Origins: Haul Away Joe (Leadbelly, et al.)

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Origins: Haul Away Joe (Leadbelly, et al.)

17 Jul 04 - 11:48 AM (#1227655)
Subject: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Roberto

I can't search the site, I think there's something wrong with the search engine, so, don't blame me if the song has already been dealt with. I'd like to get the text of HAUL AWAY JOE as sung by Lead Belly in the Folkways LP Bourgeois Blues (Folkways 7027, 1951), now on the Smithsonian-Folkways anthology CLASSIC MARITIME MUSIC. It is different from the version printed in the Oak Lead Belly songbook. Thank you. Roberto

17 Jul 04 - 05:09 PM (#1227840)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Roberto

Here is my wild and partial transcription. Please, help correct and complete it. Thanks. R

Haul Away Joe - Leadbelly

Way, haul away, we'll haul away, Joe

Way, haul away, we haul for better weather
Way, haul away, we'll haul away, Joe

I kissed a little gal and her lip gon' a-quiver 'round
She says – Way, haul away, we'll haul away, Joe

Way down in Missi... when the boat was overflowin'
The boys say – Way, haul away, we will haul away, Joe

Way, haul away, we'll haul for better weather
Way, haul away, we will haul away, Joe

Down in New Orleans, there a big ship driving over to Mexico
Boys say – Way, haul away, we will haul away, Joe
Down in New Orleans up Canal Street
There the boys cry – Way, haul away, we will haul away, Joe

Way, haul away, we'll haul for better weather
Way, haul away, we'll haul away, Joe

(...)

Way, haul away, we'll haul away, Joe

When the boys all get tight and ... down
Way, haul away, ah, haul away, Joe

Way, haul away, we'll haul for better weather
Way, haul away, we'll haul away, Joe

18 Jul 04 - 04:10 PM (#1228352)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Roberto

Generally, I accept it when I get no answer, and let the post sink down. But this time, I'm sure that there is someone somewhere that knows how to help me (get the text of Lead Belly's Haul Away, Joe), and I make this one and only refresh. R

18 Jul 04 - 05:44 PM (#1228438)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Charley Noble

Don't give up, Roberto. Someone is bound to wake up and respond.

So the text for this song in the Oak Leadbelly songbook is different?

Charley Noble

19 Jul 04 - 07:18 AM (#1228848)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Roberto

The discography in the OAK Leadbelly songbook says that the version published is from Negro Folksongs for Young People, while the version in the S-Folkways anthology is from Bourgeois Blues. R

19 Jul 04 - 07:24 AM (#1228853)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: The Borchester Echo

Hmmmm, so where does "King Louis was the king of France before the revolution" fit in?

19 Jul 04 - 07:31 AM (#1228855)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: JennyO

...not to mention the "if I didn't kiss the girls my lips would grow all mouldy" bit

19 Jul 04 - 08:06 AM (#1228869)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Roberto

As you can see from my very rough attempt to transcibe it, it is not the known set, and the fact that Leadbelly sang complete different lines in the recording considered in the Oak songbook, makes me think all these were free lines. The only thing to do, is to listen to the actual recording. Being Leadbelly such a great singer and this site full of people interested in traditional and folk music, I do hope someone has the recording. Besides, the tune sung by Leadbelly is beautiful. R

19 Jul 04 - 08:42 AM (#1228889)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Charley Noble

The verses in Oak which I have in hand do seem to come from a river steamboat tradition rather than the usual deep sea verses. It would not be surprising if the sailors "harvested" this shanty in a place like New Orleans in the 1840's and took it out to sea.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

19 Jul 04 - 10:24 AM (#1228940)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: GUEST,Displaced Camelotian

Didn't Leadbelly learn many of his songs from Lomax's other recordings, and just sing them his own way? And isn't "Haul Away Joe" one of them?

19 Jul 04 - 10:06 PM (#1229487)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Charley Noble

It's theoretically possible that Leadbelly learned ALL his songs from Lomax and there were no real field recordings, but very unlikely. Is there a source for your comment?

I'd be perfectly happy to type up the Oak version if anyone would like to see it. It doesn't appear to be in the DT.

Charley Noble

19 Jul 04 - 10:14 PM (#1229496)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: TS

...first she married a Newfie, he was fat and lazy..then she married a Caper, bloody Jesus damn near drove her crazy....

