Lowlands Low [70-71] (64-65)

Halyard song. Hugill attributes it especially to the West Indies.

I was doing something funny (experiment) when I recorded this...

Also found in:
Sharp 1914

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

Category:

Music

Tags:

• sea
• chantey
• shanty
• folk
• work
• song
• halyard
• Tobago

[MrGogechka]

nice :)

[hultonclint]

Thanks, Mr!

[Shantyman47]

Can you imagine hauling a yard up to the block & having it get stuck?

Can you likewise imagine a longboat crew getting swamped by a wave and maybe losing an oar, or worse, a crewman?

Or was the weather always fine & clear, the running gear "well oiled". The crew all fighting fit & never tiring?

Not that hultonclint is trying to convey any of that, he is merely attempting to translate Hugills notes into something audible, a task that would overwhelm me completely :-(

Good luck to him I say.

[hultonclint]

Thanks for being gracious. I was definitely doing something weird here, an experiment in presentation/illustration of the text that I quickly discarded!

[hultonclint]

Could you please give examples of your chanteys? Is this one of them? I think that will help clear things up. When you say "raising sails" it sound like you may be doing a hand-over-hand, which wants a constant beat and is lighter work. Rowing is also a constant, lighter action. Hoisting a tops'l halyard was heavy, intermittent action. Let's match up names of chanteys to their tasks and see where we can go from there. Otherwise it is very vague: "most of your songs"? "I know my shanteys."?

[hultonclint]

As I said, "On just this one video, I put an artificial space between the two parts just to emphasize their separation -- it's more a demonstration." It was merely an illustration of two parts. "But this shantey could be sung without the pause and still sound fine." Yes, but that's not how I chose to do it. What are the other songs w/ pauses you are talking about? The other example was not meant to illustrate overlap, it was to show lack of steady beat, which is what you took issue with.

[hultonclint]

You said these chanteys would be useless on a boat, and you talked about rowing. So what else am I to assume? These are not chanteys for boats or for rowing, and the nature of the task has bearing on the issues you brought up, so...

[Ransomlikespie]

Also, please do not patronize me and assume I do not know the difference between a boat and a ship.

[Ransomlikespie]

I did not mean only this shantey, you tend to make dramatic pauses in most of your songs that are unnecessary and break the flow. I know my shanteys, I know what they are used for, and I know how to sing them. I have used them many times be it for raising sails replacing a topmast, rowing or whatever you want. But this shantey could be sung without the pause and still sound fine. And the one you linked is being sung without an overlap at all. So your point is kind of lost.

[hultonclint]

You can check out a halyard chantey in use on this clip, at 1:07

/watch?v=hdiFYCUP9oU

See how the solo doesn't really have a beat. But once the chorus comes, it is in rhythm. And even the rhythm of that is a little bit flexible, the effort being so hard that there is a slight pause. So long as everyone is together on the word "Go" (2 times), then they are good.