#17-21 Lowlands Away / My Dollar and a Half a Day (series)

[Edit: The rough analysis in this post has been developed into a deeper and more succinct one in a formal paper I wrote for presentation at the Mystic Music of the Sea Symposium, 8 June, 2012. I hope to post a link to that eventually.]


As one may gather, I tend to be quite skeptical of any "story" connected to a chanty. I consider chanties to have been rough, yet handy songs...scraps of the current time including from popular culture...called forth in the desperation that is dull and long labor. Do any labor for a while...or even wait for a while...and you realize (or remember) how precious any bit of song or rhythm is. It's not about listing after ancient dead lovers.


But for many people discovering and presenting chanties in the early 20th century, it does seem to have been about romance. With that came the desire to believe in stories that elevated chanties to something noble and deep. Connecting them to older English traditions and ballads, as I have been discussing in some of the last few posts, was certainly one way to legitimize them or imbue them with an attractive pedigree.


I've also noted how Stan Hugill's very inclusive methodology when compiling Shanties from the Seven Seas further skewed subsequent generations' perceptions of the genre. This method was valuable for showing the potential range that chanties had to offer, and for gathering it "all." But it meant the equal representation of many songs and many types of songs that do not represent typical chanties. For example, in my recent post about "The Golden Vanitee." I noted how it was one of few chanties actually based in an English ballad. Its inclusion in Hugill inadvertently makes it so less-critical readers can make generic statements like "Chanties came from many sources, like English ballads," or "Chanties are very old in their origins; take this 17th century ballad for example", etc—statements that won't necessarily be false but, when passed on, can be misleading.


I feel strongly that "Lowlands [Away]" is a chanty around which a story had been constructed...which became more and more true each time it was told. And it would be one thing if it was just a trivial story, however it has implications for how, based on this one chanty as representative "evidence," the chanty genre has been construed.

The commonly held ideas about the chanty "Lowlands," today, are that (any or all of these):
1) It is a song about a drowned lover
2) This theme relates it to an old ballad of Britain
3) Because of 1&2, it is of Northern English or Scottish origin


...which, passed along to yet another hand, leads to conclusions that it is typically Scottish  (/Northern English), should be performed in a style that that culture is imagined to perform, can be used to evoke that culture, etc. 


So, by the time it was passed on to the Folk Revival, you had The Corries presenting it in lovely tones (and they are quite lovely!) as if it were a dreamy Scots song rescued from the mist:

...from which it is grandfathered down to the current generation, including Susan Phillipz, who won the 2010 Turner Prize for a sound installation featuring her singing "three versions of a Scottish lament" —three "versions" that were likely taken from Hugill's book (conveniently omitting the Mobile Bay/"My Dollar and a Half a Day" version he gives)!

The most recent (2010) motion picture version of Moby Dick, too, uses "Lowlands Away" as a leitmotif, often sung by the mysterious Elijah character—who is for some reason portrayed as Scottish.


Let's compare three types of sources of information to critique the merits of these ideas.


The first type consists of versions collected in the field, by writers who more or less accurately and objectively noted what sailors sang for them. Here they are, with their lyrics.


*Sung by Charles Rosher in 1906
[Source: Broadwood, Lucy E., Percy Grainger, Cecil J. Sharp, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frank Kidson, J.A. Fuller-Maitland, and A.G. Gilchrist. "[Songs Collected by Percy Grainger]." _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 3(12) (May 1908): 170-242.]

A dollar and a half is a poor man's pay.
Lowlands, lowlands away, my John.
A dollar and a half it won't clear my way.
My dollar and a half a day.

*Sung by John Perring, 1908
[Source: Same as above]

1. Five dollars a day is a white man's pay.
Way…
Five dollars a day is a white man's pay.
My dollar and a 'alf a day.

2. But a dollar and a half is a nigger's pay. (twice)

3. The nigger works both night and day. (twice)

4. But the white man, he works but a day. (twice)

"Mr. Perring said this is a "tipical" Negro chanty, sung by black sailors in the
East Indian trade, in complaint at their being harder worked and lower-waged than
white seamen."

