Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)

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Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)

12 Oct 97 - 08:05 PM (#14559)
Subject: There Was A Bold Fisherman
From: abcd@thezone.com

Great, I've got the first 5 words. My friends the Frious used to sing this in its entirety. I believe it is what Bogart sort-of-sang in The African Queen. The song goes somewhat like this: There was a bold fisherman who sailed out from SOMETHING, He slew the wild codfish and the bold mackarel. When he got to SOMETHING-OH, the stormy winds began to blow. The little boat went wibblewobble.. over- board went he... singing twinkadiddleum, etc etc. Except I don't know ALL the words, just some or most of them. Can anyone help? If so, just send me an email, if you would, at Thanks. THis has been driving me mad for years.

12 Oct 97 - 08:54 PM (#14566)
Subject: RE: There Was A Bold Fisherman
From: Susan of DT

It's in the DT. There are two Bold Fisheman songs. This is one of them.

13 Oct 97 - 08:46 AM (#14597)
Subject: RE: There Was A Bold Fisherman
From: Bill D

I have it printed in a book that gives the port as "Pimbeco"..not "Pimlico"...scholars bicker....(be careful..I also looked for this for years..and after I found it, there were a couple of people who started requesting it every time they saw me....it soon became 'overdone'--by ME!

09 Apr 08 - 09:37 AM (#2311027)
Subject: Bold Fisherman:Leybourne-Cox or Bogart?
From: GeoffLawes

I noticed in Kilgarriff's excellent guide to popular song that the great Victorian music hall star George Leybourne, famous for Champagne Charlie, is listed as also performing The Bold Fisherman.Being curious as to whether this is the same song as collected from Harry Cox I looked in the DT and discovered that the DT contains another Bold Fisherman song; one briefly performed by Humphrey Bogart at the end of The African Queen.Does anyone know if George Leybourne sang either of these songs or if it was yet another Bold Fisherman?

09 Apr 08 - 10:12 AM (#2311075)
Subject: RE: Bold Fisherman:Leybourne-Cox or Bogart?
From: Surreysinger

Geoff - no idea about that, but there are quite a few collected versions of Bold Fisherman, the Coppers, for instance,have their own version, and Lucy Broadwood collected a version from Emily Joiner in Hertfordshire in 1914 - and they're all different in tune and verse content (although obviously having the same basic story line).

09 Apr 08 - 12:17 PM (#2311173)
Subject: RE: Bold Fisherman:Leybourne-Cox or Bogart?
From: Cool Beans

American singer Ed McCurdy recorded it as well. His version is much like Bogart's.

09 Apr 08 - 06:34 PM (#2311531)
Subject: RE: Bold Fisherman:Leybourne-Cox or Bogart?
From: GeoffLawes

Steve Gardham directed me to
this victorian music cover site
where the front cover of the sheet music for Leybourne's song shows that it is not the same as either the Harry Cox or the Humphrey Bogart song. Thanks, my curiosity is satisfied.

09 Apr 08 - 07:02 PM (#2311559)
Subject: RE: Bold Fisherman:Leybourne-Cox or Bogart?
From: GeoffLawes

I have just looked again at the Leybourne cover using the site's enlarging option and noticed that under the title it says 'to the tune of The Bold Fisherman'. I don't read music- is there a music reader who knows the Harry Cox tune who could say if the tune printed on the Leybourne music cover is the same?

10 Apr 08 - 01:45 PM (#2312195)
Subject: RE: Bold Fisherman:Leybourne-Cox or Bogart?
From: Surreysinger

Just played that tune through, and it doesn't sound like any of the versions of the Bold Fisherman that I know personally - but then, the story line of the song on that cover is nothing like them either!

10 Apr 08 - 02:54 PM (#2312259)
Subject: RE: Bold Fisherman:Leybourne-Cox or Bogart?
From: GeoffLawes

Thanks Surreysinger - curiosity is now satisfied

21 Apr 10 - 08:30 AM (#2891281)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOLD FISHERMAN
From: Jim Dixon

Lyrics to THE BOLD FISHERMAN—one version of it, anyway—were posted in the thread called Help: Know Any Fishing Songs???

