Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part pancocojams series about West Indian and Black American origins of many 19th century sea shanties.
The content in this post is quoted from two selected internet articles that quote various sources.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/09/the-west-indian-and-black-american.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post includes some comments from various Mudcat folk music forum discussion threads on this subject.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of these sea shanties and thanks to the collectors of these work songs. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
-snip-
Some of the content of this pancocojams post is included in the 2022 pancocojams post entitled "Information About Sea Shanty Collector Stan Hugill And Information About Harding, A West Indian Man Who Was The Source For A Number Of Shanties."
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/03/information-about-sea-shanty-collector.html
These posts are part of an ongoing pancocojams series on African Americans and West Indians chanties (shanties). Click the tags given below for previous posts and subsequent posts on this subject.
****
DISCLAIMER
This post isn't meant to be comprehensive. Please read these entire Mudcat discussion threads (which I believe are still open for comments as of the September 2026 date of this pancocojams post. Also, read other online and off-line sources about this subject.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTES
Some sources about sea shanties include the referent "negro" spelled with a lower case "n".
That referent for Black people -spelled with the lower case "n" or spelled with an upper case "n") is outdated and and has been considered to be very offensive for a number of decades.
That said, the use of that referent by some non-Black people in the past may not have been meant to be offensive, at least not has offensive as it is considered now (in the 2020s).
The Mudcat folk music forum member whose screen name is "Gib Sahib" is the same person who is identified in Part I, Source #2 of this pancocojams series as Dr. Gibb Schreffler from the Department of Music at Claremont California's Pomona College.
****
COMMENTS ABOUT BLACK ORIGINS OF MANY 19TH CENTURY SEA SHANTIES
From https://mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7810
1.
| Subject: RE: Where am I to go From Barry Finn Date: 23 Jul 98 - 02:46 PM "Enter into the search box, Where Am I To Go Me Johnnies*, & you'll find it there along with midi music. Hugill doesn't say much about this halyard shanty except that he got it from a fellow shantyman, Harding the Barbarian from Barbadoes, a Black sailor who had shipped on Yankee, Brittish, Bluenose & West Indian vessels, a fine shantyman & a 1st rate sailor. He also says he never seen it in print. Barry" |
****
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=46147
1. Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Huckleberry Hunting (Pumping Chantey)
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM
… "I did once read through Hugill with an eye to which shanties were from Harding, but I didn't keep a strict list. My goal at the time was to sketch a rough picture of the percentages of what chanteys came from where. Needless to say, that is impossible to say with any accuracy since as many people would disagree on the origins (or dismiss the effort as rather pointless). The number of course will also vary widely depending on what you count variations. For whatever it's worth though, here are some of my stats:
Total number of shanties, not including textual variants or little "sing outs," is about 181. Usually I counted each different tune as a different chantey. "Blow the Man Down" was counted as a single chantey, despite there being "Flying Fish" version, "Blackballer" version, etc.
Of these, 78 were of "Black" origin. Out of those 78, I filed 47 as Black American and 31 as Caribbean. Keep in mind that this also includes minstrel song types, which are difficult to distinguish from authentic African-American songs of the period. Also, the Caribbean number may seem low because many of the chantey, even if learned from Harding, seemed to originate in the Southern U.S., as minstrel songs, etc.
8 were "American," exclusive of "Black" or "Irish."
"All Others," an undifferentiated category, numbered 80.
I did not note which were "English" specifically, though that number was comparatively few. Moreover, many of these are forebitters that Hugill admitted into the collection on the criterium that he'd hear one person say they had been used as a capstan song. A contrary statement one could make is that they are all really "English," since it was Stan, an Englishman, who sang them!
Take those numbers with several teaspoons of salt.
Gibb"
****
From https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=119776
[Pancocojams Editor's Note:
Some comments from Gib Sahib include the word "here" as a hyperlink to a online source that isn't given in those comments. I haven't added those hyperlinks in this compilation. Please refer back to those comments in that original Mudcat thread and click on that word if you are interested in following through on those hyperlinks.]
1.Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: greg stephens
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 07:09 AM
"The Bahamian "The Captain Go Ashore" was recorded by Frederick McQueen, Andros Bahamas. And also by the Boat Band ("Take Me over the Tide, Harbourtown casette, 1990, to be reissued on CD May 1 2009 hint hint).
