all she ever had.

But she still believes in sailors,
And she's true to the red white and blue,
And tho' she got sore,
When he broke her jaw,
Oh, she loves her sailor boy absolutely.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart
From: GUEST,doorgal4094
Date: 21 May 12 - 08:01 PM

thanks
I had a record my sailor uncle brought me when I was about 12. this was the song!
We played it over and over until we memorized it, and it had many many verses, and Dan McGrew grew more inebriated in each one as he sang.
thanks for the memories.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 22 May 12 - 06:52 AM

The Bluebird recording can be heard at archive.org: Washboard Wonders.

According to Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942 (p409) it was recorded on Oct 11, 1936. There were three guitarists on the session, listed as: Harry Blair, Fred "Happy" Morris and unknown.


Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart
From: Charley Noble
Date: 22 May 12 - 07:41 AM

This ditty could inspire more verses (well, maybe not great verses):

She was just a sailor's sweetheart
And she played with his fid,
But he left her broke in Hartford.
And there she raised his kid.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: (She Was Just) A Sailor's Sweetheart
From: MartinRyan
Date: 22 May 12 - 08:02 AM

That Bluebird recording is a bit of an earworm. Certainly doesn't remind me of O Carolan - is it "My Blue Ridge Mountain Home" or somesuch that comes to mind?

Regards