19 Jul 04 - 11:12 PM (#1229536)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: GUEST,Lighter

Charley, I'd very much like to see the Oak version, if you don't mind.

19 Jul 04 - 11:23 PM (#1229542)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: GUEST

In response to Charley Noble, I would say that the only sources I have are experience and skepticism. Leadbelly was a traditional singer and musician whose approach to music had nothing at all to do with academic categories. When traditional singers sing, they sing what they like. It is difficult for me to imagine that Leadbelly would *not* pick up songs from the Lomaxes and sing them the way he wished. Since "Haul Away Joe" - to my knowledge - has not otherwise been collected from Afro-American singers, there is at least as much chance that Leadbelly performed it with his own words and melody. I believe that any assumptions about a Mississippi River tradition behind the song must remain just that - assumptions, at least until further evidence appears.

The biography of Leadbelly published a number of years ago might clarify the matter, but I have not had access to it.

20 Jul 04 - 05:37 AM (#1229678)
Subject: Lyr Add: HAUL AWAY JOE (Leadbelly)
From: Roberto

Here is the text published on the OAK Leadbelly songbook (but please, don't forget to help me with the text of the other recording of this song by Leadbelly). Thanks. R

Haul Away Joe

Way haul away, we'll haul a-way Joe
The big Katy Adams sailing up the Gulf of Mexico
Way haul away, we'll haul a-way Joe

Chorus:
Way haul away, we'll haul for better weather
Way haul away, we'll haul a-way Joe

I'm sailin' up the Mississippi in the big Chief Adams

Chorus

Way haul away, we'll haulm for stormy weather

Chorus

I was sailin' up the Mexico and Hona-lu-la

Chorus

Way haul away for better weather

Chorus

I'm a-sailin' up the river in the big Chief Adams

Chorus

I think I heard the captain say boy, you better work in a hurry!

Chorus

20 Jul 04 - 08:00 AM (#1229738)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Lighter

Thanks, Roberto. I'll try to find time this a.m. to listen again to the CD.

20 Jul 04 - 09:08 AM (#1229769)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Lighter

What I hear is:

...her lip(s) 'gin to quiver 'roun'...

...Way down in Missyrippi when the boats were overflowin'...

...up Canal Street, / Hear the boys cryin', ... (Spoken: Sea shanty boys is workin'!)

When the boys all get tight, some of 'em done gived out (Spoken: Or they're restin'!)...

Lead Belly's tune is weird and great. He seems to be making most of lyrics as he goes along. The lyrics of the "Oak" version are almost entirely different.

And, yes, "Missyrippi" is what the man sings!

20 Jul 04 - 09:11 AM (#1229771)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Roberto

Thank you very much, Lighter. R

20 Jul 04 - 12:43 PM (#1229935)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Charley Noble

Nice work! And saves me some typing.

Charley Noble

21 Jul 04 - 11:34 PM (#1231097)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: leadbelly's haul away joe
From: Jim Dixon

Leadbelly recorded HAUL AWAY JOE twice. One version appears on "Leadbelly Vol 2 1940–1943," Document Records DOCD-5227; and the other on "Leadbelly Vol 5 1944–1946," Document Records DOCD-5311.

02 May 14 - 10:42 PM (#3623707)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Haul Away Joe (Leadbelly)
From: GUEST,Ryan

Historical note (I realize this thread is long dead): the lips growing moldy and King Louis bit: I can't talk about origins, but the late and great Clancy Brothers of Ireland have definitely sung those lyrics. Youtube it; for they are as thunder. They are the lyrics that I grew up with, and it was only recently that I discovered that Leadbelly recorded this song.

03 May 14 - 01:11 AM (#3623717)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Haul Away Joe (Leadbelly)
From: Gibb Sahib

John Masefield had the King Louis bit, for the first time in print as far as I can tell, in his _Sailor's Garland_. Masefield's chanty texts were rather fanciful; though we can't say that he did or did not pen that verse, he did create or tweak many verses according to his ideas about the chanty genre.

The verse then appears in Whall's 1910/1913 collection. In the start of the collection, Whall acknowledges having read Masefield. I have clear evidence that Whall, though a former sea captain, did also borrow lyrics from *books* he read — though I can't say one way or the other if that was the case here.