Thread #19780 Message #784195
Posted By: GUEST,Bman
14-Sep-02 - 11:35 PM
Thread Name: Help: Know Any Fishing Songs???
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOLD FISHERMAN

As mentioned above, "THE BOLD FISHERMAN."

THE BOLD FISHERMAN

There was a bold fisherman was outbound from Halifax
To catch the wild codfish and the bold mackeroo,
But when he got to Pimlico, the stormy winds begin to blow,
And his little boat went wibble-wobble and overboard went he.
CHORUS
Twinky-doodle-dum, twinky-doodle-dum.
'Twas a highly interesting song he sung.
Twinky-doodle-dum, twinky-doodle-dum,
Sang the bold fisherman.
He wriggled and he jiggled in the water so briny-o.
He yellowed and he bellowed for help, but in vain.
Then down he did gently glide to the bottom of the silvery tide,
And previous to this he cried, "Farewell, Mary Jane."
CHORUS
His ghost walked at midnight by the bedside of his Mary Jane.
When he told her how dead he was, she said, "I'll go mad.
If my love be so dead," said she, "there is no peace on earth for me,
And I never more will happy be." She went raving mad.
CHORUS

I have no earthly idea where I learned this song. It would have been sometime about 1970 or a bit later. I was astounded to find that Humphrey Bogart begins singing this one at the very end of "African Queen," when he's in the water swimming with Katherine Hepburn. He gets out a line or two before the movie ends. The song has a very upbeat, sprightly tune and rhythm, and when I sing it, I introduce it as the jolliest song about death and insanity I know.
Regards,
Bman

21 Apr 10 - 07:24 PM (#2891698)
Subject: ADD Version: The Bold Fisherman (1954)
From: Joe Offer

I found a recording of this on a CD called Bing Crosby and His Hollywood Guests - one of the guests is Bogart, who says he learned the song as a child. The African Queen came out in 1951. I can't identify the woman who sings a verse or two on the recording - maybe Lauren Bacall? Can anybody find this in print earlier than 1951?

Alan Mills recorded this in 1954 on a Folkways album called More Songs to Grow On. The song comes from a sonbook titled More Songs to Grow On by Beatrice Landeck (1954, Edward B. Marks Music Corporation), pp.116-117. The songbook gives no source information. Here are the lyrics of the Mills version:

THE BOLD FISHERMAN

There was a bold fisherman who sailed out from Pimbeco
To slay the wild codfish and bold mackerel.
When he arrived off Pimbeco, the stormy winds did wildly blow.
His little boat went wibble wobble and over board went he.

CHORUS
"Twink-i-doodle-dum Twink-i-doodle-dum,"
'Twas the highly interesting song he sung.
"Twink-i-doodle-dum, Twink-i-doodle-dum"
Sang the bold fisherman.

He wriggled and scriggled in the waters so briny-o.
He yellowed and bellowed for help, but in vain.
Then downward he did gently glide to the bottom of the silv'ry tide;
But previously to this he cried, "Fare thee well, Mary Jane!"
CHORUS

21 Apr 10 - 07:51 PM (#2891710)
Subject: ADD Version: The Bold Fisherman (1881)
From: Joe Offer

Hey, look at this! Saint Nicholas, Volume 8, No. 11 (September, 1881) (from an article titled Little Miss Muffet and her Spider, by Sophie Swett):

THE BOLD FISHERMAN

There was a bold fisherman set sail from off Billingsgate,
To catch the mild bloater and the gay mackereel;
But when he got off Pimlico,
The raging winds began to blow,
Which caused his boat to wobble so that overboard he went.

CHORUS
"Twinky doodle dum, twanky doodle dum,"
Was the highly interesting song he sung,
"Twinky doodle dum, twanky doodle dum,"
Sang the bold fisherman.

He wibbled and he wobbled in the water so briny,
He yellowed and he bellowed for help, but in vain;
So presently he down did glide.
To the bottom of the silvery tide.
But previously to this he cried,
"Farewell, Susan Jane!"

CHORUS
"Twinky doodle dum," etc.

22 Apr 10 - 06:43 AM (#2891936)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: pavane

There is a 1943 reference to the "saga of the bold fisherman who
set forth from the Billingsgate to catch the mild porgy and the shy mackerel", probably implying that it was well known at the time.

