Thursday, April 2, 2009
South Australia
A.K.A. Bound for South Australia
Rise Up Singing chapter: Seas and Sailors, p.206
Chorus: C - / - G / C - / CG GC
Haul away you rolling kings
We'll heave away, haul away
Haul away, we're bound to sing
We're bound for South Australia
Verses: C - / - G / C GC / CG GC
In South Australia I was Born
Heave away, oh haul away!
In South Australia 'round Cape Horn
We're bound for South Australia
As I walked out one morning fair / Heave away, oh haul away!
'Twas there I met Miss Nancy Blair / We're bound for South Australia
There ain't one thing but grieves my mind / Heave...
To leave Miss Nancy Blair behind / We're bound...
Oh when we wallop 'round Cape Horn / Heave...
You'll wish to God you'd never been born / We're...
I wish I was in Australia's strand / Heave...
With a glass of whiskey in my hand / We're...
Port Adelaide's a grand old town / Heave...
There's plenty of girls* to go around / We're...
*(When sailors say "girls", I think they generally mean prostitutes. Eww.)
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Actually what you need to think about is that this is a Halyard Chantey. That means that the beat needs to be slower and more methodical. It's designed for coordinating sailors on long hauls such as in raising heavy sails with many-to-one purchase block and tackle rigs. Some of the words would be pronounced more heavily... HEAVE away, HAUL away... because they were cues for the sailors to all pull together as one.
ReplyDeleteDon't get me wrong, I enjoyed your version of it. It's part of the folk tradition for current trends in music to influence older songs and everybody sings them differently to fit the audience's perception of how the song should be sung.
You might look up Stan Hugill's version. He was a Chanteyman on some of the last of the commercial sailing ships.