(Only) One More Day [489-490] (362-363)

Again I followed the rough (realistic?) style of "sketching" this one out, trying to avoid rehashing the printed set of lyrics and instead throwing in some made up and improvised lines.

This chantey, which has been ascribed to just about every shipboard task by one commentator or another, is well represented in chantey collections. I'm not so positive, however, that its performance style has been well preserved; again, it is hard to tell if the wide range of renditions (despite fairly uniform textual information) reflects the variety of tasks it was put to, or just divergent revival interpretations of the information. In any case, I was interested in avoiding the very lethargic interpretations that one often hears-- it sounds a bit like a sleepy-drunken pub sing-along. ex.:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/holdstockmacleod2
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/vfssshanty
My feeling is that it should be more emphatic. At the other end of the spectrum is a rarely-heard, quick performance (march-like) at the capstan, by Stuart Frank:
http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/trackdetail.aspx?itemid=33399
Hugill's tempo indication is "Rather slow". I envisioned this for the brake windlass, during a somewhat difficult spell of heaving.

The chantey is similar to "Leave Her, Johnny" in that it has a specific time (towards the end of the homeward voyage) and thematically airs certain grievances.

I note a few melodic styles for this.
One is characterized by the pattern RE DO LA DO or RE DO LA SOL on the phrase "...day, my john-ny." That is what Hugill has, as do Harlow, Bullen, and Sharp.

Terry has RE TI LA SOL, but the rest is quite similar.

Another style has RE TI SOL TI, as well as an accidental leading tone (DO#), as in Colcord's text. It seems to me that this style is the more popular one in revival performance (despite it being more rare in documentation), which suggests that may be due to the strong influence of one or another text.

See the whole "Shanties from the Seven Seas" project, here: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=58B55DD66F22060C

Category:

Music

Tags:

• sea
• shanties
• chantey
• leaving
• pay
• off
• port
• windlass
• sailor
• work
• song
• old
• new
• york

[geoff1945]

Great chorus and images.

Hey the old hammocks look a bit more substantial these days!

[hultonclint]

You have a good eye! :-)

[philipsmovies]

brilliant, really enjoyed it!

[hultonclint]

cheers, phil!

[camolanphy]

The Johnson Girls of NYC do a kickass "One More Day"... no lethargy with those gals!

[geoff1945]

And a good ear. That's why I like listening to you!