Walk Him Along, John (General Taylor) [78-80] (72-73)

Capstan or pumping chantey. With Special Guests!!

Sometimes known as "General Taylor," but our version doesn't include the ahistorical references to that individual, instead sticking to the original "Stormalong" lore.

A couple thoughts about this one:
After listening to some samples of what seems like the propagated commercial version of "General Taylor," it was interesting to hear how they sing a chorus like "Tell me, where is Stormy?" or "Tell me, where are ya, Stormy?" What is interesting is how it has been turned into a grammatical, sensible line. I'm of the opinion that it is just "to me", "~timme~", etc, which is a pick-up in many chanteys that, as I interpret it, functions just as a sort of rhythm cue (i.e. pick up, duh) that the chanteyman says to cue the chorus. And instead of "where is", etc, it is simply the chantey cry, " Way (away) - ay -ay!!" It isnt meant to be a sentence :) "Stormy" is of course thrown in as reference to the Stormalong character of sailing lore, which is part of many chanteys. The lyrical variations of this get a little hairy when the popular "General Taylor" line pops in (he is sung about with more relevance in "Santianna"), since his death is not really detailed much further. Consequently, the currently popular "General Taylor" versions don't have many verses...most of the traditional verses pertain to Stormalong. and....because my effort is to create long versions with enough verse material to actually get some of the work done :), I stick with Stormy and omit the irksome Zachary Taylor, who somehow died before becoming U.S. President!

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
• song
• shanty
• chantey
• capstan
• elegy
• sailing
• ship
• gyros

[MorganBonny]

very nice.

You have no idea how helpful this is.

It's always been a tradition in my family to have sing-alongs (often in the car while travelling) with various outdated and traditional songs, chanteys among them. I always love adding new songs to my repertoire and some of these are definitely going to be added.

~MorganBonny

[hultonclint]

You are very kind to watch my videos, and to comment so positively. I am wondering what your main interest is, out of curiosity, since you say they are "helpful." Is it mainly just for singing for fun, or some other purpose, too? As I said, just curious. thanks again

[catamaraner]

Excellent rhythm and melodic line, Clint! Thank you so much. There is no way I will do all the verses, but this is nice and clean, much in the Hughill tradition :-)

[hultonclint]

Hi catamaraner, thank you so much for watching and commenting on my videos! If some people continue singing these songs, then I am happy!

[MorganBonny]

Any ideas on where I might go about finding said sea-ballads? *laughs at self* I'm sorry, I just don't know a lot about doing this kind of research.

Of course, if I were to relagate a few modified versions of chanteys back a century, there are few enough people that would notice, but I do try and steer clear of that kind of inaccuracy...

~MorganBonny

[hultonclint]

You're right, there's not much to speak of (at least that we know nowadays) from that period. My opinion is that African-Americans, who were heavy involved in sailing and dock work, were a major impetus for chanteys as we know them. The other big factor was the rise (and fall) of American-style clipper ships, which required this sort of work song. We presume there were earlier chanteys, long before, but of limited use. Sea ballads (non-work song) might be more relevant.

[MorganBonny]

(these comment things are much too short, sorry)

Mostly, I'm in search of chanteys of the 1700s, but there don't seem to be many of those, alas, and the few that I have come from questionable sources or have no real info or music to them. Any suggestions? Thanks again.

~MorganBonny

[MorganBonny]

Well, mostly, yes, it's just out of interest in learning new songs for sing-alongs and whatnot, but it's also in pursuit of songs to include in my novel-in-progress. It's about pirates and I've been working on it for over six years. In the course of that time, I've done much research, but it's never quite enough, I'm afraid. I've been trying to find some historical chanteys and such to include but, as I'm sure you know, that's much more difficult than it sounds. (CONT.)

[hultonclint]

Thanks for your kind comment. I remember this day -- we had just finished practicing some reggae, and the weather was hot as hell.

[abazur123]

General Taylor - one of my favourites.

And what a great performance. Keep doing a good work. Greetings