22 Apr 10 - 06:53 AM (#2891942)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: pavane

A search of Google Books for the following keywords "pimlico billingsgate "bold fisherman" bloater mild" turns up a reference to an 1874 book, but unfortunately the contents are not viewable:

Fisherman's ballads and songs of the sea
Procter Brothers, 1874

If anyone has a copy, maybe they could check it

Contents
A Tale of the Sea 29
A Kiss to take to Sea 48
A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea 75
A Greyport Legend 94
Cape Anns Blooming Mary 113
Christmas Eve off the Coast 177
Colonsay 150
The Alabama Chorus 23
The Affecting Ditty of Billy Johnson and the Mermaid 44
i 60
The Sailors Return 87
The Gray Swan 101
The Seal Fishers Wife 114
The Fishers of Cape Ann 131
The Lighthouse 145
Mind your Wheel 170
Poor Bessie was a Sailors Wife 88 183
Sweet Williams Farewell to BlackEyed Susan 85 10
The Skipper Hermit JiK The Squall 164
The Old Fishermans Dreams 178

22 Apr 10 - 03:09 PM (#2892237)
Subject: ADD Version: The Bold Fisherman (1874)
From: Joe Offer

Great find, Pavane.
Hmmm. I wonder why the contents were not available to you. Maybe it's not available in the UK, or maybe you were looking at another copy. It IS available to me at this Google Books Link.

THE BOLD FISHERMAN
(G.W. Hunt)

There was once a bold Fisherman,
Who sailed forth from Billingsgate,
To catch the mild bloater
And the gay mackerel,
But when he arrove off Pimlico,
The wind it did begin to blow.
And his little boat it wibble wobbled so,
That slick overboard he fell.

Chant—All among the Conger eels, and the Dover soles, and the kippered herrings, and the Dutch plaice, and the Whitebait, and the Blackbait, and the Tittlebats and the Bruickbats—

Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
That's the highly interesting song he sung,
Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
Oh! the bold fisherman.

First he wriggled, then he striggled,
In the water so briny;
He bellowed, and he yellowed
Out for help, but in vain;
Then down did he gently glide,
To the bottom of the silv'ry tide,
But previously to that he cried,
"Farewell, Mary Jane."

CHANT—On arriving at the terra firma, at the bottom of the squa pura he took a cough lozenge, and murmured—

Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
That's the refrain of the gentle song he sung,
Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
Said the bold fisherman.

His ghost walked that night
To the bedside of his Mary Jane,
He told her how dead he was;
Then says she, "I'll go mad."
"For since my love's dead," says she,
"All joy from me's fled," says she,
"I'll go a raving luniack," says she,
And she went, very bad.

Chant—She thereupon tore her best chignon to smithereens, danced the "Can-can" on top of the water-butt, and joined "the woman's rights association," and frequently edifies the angelic members by softly chanting—

Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
That's the kind of soul-inspiring song she sung,
Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
Oh! the bold fisherman.

[by permission from Butler's Metropolitan Theatre Songster (1873)]

Source: Fishermen's Ballads and Songs of the Sea, (Procter Brothers, Publishers, Gloucester, Massachusetts), pp. 35-36

"Compiled by Procter Brothers -and- Respectfully Dedicated to the Hardy Fishermen of Cape Ann"

Click to play

22 Apr 10 - 07:48 PM (#2892400)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: Bill D

Mercy! Such a version.... I'm not sure I'll learn all that. Too many years with the shorter one in my head.

25 Jan 11 - 11:42 PM (#3082512)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOLD FISHERMAN (from Cecil Sharp)
From: Jim Dixon

From Folk Songs from Somerset, Volume 3
edited by Cecil J. Sharp & Charles L. Marson (London: Simpkin & Co., Ltd., et al., 1906), page 43, where there is also musical notation for one voice and piano:

THE BOLD FISHERMAN

1. As I walked out one May morning
Down by the riverside,
There I beheld a bold fisherman
Come rolling down the tide.

2. O fisherman, bold fisherman,
What fishes take you here?
I've come to catch a lady gay,
All down the river clear.

3. He rowed his boat unto the shore
And lashed it to a stem.
I see the fishes that I seek
And I am catching them.

4. Then he pulled off his morning gown
And laid it on the ground;
Three chains of gold did she behold,
Around his neck hang down.

