Oyster songs

Subject: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: mg
Date: 31 May 03 - 01:38 AM

Anybody think of any? I just wrote one and can't think of others...about something I need to double check on..the oystering in Washington State during the blackout times of World War II...someone alluded to me..didn't come right out and say..that they had to dig oysters in the dark because of the blackout..I asked a couple of people and they said they never heard of it....asked someone else today and he said it was true. I'll get back to my original source, whose mother worked in the oystering at that time....

Also, I had never thought of it, but Washington as many know was the home to many Japanese people who were sent to the camps during the war, and I'd always known about the farmers etc. but the oyster people (who also consider themselves farmers, at least some of them) were affected too...

mg

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: GUEST
Date: 31 May 03 - 02:56 AM

Oystering songs: There's the "Geoduck" song from Seattle I believe. This has been recorded in Japanese
A version goes like

Chorus:

Dig a duck, dig a duck,
Dig a gooey duck
Dig a duck, dig a gooey duck
Dig a duck a day


You can hear the digger say
As he's headed for the bay
I gotta dig a duck, gotta dig a duck a day

Cause I get a buck a duck
If I dig a duck a day
So I gotta dig a duck,
Gotta dig a duck a day

They walk across the sand
About a half a mile from land
To dig a gooey duck
You dig him up by hand
But it isn't much trouble
And you don't use a shovel
You find a gooey duck
By looking for the bubble

It take a lot of luck
And a certain kind of pluck
To dig around the muck
To get a gooey duck
Cause he doesn't have a front
And he doesn't have a back
And he doesn't know Donald
And he doesn't go, "Quack!"

From the Chessapeake Bay there's also the "Shanghied Dredger". A early 19th century round from Baltimore called "Go It Jerry" contains an oyster vendors cry as one of its verses

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 31 May 03 - 09:13 AM

There is one from "Ravenscroft" a round called "New Oysters"
JohnB

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Walter Corey
Date: 31 May 03 - 09:21 AM

Malvina Reynolds, I believe, wrote "You Can't Eat the Oysters in New Haven Harbor"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Padre
Date: 31 May 03 - 09:57 AM

From the Boarding Party: "Go it Jerry" [A round]

Go it Jerry, keep it up,
There's nothing like a spree, sir,
Holler fire and oysters, boys,
And then a sight you'll see, sir

Fire, Fire, Fire,Fire, Fire
Bring out the engine, boys
There's fire, fire, fire

Oysters, fine oysters
Try my fine fresh oysters
York River fresh and fat
As ere you see sirs

Past twelve o'clock
And a starlight morning

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 31 May 03 - 11:03 AM

See also song about oysters

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: GUEST,Mary
Date: 31 May 03 - 02:06 PM

I thought I had one for you but I looked it up and it was called "Acres of Clams". Would that be close enough? Personally, I only like oysters raw and I only like clams cooked, so there is a difference besides their bivalveness.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: MMario
Date: 31 May 03 - 02:28 PM

somewhere I have one about the "young Oysterman"

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 May 03 - 02:32 PM

Don't forget Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Leadfingers
Date: 31 May 03 - 03:11 PM

As I was a walking down a London Street
A pretty little Oyster Girl I happened for to meet
I lifted up her basket and so boldly did I seek
For to see if she'd got any Oysters

Oh Oysters Oh Oysters Oh Oysters Said she
These are the finest Oysters that ever you could see
I sell them three penny but I'll give them to you free
For I see you are a lover of Oysters

Oh Landlord,Oh Landlord, Landlord I cried
Have you got a room that is empty and nearby
Where me and my pretty little Oyster Girl might lie
While we bargain for her basket of Oysters

Now we had not been in bed not a quarter hour or more
When my little Oyster Girl she's headed for the door
She's picked my bloody pocket and then down the stair she tore
But she left behind her basket of Oysters

Oh Landlord,O landlord,Landlord I cried
Did you see the little Oyster Girl a drinking by my side
She's gone and picked my pocket but the Landlord just replied
Son You shouldnt be so fond of your Oysters

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: saulgoldie
Date: 31 May 03 - 03:18 PM

There is "Eat Bertha's Mussels." Although it does not specify oysters, one could certainly infer it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: GUEST
Date: 31 May 03 - 05:15 PM

Sweet Molly Malone...cockles and mussels...that close enough?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: mg
Date: 31 May 03 - 06:41 PM

thanks...I'll print these up and make them into a little booklet..

here are the words to the Oystershell Road song


Oystershell Road
 
You have to dig oysters when the tide is just right
And sometimes it comes in the dead of the night
The orders came down to extinguish all light
To our homes on the oystershell road
 
