Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn

Subject: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Nov 04 - 10:27 PM

Hi,
Does anyone have the lyrics for this song? I heard Dick Holdstock sing it last night, it's a great sea song.

Anne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: Little Robyn
Date: 06 Nov 04 - 03:11 AM

Is this the one about the Gallant Frigate Amphitrite?
The rounding of Cape Horn?
Robyn

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: GUEST,Shanty Kees
Date: 06 Nov 04 - 09:07 AM

Anne,

Maybe this will help. I do have the CD "San Francisco Shanties and Sea Songs of Califonia's Gold Rush" by Holdstock & Murphey.

The song you want is on it but as English is not my native tongue I'm not sure about some of the words. Maybe someone else can help this. The song wanted has the following chorus:

Oh I remember well, the lies they used to tell,
Of gold so bright, it hurt the sight and made the miners ill(or yell).

Kees

Subject: Lyr & Tune ADD: COMING AROUND THE HORN
From: masato sakurai
Date: 06 Nov 04 - 11:22 AM

From The Songs of the Gold Rush, edited by Richard A. Dwyer and Richard E. Lingenfelter (University of California Press, 1965, pp. 29-30):

         COMING AROUND THE HORN
             (Air: Dearest Mae)
          J.A. Stone / L.V.H. Crosby
                  1
Now miners, if you'll listen, I'll tell you quite a tale,
About the voyage around Cape Horn, they call a pleasant sail;
We bought a ship, and had her stowed with houses, tools and grub,
But cursed the day we ever sailed in the poor old rotten tub.
(Chorus)
Oh, I remember well the lies they used to tell,
Of gold so bright, it hurt the sight, and made the miners yell.

                  2
We left old New York city, with the weather very thick,
The second day we puked up boots, oh, wusn't we all sea-sick!
I swallowed pork tied to a string, which made a dreadful shout,
I felt it strike the bottom, but I could not pull it out.

                  3
We all were owners in the ship, and soon began to growl,
Because we hadn't ham and eggs, and now and then a fowl;
We told the captain what to do, as him we had to pay,
The captain swore that he was boss, and we should him obey.

                  4
We lived like hogs penned up to fat, our vessel was so small,
We had a "duff" but once a month, and twice a day a squall;
A meeting now and then was held, which kicked up quite a stink,
The captain damned us fore and aft, and wished the box would sink.

                  5
Off Cape Horn, where we lay becalmed, kind Providence seemed to frown,
We had to stand up night and day, none of us dared sit down;
For some had half a dozen boils, 'twas awful sure's you're born,
But some would try it on the sly, and got pricked by the Horn.

                  6
We stoped at Valparaiso, where the women are so loose,
And all got drunk as usual, got shoved in the Calaboose;
Our ragged, rotten sails were patched, the ship made ready for sea,
But every man, except the cook, was up town on a spree.

                  7
We sobered off, set sail again, on short allowance, of course,
With water thick as castor oil, and stinking beef much worse;
We had the scurvy and the itch, and any amount of lice,
The medicine chest went overboard, with bluemass, cards and dice.

                  8
We arrived at San Francisco, and all went to the mines,
We left an agent back to sell our goods of various kinds;
A friend wrote up to let us know our agent, Mr. Gates,
Had sold the ship and cargo, sent the money to the States.

Text: Original California Songster.
Music: "Dearest Mae," Comic Songs.

X:1
T:COMING AROUND THE HORN
M:2/4
L:1/8
K:G
D|"G"D B B B|B B2 B|"B"A A A A |A3 F|
w:Now min-ers, if you'll lis-ten, I'll tell you quite a tale, A-
"Em"A G G G/ G/|"D"G F F G|A A A A|"G"G2 z D|
w:bout the voy-age a-round Cape Horn, they call a pleas-ant sail; We
D B B B|B B B B|"B"A A A ^G|A2 z A|
w:bought a ship, and had her stowed with hous-es, tools and grub, But
"C"A G G G|"D"G F F G/ G/|A A A A|"G"G3 D|
w:cursed the day we ev-er sailed in the poor old rot-ten tub. Oh,
B B B B|"Bm"B3 A|"C"G F E G|"Am"c2 z c|
w:I re-mem-ber well the lies they used to tell, Of
"G"c B B B|"Am"B A A G|"D"A G (F/E/) F|"G"G3|]
w:gold so bright, it hurt the sight, and made the min - ers yell.

---

Click to play

To play or display ABC tunes, try concertina.net

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: GUEST,EIlis
Date: 07 Nov 04 - 02:40 AM

Shanty Kees....thanks for the reference to that CD. I hadn't heard of it. It sounds great! I just happened upon this thread since I'd not heard the song in question. I know the usual shanties as do most folks, and it's always nice to come across ones that are new to me!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 03:41 AM

Many thanks, Masato, That was exactly what I was looking for.

