Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 09:11 AM

Boney was a warrior
way-ah-ya
boney was a warrior
jon-fronz-wa

boney went to waterloo
way-ah-ya
boney went to waterloo
jon-fronz-wa

boney he was sent away
way-ah-ya
sent to saint el-ee-nas
jon-fronz wa

boney broke his heart and died
way-ah-ya
boney broke his heart and died
jon-fronz-wa<

This is the one that I learned at school in music lesson, at the time I thought it was the most repetitive dirge I've ever sung and I am still unispired by it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 01:59 PM

Patsy --

It beats "1,2,3, PULL!" over and over again!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 02:10 PM

In the French version, what you are hearing as "mes boues" is actually "mes boucs" (no difference in pronunciation).

It's like the captain or his lieutenants calling the rigging-skippers "me hearties" aboard a pirate ship, as in, "corne-de-bouc" (ram's horn--technically he's calling them rams), which is a slang and liikely derogatory if used by the honest seafaring, term for pirate, when giving them orders.

Everybody should read Tintin. You learns SO much from Capitaine Haddock's swearing!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 10 - 03:11 PM

@ Dick, et al: "I've always thought that the transmogrification of Belepheron to Billy Ruffian was one of the great triumphs of the folk process." Yes, that's a good one, but it's a common practice in most navies. A partial list is here-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_warships_by_nickname

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Jan 14 - 07:09 AM

There's a letter printed in New York Times (22 September 1918) from an ex-sailor called William W. Urquart. As a youngster on his first voyage, sailing to France, the ship hit bad weather and the African American sailors aboard got in a huff because the cook had spoilt their food. Storm over, Urquart needed them to set the mainsail and topgallantsails. But they wouldn't sing, and it wasn't going well. In desperation he began to sing for them, "and made my debut in one of the chanteys I had heard them sing. As we were bound to France the song was rather Frenchy, and ran this way:

Boney was a warrior
Chorus - Whay aye aye yar,
Boney was a warrior
Chorus - John Francois

Boney went to Moscow
Chorus - Whay aye aye yar,
Boney went to Moscow
Chorus - John Francois

Boney never sulked they say
Chorus - Whay aye aye yar,
Boney never sulked a day
Chorus - John Francois,&.'

His improvisation amused the crew so much they stopped sulking. According to Urquart, black sailors 'were generally the best singers, and kept the best time.' He doesn't say when he began his career, but mentions working on the Black Ball line and appears to be the William W. Urquart (b. 1838 d.1920) listed in the 1910 census as living in New York. If so, he probably sailed first in the late 1850s?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Lighter
Date: 31 Jan 14 - 12:01 PM

Nice find.

"Mid-1850s" is just as likely. Sailors tended to go to sea as cabin boys or apprentices at about 13 or 14.

Once again (except for the improvised stanza) the solo line is repeated each time. Hugill writes that that was the general rule, and most early recordings of chanteymen go to back him up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jun 18 - 10:50 PM

I have the pleasure of singing with Dick Holdstock almost every month, and I learned "Boney Was a Warrior" from him. Here's Dick Holdstock and Allan MacLeod's recording of the song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQ4jmGoKsdI (may not play outside the US)

Here's the Paul Clayton recording:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrjl2h4Zo5U

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 26 Jun 18 - 04:24 AM

I learnt it from "Singing together", as did many of us.

My father commented that it was exactly the same as his uncle used to sing to him in the 1920s, and uncle Phil Tyrer was a clipper ship captain.

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Lighter
Date: 26 Jun 18 - 08:49 AM

Earliest in print?:

Once a Week (London), New Series, Vol. 19,1868 p. 102:

"Boney was a Warrior . . . is the only one I know that has the words complete :--

          Oh, Boney was a warrior, away a yah,
          A bonnie little warrior, John Francivaux.

John Francivaux is the nautical rendering of Johnny Crapeau. In the next two couplets Jack avails himself of his poetic licence to some purpose : —

         He cruised in the Channel, away a yah,
        The Channel of old England, John Francivaux.

