Tune Req: Shanty Song & When the taters r all dug

Subject: Tune Req: Shanty Song
From: GUEST,Tonyr
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 05:33 PM

Can't seem to find any sources for the melody this song.

Shanty Song

THen shove the grog around , my boys,
We are the boys that fear no noise
Although we are far from home

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanty Song & When the taters r all dug
From: masato sakurai
Date: 07 Apr 04 - 08:14 PM

This (RAFTSMAN`S SONG) seems to be the song. Otherwise, Shove Around the Grog (info at The Traditional Ballad Index).

Subject: Lyr.Add.: Lewiston Falls
From: Charley Noble
Date: 08 Apr 04 - 09:14 AM

Oh, this is interesting! Apparently this chorus floated among several lumberjack/raftsmen's songs. Frank Warner collected a version titled "Lewiston Falls" which he recorded with entirely different verses on OUR SINGING HERITAGE, Electra 153, 1958. Warner notes that a simlar song is titled "The Shanty Song" in Barry's MAINE WOODS SONGSTER, and Harold Thompson's BODY, BOOTS AND BRITCHES has a raftsman's song from the Deleware with the same chorus. Apparently "Lewiston Falls" isn't in the DT. Transcribed from Warner's recording "lewiston Falls" goes like this:

LEWISTON FALLS
(As song by Frank Warner)

Chorus:

It's shove around the grog, boys,
The chorus around the room,
For we're the boys that fear no noise
Although we're far from home!(2X)

Well, I courted a girl in Albany,
Likewise in Montreal,
Another in Philadelphi,
But the best in Lewiston Falls. (CHO)

Well, a dollar in a tavern
Is very easy spent;
If we had it in old Ireland,
We'd have to pay downrent. (CHO)

Now, when you go to Albany
To give the girls a call,
They're not at all to be compared,
With the girls of Lewiston Falls. (CHO)

Hope this helps!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanty Song & When the taters r all dug
From: Charley Noble
Date: 09 Apr 04 - 02:23 PM

Refresh!

Well, I thought it was a substative posting!

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanty Song & When the taters r all dug
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Apr 04 - 08:38 AM

Refresh!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanty Song & When the taters r all dug
From: Paul_Schurr_PSG_NY
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:25 AM

October 26, 2008

Cliff Haslam and John Roberts performed last night in the Old Songs building near Albany, NY (http://www.oldsongs.org). With high expectations, a majority of the Pickin' Singin' Gatherin' folk club a cappella singers were in the audience. Peter and Joanne Sousa were lured all the way from Gloucester. As you might expect, none of us were disappointed. I especially enjoyed Cliff's version of the Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo and John's performance of a great song written by George Ward, one of our great old men of music in the Capital Region.

The enthusiasm was so high by the end of the concert that many of us circled up and sang some more favorites. It was a thrill when Greg Clarke stepping up to sing Roll the Old Chariot (his hangover poem version) and Cliff Haslam moving in beside him to share the joy. Peter led Julianna, and his fine voice brought out the best sounds this wonderful music hall has to offer, but I missed having Barry Finn jump in with his many additional verses of Julianna as he does in the Press Room.   

Now to my question. Cliff sang the Johnston Girls' Lewiston Falls, which I think is a more recent version of the Raftsman song. "Charley Noble's" entry on this thread referred to the Lewiston Falls version. However, Mudcat includes this entry of the Raftsman's Song:

Raftsman's Song

Come all you jolly raftsmen, who run the river down,
Be careful where you run your raft or you will run aground

CHO: And Boys, shove your grog around
    The scores are on their own.
    For we're the boys that fear no noise
    Although we're far from home.

Well we sailed around old Butler, and nothing did we fear
Until we came to Sawmill Rift, and plunged against the pier.

Now, Henry Lodge stood at the oar, his voice so firm and strong
For when he struck the rock, by God, it almost knocked him down.

There was one among our number, and his name was Little Moe
He plunged right in among the logs and saved 'most all our clothes.

(verse Bonnie Milner added at Mystic 2007 when she sang this version -- PS)
A drunk is in the cabin, a fish is in the sea
A cork is in the bottle, but the whisky is in me


From Songs of a New York Lumberjack, Stekert. Collected from Fuzzy Barhight.

Note: A book called Canoeing the Delaware River, Letcher, quotes the first
   verse, and attributes it to Robert "Boney" Quillan, "...a raftsman-poet
   of the nineteenth century. Place names are on the Delaware River in
   Pennsylvania, just above the New York border. RG

RG

(Collected by Ellen Stekert from Ezra "Fuzzy" Barhight, Recorded
by Stekert 1958 on Songs of a New York Lumberjack, Folkways
FA2354)(I don't know where the tune came from, but I know it best
as the tune for The Ball of Kerrymuir )

OK, here is my question. What does it mean in the chorus, "The Scores are on their own"? Yep, all of this message was just the long way around to get to this bottom line.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Shanty Song & When the taters r all
From: Charley Noble
Date: 26 Oct 08 - 11:34 AM

Paul-

Thanks for the report!

"The scores are on their on"? My best guess is that it's a reference to the tally of drinks, as in "chalking up the score" by the bartender. "The scores are on their on" might then mean that no one is keeping score or is long past caring. I'll drink to that!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble