Blow the Man Down
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"Blow the Man Down" is an English sea shanty, listed as 2624 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The lyric "Blow the man down" can be interpreted in a number of ways. Some see it as a reference to a sailor being struck with a fist. Given the shanty's theme of being essentially "Shanghaied" by an attractive young woman, the phrase could refer to finishing one's beer before sailing—a reading supported by verses which imply that many who worked on the "Black Ball" did so reluctantly and had little experience as sailors. A third, somewhat implausible reading is that this phrase refers to blowing the ship (man-o'-war) over in a gale. However, this interpretation doesn't match well with the entire phrase: "Give me some time to blow the man down" since it is unlikely that a sailor would ask for additional time to have his ship capsized. This reading also reads "man" as a shortened version of "man o' war," and there are no other references to the phrase referring to a man-of-war, nor was any one of the ships in the Black Ball line a man o' war.


History


Written history

Contemporary publications and the memories of individuals, in later publications, put the existence of this shanty by the 1860s. The ''Syracuse Daily Courier'', July 1867, quoted a lyric from the song, which was said to be used for hauling halyards on a steamship bound from New York to Glasgow."Chalk and Charcoal – Outlines of a Trip to Europe!" ''Syracuse Daily Courier'' (25 July 1867). In 1879, George Haswell was passenger aboard another steamship, from London to Sydney, at which time he noted some of the shanties of the crew. These were published in the ship's own fortnightly newspaper, ''The Parramatta Sun'', and they included a full set of lyrics for "Blow the Man Down." The lyrics take up the theme of a ship of the Black Ball Line, and include the refrains, "Wae! Hae! Blow the man down / Give me some time to blow the man down." Although Haswell's article did not receive wide circulation, it did find its way into the hands of Laura Alexandrine Smith, whose own large collection of sailors' songs, ''The Music of the Waters'' (1888), was one of the first to be widely available. Smith reprinted the lyrics gathered by Haswell.Smith, Laura Alexandrine, ''The Music of the Waters'', Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co. (1888). She also presented a different version of the song that she herself presumably collected, and which was said to be used for hoisting topsail yards. Its lyrics include reference to a sailor coming home to England from Hong Kong, as well as meeting a girl on "Winchester Street."


Early recordings

Many recordings were made in the first half of the twentieth century of former sailors singing the shanty.
Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...
recorded a man named Tom Roberts in
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,
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
singing a version in 1908, which can be heard online via the British Library Sound Archive. The folklorist
James Madison Carpenter James Madison Carpenter, born in 1888 in Blacklands, Mississippi, near Booneville, in Prentiss County, was a Methodist minister and scholar of American and British folklore. He received his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees from the ...
made recordings of the song in
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,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...
and
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
in the early 1930s, all of which are available on the
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library The Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (VWML) is the library and archive of the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), located in the society's London headquarters, Cecil Sharp House. It is a multi-media library comprising books, periodic ...
. Helen Hartness Fladers recorded several versions sung by former sailors in the 1940s in
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...
, whilst
Helen Creighton Mary Helen Creighton, CM (September 5, 1899 – December 12, 1989) was a prominent Canadian folklorist. She collected over 4,000 traditional songs, stories, and beliefs in a career that spanned several decades, and she published many books and ar ...
recorded several
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
n versions in the 1940s and 50s.


Lyrics

Like most chanties of this type, "Blow the Man Down" was sung to a flexible combination of customary verses, floating verses from within the general chanty repertoire, and verses improvised in the moment or peculiar to individual singers. The song was of indefinite length, and created by supplying solo verses to an invariable two-part refrain. The structure is as follows: Solo verse couplets documented to have been sung to "Blow the Man Down" include the following from sailors of the 19th century.


Another version

An article by
Felix Riesenberg Felix Riesenberg (9 April 1879 – 19 November 1939) was an American maritime officer and writer of maritime professional, historical, and fictional literature in the early 20th century. Biography Riesenberg was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. ...
, who trained and served as an officer in the Merchant Marine in the 1890s, depicts earlier sailors singing these plainer work lyrics not specifically about the Black Ball line.Riesenberg, F. "When sailors were sailors" (first installment), Outing vol. 62 (1913) pp. 515–527 The men are raising the topsail on a merchant ship to get under sail from New York to Liverpool, with the chantey led by a sailor named Jimmie:


References in popular Culture

An offbeat version of the song is sung by the officers and crew of the ''USS Stingray'' led by Lieutenant Commander Tom Dodge (
Kelsey Grammer Allen Kelsey Grammer (born February 21, 1955) is an American actor and producer. He gained notoriety and acclaim for his role as psychiatrist Dr. Frasier Crane on the NBC sitcom ''Cheers'' (1984-1993) and its spin-off ''Frasier'' (1993-2004), ...
) in the 1996 film ''
Down Periscope ''Down Periscope'' is a 1996 American military comedy submarine film directed by David S. Ward, produced by Robert Lawrence, and starring Kelsey Grammer, Lauren Holly, and Rob Schneider along with Bruce Dern, Harry Dean Stanton, William H. Macy, ...
'' as they arrange the transfer of Lieutenant Martin Pascal (
Rob Schneider Robert Michael Schneider (; born October 31, 1963) is an American actor, comedian, and screenwriter. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'', he went on to a career in feature films, including starri ...
) off the ship and make him walk the plank.


References


External links


Lyrics
{{Authority control British folk songs Sea shanties Songs about oceans and seas Songs about sailors Burl Ives songs The Muppets songs Songs about Liverpool English folk songs English children's songs Traditional children's songs