*Henry Bailey, in 1914 or earlier
[Source: Sharp, Cecil K. 1914. _English Folk-Chanteys_. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Ltd.]

Lowlands, lowlands away, my John ;
I'm bound away, I heard him say,
My lowlands away, my John ;
A dollar and a half is a oozer's pay,
A dollar and a half a day.

A dollar and a half won't pay my way ;
A dollar and a half is a white-man's pay.

We're bound away to Mobile Bay;

*John Short, in 1914
[Source: Sharp manuscripts, courtesy Tom Brown]

Lowlands, Lowlands hooray my John

The dollar a day is a oozier's pay
Lowlands, Lowlands hooray my John
The dollar a day is a oozier's pay
The dollar and a half a day

What shall we poor matelos do
My dollar and a half a day

*John Farr, in 1927
[Source: Thomas, J.E., Lucy E. Broadwood, Frank Howes, and Frank Kidson. 1928. "Sea Shanties." _Journal of the Folk-Song Society_ 8(32):96-100.]

Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John,
I thought I heard our captain say.
Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John,
We're sailing straight for Mobile Bay,
My dollar and a half a day.

I thought I heard our captain cry
A dollar and a half is a whiteman's pay.

*Richard Maitland (went to sea ca.1869/70), in the 30s or early 40s
[Source: Doerflinger, William Main. 1951. _Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman_. Macmillan: New York.]

Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
Five dollars a day is a stevedore's pay;
Five dollars and a half a day.

A dollar a day is a nigger's pay.
Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
I thought I heard our old man say,
Five dollars and a half a day

That he would give us grog today,
When we are leaving Mobile Bay.

Version II
In the Virginia lowlands I was born,
Lowlands, lowlands, away, my John.
I worked all day down in the corn,
My dollar and a half a day.

I packed my bag and I'm going away;
I'll make my way to Mobile Bay.

In Mobile Bay, where they work all day,
A-screwing cotton by the day,

Five dollars a day is a white man's pay,
A dollar and a half is a colored man's pay.

*William Fender, in 1929
[Source: from the JM Carpenter Collection; Lyrics transcribed by J. Lighter]

I thought I heard our old man say,
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John!
I thought I heard our old man say,
My dollar and a half a day!

A dollar a day is a poor man's pay,
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John!
A dollar a day is a poor man's pay,
My dollar and a half a day!

So shake her up from down below,
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John!
So shake her up from down below,
My dollar and a half a day!

*Unnamed sailor field source, late 1920s
[Source: Carpenter, J.M. "Chanteys in the Age of Sail." New York Times (30 October 1938). Pg. XX6.]

One night in Mobile the Yankees knew,
Low-lands, low-lands! Away my John!
The nor'west winds most bitter blew,
My dollar and and a half a day!

Our Captain was a grand old man,
His name it was Jack Tannerand-tan.

He called us aft and to us did say
'Now, my boys, we're bound to sea.'

*Capt. James A. Delap, 1860s journal
[Source: Journal presented in: Doerflinger, William Main. 1951. _Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman_. Macmillan: New York.]

A bully ship and bully crew,
Lowlands, lowlands, hurrah, my John,
And a bully mate to put us through,
My dollar and a half a day.

I wish I was in Liverpool,
With the Liverpool girls I would slip round.

Oh, heave her up and away we'll go
Oh, heave her up from down below.

Oh, a dollar and a half is a shellback's pay,
But a dollar and a half is pretty good pay.

Oh, rise, old woman, and let us in,
For the night is cold and I want some gin.

...
Nothing remotely "Scottish" here. So far as there is a common theme, it is stevedoring, in Mobile Bay, cotton-screwing. The "lament" is low/unfair pay. Notably, all of these have the "dollar and a half" chorus, not "lowlands away." 