…he is brought to St. Helena:--

        And there he pined and dièd, away a yah;
        
        There grows a weeping willow, John Francivaux.
        A-weeping for poor Boney, John, &c."

Chantey scholars should note "the only one I know that has the words complete." That seems to confirm that the vast majority of chanteys had one or more "standard" stanzas, with varying degrees of ad-libbing after.


A fuller early appearance:

Mrs. Charles Garnett, "Corbiestanes: Chronicles of a Fishing Village," The Sunday Magazine for Family Reading (London) (1880), p. 39:

"Out away in the North Sea the 'top-sel' was being hoisted on board the Bonn? Betsey, and as the sailors strained at the ropes, over the water rang in doleful measure, rising and falling in unison with the surrounding waves, the time-keeping song of 'Boney.' A finely-made man, the first on the line, his golden ringlets blowing about his beautiful Saxon face, led in a clear tenor, the men joining in the pulling chorus which came every
alternate line : —

   'You've heard of Napoleon Boney-party —
    Why, ha, har ! Why, ha, har !
   Boney was a warrior —
    Why, ha, har ! Why, ha, har !

   He fought the Danes and Prussi-ans,
   
   Also he fought the Röü-shians.

   Now Boney went to Moscow —
   
   Moscow 'tw?s a burning.

   Now Boney went a-cruising
   
   In the Channel of Old England,

   Nelson also went a-cruising,
   
   And thus they chanced to meet;

   And Boney got took up,

   And Nelson shipped him in a packet

   All to Saint Helena'

And after every line —

        'Why, ha, har ! Why, ha, har !'"



And an alleged earlier date:

Denham Rouse, "Song Wanted," Notes and Queries (London) (7th Series, Vol. V) (Apr. 21, 1888), p. 307:

"A favourite capstan song forty years ago in Green's India fleet began as follows:

        Old Boney was a warrior,
                Yo-ho, my lads, yo-ho;
        He beat the Rooshians,
                Yo-ho, yo-ho.

"I wish to find out the rest of it, and, if possible, the tune."

Since Rouse wanted the tune as well as the words, he could not himself.have heard the song ca1850.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Ian
Date: 27 Jun 18 - 12:58 PM

RE the Breton tune I find there is no great difference at all. I have heard many Breton groups, marine shanty or as a dance tune over the last 8 years. All similar.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Jun 18 - 02:11 PM

There sure are some interesting ways to spell "John Francivaux," aren't there? I'm imagining all are pronounced exactly the same way.

Have we agreed that John is the same guy that's the subject of the song Jean Françoié de Nantes, or do we really know who "Boney's" John was?

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Lighter
Date: 31 May 20 - 09:33 AM

This is the shortest version I've encountered, though probably enough for a short drag. It could easily be almost doubled in length by repeating the solos. (Or sung again from the beginning!)

J. A. Barry, “Deep Sea Chanties,” Evening News (Sydney) (Dec. 19, 1903), p. 4:

“As far as it goes, the picture drawn is full and complete, and historically correct: —

Oh, Boney was a warrior.
Chorus— Away, heigh, yah!
Oh, Boney was a warrior.
Chorus— John France swore!

Now, Boney went to Moscow.
Chorus— Away, heigh, yah!
But Moscow was a burning!
Chorus— John France swore!

So Boney he ran back again,
Chorus— Away, heigh. yah!
[So Boney he ran back again,
Chorus— John France swore!"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: Cattia
Date: 25 Apr 21 - 09:17 AM

Jean-François de Nantes some info
https://terreceltiche.altervista.org/boney-was-a-warrior/

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Boney Was a Warrior (chantey)
From: GUEST,Hindheadboy
Date: 03 Aug 22 - 06:15 AM

We had a blue-covered songbook at my prep school (1960–65), and occasionally in the evenings the music master would organise singalongs round the piano, when we sang this song (and a number of other miscellaneous songs from the music halls and elsewhere). I see there are a few different interpretations of the ‘Jean Francois’ tag line; in our songbook it was ‘John Frantso’.