The Old Moke Pickin' on the Banjo [340] (255)

Nope, not Ricky Martin...

This is one of those chanteys that, in my opinion, epitomizes a unique, distinct type of song in the repertoire. The actual Irish and African-American elements are so churned up, then added to by popular minstrel music—itself largely the act of Irish-Americans presenting a grotesque imitation of Black music. The minstrel bits, in snatches, then went back to the oral tradition, used with a shared sensibility by people (i.e. sailors) who had little care for maintaining a distinction between this or that ethnicity or contrived vs. "authentic." The lyrics are cobbled together from railroad work songs, minstrel jingles, mis-hearings of "Shule Aroon" (Cecil Sharp thought it was a variant of that song), and rough 'n' ready sailors phrases.

"Old Moke..." is also a great example of a chantey where, I'd be willing to bet, practically its whole existence in the oral tradition at present can be attributed to Stan Hugill's introduction. The only other collection that I know of to have had it was Sharp's of 1914, but his tune is very different. I suspect that certain individuals associated with Mystic Seaport (esp. The Morgans w/ Don Sineti, Forebitter, and their chanteymen interpreters), via Stan and his work, are mostly responsible for the way the oral tradition practices it these days. Stan did record the capstan chantey with Stormalong John of Liverpool, but I can't afford to buy that recording now! So!...

Hugill's notation is marred by what , in relation to the common oral tradition, appears to be a major error in rhythm on the phrase "We're all from the railroad." In fact, he makes THREE different variations of this error!! I struggled with this for sometime, wondering if the recent oral tradition had got it wrong, mis-reading Hugill and then perpetuating the mistake. However, the notation of Sharp, although on different pitches, supports the rhythm of the phrase that is in current oral tradition. Whew! I am still trying to figure out what went wrong with the notation in Hugill's text; I suspect that the traditional singing rhythm for this phrase was something other, perhaps something syncopated or tricky that has been reduced.

Many wonder about the word "moke"; it is slang from the period for a Black man, probably a minstrel and perhaps even in reference to a particular character. Really, the phrase "Ol' moke pickin' on the banjo" was probably lifted from a minstrel tune, and as such the specific word has little meaning in this context. But for what it's worth:

A 1928 article on "Midshipman Jargon" (in American Speech, Vol. II, No. 9) has that in the American Navy man's jargon, moke signifies "dark" or "black" and was also" for a Negro or Filipino."

A 2001 posting on the linguist listserve by Quinion has that it was originally a term for a mule, becoming first an offensive term for a Black man, then by the 1850s (around the probable time of this chantey) it was generalized to mean some foolish or contemptible person. It evolved into the form "mook," incidentally made famous as an enigmatic insult in the film "Mean Streets." [The word "moke" was recently used on the TV series "Life on Mars" 2 Feb. 2009, in a sense like "poor stiff".]

Webster's dictionary of 1913 had not only the meanings of "mule" and "Negro", but also "a minstrel, who plays on several instruments" / "musical moke."

The opening words of Hugill's version are "he-bang she-bang," whereas in Sharp's rendition it is "He-back, she back." Generally I'd assume these were just nonsense vocables. FWIW, Leland's 1890 dictionary of slang has "shebang" as American slang for a shanty (a shack, not a sea shanty!). Another wild guess: shebeen?

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

Category:

Music

Tags:

• sea
• shanty
• railroad
• work
• song
• chantey
• chanties
• moke
• mook
• shebang
• banjo
• minstrel

[flyboy2447b]

well done ! Do you happen to have the words to the poem "80 years old and somewhat by stan hugel." Please keep up the good work.

[hultonclint]

@flyboy2447b I'm 80 years old and somewhat And to God I give the praise That they made a sailor of me In them good ol' clipper days Then men loved ships like women And going to sea was more than signing on as a deckhand, a-scrubbin' the cabin floor a-chipping rust from iron, and painting and chipping again In the days of clipper sailing The seas was the place of men You could sea our great ships running white tower clouded, tier on tier ...cont.

[hultonclint]

... You could hear their trampling thunder As they leaned to, racing near And it was, "Hey ho!" and "Ho, me lads" "And we are outward bound" And we sang full many a shanty As we walked the capstan round Aye, we sang full many a shanty With a droll through wind and wet To the music of 5 oceans That rings in memory yet Go fire your dirty frasers And watch your pistons run We had the wind to serve us The living winds made sons ...

[hultonclint]

And we didnt need propellers

To kick a mess about

We'd haul away with shanties

As we let the great sails out

Aye, I'm 80 yrs old and somewhat

And to God I give the praise

That they made a sailor of me

In them good ol' clipper days

[hultonclint]

I sang this in a club in Liverpool and I think people were a little confused, ha

[beastriker]

pretty lively performance, dude!

[beastriker]

hey! you just fuckin rock!!!!!! thanks so much!)

[AllardFumerton69]

Rip the audio from this track at soundnabber doht cohm.

[philipsmovies]

A very catchy song. Thanks Ranzo.

[hultonclint]

That sounds about right! Forebitter and that scene tend to do this more, so... Hey, I hope you've also checked out Don Sineti's version (that this is response to). He's from that same scene.

As for a book....all my chantey videos correspond to pages in Stan Hugill's SHANTIES FROM THE SEVEN SEAS. It is the biggest chantey collection, "essential," so get it if you don't have it already! :)