Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection, 1922-1932

Band A1

The first two selections are sea shanties from Gordon's California collection. They were almost certainly recorded in the San Francisco Bay Area, probably in Oakland, in the early twenties. The singer appears to have been a veteran of sailing ships, for he begins the first song with appropriate instructions to the short-haul crew. Notice how he emphasizes the words haul, down, which are signals for the crew to pull together. Hugill speculates that this song, "sung at both capstan and pumps" (p.161), is of West Indian or southern United States origin. Aside from it's use as a shanty, it has stylistic and historical connections with the minstrel stage. Doerflinger (p.350) dates it from an 1887 songster, Delaney's Song Book No.3, where the words are credited to Edward Harrigan. Sheet music copyrighted in 1887 by William A. Pond & Co., New York, also credits the words to Harrigan, gives the score to Dave Braham, and adds the information "As sung in Edward Harrigan's drama, "Pete"(in Harrigan and Braham's Popular Songs As Sung by Harrigan and Hart, Volume 2, New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co., 1892, pp.51-52). It was recorded by latter-day minstrel showman and Grand Ole Opry pioneer Uncle Dave Macon (NLCR, pp.226-28). The reference to "Yankee John" in this version may reflect contact with the shanty "Yankee John, Stormalong" (Hugill, p.80). The combination of sea shanty and blackface minstrelsy reflected in this song no doubt appealed to Gordon, who was keenly interested in the interplay between nineteenth century black and white, folk and popular, musics.

HAUL THE WOODPILE DOWN [MP3 file]
Gordon cyl.50, ms. Cal. 104B
Anon
Bay Area, California
Early 1920s

Spoken:
Cast her up! Sweat up that weather main brace.
Fetch on there, boys, look to it, come on,
Shake a leg, all together now.

Sung:
Yankee John with his sea boots on,
Haul the woodpile down.
Yankee John with his sea boots on,
Haul the woodpile down.
Way down in Florida,
Way down in Florida,
Way down in Florida,
Haul the woodpile down.

"Roll the Old Chariot Along" has direct connections with black folk music of the nineteenth century, appearing in most of the standard collections of spirituals (Dett, pp. 192-93; Fenner and Rathbun, pp. 106-7; Johnson, pp. 110-11). Sandburg published a variant (pp. 196-97), and it has also been noted by collectors of shanties, including Hugill (pp. 150-51) and Doerflinger (pp. 49-50, 357). A version of this was sent to Gordon by an Adventure reader (3758) and he collected another text in California (Cal. 243). There were many black sailors on the crews of nineteenth-century vessels. They brought with them traditions of work songs, and their songs, religious and secular, were usually rhythmic and thus suited for the many kinds of gang labor needed on the big sailing ships. Gordon devoted a chapter in Folk-Songs of America to "Negro work songs from Georgia" (pp. 13-19).

ROLL THE OLD CHARIOT ALONG [MP3 file]
Gordon cyl. 50, ms. Cal. 104A
Anon
Bay Area, California
Early 1920s

Roll the old chariot along
And we'll roll the old chariot along
And we'll roll the old chariot along
And we'll all hang on behind.

If the devil's in the way,
We'll roll it over him
If the devil's in the way,
Why we'll roll it over him,
If the devil's in the way,
We'll roll it over him.
And we'll all hang on behind.