Good Mornin', Ladies All (A) [349-350] (261-262)

This capstan chantey appears to ~begin~ to tell a fun tale about a ship's crew, wiped out by yellow fever, only to be replaced by primates and other animals. However, as Hugill laments, the tale is cut short; he was not able to get a complete set of lyrics. What he has, here, he got from a West Indian shantyman, Tobago Smith. The packet ship faces its disaster in "the White Man's Grave," those coastal areas of West Africa where foreigners' poor resistance to yellow fever and malaria led people to believe they were "racially" unequipped to survive in the area. Perhaps it came about during one of the yellow fever epidemics of the 19th century. The reference to "yaller gals" (unrelated to yellow fever, of course!) dates it more specifically to the heyday of chantey creation (say, 1830s-50s?).

Although the "White Man's Grave" reference would seem to positively indicate West Africa, the phrase of "...roll 'er 'crosst the Bay" is more suggestive of maybe the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico. And the mention of kinkajous --featured here!-- could only put it in Central or South America. The most probable answer is that these ideas of tropical climes, monkeys, and bodies of water are simply jumbled in the usual non-linear non-logical chantey style!!

The chantey "Roller Bowler" is also known as "Good Mornin' Ladies All":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl09G5GqQQw
This is not that one; I am not aware of any recordings of this one.

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

Category:

Music

Tags:

• paris
• hilton
• kinkajou
• yellow
• fever
• malaria
• sea
• shanty
• chanteys
• capstan
• work
• song