5. He took her by the lily hand:
Come follow, follow me.
I'll row you to my father's house
And wedded we will be.

6. O fisherman, bold fisherman,
Too swiftly do you row;
For as I do not know your name
With you I cannot go.

7. Now say not so, my lady fair,
Replied that fisher bold.
I'll take you where the sea-maids comb
Their hair with combs of gold.

8. O strange it is bold fisherman,
That you came here today.
But if you row me in your boat
How will you treat me, pray?

9. O every day I rowed my boat
Along the river side
To fish for you, my lady gay,
And take you for my bride.

26 Jan 11 - 12:42 AM (#3082518)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOLD FISHERMAN (from Bodleian)
From: Jim Dixon

From the Bodleian Library Broadside collection, Harding B 11(840):

THE BOLD FISHERMAN.

As I walked out one May morning,
Down by the river side,
There I beheld a bold fisherman,
Come rolling down the tide.
Good morning to you, fisherman.
How came you fishing here?
I've come a-fishing for your sake,
All on this river clear.

Then he lashed his boat unto a tree
And to the lady went.
He took her by her lily-white hand;
It was his full intent.
Then he untied her morning gown,
And gently laid her down.
There she beheld a chain of gold,
Hang dangling three times round.

Down on her bended knees she fell,
And loud for mercy she did call.
In calling you a bold fisherman,
I'm sure you are some lord.
Get up, get up, get up, I say,
All off your bended knees.
There's not one word that you have said
Has in the least offended me.

I will take you to my father's hall,
And married we will be.
Then you shall have a bold fisherman
To roll you on the sea.

26 Jan 11 - 12:35 PM (#3082761)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Fisherman (from George Leybourne
From: GUEST, Sminky

A benefit concert was held for George Leybourne at Forester's, London, in 1872, at which the man himself sang 'The Bold Fisherman', "who is represented as meeting with a watery grave while engaged in piscatorial labours on the river off Pimlico."

Era Magazine, Sun June 23, 1872

26 Jan 11 - 01:38 PM (#3082800)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Fisherman (from George Leybourne
From: Artful Codger

Joe Offer posted the Pimlico-related "The Bold Fisherman" (by George W. "Jingo" Hunt) in thread 3065: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??). The text was reproduced from a songster of 1873. The song also appears, with music, in Popular College Songs, compiled by Lockwood Honoré (1891).

Leybourne sang a number of Hunt's songs, as is clear from listings in the Oxford Library catalog. Hunt also wrote "Up in a Balloon," "Old Brown's Daughter" and many other popular music hall songs.

26 Jan 11 - 03:13 PM (#3082872)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Fisherman (from George Leybourne
From: Artful Codger

ABC transcription:


  X:1
  T:The Bold Fisherman
  C:George W. Hunt, by 1872.
  S:Popular College Songs, compiled by Lockwood Honor\'e, 1891, pp. 52-3.
  Z:Artful Codger
  R:waltz
  M:3/8
  L:1/16
  Q:1/8=144
  K:F
   C2 | F2 F G (AB) | c d c2 A2 | B2 G2 c2 | A G F2 C2 |
  w: 1.~There once was a bold* Fish-er-man, Who sailed forth from Bil-lings-gate, To
   F3 G (AB) | c2 c2 A c | B2 G2 A2 | F4 A A |
  w: catch the mild* bloat-er And the gay mack-er-el, But when
   c c c2 (cd) | c =B B2 c2 | =B A A2 B2 | A G G2 A =B |
  w: he ar-rove off* Pim-li-co, The wind it did be-gin to blow, And his
   c c c =B c d | c =B B2 B A | G G A2 B2 | c4 z2 ||
  w: lit-tle boat it wib-ble wob-bled so, That slick o-ver-board he fell.
   "^Chant ad lib." [Q:1/8=80] Hc4 ||
  w: All~among~the~Conger~eels~(etc.)
   "^Chorus." [Q:1/8=144] c d | c A F2 A B | A F D2 D E |
  w: Din-kle doo-dle dum, Din-kle doo-dle dum, That's the
   F E F A G F | E G c2 c d | c A F2 A B |
  w: high-ly in-ter-est-ing song he sung, Din-kle doo-dle dum, Din-kle 
   A F D2 A B | c2 G2 A2 | F4 x2 ||
  w:doo-dle dum, Oh, the bold Fish-er-man.

