LordDrakoArakis, Apr 25, 2009
This is a clip that I did for a long lost
favorite of mine. It's been a while since I heard this piece. It is a song
titled "Sacramento" performed by Forebitter of the Mystic Seaport.
What makes this song unique is that this was sung by shanty men while working
around the capstan. After over two years of scheming to create a clip for this
particular song, I at last decided to assemble the images. Please enjoy it...!
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post showcases the 19th century sea shanty "Sacramento" that sound a lot like the 19th century minstrel song "Camptown Races" (also given as "Camptown Ladies").
Sound files of "Sacramento" (also known as "The Banks Of The Sacramento: and other titles) and of "Camptown races" ("Camptown Ladies) are showcased in this post.
Several lyric versions of "Sacramento" are also included in this pancocojams post along with information and comments about that song.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the composers of these showcased songs and thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
Thanks also to all those who are associated with these showcased YouTube examples.
****
SHOWCASE YOUTUBE EXAMPLE #2: Stephen Foster's 'DE CAMPTOWN RACES'
-1850-Performed by Tom Roush
Tom Roush, Jan 16, 2017
This is one of Stephen Foster's most popular songs and is still popular today -snip-
Click https://songofamerica.net/song/camptown-races/ "Camptown Races"' lyrics.
****
INFORMATION & SELECTED COMMENTS ABOUT THE "SACRAMENTO" SEA SHANTY
EXCERPT #1
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=14644
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: Numbers are added for referencing purposes only]
1. Subject: Lyr Add: HOODAH DAY SHANTY
From: Lesley N.
Date: 22 Oct 99 - 09:32 PM
All I have is the lyrics at the moment. I'll include the tune as soon as I finish it...
HOODAH DAY SHANTY
As I was walking down the street,
Hoodah, to my hoodah,
A charming girl I chanced to meet,
Hoodah, hoodah day,
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For California O,
There's plenty of gold, so I'm told.
On the banks of Sacramento.
The girl was sweet and fair to view.
Hoodah, to my hoodah,
Her hair so brown, her eyes so blue.
Hoodah, hoodah day,
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For California O,
There's plenty of gold, so I'm told.
On the banks of Sacramento.
I said, 'Fair maiden, how d'ye do?
Hoodah, to my hoodah,
'Quite well, sir, no thanks to you!'
Hoodah, hoodah day,
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For California O,
There's plenty of gold, so I'm told.
On the banks of Sacramento.
I asked then if she'd take a trip
Hoodah, to my hoodah,
A-down the docks to see a ship
Hoodah, hoodah day,
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For California O,
There's plenty of gold, so I'm told.
On the banks of Sacramento.
'No thank you sir, I will not go,
Hoodah, to my hoodah,
I thank you, but must answer 'no!
Hoodah, hoodah day,
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For California O,
There's plenty of gold, so I'm told.
On the banks of Sacramento.
'My love is young, my love is true;
Hoodah, to my hoodah,
I would not leave my love for you
Hoodah, hoodah day,
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For California O,
There's plenty of gold, so I'm told.
On the banks of Sacramento.
So, quickly then I strode away,
Hoodah, to my hoodah,
I'd not another word to say.
Hoodah, hoodah day,
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For California O,
There's plenty of gold, so I'm told.
On the banks of Sacramento.
Sing and heave, and heave and sing,
Hoodah, to my hoodah,
Heave and make the handspikes spring,
Hoodah, hoodah day,
Blow ye winds, heigh-ho,
For California O,
There's plenty of gold, so I'm told.
On the banks of Sacramento. "
2.
From: Barry Finn
Date: 22 Oct 99 - 10:39 PM
..."Therre are 4 versions in Hugill's "Shanties From the Seven Seas". Doerflinger has 3 versions in his "Shantymen & Shantyboys" & it seems he has a close version placed onboard a ship a year before Foster (acc. to him 1850) wrote Camptown Races.Hunington also has a close version (same as Doerflinger's) The California Song from the log of the LaGrange 1849. Here's that chorus:
"Then ho bo boys ho to California go
For the mountains bold are covered with gold
On the banks of the Sacramento
Heigh ho away we go
Digging up gold in Frisco" "
**
3. Subject: RE: INFO on Hoodah Day Shanty?
From: rich r
Date: 24 Oct 99 - 12:07 AM
"O the land we'll save for the bold and brave
Have determined there never shall breathe a slave
Let foes recoil, for the sons of toil
Shall make California God's Free Soil.
Then, ho! boys ho!
To California go,
No slave shall toil on God's free soil
On the banks of the Sacramento.
Heigh ho! and away we go,
Chanting our songs of Freedom O.
Heigh ho! and away we go,
Chanting our songs of Freedom O."
Hutchinson, incidentally borrowed melody elements from Dan Emmet's "Boatman Dance" song.
My reading of Doerflinger is that the song that was sung on the ship LaGrange as it sailed for California also in 1849 was the Hutchinson song and not the "Hoodah" song.
The second song is Foster's "Camptown Races". This song was first published in February 1850 by F D Benteen of Baltimore under the title "Gwine to Run All Night, or De Camptown Races". The second part of the title stuck with the song and the second edition was called "The celebrated Ethiopian Song/Camptown Races" Foster wrote the song for the minstrel stage with a solo/chorus etc framework. He pursuaded Ed Christy's Minstrels to feature the song. It was hugely popular but not much of a money maker for Foster. In sever years it sold only about 5000 copies and Foster netted only a little over $100 before he sold all rights to it in 1857. It was probably too easy to remember and sing, so people didn't need the music. Richard Jackson in "Popular Songs of Nineteenth Century America" says the song was likely written in 1849 when Foster was in Cincinnati.
