The Five Gallon Jar (forebitter) [61] (57)

This is not a full song--I am giving only what Hugill gives as a comparison. Let me explain: This is not a chantey, but rather a forebitter--the postulated lyrical origin of the chantey "Larry Marr":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2adb_6aGd4
Like the chantey, Hugill "collected" it from one Paddy Delaney, and Hugill's wording suggests that he did not use it in practice. Delaney, furthermore, seems to have given only the first verse of the forebitter and said that the other verses preceded like the chantey. The problem with that is that the forebitter example (i.e. what I'm demonstrating here) talks about Jack Ratcliffe from Liverpool, not Larry Marr from Frisco (and whose name is used to continually rhyme with "jar"). To continue with those verses would not really work.

To complicated things, the chantey, "Larr Marr" appears to go unrecorded (at least as far as I can tell) by Hugill and others. Instead, he has recorded this forebitter tune with not these lyrics (Jack Ratcliffe) he prints but with only lyrics from the chantey.

This piece doesnt appear in any of the other chantey collections I am familiar with, and we should be grateful to Hugill for printing many of these lesser known work songs. We can also critically note, however, that this one-- the forebitter tune fleshed out with lyrics of "Larry Marr"-- only seems to have gotten around from Hugill's well-heard recordings. My pet theory is that Hugill partially contrived this song (after sailing days were over), and it became one of his signature songs. "John Kanaka," I believe, is another example of that phenomenon.
(Hugill's performance style version can be heard, sung very nicely by Salty Walt, on TouTube here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CUx2zrc4Hs )

The other weird (but not surprising for chanteys) thing about this song is the chorus about "The old Virginia lowlands", which Hugill himself points out (on early 1990s Mystic Seaport recording) is a out of place. I will also note that the musical transcription in Hugill's text differs from how he recorded it. The very high notes differ for one; I would almost say that they are notes for harmonizing. Several times in Hugill's transcriptions I have noticed that the written melody in a certain phrase is off by some harmonic interval.

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

Category:

Music

Tags:

• stan
• hugill
• forebitter
• sea
• song
• irish
• virginia
• lowlands
• low
• ratcliffe

[hultonclint]

@Onbluewater The tricky thing about this one -- and I don't know if it is a "mistake" in the book -- is that the end part is way too high (which is one excuse for why I sound bad on that part!)

[Onbluewater]

Thanks for putting this up. It was good meeting you at Mystic this year.

[hultonclint]

Yes! It is a very very popular song with singers nowadays, usually matching this tune to the "Larry Marr" lyrics. I am fairly certain that Stan Hugill, who recorded it on a couple albums, is "ground zero" for its current popularity.

[dasilvaec]

I found a version by Jill King and Bob Webb on iTunes. Its on the album "Sea Music of Many Lands: The Pacific Heritage". From what your saying, it looks like this song definitely went through the same variation that all folk songs go through, its simply evolved.