Author Topic: Add: Roll, Alabama, Roll!

dmcg

 Posted - 03 May 04 - 10:54 am
Oh, in eighteen hundred and sixty one,
(Chorus: Roll, Alabama, roll!)
This ship her building was begun,
(Chorus: Oh roll, Alabama, roll!)

When the Alabama's keel was laid,
This ship her building was begun.

Oh, she was built in Birkenhead,
Built in the yard of Johnathan Laird.

And down the Mersey she rolled one day,
An' across western she ploughed her way [Bound to Faya she]

With British guns, oh, she was stocked,
She sailed from Fayal - in Cherbourg she docked.

To fight the North, Semmes did employ,
Any method to kill an' destroy.

But off Cherbourg the Kearsarge lay tight,
Awaiting was Winslow to start a good fight [spoling to fight]

Outside the three-mile limit they fought,
An' Semmes escaped on a fine British yacht.

The Kearsarge won - Alabama so brave,
Sank to the bottom to a watery grave.





Source: S Hugill, 1994, Shanties from the Seven Seas,Mystic Seaport Museum, Conn.


Notes:

Stan Hugill wrote:

Another halyard shanty also similar in tune [to "Roll the Cotton Down"] is Roll, Alabama, Roll!. I had my version from an elderly New Zealand lady whose husband had been a seaman in the Alabama. I met her in Gisborne, New Zealand, in 1925. This shanty tells the story of the Confederate ship Alabama and its fight with the U.S. sloop of was Kearsarge. The incident took place on Sunday, 19 June, 1864. A Negro folk-song which seems related is Roll, Jimmy Jenkins, Roll!





Jon Freeman

 Posted - 03 May 04 - 11:27 am
I used to enjoy singing that one. We used a different tune though. Something like this:

X:1
T:ALABAMA
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:F
z6AG|F2C2A,2C2|F2G2A4|C2CC B2B2|G4z2AG|
F2CC A,2C2|FF G2A4|B4A2AA|G2G2F2z2|]






dmcg

 Posted - 03 May 04 - 11:50 am
That sounds like the tune "The Young Tradition" used, Jon. I don't know where they got it from.




Jon Freeman

 Posted - 03 May 04 - 12:25 pm
I learned it from Arthur Bowman, a stalwart on the North Wales folk circuit for many years. I could be wrong but I have a feeling that his version came from the Spinners.




Mr Happy

 Posted - 18 May 04 - 01:47 pm
Chester City Morrismen use this tune for one of their dances.




Mr Happy

 Posted - 18 May 04 - 01:54 pm
Oops! A senior moment there- no they don't- it's 'South Australia' they dance to.

See new add thread.



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