This is one of the shanties mentioned by Dana in "Two years before the mast", as being sung on American ships in thne 1850's. Hugill(introduction to "Shanties of the Seven Seas") thought the song was lost, but luckily Fwederick McQueen(and the Boat Band!) knew otherwise"
**
2. Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 10:47 AM
"Specifics, as always, are welcome. Thanks, guys.
It is not so much that these chanteys (not just the few I've listed so far, but the larger category) have "never" been performed, but rather that they have been performed so infrequently (or within such a limited area, as Ross suggested) that they are very poorly known to the chantey audience at large. The second part to this is, again, the issues of how the performances were created, i.e. whether they are imagined, as best as possible, from written text. I would guess that most of these recordings that one finds are recreations of the text.
The Bahamian recordings by Lomax present us with a slightly reverse scenario. We have these "authentic" versions, recorded for posterity and there is not so much of an issue of knowing what they are like (although more than one version is always helpful). Moreover, in several cases these recordings have been seized upon by revival singers and have since become both fairly well known and based on an aural source.
Abrahams' book is obviously the best source so far if we are just looking for Caribbean shanties, in conjunction with the more recent performances by the Barrouallie Whalers. But there are plenty of other chanteys that seem to have been popular back in the day, collected by Hugill, Bullen, Terry, Sharp, & Harlow that don't appear in these.
Out of the few listed so far, "Round the Corner, Sally" is definitely the most common, but I'm not sure if Hugill's significantly unique West Indian version is a part of that knowledge.
As a related note, one book that I don't seem to ever see
mentioned, but which should accompany Abrahams', is Horace Beck's FOLKLORE AND
THE SEA. He prints the following chanteys, having covered (in an albeit much
more sketchy way) a similar ground as Abrahams:
Yado
Sam Gone Away
Ring Down Below
Ding Well
Mountains so High (related to Poor Lucy Anna / Louisiana)
Drive Her Captain Drive Her
Stormalong ("Yankee John" version)
Long Time Ago
Blow Boys Blow
Bulldog
Man o' War Sailor
Hilo
Rosabella
Old Moses
Pappy You Done Dead
Those being noted, the focus (for me) is not on
"Caribbean" chanteys per se, it just happens that many of these
chanteys in this category have been sourced from West Indian singers."
3.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 11:03 AM
"So here is a summary so far of sources for the songs listed.
Mudder Dinah (Hugill's version A)
Print: Hugill, SEVEN SEAS; Bullen, SEA LABOUR + SEA WAIF
Performers: Rika Ruebsaat (?); Chris Roe /Broadside/St.
Elmo's Choir
Mudder Dinah (version B)
Print: Hugill, SEVEN SEAS; Sharp, FOLK-CHANTEYS; Colcord
(copy of Sharp)
Performers: Rika Ruebsaat (?)
Shinbone Al
Print:Hugill, SEVEN SEAS; Bullen; Harlow
Performers: Theresa Tooley
Round the Corner, Sally
Print: Hugill (a different version sung by Harding); Sharp;
Terry; Dana (title only)
Performers: Paul Clayton; Theresa Tooley; more..."
**
4.
Subject: RE: "Rare" Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 11:45 AM
Mudder Dinah (Version A)
Performer: Pint & Dale
Round the Corner Sally
Performer: Pint & Dale
These two seem to have used Hugill's text as a source for non-chantey style music.
Tom Lewis also performs "Round the Corner," but in
his own, new version.
Johnson Girls and Forebitter do "Roun' de Corn," a
plantation song with a related phrase."
5.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Padre
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 12:12 PM
"
It contains the following songs:
A Coolie is Nobody
All through the rain and Squally Weather (Blow My Bully Boy,
Blow my Blow)
Bear Away Yankee, Bear Away Boy
Blackbird Get Up
Blow the Man Down
Bully Long Time Ago
Caesar Boy, Caesar
Caesar oh Caesar
Dan-Dan-Oh
Do my Jolly Boy
Feeny Brown
Fine Time o' Day
Fire Down Below
Georgy, Me Neck-a-Broke
Gray Goose Gone Home
Haul Away, Haul Away
Hey, Bully Monday
Jane and Louisa
John,John the Water Man
Johnny Come Down with a Hilo
Judiano
Lee-Lee-o, Lee-Lee
Little Boy Lonzo
Long Time Ago
Man-o-War Sailor
Michael Row the Boat Ashore
Oh, Louisiana
Oh, Mr. Cobeau
Oh, My Rolling River (Solid fas')
Pull away Me Boy
Royo Groun'
Shub Her Down
Sintali
St. Peter Down at Courland Bay
Those Girls From Bermuda
Tinnego
We Are Bound Down South Alabama
When You Go, Tell Julia
who No Been Out
Woman Belly Ful o' Hair
Yankee John, Stormalong
Yard-o
The Boarding Party sang several of these songs:
Yard-o
Solid Fas'
Blackbird Get Up
Caesar, Oh Caesar"
**
6.
