> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > Short Jacket and White Trousers
> Shirley Collins > Songs > Short Jacket and White Trousers
> June Tabor > Songs > Short Jacket and White Trousers

Short Jacket and White Trousers

[ Roud 231 ; Laws N12 ; Ballad Index LN12 ; trad.]

A.L. Lloyd recorded Short Jacket and White Trousers in 1962 for his and Ewan MacColl's LP A Sailor's Garland and sung unaccompanied in 1966 on his own album First Person. The latter version was included in the compilation CDs Round Cape Horn and Classic A.L. Lloyd. Lloyd commented in the first album's sleeve notes:

Girls dressed in male attire, living “man to man” in the fo'c'sle with rough seamen, may find themselves in delicate situations. This song offers an unusual quizzical but characteristically good-natured view of the matter. The song is still known among British seamen in various stages of dilapidation and differing degrees of coarseness. For some reason it has seldom found its way into print. Greenleaf and Mansfield found a good version in Newfoundland, and we've borrowed some of their delicate lines to replace a few rough passages in the song as sung by ex-bosun Ned Close of London.

and in the notes of First Person:

“In culling off my britches to myself I often smiled / To think I lay with a hundred men and a maiden all the while.” So sings the heroine of The Pretty Drummer-Boy, one among the innumerable songs of girls dressed as boys and entering the army or going to sea. It happened in real life too, notably in the eighteenth century, but not so often as it occurs in song. No doubt it's a common dream of groups of men far from feminine company, the fantasy that, by some miracle, one of the bunch might be a girl in man's clothing. Not only soldiers and sailors but also American loggers and Australian shearers have songs about this charming but rare situation. Sometimes the escapade ends badly for the girl (as in The Handsome Cabin Boy) but as often as not the masquerader manages to carry off her impersonation with fine aplomb. I don't find Short Jacket and White Trousers in any of the English printed collections, but Firth of Pocklington (Yorkshire) published a broadside of it beginning “I am a maid in sorrow to complain” a bit longer but perhaps not as good as our version here.

A.L. Lloyd also sang Short Jacket and White Trousers live at the Top Lock Folk Club, Runcorn, on November 5, 1972. This concert was published in 2010 on the Fellside CD An Evening with A.L. Lloyd.

Shirley Collins learned Short Jacket and White Trousers from A.L. Lloyd and recorded it during the sessions for her and her sister Dolly's album Love, Death & the Lady. But as three other ones, this track was left out and only found its way onto the 1994 and 2003 CD reissues.

June Tabor sang Short Jacket and White Trousers in a BBC Radio 1 John Peel session recorded on August 26, 1976 and broadcast September 13, 1976. This recording was included in 1998 on her BBC sessions CD On Air.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd sings

Short jacket and white trousers this young girl she put on
And like a gallant seaman bold went roving through the town.
She did sign on with our Captain Blare a sailor for to be
And it was to seek her own true love all on the raging sea.

One night as she sat drowsing, she was ready for her bed,
Our captain heaved a sigh and said, “Oh, I wish you was a maid.
Your cherry cheek and ruby lip they have beguiled me
And I've often wished with all me heart you could me sweetheart be.”

“Oh hold your tongue, dear captain, you know such talk's in vain,
And if our shipmates come to know they would make sport and game.
But when that we do get ashore some pretty girls we'll find
For to ramble along with us bold lads, see and you're that way inclined.”

It's about a few days after we reached the London shore,
This gal put on her petticoats which made the captain roar.
“Oh, a sailor I have been on board but a maid I'm going ashore,
And you've missed your chance, dear captain, so farewell for ever more.”

Shirley Collins sings

Short jacket and white trousers this fair maid she's put on
And like a dashing sailor bold went roaring through the town.
She was signed up by Captain Blare, a sailor for to be,
And all to seek her own true love all on the raging sea.

One night as she lay drowsing, she was ready for her bed,
Our captain heaved a sigh and said, “I wish you was a maid.
Your cherry cheeks and ruby lips they have beguiled me
And I've often wished with all me heart you could my sweetheart be.”

“But hold your tongue, dear captain, you know such talk's in vain,
For if our shipmates should come to hear they would make sport and game.
But when that we do go ashore some pretty girls we'll find
For to ramble along with us bold lads, see and you're that way inclined.”

It was some six weeks later they reached the London shore,
This maid appeared in her petticoats which made the captain roar.
“Oh, a sailor I have been aboard but a maid I'm going ashore,
And you've lost your chance, dear captain, so farewell for ever more.”

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke.