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Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth

23 Sep 20 - 07:36 AM (#4072853)
Subject: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: sciencegeek

I only found a a snatch from this song in the threads... would love to learn the whole song any help much appreciated


23 Sep 20 - 09:26 AM (#4072864)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: Snuffy

Here's how I wrote it down back in 2002, but it appears to date from the 1970s or '80s

SHANTYMEN BOLD
We're Shantymen bold with voices like thunder;
We half-inch four capstans, haul halyards and sheets.
Each week we take ship in The Four-masted Clipper:
That's a neat little boozer just down Gasworks Street.

Chorus:
We rant and we roar like true British sailors.
We rant and we roar all night in the pub.
Like true shellbacks born who've been twice round the Horn,
We get half-seas over each week at the club.

Our landlord became owner with a big win from Vernons,
And to see his wife work at the pumps is sublime.
But before he was skipper of The Four-masted Clipper
He commanded the pride of the Red Barrel Line.

We've sung of storms off Cape Horn and gales up in Greenland,
But if, when we're leaving, rain falls from the sky,
Each stout-hearted fella' puts up his umbrella
Or phones for a taxi to get him home dry.

We've sung on the Victory in dry dock at Portsmouth;
On the Cutty Sark, likewise, we've all done our thing.
But when we go to Greenwich we go by the tunnel:
If we used the ferry we'd be too sick to sing.

Now progress has made all this hard work redundant,
But as long as we're here these fine songs shall not die
In The Four-masted Clipper with a pint in your flipper,
Where the hardest work's draining each full tankard dry


23 Sep 20 - 02:32 PM (#4072904)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: sciencegeek

many thanks...

in the past two weeks I have "discovered" three prominent names in the area of folk & maritime music... Michael Lydiard, Kent Gifford and Ron Shuttleworth... in spite of hunting down as much as I could starting back in the mid 1960's.

and thanks to mudcat I have learned the lyrics of two fine songs and now I will see if I can find those of Crabbing - by Derek Gifford I believe... a really fun song that I just can't make out all the words on

huzzah for max and his fine site!


23 Sep 20 - 10:22 PM (#4072945)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: Gurney

Nice to hear Ron's name again. I haven't heard of him since we left Coventry and England in.. good grief! 1974!
Chris Marden.


23 Sep 20 - 11:10 PM (#4072950)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: RTim

Seeing the name Ron Shuttleworth tweeked a memory of his name in my head...relating to Morris Dancing, ie. one of my other "interests"........There is a Ron Shuttleworth Collection Online... https://folkplay.info/collections/ron-shuttleworth-collection

I am not sure of his current status, but he was the Founder of The Coventry Mummers


Tim Radford


24 Sep 20 - 12:59 AM (#4072957)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: sciencegeek

yes... when I tried to google Ron there where more than few hits for his involvement in Morris Dancing and mummers... and little else

not unlike trying to track down Richard Runnciman Terry's work on sea music... mostly references to his work with Catholic church music and boy's choirs. Even Roud only notes a single article and ignores his three books on shanties and sea songs and his books on carols.


24 Sep 20 - 05:34 PM (#4073030)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: sciencegeek

OK...

I totally give up on

We "half-inch four capstans", haul halyards and sheets   LOL

any ideas what that should be???


24 Sep 20 - 07:27 PM (#4073040)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: RTim

Well - I just Googled Richard Runnciman Terry - Sea Shanty; and found his book part 1 for sale on Amazon for...wait for it - $985 New....or 4 used at $8.03.....You can have a peek inside...and there appear to be only 18 shanties in there...!!!

Tim Radford


24 Sep 20 - 08:10 PM (#4073045)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: sciencegeek

the Shanty Book 1 & 2 covered 67 shanties... book one is available as a free PDF... the 2 books are also combined into a new paperback. Much of the text in them came from the Music & Letters article written in 1921 but expanded upon.

The book of Sea Songs was published in 1931 and I'd have to dig it out to see how many songs he covered...

Shanties were a passion of his and his family - many learned from his uncles and the seaman he came in contact with as a boy and young man... it is shame he is little remembered now.

I do believe that he had a manuscript ready of a third and more definitive book on shanties ready around 1927, but it was never published and he died in 1938. It might exist in his papers that were part of his estate but it will not be easy to track down.


25 Sep 20 - 06:49 AM (#4073066)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: sciencegeek

thanks to Ross Campbell I made contact with Derek and got the lyrics from him... once I get his OK, I'll post the lyrics for Crabbing and Shantyman Bold

this is what is so wonderful about mudcat... :)


25 Sep 20 - 06:49 AM (#4073067)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: Snuffy

Sciencegeek, my take on the phrase:
"half inch" is rhyming slang for "pinch" (=pilfer, steal, nick, etc"
"Capstan Full Strength" was a leading brand of unfiltered cigarettes.
In 1973 they had the highest nicotine content and the second-highest tar content of any cigarettes sold in Britain


25 Sep 20 - 07:36 AM (#4073070)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: sciencegeek

Tim... this is a source of diverse info regarding Runiciman Terry

https://voxturturis.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/something-about-richard-runciman-terry-1864-1938/

I also just found a facebook page Sir R R Terry

and I just got an email from Derek and the line should go -

We half hitch for capstans, haul halyards and sheets

and so it goes... folk processing

so Capstan Full Strength is the Camels on your side of the pond... full on cancer sticks


25 Sep 20 - 12:34 PM (#4073085)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: r.padgett

Yes a long history in folk singing and writing songs ~ I think a Coventry mummer, certainly a leading "Fool" I'm told a concertina player ~ his mrs sung at sing arounds as did Ron himself ~ his son plays harp

A noted character

Ray


26 Sep 20 - 05:28 AM (#4073160)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shantymen Bold by Ron Shuttleworth
From: sciencegeek

Tim - go to thread on shanty songbook index to find tons of info and a listing of songs for Terry's three books... and a whole lot more