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 05:10 PM
"Walkalong, Miss Susiana Brown."
Print: Hugill; Colcord
Performance: William Fender (on Folktrax CD)
Some notes:
It is a halyard chantey. Hugill doesn't mention whom he learned it from; one presumes either Harding or "Harry Lauder."
The phrase "walkalong" is reminiscent of Gulf port cotton stowing songs, including the phamous "General Taylor / Walk-'em-along John" variant of the Stormalong theme.
The other collector who gives a version of this one is
Joanna Colcord, who files it under the title "Juley." In her version,
the name Susiana appears as Juliana.
There is a version of this recorded on cylinder in the James
Madison Carpenter collection, by a William Fender, who notes to have learned it
from a stevedore in the West Indies in 1888. It goes by the name "Saucy
Anna," and though I've not heard it, I'm reasonably sure it is a related
song. Mudcatter dick greenhaus notes it's inclusion on a Folktrax CD, under the
title "Walkalong, You Saucy Anna," here
I know a few people here have that CD; I wonder how they
would compare it to Hugill or Colcord's noted version. Of course I'd also be
interested to hear whether anyone out there has included this in their
repertoire.
My unripe rendition is here
I've had to alter the rhythm in one part of Hugill's
notation, where it didn't make much sense; again, his transcriber seems to have
been defeated by syncopation or some other irregular rhythm. Also, the notation
is plagued by a common problem in his text, where the durational values on
notes suddenly become doubled for a phrase, then halved again in the next
phrase. I used Colcord's version to get an idea, but ultimately it is just a
guess about which rhythms were really intended.
7.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 05:28 PM
"
Thank you very much for your details on what Stan recorded off record. I find it interesting (but not surprising) that although his SEVEN SEAS is pretty much the largest collection of chanteys, he is only known for performing a relatively small set of those. In his later books (for numerous easy to guess reasons, I think) he trims off all these "Harding chanteys" (Perhaps that is a better way to group them!). I wonder to what extend he "knew" them them well (i.e. in order to perform them) or knew them just enough to log them in his very inclusive first book.
"John Kanaka" is a funny anomaly, since I'd put it in this category and yet Hugill evidently liked it and chose to popularize it. Maybe it was because he liked doing that yodel. Maybe the story of "samoan" lyrics was gimmicky. But for whatever reason, the very similar and probably more popular "Mobile Bay / John Come tell us as we haul away" hasn't made it to any kind of renown.
Also interesting is that the more recent, wonderful interest in Caribbean chanteying still does not quite fill the gap of what seems to be many Caribbean-or-Southern-U.S.-or-minstrel-based chanteys that were once actually well known by Euro-Americans. It's mostly a different repertoire (I think?) than that represented by Abrahams, the Nevis whalers, etc."
**
8.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: doc.tom
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 05:48 PM
Horace Beck: FOLKLORE AND THE SEA - his Rosabella is not the one 'everybody' sings. That came from John Short (Yankee Jack) to me & BB, thence to Collins & Mageean, thence to the world. It is one of Short's that Sharp did not publish. Short is the ONLY source apart from two close singe-verse variants noted by Carpenter.
Gibb Sahib's reference to Round the Corner Sally, above,
include Sharp & Terry as sources - they both published John Short's
version. At the time of publication,SHARP says: "I do not know of any
printed version of this chantey, nor have I myself collected any
variants", and TERRY says: "I have not heard anyone save Mr. Short
sing this shanty." HUGILL - "Mentioned by Dana in Two Years Before
the Mast... Terry & Sharp are the only two collectors who give it and both
had it from the same shantyman, Mr. Short… My version is one of
Harding's."
Similarly, with Bully In The Alley, SHARP says: "I have
no variants of this nor do I know of any printed version of it."
HUGILL:"Another halyard shanty of negro origin which I came across in the
West Indies is Bully In The Alley. Sharp gives a version sung to him by Mr.
john Short of Watchet in which all the refrains are the same but I feel that
this version has all the signs of being in a worn condition, as though Mr.