Then we have Terry's _The Shanty Book_ (1921) in which he praises Whall's work, and surely he read Masefield. Perhaps the combination of reading both of those gave him the feeling he could say that the King Louis verse never seemed to have been omitted. Of course, others will argue that Terry's mom's dad was a sailor and uncles, too, and he grew up in Newcastles, etc., so he was sitting there hearing chanties all day and he really did hear "Haul Away Joe" sung a lot… and the verse was "never omitted." I don't buy it.

On the other hand, Terry contributes the verse about mouldy lips, which would seem a more likely candidate IMO as something he heard IRL.

Both the "King Louis" and "lips" verses are completely plausible as "traditional" verses. But the fact that we see them more than one place - given the places we do actually see them - should not give the impression that they were standard or even necessarily common.

These three print sources are all by editors who were not rigorous in their presentations - who synthesized rather than documented. If, in the original documented sources like journals and travelogues we had these verses (I am not finding them), then we could call them more standard. But they're not there, and so they have the particular ring of the mediated / xerox'd stream of chanty practice.

The Clancy's, GUEST,Ryan, went on to create their Revival rendition from Terry's book (or from someone else who did the same), and so they propagated a cookie-cutter form.

In this light, Leadbelly's lines are in no way unusual or lacking anything.

12 Oct 20 - 12:08 PM (#4075258)
Subject: Origins: Haul Away Joe
From: Joe Offer

Here is the traditional Ballad Index entry on this song.

Haul Away, Joe

DESCRIPTION: Shanty, characterized by, "Away, haul away, haul away, Joe" (or "...haul away, pull"). Some versions tell a story: the sailor has trouble with his Irish girl and goes to sea, or suffers grief from a Yankee girl, or otherwise suffers at women's hands
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (what appears to have been a fragment of the chorus appears in the diary of Mary Bray, probably in 1859; see A. A. Hoehling _Ships that Changed History_, p. 18)
KEYWORDS: shanty sailor courting
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE,SE)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Doerflinger-SongsOfTheSailorAndLumberman, pp. 4-5, "Haul Away, Joe" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Walton/Grimm-Windjammers-SongsOfTheGreatLakesSailors, pp. 76-78, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 composite text, 1 tune)
Colcord-SongsOfAmericanSailormen, pp. 41-42, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Harlow-ChantyingAboardAmericanShips, pp. 75-78, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 358-361, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text plus several fragments, 3 tunes) [AbEd, pp. 270-272]
Sharp-EnglishFolkChanteys, XXVII, p. 32, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Linscott-FolkSongsOfOldNewEngland, pp. 138-139, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 780, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Terry-TheShantyBook-Part1, #28, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kinsey-SongsOfTheSea, pp. 93-94, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax/Lomax-OurSingingCountry, pp. 208-209, "Haul Away, My Rosy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, p. 30, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text plus some loose verses, 1 tune)
Warner-FolkSongsAndBalladsOfTheEasternSeaboard, p 36, "Haul Away Joe" (1 text)
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 145, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 87, "Haul Away Joe" (1 text)
DT, HAULJOE*
ADDITIONAL: Captain John Robinson, "Songs of the Chantey Man," a series published July-August 1917 in the periodical _The Bellman_ (Minneapolis, MN, 1906-1919). "Dance the Boatman Dance" is in Part 1, 7/14/1917. "Haul Away, Joe" is in Part 2, 7/21/1917.
Frederick Pease Harlow, _The Making of a Sailor, or Sea Life Aboard a Yankee Square-Rigger_, 1928; republished by Dover, 1988, pp. 272-273, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roger deV. Renwick, _Recentering Anglo/American Folksong: Sea Crabs and Wicked Youths_, University Press of Mississippi, 2001, pp. 87-88, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text)
Moses Asch and Alan Lomax, Editors, _The Leadbelly Songbook_, Oak, 1962, p. 77, "Haul Away, Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #809
RECORDINGS:
Almanac Singers, "Haul Away, Joe" (General 5015B, 1941; on Almanac02, Almanac03, AlmanacCD1)
Bob Roberts, "Haul Away Joe" (on LastDays)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haul Away, Old Fellow, Away" (similar chorus)
NOTES [193 words]: To haul, in nautical terminology, of course means to pull on a rope. "Haul away," according to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, A Seaman's Pocket Book, London, June 1943, designed for sailors newly taken into the Royal Navy in World War II; (I use the 2006 MJF Books edition), p. 42, is "an order to haul steadily until further orders."
The Silber text has a verse (also in Shay) "King Louis was the King of France Before the revolution... But then he got his head cut off Which spoiled his constitution."
I have to suspect this is some wag's addition, but it is worth noting that Louis XVI's France did not have a constitution. (If it had, Louis might have survived the revolution.) Louis (1754-1793) became king in 1774, was reduced to figurehead status by the Revolution in 1789 and failed in an escape attempt in 1791 (even though still theoretical head of state!). In 1792, with a Prussian invasion in progress, the Republic was proclaimed (though never properly constituted), and Louis was put on trial. He was guillotined on January 20, 1793. - RBW
Bob Roberts also sang the "King Louis" verse. It's in tFireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, too. - PJS
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Doe004