As these are the most reliable sources, we could stop there. But to find out how the current popular ideas developed, we have to look at other writings. The second type of source, then, is presentations by former chantymen. These individuals had direct experience with the song in practice. However, they also read each other's works, and they were comfortable with making stories based on less than meticulous scholarship. What they wrote cannot be taken as exactly what was performed, however, they are generally mostly original.

*Lahee
[Lahee, Henry C. "Sailors' Chanteys." The Sea Breeze 13(1) (Oct. 1900): 13-14.]

...the chorus ended up with "five dollars and a half a day," — which might just as well be any other price you like to mention, as it was the sailor's dream of the pay which he could get in some other place where he was not. ...

*Whall (1910), experience in the 1860s and early '70s. Learned chanty in 1862.
[Whall, Captain W.B. 1910. _Sea Songs and Shanties_. Brown, Son and Ferguson.]

Lowlands, Lowlands, Away, my John,
O my old mother she wrote to me,
My dollar and a half a day.
She wrote to me to come home from sea,
Lowlands, Lowlands, Away, my John.
She wrote to me to come home from sea.
My dollar and a half a day.

A dollar a day is a Hoosier's pay,
Lowlands, lowlands, a-way, my John,
Yes, a dollar a day is a Hoosier's pay,
My dollar and a half a day.

O was you ever in Mobile Bay,
A screwing cotton by the day ?

These are all the regulation verses; after these the shantyman must improvise.

*Bullen (1914), experience in 1870s
[Bullen, Frank. T. and W.F. Arnold. 1914. _Songs of Sea Labour_. London: Orpheus Music Publishing.]

Lowlands away I heard them say
Lowlands, lowlands away my John
Lowlands away I heard them say,
My dollar an' a half a day.

*Robinson (1917), experience in 1860s onward
[Robinson, Captain John. "Songs of the Chanty-Man: I." The Bellman 23(574) (14 July 1917): 38-44.]

Note his disclaimer:As may well be imagined, I cannot exactly recall all the original verses... In a crude way, however, I have endeavored to carry the spirit and sense of the originals into the words which I have written down.

Last night I dreamt of my true love.
Lowlands, Lowlands, away my John.
She begged me ne'er again to rove.
my Lowlands away.

...
Again, all of these—except for the last, Robinson—have the "dollar" chorus. Robinson admits that he may have forgotten the lyrics—implying that he referenced other print sources. His "lover in dream" theme and "lowlands away" chorus can be explained by the fact that several second-hand works had been published before him already...

...Which is the final category: works of non-chantymen who were not strictly methodical collectors and/or by sailors/chantymen who borrowed from previous authors' works. It's in this body of writing that the dead lover/dream/Scottish/ballad/etc ideas and lyrics develop.

*Once a Week (1868) (> Chambers's 1869)
[Dallas, E. S., ed. 1868. "On Shanties." _Once a Week_ 31 (1 Aug. 1868).]

Gives title "Lowlands." For capstan.

*Alden (1882)
[Alden, W.L. 1882. "Sailors' Songs." _Harper's New Monthly Magazine_ (July 1882): 281-6.]

Alden set the tone for the description of "Lowlands". This is accompanied by score, for the first time in print.

Perhaps the wildest, most mournful, of all sailor songs is "Lowlands." The chorus is even more than usually meaningless, but the song is the sighing of the wind and the throbbing of the restless ocean translated into melody.

I dreamt a dream the other night.
Lowlands, Lowlands, Hurrah, my John.
I dreamt I saw my own true love.
My Lowlands aray.

Much care was evidently given to "Lowlands" by the shanty-men. It has often been improved. In its original form the first chorus was shorter and less striking, and the words of the second chorus were, "My dollar and a half a day."

*Dixon (1883)
[Dixon, Robert Brewer. 1883. _Fore and Aft: A Story of Actual Sea Life_. Boston: Lee and Shepard.]

The way "Lowlands" is described (exact wording) here suggests that the author had read Alden (above) and was using the chanty for effect.

The following morning, Sept. 18, all hands were called at daybreak; and the windlass was manned, and the anchor hove short, to "Lowlands," the wildest and most weird of all sailor-songs, led by the second mate.

