From: robd@cherry09 (Robert Derrick)
Subject: Re: Whaling Songs?
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: 3 Sep 92 11:47:11 CDT


Since the response to the request for whaling songs has been
so underwhelming, I decided to try and have a look for myself.
Here is what I came up with.  The references are as complete
as I know; there may be more info for some of the songs.  If
you know it, let me know.  If anybody wants any more info
or lyrics of a particular song, let me know.  If the response
is low enough, you may actually get it (I already have a couple
on disk already).

rob derrick

---
by The Morgans - this is an album from many years ago, which
was given to me as a tape.  I don't know the title of the album,
if there was one, or anything else about these guys.

The Bowhead

  I sailed out of Frisco town,
    Hi, Ho, the bowhead blow,
  To the Artic seas, where the whales abound,
    In the land of frost and snow

Paddy O'Brien
  a fanciful tale of a landlubber Irishman Jonah'd on a whaler,
	swallowed for "six months and five days"

Windy Old Weather
  the great fish song adapted for whales -- this is the
  modern ecological view

  So the leaders of Russia and old Japan
  The killing of whales, stop, fast as you can
  In this windy old weather, stormy old weather
  When the wind blows, we'll all go together

[title unknown]
  a paean to the lure of the whaler

  Of a love of adventure, a promise of gold
  Or an ardent desire to roam far away
  Ever tempted you far o'er the watery world
  Away from your kindred and home

---
Mister Eneos - by Gordon Bok (from Peter Kagan)

 ["Practically verbatim" from a smooth-log of the last whaler
   to go out of New Bedford -- this is a smacked by the tail
   song - "We saw the flukes comes crashing down where Mister
   Eneos had been"]

  It was March 29, 1910, the little brig Daisy did sail
  The morning was clear and the sea was down,
  And we raised a great pod of whale

---
John Cook - by Schooner Fare (from Classic Schooner Fare)

  Oh, John Cook, you have taken us to hell
  Locked up in the ice off Baffin Island
  We've been here for a year, now the water's running clear
  Won't you set for home, John Cook, without the oil

---
Rolling Down To Old Maui
  two versions - 1. Ian Robb (Hang The Piper), Stan Rodgers (don't
	remember which album), et. al.; this is the one
	that everybody I meet knows, and 2. a two verse-no chorus
	version by A.L. Lloyd (from Leviathan), with a more mournful
	tune than the first (if such a thing is possible)

---
The Wounded Whale - by Archie Fisher (from The Man With The Rhyme)

 ["Collated from two versions in Gale Huntington's "Songs The 
  Whalermen Sang... detailed and compassionate description of
  the kill..." - this one is my favorite]

  Lo, as the sun from her ocean bed was rising
  Broad on the water her glittering light throws
  Hark, from the masthead our lookouts are crying
  Hard on your lee beam, a whale, there she blows

---
The Wellerman - by The Woods Tea Co. (from Alive At The Inn)
  these guy's pronunciation is rather muddy so there are many
  words that I can only guess at -- the story is strange; anybody
  out there can elucidate?

  There was a ship that put to sea
  And the name of ship was the Billyatee
  The winds blew up, her bow did [?]
  So blow, me bully boys, blow
    Soon may the wellerman come, bring us sugar and tea and rum
    Someday, when the [tugging] in done, we'll take our leave and go
---
also:

Two albums dedicated to whaler songs:

---
Whaler Out Of New Bedford - Ewan Macoll, Peggy Seeger, A.L.Lloyd
  which includes The Boston Come All Ye, Come All You Tarry New
  England Sailors, Tommy's Gone To Hilo, Homeward Bound, The
  Bark "Gay Head", Tis Advertised In Boston, The Coast of Peru,
  Desolation.  Side one is a montage of Whaler songs which is the
  soundtrack for a short film about a "panorama", a 1300 foot 'moving
  picture' by Benjamin Russel and Caleb Purrington, from the mid 1800's.
  The Panorama is currently in the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

---
Leviathan - A.L.Lloyd
  which includes The Diamond, Rant and Roar, Farewell To
  Tarwathie [another of my favorites], The Trying Out,
  The Balena of Dundee, Bound For Greenland

And

Paddy Malony (Caterwauling, Tarpaulin, Harpoonin' and All)
  this is the same story as Paddy O'Brien above, in a minor key
  with a chorus -- in this one he's in the whale for "six months and
  a day", and is spit out a "mile in the air"

Greenland Fishers [this is a more grim but probably more accurate version]

  When the captain heard of the loss of his men
  It grieved his heart full sore
  But when he heard of the loss of the whale
  It was half mast colors all, brave boys
  It was half mast colors all
---
Newsgroups: rec.music.folk