A Long Time Ago (H) [102] (92-93)

Yet another version of this halyard chantey. I must confess that though I do not often do so, I altered the political incorrect language because I thought it was not merely incorrect, but rather offensive. Frequent appearance of the word "Chink," in Hugill's version, I thus omitted or changed to "Chinese" because I thought that was gratuitous and unnecessary. The version of Patrick Tayleur, collected by Doerflinger from him in the 1940s, had no offensive terms, so why need them here (even for "historical accuracy")? Anyways, the overall premise of the story, surely adapted from some ballad (I'm not sure which) is fairly offensive, but I must admit that I don't get what it's all about. Were Chinese people, at some point, stereotyped as "unlucky" by English people? So, though I let the last line stand, it is a bit irksome. Incidentally, I have found very very few chanteys to actually contain truly offensive material. Though they may use politically incorrect language, the intent or meaning is rarely so.

I am unclear what exactly the issue was in the story, why the Scots sailing master was so angry at the Chinese wife. Did he think the voyage was going slow, due to the wife's unluckiness? Was he angry during the journey, or just as they arrived (yet before being congratulated by the owners)? Was 118 days such a bad timing? It seems pretty good to me, though I'm no expert I have a general sense that that is quite fast for Foochow to London! Or was he just upset by his wife's general behavior? Interestingly, according to a blurb on Wikipedia (sorry), women of Fuzhou are stereotypically thought to "wear the pants" in the relationship.

The opening line would seem to be a cliche, limerick-like one. "Dundee" would be just as common a place name as "Greenock," here. Funny, the line about "She wore the trousers and he wore the skirt" could have a double meaning if one imagines this captain from Greenock was a kilt-wearing Scot, and the Chinese gal wore trousers as would actually be uncommon women's dress from the European point of view at the time.

Though Capt. Patrick Tayluer, already mentioned, gave a version of this to Doerflinger, his was not very elegant. It was all stringing-out (repetition of lines) with no rhymes. Hugill's version came from one Jock Anderson.

Again for variety, I selected a variant version of the melody here. It's Doerflinger's "lively" version "VI".

*I edited out a piece in the middle where I had started coughing a lot.

Note: the abridged edition of Hugill's text labels this one version "G".

Please check out the whole chanteys project playlist, at
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=58B55DD66F22060C

Category:

Music

Tags:

• sea
• chantey
• china
• fuzhou
• sailor
• tea
• trade
• song
• halyard
• clipper
• ship
• hugill

[hultonclint]

@davidrudden1 Hurrah! thanks :-)

[davidrudden1]

wow really nice singing!!