*The New York Times (1884)
[Unknown. 1884. "Minstrelsy on the Sea." _The New York Times_ 27 (Jan. 1884). pg. 10.]

Perhaps also influenced by Alden's article.

A very touching sea air is known as "Lowlands Away." The choruses
of this are "Lowlands Away, my John," and "My dollar and a half a day."

*Smith (1888)
[Smith, Laura Alexandrine. 1888. _The Music of the Waters_. London: Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co.]

Smith copied Alden's words, and extrapolated some. Thus, her second stanza appears to be contrived from his notes.

One of the wildest and most mournful of the sailor songs is "Lowlands." The chorus is even more than usually meaningless, but the song is the sighing of the wind and the throbbing of the restless ocean translated into melody:—

I dreamt a dream the other night:
Lowlands, Lowlands, Hurrah, my John!
I dreamt I saw my own true love:
My Lowlands a-ray!

Much care was evidently given to "Lowlands" by the chanty-men. It has often been improved. In its original form the first chorus was shorter and less striking, and the words of the second chorus were, "My dollar and a half a day."

Solo.—Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John.
Chorus.—My dollar and a half a day.
Solo.—I took up my clothes and I went away.
Chorus.—Lowlands, Lowlands, a-ray.

Smith's collection was widely read, but later writers ignored the second version.

*All the Year Round 1888
[Dickens, Charles, ed. 1888. "Sailors' Songs." All the Year Round 1047 (22 Dec. 1888).]

The anonymous author has culled all the information and texts from LA Smith.

One of the most beautiful in a musical sense of all the chanties, is that known as "Lowlands Low." The words are nothing, and, as usual, many versions are used; but the air is singularly wild and mournful, and is an immense favourite with Jack It generally begins somewhat like this:

(Solo) I dreamt a dream the other night.
(Chorus) Lowlands, lowlands, hurrah, my John.
(Solo) I dreamt I saw my own true love.
(Chorus) My Lowlands, aray.

*Davis and Tozer (2nd edition, 1890)
[1890 Davis, J. and Ferris Tozer. 1890. _Sailor Songs or ‘Chanties’_. Second edition. London: Boosey & Co.]

They added "Lowlands"in this edition, i.e. after Smith's collection became available. The idiosyncratic tune is exactly the same as in Smith/Alden, telling us that the authors were not really familiar with the song. The first verse is the same as Smith/Alden, too, except instead of guessing that "aray" was typo for "away," they looked to the "hurrah" of the first chorus and guess it should be "hooray." They titled the song "Lowlands" and there is no evidence they had any idea it might be called "Lowlands Away."

I dreamt a dream the other night,
Lowlands, Lowlands, hooray, my John.

I dreamt I saw my own true love, 

My Lowlands, hooray.

I think that because they did not know any more of the song beyond one verse, they extrapolated and made up a narrative for the rest of it. In the narrative, the first of its kind in evidence, there is a dead lover who is *female*.

*Luce (1902)
[Luce, S. B. 1902. _Naval Songs_. Second edition, revised. New York: Wm. A. Pond & Co.]

Source in unclear. All of the chanties in this collection's first edition were culled from elsewhere. This revised edition adds some more, some clearly from LA Smith's work. So, the principal was not to do original fieldwork, but rather to compile. However, the version of "Lowlands" is not obviously from a previous print source—and it preserves the "dollar" chorus.

I thought I heard the old man say.
Lowlands, lowlands, my Johnny,
That this would be our sailing day,
A dollar and a half a day.

*Masefield 1906
[Masefield, John, ed. 1906. _A Sailor's Garland_. London: Macmillan.]

Masefield's presentation was colored by his sensibility as a poet and also his biased view that chanties were British creations by default and that one should look to place their origins in older English texts. Masefield, then, was writing at a time when English folklorists were beginning to couch them as typically English.

