Alain Cadieux, Dec. 20, 2007
Sous-marinier pour la marine britanique pendant plus de 20 ans,
-snip-
Google translate from French to English:
****
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents a video of a YouTube version of the shanty (chanty) "Round The Corner, Sally."
This post also presents information about "Round The Corner Sally" with the transcriptions of those versions of that shanty.
The content of this post is presented for historical, cultural, folkloric, and educational purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to the unknown composers of chanties (shanties) and thanks to Tom Lewis and Seán Dagher whose videos are featured in this post. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post.
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO #2: Seán Dagher's Shanty of the Week 38 Round the Corner Sally
Sean Dagher, May 25, 2021
This Halyard Shanty begins at 2:51 in this video.
****
SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE SHANTY "ROUND THE CORNER, SALLY"
Pancocojams Editor's Note:
The shanty ("Round the Corner, Sally" is said to be based on the African American plantation song "Round the Corn, Sally".
The words "round the corner" in this shanty either means [we're] "going around Cape Horn" [with "Sally" being a general referent for women that sailors associate with), or "Sally" is a referent for women who stand on street corners trying to "pick up men".
The introductions to the two videos that are showcased in this pancocojams post refer to one or both of these two theories for the meaning of "round the corner, Sally".
Here are some online excerpts that provide more information about this shanty:
Excerpt #1
From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNvk3gsCkok&ab_channel=hultonclint
…."Of note: Hugill connects the phrase "Round the
corner, Sally" to a line in a Christy's Minstrel song, "Aunt
Sally" -- and "Aunt Sally" is a character in versions of
"Sister Susan" chantey or another minstrel song, "Shinbone
Al."
Another song is a candidate as a source for "Round the Corner, Sally." It appears in the text of a James Hungerford, in which the author describes a visit to his cousin's plantation in Maryland in 1832. With it's musical notations, it is considered to be the first extant text to contain slave songs. "Roun' De Corn, Sally" is described in the context of rowing a boat, but properly attributed as a corn-husking song. In his 1989 book, ORIGINS OF THE POPULAR STYLE, pg.206, Peter Van der Merwe makes a connection between the similar phrase in the slave song and the chantey, thinking that "round the corn" was a corruption of the chantey phrase, due to confounding the "corn" context with the original meaning. The original phrase, as supposed by Hugill, was a sort of "gal on the street," later reinterpreted as a sailor's lady-friend of locales that were around the "corner": Cape Horn. However, some recent interpreters seem to suggest that the plantation song was a source.....
For what it's worth, besides the characteristic phrase, the
plantation song and the chantey don't show much similarity. They do appear to be contemporary
though. The plantation song is from 1832
and the chantey is cited by name in Dana's TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST in which
he describes events along the California coast in the 1830s.
****
Excerpt #2
From https://voices.pitt.edu/TeachersGuide/Unit1/Round%20the%20Corn(er)%20Sally.htm
"Round the Corn(er), Sally
Traditional, 1700s
Song Background
Often novels and memoirs are the only sources for learning
the history of a song. Such is the case with “Round the Corn, Sally.” Because
it is mentioned in several early American novels, it is one of the earliest
known examples of an African American slave song. Dena Epstein notes the
presence of “Round the Corn, Sally” in one of the first novels of plantation
life, George Tucker’s The Valley of Shenandoah (1824). In the novel The
Old Plantation and What I Gathered There in an Autumn Month (1859), James
Hungerford cites it as a rowing song. It is also mentioned in Richard Dana’s Two
Years Before the Mast (1840).
Eileen Southern notes that “Round the Corn, Sally” was used
to coordinate the movements of work teams. Enslaved people loading cotton along
the Eastern Seaboard or Mississippi River likely sang “Round the Corn, Sally,”
where it was adapted by the seafaring population and turned into a sea chanty.
Interaction between various singing populations often gave rise to new songs.
The melodies and rhythms of the two versions are similar, and they share a
call-and-response structure. The expert chantyman improvised lyrics of the
repeating phrase, while the sailors, hard at work, would repeat the chorus.
This chanty was likely used to coordinate the crew’s movement raising sails, a
strenuous effort made easier by singing. This version of the sea chanty
probably dates from the mid-1800s (after California became a US territory), but
“Round the Corn, Sally” is a much earlier slave song."
****
SOME INFORMATION ABOUT CAPE HORN
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Horn
"Cape Horn (Spanish: Cabo de Hornos, ....is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez Islands), Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. It marks both the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.
Cape Horn was identified by mariners and first rounded in 1616 by the Dutchman Willem Schouten and Belgian Jacob Le Maire, who named it Kaap Hoorn after the city of Hoorn in the Netherlands. For decades, Cape Horn was a major milestone on the clipper route, by which sailing ships carried trade around the world. The waters around Cape Horn are particularly hazardous, owing to strong winds, large waves, strong currents and icebergs.
The need for boats and ships to round Cape Horn was greatly reduced by the opening of the Panama Canal in August 1914. Sailing around Cape Horn is still widely regarded as one of the major challenges in yachting....
****
LYRICS TO "ROUND THE CORNER SALLY" (Tom Lewis version as sung in Video #1 above)
From http://www.tomlewis.net/lyrics/round_the_corner.htm
Round the Corner, Sally
Traditional (Collected by Stan Hugill)
Arr./New words and music: Tom Lewis
(Recorded by Tom Lewis on Poles Apart)
We're - leaving sunny Mexico,
Round The Corner, Sally!
Around Cape Horn we're bound to go,
Round The Corner, Sally!
Chorus:
Round The Corner is a long, long way,
To Valipo and Callao Bay,
Round The Corner we must roam,
We don't care if we never go home.
Was you ever off Cape Horn,
Where your ass is never warm?
There's ice and snow and sleet and rain,
You'll meet them coming back again.
When we reach those Pacific seas,
We'll drop in to Madam Gashee's.
Them Spanish gals will make you smile,
You'll want to stay for a long, long while.
It's up aloft this yard must go,
Cuz Mr. Mate has told us so.
****
LYRICS TO "ROUND THE CORNER SALLY" (Sean Dagher's version as sung in Video #2) above)
Lead Singer: Round the corner and away we’ll go
Refrain: Round the corner, Sally!
Lead singer: Round the corner to the girls we know
Refrain: Round the corner, Sally
[Follow this pattern for the verses below.]
Sally Brown, she’s the girl for me
Waitin there by the shady tree
That’s the reason I went to sea
Heavin and haulin on an old Yankee
But here there are no shady trees
No more time for to take your ease
Were you ever in Mobile Bay
Wastin your life while you spend your pay
This sailor’s life is not for me
It's worse than that and not to be
And now we drink to Sally Brown
Fill your cups and drink them down
Round her up and stretch aloft
All the boys have had enough
Group sings the last line together : Round the corner Sally
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