I played a little trick around the chant section. If the embedded Q (quickness/tempo) directives cause your ABC program difficulty, or display distractingly in a generated score, you can simply remove them, the only result being that the chant placeholder note will play appreciably shorter.

Click to play

To play or display ABC tunes, try concertina.net

26 Jan 11 - 04:09 PM (#3082905)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Fisherman (from George Leybourne
From: Artful Codger

While a clip from "The African Queen" may also be available, I thought I'd link to this YouTube clip of Bogie and Bacall singing "The Bold Fisherman" with Bing Crosby; it's a more complete version than in the movie. The song has been substantially Hollywood-reworked, but it's clearly derived from Hunt's song.

28 Jan 11 - 09:12 PM (#3084412)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE BOLD FISHERMAN (G. W. Hunt)
From: Jim Dixon

I suspect this is what George Leybourne sang, or something close to it.

From Fisherman's Ballads and Songs of the Sea (Gloucester, Mass.: Procter Brothers, 1874), page 35:

THE BOLD FISHERMAN.
By G. W. Hunt.
[By permission from Butler's Metropolitan Theatre Songster.]

1. There was once a bold Fisherman,
Who sailed forth from Billingsgate,
To catch the mild bloater
And the gay mackerel,
But when he arrove off Pimlico,
The wind it did begin to blow.
And his little boat it wibble-wobbled so,
That slick overboard he fell.

CHANT—All among the Conger eels, and the Dover soles, and the kippered herrings, and the Dutch plaice, and the Whitebait, and the Blackbait, and the Tittlebats and the Brickbats—

Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
That's the highly interesting song he sung,
Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
Oh! the bold fisherman.

2. First he wriggled, then he striggled,
In the water so briny;
He bellowed, and he yellowed
Out for help, but in vain;
Then down did he gently glide,
To the bottom of the silv'ry tide,
But previously to that he cried,
"Farewell, Mary Jane."

CHANT—On arriving at the terra firma, at the bottom of the aqua pura he took a cough lozenge, and murmured—

Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
That's the refrain of the gentle song he sung,
Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
Said the bold fisherman.

3. His ghost walked that night
To the bedside of his Mary Jane,
He told her how dead he was;
Then says she, "I'll go mad.
For since my love's dead," says she,
"All joy from me's fled," says she,
"I'll go a raving luniack," says she,
And she went, very bad.

CHANT—She thereupon tore her best chignon to smithereens, danced the "Can-can" on top of the water-butt, and joined "the woman's rights association," and frequently edifies the angelic members by softly chanting—

Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
That's the kind of soul-inspiring song she sung,
Dinkle doodle dum, dinkle doodle dum,
Oh! the bold fisherman.

["Chant" apparently means what we would call "patter."]

29 Jan 11 - 06:32 AM (#3084568)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Fisherman (from George Leybourne
From: GUEST,Grishka

Sheet music of Hunt's version with piano. Note the B-natural at the word he of That slick overboard he fell.

The song is great fun, with or without Bogart. Here's looking at you, kids.

29 Jan 11 - 08:46 PM (#3084988)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Fisherman (from George Leybourne
From: Charley Noble

I do have the Ed McCurdy version transcribed if anyone is interested.

Doddle-lee-do,
Charley Noble

29 Jan 11 - 10:07 PM (#3085010)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Bold Fisherman (from George Leybourne
From: Joe Offer

Yes, please, Charley. I guess I'd better combine threads, because we're getting some duplication.
Could we say that one tune for this song is more-or-less the tune of "Spencer the Rover"?

-Joe-

30 Jan 11 - 01:05 AM (#3085076)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: Artful Codger

I don't think we can. The beginning of the original is similar, but not the rest. Of course, you may have heard a more Spencerish version that I haven't.

30 Jan 11 - 10:12 AM (#3085228)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: Charley Noble

Joe-

The version that was transcribed from Bogart's singing, in the DT, is almost totally the same as what Ed McCurdy sang as Cool Beans has pointed out above.