Short's memory, in this case, didn't serve him well... This shanty may have
been one used originally by cotton screwers." In fact, Short's version is
structurally different to the one Stan gives (and everybody else subseqently
sings), and does appear to be much closer to an original hoosier's chant then
Stan's!
It's fascinating to find that, of those shanties that
Sharp/Terry published from John Short, which were not in other publications,
Stan almost invariably a his own version either from 'Harding the Barbadian' or
'picked up in the West Indies'. Makes you wonder!
As to who sings them now, well, all John Short's versions of
shanties (57 in all) will be newly recorded in the next 12 months in the 'Short
Sharp Shanty' projects - see www.umbermusic.co.uk/s&aprojects.htm
I shall follow this thread with interest - thanks for
starting it.
TomB"
**
9.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: JeffB
Date: 30 Mar 09 - 06:31 PM
Bully in the Alley - (WI halyards) One of several negro
shanties referring to the place Shinbone Alley (geographical or anatomical?).
John Dead - (WI whaling) Collected in Barouvalie, St
Vincent, by Roger Abrahams. It was used for calling out any 'chicken' negro
whaler (Grey Goose [so-called in the shanty]) to come out and hunt "Mr
Fox" (the whale). Brought to our attention by the fine Scottish shantyman
Rob Mhacgregor.
Blackbird get up [mentioned by Padre above] - (WI whaling
shanty) A shanty from Roger Abraham's collection "Deep the Water, Shallow
the Shore", from the negro whalers of Barouvalie, St Vincent, who always
sang this shanty when being rained upon.
The CD has a number of other shanties collected from black
crews, but not necessarily Caribbean.
Not sure if you would include Florida for your purposes, but
the CD also includes "Johnson girls", which the notes say was
collected in 1940 from the crew of the Menhaden fishing vessel "The
Boys", working out of Mayport.
A. L. Lloyd's version of "Emma let me be (Sail 'er down
the bay to Julianna)" is well known, but Lloyd apparently altered the
distinctive cadence of the song. Would like to know what it sounded like in the
mouth of a WI shantyman. Subtle changes by collectors can be really
significant, as any who can compare the "standard" version of
"Sailboat Malachi" with the original recording of Frederick McQueen
("The Real Bahamas") will appreciate.
Not sure if you could strictly call it a shanty, maybe more
of a stevedores' song, is "Fire Marengo".
I'm told that people of mixed race in the Caribeban in 19th
cent were called "cholas", so perhaps "Shallow Brown" could
be included. Admittedly, not at all rare.
Do you want to draw a line between Caribbean shanties and
those sung by black American crews? If so, things could get tricky, but you
would be able to include "Shiny-o", which had a
thread to itself last
year."
**
10.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 02:01 PM
"Tom,
I was going to go through which of John Short's shanties
were 'covered' by Stan as Harding/WestIndies - but it'll be a few weeks yet:
will post when it's done. From the other direction, has anyone listed the
'Harding shanties' from Seven Seas? (or the 'picked up' for that matter).
That would be very insightful, good idea.
I did once read through Hugill with an eye to which shanties
were from Harding, but I didn't keep a strict list. My goal at the time was to
sketch a rough picture of the percentages of what chanteys came from where.
Needless to say, that is impossible to say with any accuracy since as many
people would disagree on the origins (or dismiss the effort as rather
pointless). The number of course will also vary widely depending on what you
count variations. For whatever it's worth though, here are some of my stats:
Total number of shanties, not including textual variants or
little "sing outs," is about 181. Usually I counted each different
tune as a different chantey. "Blow the Man Down" was counted as a
single chantey, despite there being "Flying Fish" version,
"Blackballer" version, etc.
Of these,
78 were of "Black" origin. Out of those 78, I filed 47 as Black American and 31 as Caribbean. Keep in mind that this also includes minstrel song types, which are difficult to distinguish from authentic African-American songs of the period. Also, the Caribbean number may seem low because many of the chantey, even if learned from Harding, seemed to originate in the Southern U.S., as minstrel songs, etc.
14 were "Irish" or Irish-American. This does not
include the minstrel songs, which are often a sort of Black-Irish combo. As
already noted, I included those under "Black"--a bias in my count, I
guess.
8 were "American," exclusive of "Black"
or "Irish."
"All Others," an undifferentiated category,
numbered 80.
I did not note which were "English" specifically,
though that number was comparatively few. Moreover, many of these are
forebitters that Hugill admitted into the collection on the criterium that he'd
hear one person say they had been used as a capstan song. A contrary statement
one could make is that they are all really "English," since it was
Stan, an Englishman, who sang them!
