Shenandoah

‘No, that’s no good as a song; we want one of them old sea shanties, one of the real old timers.’ 'Shenandoah.’ Ultramarine

‘Oh Shenandoah’ (also called simply ‘Shenandoah’, or ‘Across the Wide Missouri’) is a traditional American folk song, dating from at least the early nineteenth century. The lyrics may tell the story of a roving trader in love with the daughter of an Indian chief. Other interpretations tell of a pioneer’s nostalgia for the Shenandoah river, and a young woman who is its daughter; or of a Union soldier in the American Civil War, dreaming of his country home to the west of the Missouri river. The song is also associated with escaped slaves, who sang it in gratitude because the river allowed their tracks to be lost.

‘Shenandoah’ was first printed as part of William L. Alden’s ‘Sailor Songs’, in the July 1882 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine. The song had become popular as a sea shanty with British sailors by the 1880s. The lyrics were printed in Sea Songs and Shanties, collected by W. B. Whall, Master Mariner (1910). A Mr J. E. Laidlaw of San Francisco reported hearing a version sung by a black Barbadian sailor aboard the Glasgow ship Harland in 1894, which went:

Oh, Shenandoah! I hear you calling!
Away, you rolling river!
Yes, far away I hear you calling,
Ha, Ha! I’m bound away across the wide Missouri.
My girl, she’s gone far from the river,
Away, you rolling river!
An’ I ain’t goin’ to see her never.
Ha, Ha! I’m bound away,’ &c





The above lyrics from Sea Songs and Shanties, collected by W. B. Whall may be near to what Lowry knew or heard on board Pyrrhus.

Bollocky Bill

Bollocky Bill, aspiring writer, drawn magically from the groves of the Muses by Poseidon. Ultramarine

The mythical Bollocky Bill – reputed to have been most generously testicled – was commemorated in the bawdy ballad ‘Bollocky Bill the Sailor’, a traditional folk song originally titled ‘Abraham Brown’. ‘Bollocky’ is pronounced and occasionally spelt ‘bollicky’, and may also be a reference to being left-handed or clumsy.

There are several versions of the bawdy song in the Gordon ‘Inferno’ Collection in the US Library of Congress. The first printed version of the song is in the public domain book Immortalia (1927). Later versions feature the eponymous ‘Barnacle Bill’, a fictional character very loosely based on a nineteenth-century San Francisco sailor and Gold Rush miner, William Bernard. There are also known versions in England and Scotland from the early twentieth century.



It is impossible to determine when Lowry first heard the song. The earliest known recording is an expurgated adaptation by Carson Robison and Frank Luther in 1928:



This version was also recorded on May 21, 1930 by Bix Beiderbecke and Hoagy Carmichael with Carson Robison on vocals and released as a Victor 78, V-38139-A and 25371 with another Lowry jazz hero Joe Venuti on the session. This recording, made during the writing of Ultramarine, may have prompted Lowry to adapt the persona of the mythical seaman.

One version of ‘Barnacle Bill’ refers to an exchange between Bill and a ‘fair young maiden’. Each verse opens with inquiries by the maiden, sung by women, or by men in falsetto, and continues with Bill’s profane responses, sung by men:

‘Who’s that knocking at my door? Who’s that knocking at my door?
Who’s that knocking at my door?’ said the fair Young Maiden…
‘It’s me and my crew and we’ve come for a screw!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘It’s me and my crew and we’ve come for a screw!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

Alternative responses:
‘It’s only me from over the sea’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘It’s only me from over the sea’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

‘Open the door, you pox-ridden whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘Open the door, you pox-ridden whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

‘Open the door, you dirty whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.
‘Open the door, you dirty whore!’ said Barnacle Bill the Sailor.

This version of the song would suit the character of Dana at the point in Ultramarine at which he prepares to lose his virginity in the brothels of Dairen. Dana’s obsession, besides his guilt at the prospect of being unfaithful to his love Janet, is that he will catch syphilis from a prostitute. Another dimension to the introduction of the Bollocky Bill persona is that Lowry considered himself to be clumsy. Lowry endows Dana with the same clumsiness, which is constantly being reinforced by the crew of the ship.

Here is the Bix Beiderbecke version:

"Seraphina"

*Warning* This is a bawdy and off-color (comic) traditional sailor song about a prostitute of Callao, Peru. If that kind of song offends you, please be advised, as I do not wish to offend anyone.

The above version of the sea shanty is taken from hultonclint's channel on You Tube.

The sea shanty "Seraphina" appears in Lowry's short story "Goya The Obscure". A group of sailors returning from a voyage sing the sea shanty in the Dolphin pub in Birkenhead's docklands. Tradition has it that the song originated amongst the sailors who sailed the nitrate trade between Birkenhead and the West Coast of South America. Lowry later reprises the line "Seraphina's got no drawers" during Dana's trawl around the brothels of Dairen in Ultramarine. Lowry probably heard the song in the pubs of Birkenhead before and after his voyage to the Far East in 1927 aboard the Blue Funnel ship Pyrrhus. A former Blue Funnel sailor has told me that the song was still being sung into the 1950's around Birkenhead pubs.

There appear to be many different versions of the song including some without the refrain "Serafina's got no drawers" which obviously stuck with Malc. Here are the lyrics which Lowry may have known for the song:

In Callao there lives a gal whose name is Serafina
Serafina! Serafina!
She sleeps all day and fucks all night in the Callao Marina
Serafina! Oh, Serafina!

She’s the queen, of all the whores that live in the ol’ Casino,
She used to screw for a monkey nut but now she’ll fuck for a vino.

At robbin’ silly sailors, boys, no gal was ever keener
She’ll make you pay right through the nose, that lovely Serafina!

She’ll guzzle pisco, beer and gin, on rum her mum did wean ‘er
She smokes just like a chimney stack on a P.S.N.C steamer.

Serafina’s got no drawers, I been ashore an’ seen ‘er
She’s got no time to put them on, that hard-fucked Serafina.

She’ll claw and kick and bite and scratch when in the old arena

She’ll rob you blind if she gets the chance that dirty she hyena

When I was young an’ in me prime, I first met Serafina
In Callao we saw the sights an’ then went up to Lima.

But the finest sight I ever saw was little Serafina,
But the very next day as we sailed away, I wisht I’d never been there.

I used to love a little girl whose name was Serafina
But she’s gone off with a Dago man who plays a concertina.



In the above version there is a clear reference to a Pacific Steam Navigation Company (PSNC) ship. The company sailed out of Birkenhead and Liverpool in the early part of the 1900s. Maybe, the sea shanty was adapted as happened to include local references.

The most famous recorded example of the song is by Stan Hugill who was born in Hoylake, Wirral. The shanty was released on the album below:



You can discover more about Hugill's music and writings at a website dedicated to his memory.

There is also another version available for download from Amazon taken from an album called Salty Dick's Uncensored Sailor's Songs.

Blow The Man Down

Recently, I have been doing considerable research on musical references in Lowry's work, in order to play some of the songs he mentions his work at a night called Lowry's Lounge on October 29th 2010.

One song that I will be playing is the above version of the sea shanty "Blow The Man Down" which Lowry refers to in his novel Ultramarine.

The above version was originally on a 1957 EP called 'The Singing Sailor', a collection of sea shanties by A L Lloyd. It is the only one by Harry H. Corbett on there. Most of the other tracks are available now though on a 2004 CDcalled 'Sailors Songs and Sea Shanties'. This particular track is also available on a CD called 'Blow The Man Down' released in 1993.

Thanks to Bryan Biggs for turning me onto this version.