South Australia (song)

South Australia (Roud # 325) is an English sea shanty, also known under such titles as "Rolling King" and "Bound for South Australia ". It was sung in a variety of trades, including being used by the wool and later the wheat traders who worked the clipper ships between Australian ports and London. In adapted form, it is now a very popular song among folk music performers that is recorded by many artists and is present in many of today's song books.

Contents 1 History as a shanty 2 As a popular song 3 Recorded versions 3.1 Traditional recordings 3.2 Modern versions 4 References 5 External links 5.1 Video

History as a shanty

Information on the age, spread, and practical use of the song is relatively scanty. However, the evidence at hand does not suggest there is anything particularly or locally "Australian" about the song, contrary to how it has become popularly envisioned since the late 20th century.

It was first noted by sea music author L.A. Smith, who collected it "from a coloured seaman at the [Sailors'] 'Home'" in London and published it in her 1888 collection, The Music of the Waters.^[1] Smith said it was a capstan chanty, as evidenced by the refrain which indicates, "Heave away! Heave away!" (see the text at the side of this page).

In the 1930s or 40s, at Sailors' Snug Harbor, New York, shanty collector W.M. Doerflinger recorded veteran sailor William Laurie of Greenock Scotland, who began a career in sailing ships in the late 1870s. The one verse sung by Laurie was published, with tune, in Doerflinger's 1951 book.^[2]

The shanty is not mentioned again until the first decade of the 20th century. Patterson (1900) mentions a heaving chanty titled "Bound to Western Australia," ^[3] and the veteran African-American sailor James H. Williams mentioned the song in a 1909 article.^[4]Hatfield, James Taft. “Some Nineteenth Century Shanties.” _Journal of American Folklore_ 59(232): 108-113.</ref>

This shanty is not attested in writing again until Lydia Parrish's study of the music tradition of Georgia Sea Islanders, published in 1942.^[5] Stevedores hauling heavy timber used the song with the chorus, "Haul away, I’m a rollin’ king."

In 1946, J.T. Hatfield shared his recollections of a much earlier, 1886 voyage as a passenger traveling from Pensacola to Nice. During this voyage, Hatfield had noted the shanties sung by the crew, who were all Black men from Jamaica.</ref> This version, which includes both tune and text, includes the unusual phrase, "Hooray! You're a lanky!", which may have been a mishearing by Hatfield.

Another remembered version comes in F.P. Harlow's Chanteying Aboard American Ships (1962), in which the author recalls shanties sung aboard the ship Akbar on a trip from Massachusetts to Melbourne, Australia in 1876. A crew mate "Dave" is said to have taught this to the crew while pumping at the windlass.^[6] As no references to the song put it any earlier than the mid-1870s, it may well be that the song was new at the time.

Another version of it, labelled as a halyard shanty, is given in Manifold ^[7] Manifold also gives a very different capstan shanty, much slower and with the lyrics given as in L.A. Smith. From Manifold, p26: "I am told that the crew of S.S. Flinders 'sang the old tub to rest' with this beautiful tune, on her last voyage in 1923 to shipbreakers'.

As a popular song

In the 1890s, "South Australia" became popular as a camp song.^[8] And by the second decade of the 20th century, it had been adopted by several college glee clubs.^[9]

English folk revival singer A.L. Lloyd recorded the song, without citing a source, on the early 1960s album Blow Boys Blow. Based on his melody and the phrase "hear me sing," which are rather unique to the version published by Doerflinger, it is likely that Lloyd was at least partially influenced by that collection, which had just come out in 1951 and which he clearly made use of for other shanties he performed. The Clancy Brothers recorded the song in 1962, in a version that was clearly derivative of A.L. Lloyd's. Perhaps due to mishearing, they rendered Lloyd's phrase "lollop around Cape Horn" as the fairly nonsensical "wallop around Cape Horn." It is The Clancy Brothers' version that has mainly stuck as the version sung by folk music and shanty revival performers.

Recorded versions

The song has been recorded many times in both traditional and modern arrangements.

Traditional recordings

• A.L. Lloyd on his 1958 Australian album "Across the Western Plains" and on his 1960 UK album "Outback Ballads"
• A.L. Lloyd and Ewan MacColl on their 1960 album "Blow Boys Blow"
• The Seekers on their 1964 UK album, "The Seekers" (also known as Roving With The Seekers)
• Trevor Lucas on his 1966 Australian album "Overlander"
• The Pilgrims on their album Here to Stay
• The Poxy Boggards on their album Anchor Management
• The Corries on their album "Live from Scotland Volume 4" (1977)
• The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem on their album The Boys Won't Leave The Girls Alone
• The Corsairs (1995-2008) on their album "The Blue One".
• Rantan Bush Band (1977–2009) on their album "Rantan" (1982).
• Gaelic Storm on their 1999 album "Herding Cats".
• Dublin O'Shea on their 2009 album "Have Another Drink Boys".
• Fisherman's Friends in their 2010 album Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends.

Modern versions

• The Clumsy Lovers on their album Live! do a rock charged version of the song as the first part of a medley with Let the Sunshine In.
• The Pogues on their 1987 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
• Churchfitters on their album New Tales for Old.
• Dublin City Workingman's Band on their album The Frost is All Over.
• the Wylde Nept, mashup with Wild Colonial Boy, on their album All's Fair.

References

• The Seekers Discography
• Poxy Boggards, Anchor Management
• The Clumsy Lovers, "Live!"

1. ^ Smith, Laura Alexandrine. _The Music of the Waters_. London: Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co.
2. ^ Doerflinger, William Main. _Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman_. Macmillan: New York.
3. ^ Patterson, J.E. “Sailors’ Work Songs.” _Good Words_ 41(28) (June 1900): 391-397.
4. ^ Williams, James H. “The Sailors’ ‘Chanties’.” The Independent (8 July 1909):76-83.
5. ^ Parrish, Lydia. Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands. New York: Creative Age Press.
6. ^ Harlow, Frederick Pease. _Chanteying Aboard American Ships_. Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishing Co., 1962
7. ^ J.S. Manifold (1964) "The Penguin Australian Song Book", Griffin Press, Adelaide, South Australia
8. ^ Unknown. “The A.C.A. Meet of 1892.” Forest and Stream 39(10) (8 Sept., 1892). Pg. 212.
9. ^ Associated Harvard Clubs. _Book of Songs_. Chicago: Lakeside Press, 1916.

External links

Video

• South Australia, performed by The Fisherman's Friends (the Port Isaac town choir) with Show of Hands