Take those numbers with several teaspoons of salt.
Gibb"
**
11.
Subject: RE: Rare' Carib. shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 31 Mar 09 - 03:17 PM
I don't think many of the Caribbean chanteys that appear in Abrahams' book (to the extent that he also made recordings of them), or that we find reintroduced by the Nevisian whalers or in Lomax's recordings represent a broken link in oral tradition -- precisely because we have these as aural sources directly from an oral source. Many of them are indeed less known (though note the fact that, for example, that Lomax's recordings in the Bahamas, mentioned by Fred above, were drawn from by early folk revival groups). While they are less known, we have a chance of knowing them directly from an oral source.
That not only Hugill, who by happenstance got many chanteys from Black chanteymen in the Caribbean, but also Sharp, Terry, etc. collected some of the same chanteys (by name, at least) from Englishmen suggests that these were a stock of chanteys that were widely known among the international set of sailors. This may be a bit different than localized chanteys like "Feeney Brown" and such. It's the former set that I think is "extinct" or "endangered," despite us having them in print.
Then there is the category of really "lost" chanteys that we don't have much knowledge about because they have only been named in books, without many lyrics and without melody. greg stephens brought up the example of one of these that seems to have been rediscovered. Here is his thread on that topic. "Fire Maringo" would be another that could fit into that category. The issue with these is that, unless and until they are rediscovered, they remain as vague references. By contrast, the many less-known chanteys in Hugill et.al. are at least notated out.
So adding some of the chanteys that have been mentioned…
*************
"Coal Black Rose"
Print: Hugill
Performers: Tom Sullivan (recorded on "Salt Atlantic
Chanteys); Finn & Haddie (here)
Notes:
Learned by Stan Hugill from Harding. It is another one of
those chanteys which can be presumed to be developed from a snatch of a popular
minstrel song. In this case, the song "Coal Black Rose" is believed
to be one of the earliest minstrel songs, popularized by George Washington
Dixon by 1829 and henceforth part of the standard repertoire of blackface
performers. A copy of the sheet music to the song can be seen here
The opening phrases, especially about the banjo, with the
onomatopoeia (as well as some of the melodic contour, I think) are similar
enough to make it probable the chantey is partly derived from the popular song.
*******
"Come Down, You Bunch of Roses"
Print: Hugill, in several books; Doerflinger
Performers: hmm…very many, but few. See below
Notes:
Despite it being apparently very well known, I think this
one belongs to this category of broken-oral-link chanteys. Doerflinger's
printed version comes from another text. Hugill's come from the oral source,
Harding, but so far as I know he hasn't passed that version on orally to
others. In fact, he appears to later forsake Harding's version (in SEVEN SEAS)
in favor of a popular revival version.
I've tried to analyze what I think is the trajectory of this
chantey, since the end of sail, here. The gist of my argument is that Bert
Lloyd refashioned the song, from who knows what, and that his version became so
ubiquitous that even Hugill adopted it.
Now, we do have those Caribbean recordings of a sibling or
parent version of the song, as noted by Fred and Barry. So there is an oral
source. One question would be whether these are the same as the developed
chantey.
I've made an attempt to recreate Hugill's original/Harding's
version here
********
"Bully in the Alley"
Note that this is different than the "Shinbone Al"
mentioned earlier in the thread.
At first glance, one might not include this one among the
"broken link" chanteys of this thread, simply because Hugill recorded
it. It is available to many, and many have learned it. In fact, it is so well
known (in a form) that it has reached the level of Disney-fication, here and
here
However, two points. One is that Hugill's notation of this
chantey in SEVEN SEAS is significantly different from the popular versions. I
don't have his recording, so I can't tell if the popular versions are based on
that (which differs from text) or if they derive from someone's reworking of
it. Second, see TomB's points, above, that John Short's rendition had some
significant differences. So there is a case for saying that the oral tradition
of this chantey has been broken, or at least that the way most people know it
now is "off." Who popularized the current version going around (was
it Starboard List, as Lighter mentions)?
Regardless, it is similar to a lot of these other chanteys.
*****
"Lowlands Low"
Print: Hugill
Performers: Ian Cambell; Mystic Seaport Chanteymen; Roll
& Go
Revived in the 60s by Ian Campbell and Co.? This is
post-SEVEN SEAS, but I don't know if he learned it from print or oral.
Incidentally, there are a number of recordings, by revival
singers in the 60s-70s, that are recreated from text. Often they have
"mistakes" in them, imperfect readings of the texts, and through
their spread on record they've spread these off versions. An example might be
Louis Killen's version of "Hilo Johnny Brown" which seems it must
derive from Hugill but has too many inaccuracies. It may well be that he
learned it from Hugill directly, in which case – sadly all too often the case—it's
Hugill's notation that is way off."
**
12.
Subject: RE: 'Rare' Caribbean shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 11:26 PM
There are 55 in total, at my count -- I may have missed some. So, a good third of the shanties in Hugill's text came from theses guys
From HARDING 'THE BARBARIAN' OF BARBADOS - 36 shanties:
Stormalong, John
'Way Stormalong John
Stormalong, Lads, Stormy
Sally Brown
Randy Dandy O!
High O, Come Roll Me Over
Where Am I to Go, M'Johnnies
Roll, Boys, Roll
The Codfish Shanty
Ranzo Ray (C)
Hilo, Come Down Below
Hello Somebody
Shallow Brown (B)
Can't Ye Hilo?
The Gal with the Blue Dress
Johnny Come Down the Backstay
Rise Me Up from Down Below
John Kanaka
Hooker John
Haul 'er Away (A)
Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo
Gimme De Banjo
Haul Away, Boys, Haul Away
Walkalong, My Rosie
Coal Black Rose
Bunch o' Roses
'Way Me Susiana
Do Let Me Lone, Susan
Doodle Let Me Go
Sing Sally O (Mudder Dinah) (A)
Sing Sally O (B)
Round the Corner, Sally
Essequibo River
Alabama (John Cherokee)
Dan Dan
Hilonday
From "OLD SMITH" OF TOBAGO:
Lowlands Low
Walkalong You Sally Brown
Hilo Boys Hilo
Good Morning Ladies All (A)
Sing a Song, Blow Along (Dixie Land)
Tiddy High O
From HARRY LAUDER of ST. LUCIA:
Heave Away Boys, Heave Away (B)
Sister Susan (Shinbone Al)
Eki Dumah
Bulley In the Alley
From TRINIDAD, anonymous:
Roller Bowler
Miss Lucy Long
Miss Lucy Loo
From ST. LUCIA, anonymous:
Heave Away Boys, Heave Away (A)
WEST INDIES in general, anonymous:
Roll the Woodpile Down
Tommy's on the Tops'l yard
Haul 'er Away (B)
Good Morning Ladies All (B)
Won't Ye Go My Way?
If Hugill was writing his book in today's era of scholarship, Harding might be listed as a co-author!"
****
13.
Subject: RE: 'Rare' Caribbean shanties of Hugill, etc
From: Gibb Sahib
Date: 15 Nov 23 - 07:40 PM
"
Brathwaite, Percy A. and Serena Brathwaite. _Folk Songs of Guyana: Queh-Queh, Chanties and Plantation Themes._ [self-published: Georgetown?], 1967.
“Queh-Queh also sung as Chanty”
YELLA GAL
Refrain:
Do leh me lone, Lulu, do leh me lone,
Hurray, me
yella gal, do leh me lone
Do leh me lone, Lulu, do leh me lone,
Hurray, me
yella gal, do leh me lone
Solo: Put me face pon Lulu face, Lulu faint away, oh
Chorus: Hurray, me yella gal, Lulu faint away
Solo: Ah put me han’ pon Lulu head, Lulu faint away, oh.
Chorus: Hurray me yella gal, Lulu faint away.
Solo: Ah put me han’ roun’ Lulu neck / An’ she faint away,
oh
Chorus: “then Refrain, etc.”
Solo: Ah put me han’ roun’ Lulu waist, “etc.”
Chorus: “then Refrain, etc.”
Includes notation, including a harmonized (4-part) refrain.
However, there appear to be numerous errors in the transcription where the
rhythm doesn't make sense."
-snip-
A "yella gal" ("yellow girl") is a light skinned Black female.
Note the comment that is given in #9 of this compilation that the Caribbean term "cholo" means "a person who is mixed" (of some Black/non-Black ancestry). Many- but not all-people who are "mixed" (contemporary term "biracial") identify as Black. Some of these people are light skinned and some aren't. Also, some Black people appear to be first generation mixed, but aren't.
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This November 2023rd comment is the latest comment that is posted to that Mudcat discussion thread as of September 5, 2026 at 1:05 PM. That thread is still open for comments.
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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
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