*Please be advised of explicit content*
**Singer is not me, it's special guest, Cain "Sugar" DeBaine
This chantey has the dubious distinction of being perhaps the "dirtiest" song in Hugill's collection. There's some history to it, however, and it's worth a listen--just once!
Originally it was "Abram" or "Abraham Brown." The variant was "Abel Brown," as here. The initials "A.B." were code for the usual term for a generic sailor, "Able Bodied [Seaman]." Thus "Abel Brown" is the generic every-man.
This crude ballad eventually--prob. after chanteys ceased to serve a purpose and some were sung as entertainment songs--begat "Bollocky Bill" or "Ballocky Bill the Sailor." It was this form that was bowdlerized as "Barnacle Bill the Sailor" and achieved mainstream recognition after it was presented as such and recorded in 1930.
My feeling is that that was a song whose gimmick was mainly to emphasize the stereotypical image of a crude, uncouth sailor. The original, while also containing such a character, had a slightly more balanced interplay between the characters. Though I cannot do it in detail, I suspect that if one were to analyze texts of the "AB" versus the "BB" versions, a pattern would emerge. In the later song, the woman is "sweet and innocent" and the sailor is always rude. However, earlier texts paint the woman as coy and not so "innocent." Though her language may be couched in metaphor to make it sound less brazen, she is making invitations. The sailor, while not "innocent" in his motives either, is sometimes even naive or surprised by her boldness.
This latter sort of interplay is more characteristic of chanteys (i.e. than "Barnacle Bill"), where the male and female are equally motivated. In "A Rovin'" for example,
"I put my hand around her waist
Said she, 'Young man, you're in great haste'"
but then,
"I put my hand yet higher still
Said she, 'You're givin' me such a thrill'"
Or in "The Fireship,"
"My father he's a minister, a good and righteous man
My mother she's a Methodist; I do the best I can"
then
"I eyed this gal full warily for I'd heard such talk before
And when she moored herself to me, I knew she was a whore."
The woman the sailor is describing in his songs is usually up for the game and experienced at it, not an "innocent" that is preyed upon as in the "Barnacle Bill" song. Note also that in the "Barnacle Bill" style, the woman always begins the dialogue, with a "Who's that knocking on my door?", after which the sailor bullies his way in. In the "Abel Brown" style, the sailor starts, here: "Where am I going to sleep tonight?", to which the woman responds with invitations.
What makes this "Abel Brown" interesting as well is that it was an actual chantey, a work-song. The tunes of the characters' parts a a bit different from the "Barnacle Bill" one, and they correspond to, in this case, a "long drag" halyard pulling rhythm.
As usual, my interest is not in being obscene. However, one has to acknowledge and incorporate some degree of "obscene" material in order to present this song. Hugill said about it:
"I learnt this shanty on my first voyage to sea and I must say that it is entirely obscene. I have had to camouflage rather a lot but have kept partly to the original theme."
Colcord wrote, in the first edition of her collection (1924):
"There was always a set of verses [i.e. in most so-called dirty songs] embodying the original idea, which was perfectly fit to print, with perhaps one exception, the notorious Abel Brown, of which there is no version in any of the published collections I have examined."
In her revised edition (1938), this is replaced by:
"That prime favorite of the forecastle 'Abram (or Abel) Brown' was omitted... Now that bowdlerized versions of the ditty have been sung over the radio, there seems no longer reason for reticence about a song which has, after all, a pretty tune and at least one or two printable verses." (!)
Because of this nature, it is difficult to find authentic versions in print anywhere. Looking on the brighter side, this has made it resilient to stale codification ("Barnacle Bill," the bowdlerize version on record has succumbed to that). It remains then, a bit more like the classic idea of a folk song, every variable in the hands of each singer. A number of oral versions have been collected from amateurs (i.e. on Folklore.ms). I have cobbled together bits of these, along with some historic archived versions (i.e. the Gordon Collection of the Library of Congress), and filling in the "gaps," to create this version -- hoping to be in the spirit of older versions while eschewing some of the extreme raunchiness that IMHO is over-done in recent times.
The last line comes from Harlow, who sang it aboard ship in the late 19th century. I included it because it is just so goofy, too ridiculous to be offensive, I think. (If it makes people feel any better, my dad was a cop and a son of "Wops"!)
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I really didn't find this too funny, but meh.
saltycupcakes 1 year ago
@saltycupcakes mostly it's a chanty....work song!
hultonclint 1 year ago
Excellent rendition and a fascinating detailed history. My rendition of "Barnacle Bill" certainly seems very watered down compared to this.
Definitely going into my favourites.
raymondcrooke 2 years ago
I appreciate that. This entry was a bit of a challenge on a few levels.
hultonclint 2 years ago
Cain DeBane sounds quite a gal!
Definitely explicit. It would make a sailor blush!
geoff1945 2 years ago
Sugar Cain is sorry to have burned your ears! Naughty sculptures, aren't they? The good news is, now that you've filled your quota of 1 listening, you're all set until next year...or maybe next week
hultonclint 2 years ago