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HAUL AWAY JOE (DT Lyrics)

When I was a little lad and so me mother told me,
Way haul away, we'll haul away Joe.
That if I did not kiss the girls me lips would grow all moldy.
Way haul away, we'll haul away Joe.

Way haul away, we'll haul for better weather.
Away haul away, we'll haul away Joe.
Way haul away, we'll haul away together.
Away haul away, we'll haul away Joe.

King Louis was the king of France before the revolution.
And then he got his head chopped off it spoiled his constitution

Saint Patrick was a gentleman. He came from decent people.
He built a church in Dublin town and on it put a steeple.

Once I was in Ireland a'digging turf and taties.
But now I'm on a Yankee ship a'hauling on the braces.

Once I had a German girl but she was fat and lazy.
But now I got a Yankee girl, she damn near drives me crazy.

Way haul away, rock and roll me over
Way haul away, well roll me in the clover.

@sailor
filename[ HAULJOE
TUNE FILE: HAULJOE
CLICK TO PLAY
TUNE FILE: HAULJO2
CLICK TO PLAY
BR

Popup Midi Player

08 Feb 21 - 09:37 PM (#4092224)
Subject: ADD: Joe, Be a Man (Gayle Wade)
From: Joe Offer

Gayle Wade wrote this and sang this at the Singaround today. I still am not sure if I should take this personally (but it sure was fun).

Be a man shanty (Tune: Haul Away Joe)

BE A MAN SHANTY
(Gayle Wade)

When I was a little boy, or so my father told me,
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
That all the world could be my own if I would take it boldly
Joe be a man, be a man Joe

At school I was a sporty lad, I’d kick a goal or swing a bat
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
Exams and tests I’d fluke or fail – I didn’t give a pin for that.
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
Chorus:
Joe be a man, stand up and show ambition
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
Joe be a man, and crush the competition
Joe be a man, be a man Joe

The girls all liked my easy charm, they laughed at all the things I said
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
They’d let me hold them in my arms and soon I’d laugh them into bed.
Joe be a man, be a man Joe

I married one, I married two, and some I simply bedded;
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
I always had a roving eye, no matter if I’m wedded.
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
Chorus:

At work I climbed the ladder using flattery and boasting too.
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
I never had to work too hard when flattery and lies would do.
Joe be a man, be a man Joe

Then I stood for office and became a politician
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
I swore to serve the people but I served my own ambition
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
Chorus:

Now leader of the nation, I’ve achieved my final victory
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
In fame or shame, I know my name is going down in history.
Joe be a man, be a man Joe
Chorus:

10 Feb 21 - 12:53 AM (#4092376)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Haul Away Joe (Leadbelly)
From: GUEST,harpy

Is there a melody?

10 Feb 21 - 06:33 AM (#4092410)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Haul Away Joe (Leadbelly)
From: GUEST,John from "Elsie`s Band"

When I was with "Four Square Circle" our version contains the following:
"Louis was the King of France before the revolution.
Way, Haul away............
The he got his head cut off which spoiled his constitution.
Way, Haul Awy...........

When I was a little boy so my mother told me
Way, Haul Away...........
That If I didn`t kiss the girls my lips would all grow mouldy.
Way, Haul Away........."

Our full recording, a little non-P.C., at the BBC(circa 1966/67) can be heard on "SoundCloud" under John Hills tracks.