Category: Song

A sailor coming home on leave

From “an old seaman”

Collected by Derek Sarjeant in a Chatham pub

Sing 7:4 (Jan/Feb 1963) p.44

Roud 60

A sailor coming home on leaveDownload

When printed in Sing, the accompanying note said “Collected by Derek Sarjeant in a Chatham pub, the tune is surely one of the most persistent found in oral tradition. And so is much of the lyric too”.

Derek Serjeant recorded this song on his Man of Kent EP (Oak, 1963), where the liner notes say “Derek collected this song from an old seaman in one of the Medway Towns”.

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Blow the Man Down

Harry Johnson

Collected by James Madison Carpenter, Royal Alfred, Belvedere, 1928 

James Madison Carpenter Collection (JMC/1/5/4/A, JMC/1/1/4/A)

Roud 2624, Roud 13026

JMC-1-1-4-A Blow the man downDownload

There are surviving cylinder recordings of the shanty, which can be heard via the VWML Archive Catalogue:

  1. Disc Side 076
    JMC/1/11/76
    https://www.vwml.org/record/VWMLSongIndex/SN17665  
    (starts at 04:47)

    JMC/1/11/77
    https://archives.vwml.org/songs/VWMLSongIndex/SN17664
    (continuation)

The two recordings are in different keys, but in other respects appear to be the same.

None of the recordings includes the Humpty Dumpty verses transcribed by Carpenter. The words are also completely different to those which Carpenter noted from “The Bo’sn” – see ‘Blow The Man Down‘.

JMC-1-10-35 Blow the Man DownDownload
JMC-1-11-76 Blow the Man DownDownload
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