Like Davis/Tozer, he also had no inkling that the phrase "Lowlands AWAY" was to be sung. This is in evidence by his slavish replication of Smith's format, "a-ray":

I Dreamt a dream the other night,
Lowlands, Lowlands, hurrah, my John;

I dreamt a dream the other night, 

My Lowlands a-ray.

Followed by,
I dreamt I saw my own true love,

If he had ever heard it sung, I doubt he would have done that. Masefield's experience as a sailor in more recent times meant he was familiar with some chanties, but evidently this was not one of them. Therefore, I reason that his text after the first verse, a narrative about a dead lover who is *male*, was fabricated.

Masefield deliberately sought to explain chanty texts in relation to English ballads. In the very same collection he has the ballad of "The Lowlands of Holland", to which he would have been able to make a connection and extrapolate a full text from the suggestion (i.e. in Alden's verse) about "dreaming" about a lover.

On the other hand/also, Davis' version (above), the first to contain a "dead lover" narrative, may have suggested it. We do know that Masefield referenced both Davis and Smith's collections.

...

I am going to stop here for a moment. Reviewing the above:

- All of these second-hand sources, if they supply a tune, use the minor key tune originally provided by Alden – a tune which does not appear in any of the field collected texts (and which have major key tunes). (The exception to this is Luce's, which is also minor key, but if one looks at that tune, one sees that it is quite odd musically, as if perhaps a mistake was made.)
- Davis and Masefield are the two authors to provide a dead lover theme. Alden's original single verse might suggest that theme, but there is too little to say this was the theme. Davis and Masefield had demonstrable reasons to "want to" extrapolate the lyrics in such a fashion. There are considerable reasons to doubt that the lyrics they extrapolated were ever actually sung, the main one being that both authors seem to have been unfamiliar with the song in real life experience.
- Additionally, these two authors to present the theme do it differently in that in one the dead lover is male and in the other, female. This is of interest re: the later impression that Hugill creates that there were two variations in the theme "out there", as if after extensive analysis of collected version that fact emerged.
...

Numerous other texts can be found in the 1900s-1920s that re-used either Davis's or Masefield's texts, without citing their source. So, the weighty impression made by these presentations was disproportionate to the authentic historical evidence. Here is a sample.

*Clark (1910)
[Clark, Arthur H. 1910. _The Clipper Ship Era_. New York and London: G.P. Putnam's Sons.]

He is writing somewhat vaguely (possibly anachronously) when he gives his text, Not sure what the source was. Yet he too has "dollar".

"I wish I was in Slewer's Hall,
Lowlands, lowlands, hurra, my boys,
A-drinking luck to the old Black Ball,
My dollar and a half a day."

*Terry (1921)
[Terry, Richard Runciman. 1921. _The Shanty Book, Part I_. London: J. Curwen & Sons.]

Version was based in that of Capt. John Runciman. However, Terry's chanties were composites, which used material from different places in order to create performable versions. Terry had great respect for Whall's writing, and he also referenced Davis/Tozer.

The text switches oddly between a cotton screwing and a dead lover theme. Judge for your self whether you'd think that was likely or, rather (as I suspect) it is evidence of a composite that has been created. The cotton screwing verses are very similar or identical to Whall's. The dead lover themed verses has the lover as female, as in Davis. About the latter them, Terry makes this statement:

In North-country ships the shantyman used to make much of the theme of a dead lover appearing in the night.

It's impossible to say whether Terry really did an extensive survey of "North-country ships'" sailors, and compared them with others, in order to make this specific statement. However, I feel it was likely he was influenced in this through John Runciman, the literateur's, ideas. Runciman had written some stories set in a North Country cultural milieu, collected in 1885's _Skippers and Shellbacks_. It contains this passage:

A merry sailorman came clattering along the alley in his heavy sea boots; his oilskins and sou'wester poured multitudinous streams from all their crinkles as he walked, and his face shone with the wet. He was singing:

"Says she, 'My love, I'm dead and gone! 

Lowlands, lowlands, 

And on my head they've put a stone;
Good-bye, my love, in the lowlands.'"
He sang this sorrowful ditty as if it were quite a comic affair, and he was evidently a high-spirited fellow.

