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Noah's Ark Shanty (A Long Time Ago)

[ Roud 318 ; Ballad Index Doe037 ; trad.]

Swan Arcade recorded Noah's Ark Shanty in Workington in August 1991 for the Fellside anthology Voices: English Traditional Songs. Paul Adams commented in the album's notes:

Shanties were work songs and finding an example was not difficult. Which one was much more difficult. This one is interesting because (a) as an aetiological work song it is probably unique in the English tradition, (b) it was collected by the greatest of the folk song collectors, Cecil Sharp on the 3rd June, 1914 from Capt. Hole of Watchet, Somerset (the famous Watchet sailor!) and (c) Swan Arcade are not usually associated with the singing of sea shanties. Their dramatic, hard hitting harmony style coupled with their uninhibited repertoire makes them great favourites in folk song circles. They are Dave and Heather Brady and Jim Boyes. Dave does his damnedest to make this a Yorkshire song.

But even if Swan Arcade were not usually associated with the singing of sea shanties, they did record Blood Red Roses a year earlier for their CD Full Circle.

Jon Boden sang Noah's Ark Shanty as the September 4, 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Lyrics

Swan Arcade sing Noah's Ark Shanty

In Frisco Bay there were three ships
    To me way, hey, hey-oh
In Frisco Bay there were three ships
    A long time ago

And one of them ships was Noah's old ark
All covered all o'er wi' hickory bark

They took two animals of every kind
They took two animals of every kind

The bull and the cow they started for t' row
The bull and the cow they started for t' row

Then said old Noah with a flick of his whip
“Come stop this row or I'll scuttle the ship”

But the bull struck his horn through the side of the ark
And the little black dog he started fer t' bark

So Noah took the dog, shoved its nose up the hole
And ever since then dogs' nose has been cold

It's a long, long time and a very long time
A long, long time and a very long time

Acknowledgements and Links

See also the Mudcat Café thread Songs of Animal Mariners?

Thank you to Georgina Boyes for correcting an embarrassing mondegreen.