About the only line that appears different is:

"And his little boat went wibble-wobble and overboard SPRANG he."

which McCurdy sings as:

"And his little boat went wibble-wobble and overboard went he."

I was always slightly puzzled by the sailing "out" of Pimblico (or however it's spelled) only to "arrive" there later on.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

30 Jan 11 - 03:59 PM (#3085429)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: Artful Codger

Non-Brits may miss the nicety that Billingsgate (the original departure point) and Pimlico are not very distant from each other along the Thames, within metro London--the heroism of the journey was in dodging other craft, and I doubt that, even at the time of the song's inception, this stretch of the Thames would have hosted such a wealth of sea life as is named in the song--but perhaps seeking it there was a mark of his audacity.

One must marvel at the version where he sails out of Halifax and his little wibbly-wobbly craft nearly reaches Pimlico--Thor Heyerdahl, move over!

I haven't watched the movie "The African Queen" in years, but in the various sound clips of Bogart (& co.) singing this song elsewhere, the second and third verses are unlike anything which has been posted above or in the DT. To wit, the second begins "Out there on the briny deep he met with a mermaid" and the third, "He swam to the bottom then and lived very happily." (A suspiciously Hollywoodesque rewrite of the entire story line; I doubt Bogie learned that version from his grandmother.) Is that how he sang it in the movie? Did McCurdy sing lyrics similarly to Bogart or rather to the DT version? And how did his tune compare to Bogart's?

28 Aug 11 - 10:16 AM (#3213976)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,sburnam

The way my mother sang it:

There was a bold fisherman started forth from Barnegat
To catch the mild pogy (porgy?) and the brave mackerel
But ere he rove o'er Pimlico, the stormy winds they did begin to blow
[alt: But ere he rove o'er Pimlico, his little boat did wibble-wobble so]
His little boat did wibble-wobble so, plumb overboard fell he.

Twinky-doodle-um, twinky-doodle um, was the very interesting song he sung
Twinky-doodle-um, twinky-doodle um, the bold fisher-mun.

30 Aug 11 - 02:26 PM (#3215323)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: pavane

Nice to see that we have got the full details including author. I remember it from a friend singing it in the 1960's (Dave Wilcox, do you lurk here?)

30 Aug 11 - 02:36 PM (#3215333)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: John MacKenzie

I still sing this song, learned from the singing of Ed McCurdy

30 Aug 11 - 11:43 PM (#3215667)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: dick greenhaus

I learned as a camp song in the 1930s. Pretty much the same as Bogart sang.

27 Oct 12 - 06:02 PM (#3427028)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Ian Goodacre

I learned this song in the 60's from "
Folk Songs for Little Sailors " - one of my favourite records when I was young.

28 Dec 12 - 06:36 AM (#3458030)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Christopher Beeching

Fascinating facts above - particularly like the re-working by Bogart & co; thanks for posting the link! If anyone is interested in hearing the original version I have recorded it on the CD of songs from my one-man show about George Leybourne called, not unsurprisingly, 'Champagne Charlie'. It can be ordered from info@dcgmediagroup.com
the company who also published my biography of Leybourne - see www.heaviestofswells.com for more info.

28 Dec 12 - 07:11 AM (#3458048)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST

Don't know if this has already posted, couldn't see it, so in case it hasn't here's Bogart, Bacall and Crosby .

Singing starts 3min 30secs in if you don't want to listen to the whole thing.
Rog

02 Mar 17 - 08:03 PM (#3842550)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Ramblin' Gump

There was a hold fisherman
Set sail from old Pimlico ( famous today for it's race track )
To catch the bold piggie ( codfish )
And the gay mackeroo ( mackerel ).

And when he got off ( off the coast of ) Pimlico
The wynds ( archaic form of winds ) they did begin to blow.
His little boat wobble-wobbled so
And overboard went he …

Singing Twinky deedle dee
Twinky deedle dum
Was the highly interesting song
That he sung.

Twinky deedle dee
Twinky deedle dum
Bold fisherman.

I sincerely hope that solves this mystery for you.

02 Mar 17 - 08:41 PM (#3842556)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST

Tommy Makem sings a version on the CD"Song Tradition" ? off the top of my head. Will double check

02 Mar 17 - 10:55 PM (#3842563)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

The Butler Metropolitan Theatre Songster was a DeWitt joke book. With that in mind, here is an American circus-minstrel-vaudeville spin on it:

"There was once a bold Fisherman,
Who sailed forth from Billingsgate,..."

