Posted by Forrest Brownell on August 06, 1997 at 18:48:43:
In Reply to: Shanties in S&A posted by Tim Johns on August 06, 1997 at 16:42:29:
In an epic, if somewhat idiosyncratic, collection entitled Shanties from the Seven
Seas, Stan Hugill gives the lyrics and music for the pump-break shanty 'Amsterdam',
also known as 'A-Rovin'' and 'The Maid of Amsterdam'. These are, as might be expected,
somewhat salacious -- though nothing in comparison with the notorous 'Jamboree', which
Hugill reprints only in a sadly denatured, bowdlerized form.
That said, I think I can give the opening lines of the first verse of 'The Maid of
Amsterdam' without causing offense or endangering anyone's welfare:
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
Mark well what I do say!
In Amsterdam there lived a maid,
An' she was mistress of her trade...
To find the rest, turn to page 46 of Shanties... (Second abridged edition, 1984),
though I think that even here the alert reader -- especially any reader familiar with
contemporary military marching 'calls' -- will detect some signs of tampering
with the original lyrics.
I've had less luck with 'The Whale', and none whatsoever with 'Salt Beef'. The closest
I've been able to come to the former is 'The Greenland Whale Fishery', a song -- not
a shanty -- whose music and lyrics are reprinted on pp. 160-162 in Roy Palmer's
Oxford Book of Sea Songs (1986). It begins
I cannot stay all on the shore,
As I am so deeply in debt;
To Greenland we will go, brave boys,
Some money for to get, brave boys,
Some money for to get.
The dramatic climax comes later, with
So the whale being struck and the line paid out,
And he gave a dash with his tail.
He capsized the boat and we lost five hands,
And we did not catch that whale, brave boys,
And we did not catch that whale.
The balance can be found in Palmer's book. I wish that I could be of more help. I look
forward to learning what others have discovered.