Some were from Germany some from Japan
They lived for the oyster each woman and man
We said God be with you return when you can
To your homes on the oystershell road
 
Now the glow of a lantern could bring an attack
And sometimes we'd sleep in the old oyster shack
And drop ourselves down with a rake and a sack
Near our homes on the oystershell road
 
For when push comes to shove your mettle shines through
And our hands and our feet somehow knew what to do
With the men gone away we made such a fine crew
From our homes on the oystershell road
 
We helped win the war in the mud and the muck
And prayed that our feet would never get stuck
When the tide rushes in you can run out of luck
By your homes on the oystershell road
 
Oh how I remember the dark and the cold
I had hoped that our story would someday be told
But it probably won't cause we're getting so old
In our homes on the oystershell road

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 01:17 PM

Found the "Oyster Song," by Connie Mason, Carteret County, North Carolina. Didn't see in in this thread or 55798, which has the wonderful Cole Porter "Tale of the Oyster."

Lyr. Add: Oyster Song

Chorus
Well, tonight I ate an oyster,
An oyster in a stew;
A stew of mud and butter;
Which he was floating through!

1. I ate his heart, his liver;
His gill and his fluid sac;
His teeth and his capillaries;
The tube along his back!

2. I ate his pores and his fleshy foot;
Intestines large and small;
The other glands and tissues;
I quite devoured all!

3. I ate his brains and ganglia;
His nervous system central;
His stomach and its contents;
His muscles to the ventral!

4. Dear host, the meal was perfect!
A real delight to sup.
Please show me to the bathroom
My oyster's coming....up!

People/Events in Morehead City: Oyster Song
If that doesn't work: http://www.clis.com/ccs/lenc/students/Cart...oreheadCityClips/people_eventsMHCMason.htm.

Thread 55798: Oyster songs

A must read for campaigners for Oyster Rights! Don Marquis, "Revolt of the Oyster," 1922, Doubleday Page Co., pp. 1-17 (and other stories), 229 pp.

"Oystershell Road": Have seen many an oyster shell road or driveway in the Gulf Coast area, but not yet seen one in Washington (haven't been on coastal byways there for some years). Now that Washington is a major producer, they may have appeared.

Japanese-Canadian fishermen in British Columbia also lost their boats and were interned during WW2, just as they were in the States..

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 06:54 PM

I've a fine rusty old oyster drudge from the Tollesbury and Mersea Native Oyster Company in me shed, and a few shares in said company, redundant as it sadly is. The bonamia took it away.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: mg
Date: 09 Jun 03 - 08:47 PM

Washington used to have lots of roads made of oyster shells...used it instead of gravel...what do you mean now that Washington is a major producer? They were extremely important during the gold rush..and during WWII for the military...they have always produced a lot..except for some times when they shut down due to freezes etc. damaging and sometimes destorying their seed oysters...had to change oyster species a couple of times...it is the biggest employer right now in Pacific County Washington....mg

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 07:36 AM

There's another version of "Oyster Girl" that Brian Peters has recorded -- same story, but slightly different words. (One of which, in the last line, I couldn't figure out; asked Brian what it was and promptly LOST the sheet of paper I had written it on -- as well as my memory, of course.) And a third version, with Manchester, I think, instead of London as well as a slightly different storyline.

And another by The Boarding Party -- "The Shanghaied Dredger." (I can post the words if they're wanted.)

Linn

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Deckman
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 08:21 AM

Mary .... what do you mean they are the biggest employer in Pacific county ... heck ... they are the ONLY employer! Bob

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 08:35 AM

Thanks, Q, for another superb song! Reminds me how my dear departed grandfather used to drag me to the local sea food market on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn and try to stuff a raw oyster into my mouth. Yuk!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Bert
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 01:29 PM

Great song Mary!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: Roberto
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 01:49 PM

Does somebody have the text of the Dredg Song,as sung by Archie Fisher? I'd like to know the lyrics. Thank you. Roberto

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:02 PM

I would love the words to all these songs and I'll put them in a little booklet for the Interpretive Center..let me know if there are copyright issues please.

THere was one mentioned that sounded especially pretty..I can't look back now..about an oyster girl as I recall..think it was in an old thread...

mg

Subject: RE: Folklore: Oyster songs
From: GUEST,Val
Date: 10 Jun 03 - 02:39 PM

There's a wonderful (C18th I think) song from 'Pills to Purge Melancholy' called Oyster Nan - but I'm not writing the words down! They're saucy to say the least!