The third song is the "Hoodah" song more commonly known as "Banks of Sacramento". This song seems to be rather clearly a composite of the two previous songs. The melody is "Camptown Races" and so is the pattern of the verses; line/ Hoodah (Doo Dah) etc. The chorus lyrics are derived from the Hutchinson song. Specific verses and story lines were either created or brought in from other sea songs. Doerflinger supports this view "Tune and short refrains of Foster's son are combined in the shanty with the chorus of one introduced by the Hutchinson Family..." Irwin Silber in "Songs of The Great American West" includes both the Hutchinson song and the shanty and says basically the same thing.
One added element is that many of the versions
of "Sacramento" make reference to trips around the Horn in 90 days
(Lingenfelter, Hugill, Silber, Silverman). That timing was not achieved until
after the famous American clipper ships began regular service on that route in
1851. Those sets of lyrics must be 1851 or later, i.e after both the Hutchinson
and Foster songs gained pouplarity.
**
4. Subject: RE: INFO on Hoodah Day Shanty/Banks of the
Sacramento
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 01:20 PM
…."Here's what the Traditional Ballad Index has to say about
"Banks of the Sacramento":
Ho for California (Banks of Sacramento)
DESCRIPTION: The "plot" of the song varies widely,
according to its use by pioneers, sailors, or gold-diggers. The chorus is
fixed: "(Then) Ho! (boys), Ho! To California go! There's plenty of gold in
the world, we're told, on the banks of the Sacramento"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1849 (Journal of William F. Morgan of the La
Grange)
KEYWORDS: gold shanty travel
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1849 - California gold rush
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Australia Canada(Mar)
[…]
Roud #309
RECORDINGS:
[…]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Californi-O
Blow, Boys, Blow for Californi-O
Der Hamborger Veermaster
Der Hamborger Vullrigger
NOTES: Possibly created and certainly popularized by the
Hutchinson Family (who published a text in their 1855 songbook), versions of
this song are found throughout the U.S., and are well-known among sailors.
The texts are diverse (Hugill, for instance, has a version
in which a sailor courts a girl and winds up with a venereal disease), but most
seem to be related to the California gold rush. The tune is a variation on
"Camptown Races," perhaps in turn based on "A Capital
Ship." – RBW"
****
Excerpt #2
From
19th Century Sea Shanties: from the Capstan to the Classroom
Sharon Marie Risko, 2015
Cleveland State University
“ “Sacremento”
Source: Hugill S. (1961) Shanties from the Seven Seas:
Shipboard work-songs and songs Used as work songs from the great days of sail
London: Routledge & Kegan Paul , P. 107
Ethnicity & Region: American------ Song Type: Capstan Shanty
Historical references: Came into use during the Gold Rush of 1849: We have
inconclusive evidence to prove whether
Stephen Foster wrote “Camptown Races” after hearing “Sacremento” of if the
lineage is reverse.(Doeflinger 1951 &Hugill, 1961)... “
Excerpt #3
From
"
Doo-da! Doo-da!
A bully mate and a captain, too,
Doo-da! Doo-da-day!
Chorus:
Then blow, ye winds, hi-oh,
For Californ-i-o,
There’s plenty of gold, so I’ve been told,
On the banks of Sacramento!
Oh, heave, my lads, oh heave and sing,
Oh, heave and make those oak sticks sing.
Our money gone, we shipped to go,
Around Cape Horn, through ice and snow.
Oh, around the Horn with a mainskys’l set
Around Cape Horn and we’re all wringin’ wet.
Around Cape Horn in the month of May,
With storm winds blowing every day.
It was in the year eighteen forty-nine,
It was in the year eighteen forty-nine.
This is an interesting demonstration of what happens when
different cultures meet. The song is a sea chanty, but it’s about the gold
rush!
To California go.
There’s plenty of gold in the world, we’re told
On the banks of the Sacramento.
Sailors taking “Forty-Niners” from the East Coast to San Francisco presumably heard this and adopted it as a shanty. It does not seem to have originally been sung to Foster’s tune; Gale Huntington in the 1849 journal of the whaler La Grange found the lyric
Then ho boys ho to California go
For the mountains bold are covered with gold
On the banks of the Sacramento
High ho away we go
Digging up gold in Frisco.
(For the full text, see Huntington, pp. 175-176)
This might explain why the song now seems to be sung to several tunes that aren’t Foster’s. I’ve met it to the well-known and rather similar melody of “A Capital Ship,” and I also seem to recall hearing it to the tune of Kerry Mills and Thurland Chattaway’s 1907 hit “Red Wing” (named for a fictional girl, not the town).
The “oak sticks” of the second verse (from Walton) are said to refer to the bars of the capstan.
Although widely associated with sailors, the song was also sung by folks ashore — e.g. Mary O. Eddy found an Ohio version, while the Warners picked it up from Lena Bourne Fish of New Hampshire.
Source: Ideally I’d like to use the version collected by Ivan H. Watson in Michigan, and printed on page 39 of Walton/Grimm; this version is known to have been sung by Great Lakes sailors. But it may be under copyright. So this is a version combined from the texts of Walton, Doerflinger (pp. 68-70), Colcord (pp. 105-106), and some of the myriad verses in Hugill (who even has a German variant, along with a large collection of dirty lyrics. He also notes that sailors sometimes sang the lyrics to “Camptown Races” as part of the shanty).
For those who care, the Walton version is similar to verses
2, 1, 3, 5."
****
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