Today it is (mostly not) known as Billingsgate Shoals but in the 1870s, before climate change was cool, it was the fishing village of Billingsgate Island, Cape Cod, MA, USA.
[41°52′14.30″N 70°04′07.0″W]

"But when he arrove off Pimlico,
The wind it did begin to blow..."

'Pimlico' could mean Baltimore, MD or a corruption of Pamlico Sound, which was more noted for its storms in the 1870s (Cape Hatteras &c.)
[35°15′17″N 75°31′12″W]

03 Mar 17 - 06:24 PM (#3842711)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GeoffLawes

The Bold Fisherman_The African Queen (Humphrey Bogart) YouTube

05 Mar 17 - 03:02 AM (#3842940)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

YT: LUX RADIO THEATER -- "THE AFRICAN QUEEN" (12-15-52)
(Bogart sings at 22:00m)

05 Mar 17 - 03:05 AM (#3842941)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

In the novel Allnutt sings a line from "Give my Regards to Leicester Square"

"Then he mourned over his own expatriation, and he sobbed through his hiccups at the thought of his boyhood friends in London. He began to sing, with a tunelessness which was almost unbelievable, a song which suited his mood -

"Gimmy regards ter Leicester Square,
Sweet Piccadilly an' Myefair.
Remember me to the folks darn there;
They'll understa-and."

He dragged out the last note to such a length that he forgot what he was singing, and he made two or three unavailing attempts to recapture the first fine careless rapture before he ceased from song."

[Forester, C.S., The African Queen, (Boston: Random House, 1930, p.83)]

05 Mar 17 - 05:25 AM (#3842960)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch

Agee &co kept it in at least up to the shooting draft of the screenplay:

"Against this, o.s., mostly in breathy, lonesome undertone, on one or two phrases loudly and assertively, Allnutt is singing, rottenly and inchoately, some part of the following:

[ALLNUTT'S VOICE, (o.s.; singing)]
Gimmy regards ter Leicester Square
Sweet Piccadilly an' Myefair,
Remember me to the folks darn there
They'll under-sta-and.

SLOW FADE on Rose as first daylight begins to appear.

[Agee, James; Huston, John; Viertel, Peter; The African Queen, screenplay, 1951]

05 Mar 17 - 09:31 AM (#3842989)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Mrrzy

bogart sings it throughout the African Queen, not only at the end. I know Ed McCurdy's version.

However, the other version starts out like a ballad I know by Cynthia Gooding, which is always the first song I sing to a new public:

As I roved out one May morning down by the riverside
There I beheld my lovely fair, O then to be my bride
O then to be my bride, me boys, and in chambers to behold
May the heavens about protect my love for a jolly sailor bold...

Could they be related?

06 Mar 17 - 08:31 AM (#3843144)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: Mrrzy

refresh

19 Apr 19 - 05:32 AM (#3988161)
Subject: RE: Origins: There Was a Bold Fisherman (Bogart??)
From: GUEST,Christopher Beeching

Interesting theories from you Phil d'Conch linking US locations, however when the song was written by G.W.Hunt and performed by George Leybourne in 1872, it referenced Billingsgate, the Fish Market in the City of London (UK) - now re-located from its original location. Like wise, Pimlico is an area of London some distance up-river (River Thames) from Billingsgate. Traveling there by boat, there is a notorious bend at one point, where the wind can suddenly increase causing very choppy waters. This is no doubt the point at which the boat 'wibble wobbled' and the Bold Fisherman fell 'slick overboard.' (Hunt's lyric.)
The version used by Bogard is surely that of Hunt and Leybourne's 1872 lyric and melody, it being only slightly different - something that can happen to accommodate a particular artiste's style. Also Music Hall songs generally had variations when they were pirated from the UK into the USA in the 1800's.
The totally different lyric and melody sung by Harry Cox would date back to an even earlier Broadsheet Ballad version, which had had the same title.
Further discussion on this point will be in the shortly forthcoming Vol II of my biography of George Leybourne, 'The Heaviest of Swells.'
Heaviest of Swells