Lyr Req: Lowlands Low (Warde Ford, Child #286)

Subject: Lyr Req: warde ford's lowlands low (#286)
From: Roberto
Date: 07 May 05 - 11:03 AM

Please, help with this text. You can hear it on the internet site http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/. It is just a fragment. I miss the name of the ship and I'm not sure of the verb board. Thanks. Roberto

Then he seized his auger and overboard jumped he
He swam along the side of that Spanish ...
He board (?) her bright ship's bottom and he let the water in
And he sank her in the lowlands lonesome low
And he sank her in the lowlands low

Captain, cruel captain, if it wasn't for your men
I would board your bright ship's bottom and I'd let the water in
I would board your bright ship's bottom and I'd let the water in
And I'd sink you in the lowlands lonesome low
And I'd sink you in the lowlands low

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: warde ford's lowlands low (#286)
From: Rumncoke
Date: 07 May 05 - 11:15 AM

It is the verb to bore - as in make holes, esp. with revolving tool - so my Pocket Oxford informs me.

So 'He bored her bright ships bottom'

Bright? Maybe it was shiny with copper plate, I supose.

Anne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: warde ford's lowlands low (#286)
From: Rumncoke
Date: 07 May 05 - 11:31 AM

The ship is the Golden Vanity, by the way - the enemy ship could be described as a Spanish Levantier - as in coming from the Levant, the East - she being in other versions, Turkish.

Anne

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: warde ford's lowlands low (#286)
From: Roberto
Date: 07 May 05 - 11:46 AM

Thank you, Rumncoke! R

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: warde ford's lowlands low (#286)
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 07 May 05 - 12:33 PM

Links might help. "California Gold" (the Sidney Robertson Cowell collection) is at

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowhome.html

Warde Ford's recording is at  The Lowlands Low

The word is difficult to make out; largely, I suspect, because Mr Ford didn't know what it was supposed to be and just sang what he remembered it as having sounded like. That happens a lot with this song, so that singers will have it as "gallilee", "revillie", "sugarlee" and all manner of things. It may well be that Mr Ford's word is a garbled form of "levantier", but he didn't actually sing that. Unless it was written down at the time, we'll never know what he thought it was.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: warde ford's lowlands low (#286)
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 07 May 05 - 01:39 PM

I hear (from the wav version) the missing word fairly clearly as lowvaleer, and agree with Malcolm that Mr.Ford probably didn't know what it should be.

The others are clearly bored (1st verse, line 3) and bore (2nd verse, lines 2,3)

Mick