Anne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 01:47 PM

You can get Dick Holdstock's recordings at http://www.dickholdstock.com/. You'll note that some San Francisco Mudcatters have performed with Dick on his CD's.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 01:09 PM

Can anyone explain the lines:
I swallowed pork tied to a string which made a dreadful shout
I felt it strike the bottom, but I could not pull it out.

Anne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 08:20 PM

I don't think I want to know...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 06:18 AM

Just a guess: It sounds like a remedy for seasickness.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: masato sakurai
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 06:33 AM

Jim is right.

From Newton Forster; or, the Merchant Service, by Captain Frederick Marryat, Chapter 32:

How many panaceas have been offered without success for two evils—sea-sickness and hydrophobia! and between these two there appears to be a link, for sea-sickness as surely ends in hydrophobia, as hydrophobia does in death. The sovereign remedy prescribed, when I first went to sea, was a piece of fat pork, tied to a string to be swallowed, and then pulled up again; the dose to be repeated until effective. I should not have mentioned this well-known remedy, as it has long been superseded by other nostrums, were it not that this maritime prescription has been the origin of two modern improvements in the medical catalogue—one is the stomach pump, evidently borrowed from this simple engine; the other is the very successful prescription now in vogue, to those who are weak in the digestive organs, to eat fat bacon for breakfast, which I have no doubt was suggested to Doctor Vance, from what he had been eye-witness to on board of a man-of-war.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Coming Around the Horn
From: masato sakurai
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 06:54 AM

Another quotation, from Dialstone Lane, by W_W_ Jacobs, Part IV:

Mr. Chalk shook his head, and his friend, selecting one from his case, lit it with a fusee that poisoned the atmosphere.

"None of us seem to be sea-sick," he remarked.

"Sea-sickness, sir," said Captain Brisket—"seasickness is mostly imagination. People think they're going to be bad, and they are. But there's one certain cure for it."

"Cure?" said Mr. Chalk, turning a glazing eye upon him.

"Yes, sir," said Brisket, with a warning glance at Mr. Stobell, who was grinning broadly. "It's old-fashioned and I've heard it laughed at, but it's a regular good old remedy. Mr. Stobell's laughing at it," he continued, as a gasping noise from that gentleman called for explanation, "but it's true all the same."

"What is it?" inquired Mr. Chalk, with feeble impatience.

"Pork," replied Captain Brisket, with impressive earnestness. "All that anybody's got to do is to get a bit o' pork-fat pork, mind you—and get the cook to stick a fork into it and frizzle it, all bubbling and spluttering, over the galley fire. Better still, do it yourself; the smell o' the cooking being part of——"

Mr. Chalk arose and, keeping his legs with difficulty, steadied himself for a moment with his hands on the companion, and disappeared below.

"There's nothing like it," said Brisket, turning with a satisfied smile to Mr. Stobell, who was sitting with his hands on his knees and rumbling with suppressed mirth. "It's an odd thing, but, if a man's disposed to be queer, you've only got to talk about that to finish him. Why talking about fried bacon should be so bad for 'em I don't know."

"Imagination," said Tredgold, smoking away placidly.

Brisket smiled and then, nursing his knee, scowled fiercely at the helmsman, who was also on the broad grin.

"Of course, it wants proper telling," he continued, turning to Stobell. "Did you notice his eyes when I spoke of it bubbling and spluttering over the galley fire?"

"I did," replied Mr. Stobell, laying his pipe carefully on the deck.

"Some people tell you to tie the pork to a bit o' string after frying it," said Brisket, "but that's what I call overdoing it. I think it's quite enough to describe its cooking, don't you?"

"Plenty," said Stobell. "Have one o' my matches," he said, proffering his box to Tredgold, who was about to relight his cigar with a fusee.

"Thanks, I prefer this," said Tredgold.

Mr. Stobell put his box in his pocket again and, sitting lumpily in his chair, gazed in a brooding fashion at the side.

"Talking about pork," began Brisket, "reminds me—"

"What! ain't you got over that joke yet?" inquired Mr. Stobell, glaring at him. "Poor Chalk can't help his feelings."

"No, no," said the captain, staring back.

"People can't help being sea-sick," said Stobell, fiercely.

"Certainly not, sir," agreed the captain.

"There's no disgrace in it," continued Mr. Stobell, with unusual fluency, "and nothing funny about it that I can see."

"Certainly not, sir," said the perplexed captain again. "I was just going to point out to you how, talking about pork—"

"I know you was," stormed Mr. Stobell, rising from his chair and lurching forward heavily. "D'ye think I couldn't hear you? Prating, and prating, and pra——"