Beach boys - Sloop John B
Beach boys - Sloop John B Aug 9, 2017 18:28:10 GMT
Post by cjm on Aug 9, 2017 18:28:10 GMT
MajicPat
Greetings:
Below is a copy of a message that I posted in the Beach Boys newsgroup,
alt.music.beach-boys. I have not received any replies on the meaning and
history of the song. I'd appreciate it if any of you could steer me in the
right direction. Many thanks!
"Sloop John B." was banned in our area when it was released. The reason
given by the local radio station was that the line "drinkin' all night. Got
into a fight" was considered unacceptable for young, impressionable ears.
If my memory serves me right, the flip side was "You're So Good to Me,"
and that was the side that got airplay in our town (Altoona, PA.) When I
saw the BBs perform in nearby Johnstown, PA in the spring of 1967,
Mike Love introduced "Sloop" by saying something like, "Now it's time for our
dirty song." Does anyone know if "Sloop" was banned in any other areas?
Also, is there anything remotely suggestive in the lyrics that I am missing ...
or was Love calling it a "dirty" song because it had a history of being banned?
And while we're on the subject of "Sloop," does anyone have any idea of the
origins of the song and what the words really mean? I've seen the song in a
couple of folk song books and have not seen any additional lyrics. The lyrics
I have seen published are the same (except for a word here or there) as the
BBs' version. (In one version, the first mate broke into the "people's trunk"
rather than the "captain's bunk." And the corn and grits were "the corn"
rather than "my corn." "Sheriff John Stone"... rather than "Sheriff
Johnstone", etc.) Do any of you folk music aficionados out there know what
story the singer of this song is trying to tell? What were the boy and his
grandfather doing on a boat together ... and carousing around Nassau? What
happened to the cook? Does "he got the fits" mean that he went crazy? Or is
it a forgotten term for some kind of illness? Why did he eat the grits and
then throw away the corn? And why is the corn so important to the singer,
anyway?
I've been wondering about the story of this song ever since I first heard
it (and fell in love with it) over 30 years ago. As far as I'm concerned, the
Beach Boys *made* this song their own with this arrangement. It wasn't until a
year or two after the song was released that I even learned that it wasn't an
original ... that it was folk song. I'd really appreciate it if any of you
could give some background on the song. I've looked in a few books on folk
songs, but haven't seen any that deal with "Sloop John B."
Click here to Reply
HappyT
As far as I remember, "Sloop John B." was originally a Bahamian song by the
songster/band leader Blind Blake (not to be confused with the American blues
singer with the same name). When I heard Blake back in the seventies, he and
his band were serenading tourists in the airport lobby as they arrived in
Nassau. He was the source of some great songs, including "Run Come See,
Jerusalem" and "My Name is Morgan but it Ain't J.P." I may be wrong, but I
think he was the original source for "John B. Sails" or "Sloop John B," which
Pete Seeger and others then disseminated around the folk scene. The Beach Boys
no doubt learned it in that way, and made it into a semi-rock party song. We
used to sing it in Washington Square back in the fifties.
Homespun Tapes
barry finn
I've also heard it was a Bahamian traditional folk song going at least to
the 20's, I've also heard it's related to the rowing song Come Row The Boat
Child, but can't as of yet substantiate this, if so this could bring it's
roots to the Georgia Sea Islands. The network of Black sailors throughout
the Eastern Seaboard, during the days of sail, could have easily brought
their songs & influence throughout the entire Atlantic rim. Barry
HappyT <hap...@aol.com> wrote in article
<199808020300...@ladder03.news.aol.com>...
- show quoted text -
SLHinton17
On Sat, Aug01, 1998, maji...@aol.com (MajicPat) wrote:
>Greetings:
> Below is a copy of a message that I posted in the Beach Boys >newsgroup,
>alt.music.beach-boys. I have not received any replies on the meaning and
>history of the song. I'd appreciate it if any of you could steer me in the
>right direction. Many thanks!
>Pat
The song appeared in print in Carl Sandburg's _American Songbag_, in 1927. (A
reprint edition, with a new intro by Garrison Keillor, was brought out by
Harcourt, Brace in 1990, and is available at Amazon books.) It might be worth
while to quote a part of Sandburg's head notes:
"John T. McCutchewon, cartoonist and kindly philosopher, and his wife Evelyn
Shaw McCutcheon, mother and poet, learned to sing this on their Treasure Island
in the West Indies. They tell of it, 'Time and usage have given this song
almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau. The weathered ribs of
the historic craft lie imbedded in the sand at Governor's Island......'"
Here are the words to the song as Sandburg printed them 62 years ago:
THE JOHN B. SAILS
Oh, we come on the sloop _John B_,
My gran'fadder an' me.
Round Nassau Town we did roam.
Drinking all night, we got in a fight,
I feel so break-up I want to go home!
So hoist up the _John B._ sails,
See how the the mains'l set,
Send for the Capt'n ashore, Lemme go home!
Lemme go home! Lemme go home!
De first mate he got drunk,
Broke up the people's trunk,
Constable come on board an' take him away.
Mr. Johnstone, please let me alone,
De poor cook, he got fits,
Tro' way all de grits,
Then he took and eat up all o' my corn!
Lemme go home, I want to go home!
Dis is de worst trip since I been born.
REFRAIN.
This doesn't seem mysterious to me -- the singer and his grandfather arrived in
Nassau on the boat, after a lot of adventures with drunk or crazy mate and
cook. The 'corn" that the cook ate up all of may have referred to whiskey:
during Prohibition, "corn whiskey" was often called simply "corn." I think
Mr. Johnstone may have been the name of the constable who came on board to
arrest the mate, who had damaged the luggage of the passengers. Just a guess!
It's a good song. I think Prof. Roger Abrams may have mentioned it in his
study of Caribbean sea songs, _Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore_, but I can't
find my copy to verify that.
Sam Hinton
MajicPat Greetings: Many thanks for your replies on the subject of "Sloop John B." It looks as though I certainly came to the right place for good information. I guess what I was hoping for was the possibility of more verses to the song or of
Another verse
A 1647 colony in the Bahamas included a Welshman named John Bethel. The folk ballad of his crew is believed to have descended through the centuries into the folk song "(Wreck of the) Sloop John B."
In 1926 the original wreck of this ship was discovered in Nassau, a Bahama island near Florida. (Sloops were precarious 16-foot vessels, sailing hundreds of miles without a chart with a 5-person crew.) Poet Carl Sandburg adapted the folk lyrics into a poem, which thirty years later was recorded by The Kingston Trio.
Apparently there's also a forgotten third verse
The stewardess she got stewed,
Ran 'round the poop deck nude
Constable had to come and take her away.
Sheriff Johnstone please let me alone
I feel so breakup, I want to go home.
Last Edit: Aug 9, 2017 18:30:53 GMT by cjm