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Blow Boys Blow

[Trad. arr.]

Ewan MacCall sang this topsail halyard shanty as title track of his and A.L. Lloyd's 1960 album, Blow Boys Blow. A.L. Lloyd commented in the album's sleeve notes:

This topsail halyard shanty, Blow Boye Blow, originated on the West African run, during the days of the slave trade. Later, with the Congo River stanzas dropped, it passed into use aboard Atlantic packets. The skipper's name is given variously as Bully Hayes, Bully Sims, and One-Eyed Kelly. The stanza about the packet-ship firing its gun may date from the Civil War, or may refer to an anti-slavery patrol.

Blow Boys Blow was also sung by Maddy Prior & the Girls (Rose Kemp and Abbie Lathe) on their album of 2002, Bib & Tuck.

Lyrics

Ewan MacColl's version

Oh, was you ever on the Congo River?
Blow boys blow
Where fever makes the white man shiver
Blow me bully boys blow

A Yankee ship come down the river
Her mast and yards they shone like silver

And who do you think was the skipper of her?
Why, Bully Hayes, the nigger lover

Who do you think was first mate of her?
Why, Shanghai Brown, the sailor robber

What do you think she's got for cargo?
Why, black sheep that have run the embargo

What do you think they've got for dinner?
Oh, monkey hearts and donkey's liver

Yonder comes the Arrow packet
She fires the gun, can't you hear the racket?

Oh blow me boys and blow forever
Oh blow me down that Congo river

Maddy Prior and the Girls' version

Say, was you never down the Congo River?
Blow boys blow
Yes, I've been down the Congo River
Blow me bully boys blow

The Congo she's a mighty river
Where the fever makes the white man shiver

Beware, beware the Bight of Benin
Where one comes out for forty that goes in

What do you think we had for supper?
Oh, handspike hash and a roll in the scuppers

What do you think we had for cargo?
Why, black sheep that have run the embargo

It's blow today and blow tomorrow
We'll blow this hell-ship all in sorrow

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from Ewan MacColl's singing by Reinhard Zierke