I don't know what this 'ditty' was – a ballad? I can't scan it as the chanty. If Runciman knew "Lowlands" and he gave it to Terry (w/ the "dollar" chorus), what did he intend to write here?

This all makes it confusing just what Runciman may have given to Terry and how he produce this:

Lowlands, Lowlands,
 Away my John,

Lowlands, away,
 I heard them say,

My dollar and a half a day.



1. A dollar and a half a day is a Hoosier's pay.

Lowlands, Lowlands,
 Away my John.

A dollar and a half a day is very good pay.

My dollar and a half a day.



2. Oh was you ever in Mobile Bay.

Screwing the cotton by the day.


3. All in the night my true love came,

All in the night my true love came.


4. She came to me all in my sleep. (twice)



5. And hër eyes were white my love. (twice)



6. And then I knew my love was dead. (twice)

*Colcord (1924)
[Colcord, Joanna. 1924. _Roll and Go_.]

It looks like she did this: Took the first two verses based on the canonical print version from Alden, and then the other two verses come from Terry's collection (which she was known to utilize).

(With Colcord the chorus has ~changed~ positively to "Lowlands away". This would have come from Robinson, whose article she also referenced.)

I dreamed a dream the other night,
Lowlands, Lowlands, away, my John,
I dreamed a dream the other night,
My Lowlands, away!

I dreamed I saw my own true love,

She came to me all in my sleep,

And then I knew my love was dead.

*(Sampson (1927)
[Sampson, John. 1927. _The Seven Seas Shanty Book_. London: Boosey.]

He says: 

...there are many modern versions, several of which give "My dollar and a half day" as the last line.

How did he know what were "modern" versions? I am guessing he is basing this on a belief suggested ONLY so far by Masefield, that the dead lover theme was older/original. The several versions attested from 1860s and 1870s, before Sampson's day (late 1880s-90s), show that the "dollar" chorus was not "modern." I suspect Sampon's thoughts here relate to this statement,

I notice that the late captain Whall states that it is of American origin and comes from the cotton ports of the Southern States. In its debased form it may have done so, but in that case it went out with the prisoners of war after the Monmouth rebellion, and having been adopted by negroes lost its original beauty and imagery.

Ironic that Whall was one who tended to dismiss African-American-based chanties as low quality, but he actually said what he did -- and now Sampson is creating a narrative of "debasement."

Sampson's text owes much to Masefield's version. It looks like some of Masefield's single lines were formed into rhyming couplets.

Version A

Lowland, lowlands, away my John!
Lowlands away, I heard them say,
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
Lowlands away, I heard them say --
My dollar and a half a day!

A dollar a day is a hoosier's pay --

Oh my old mother wrote to me --
She wrote to me to come home from sea

Version B

I dreamed a dream the other night --
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
I dreamed a dream the other night --
My lowlands away!

I thought I saw my own true love --

I thought my love was drowned and dead --

*CF Smith (1927)
[Smith, Cicely Fox. 1927. _A Book of Shanties_. London: Methuen & Co.]

Version A looks to be referencing Terry (whose other ideas she also repeats) and maybe Whall.

Version B is like other print versions (Alden trajectory), with the addition of "drowned and dead." The only evidence for this point for "drowned" has been Masefield. Curiously, like Masefield, she also calls it a halliard chanty.

What she says about the song is pure conjecture, as well as a direct contradiction of Alden. Looks like she took the influence of Sampson.

The more modern words -- not that they are really very modern, since they were already well-known in the 'fifties and practically extinct before the 'eighties, very few of the younger generation of sailing ship men having ever heard the shanty -- are a debased version of a still older song. The horrible material refrain of "A dollar and a half a day," which is so hopelessly out of keeping with the sad, lingering cadence of the melody, and the references to "hoosiers" and such strange waterfowl, are quite obviously later interpolations. The older version is on the familiar theme of the dead lover, so popular with the folk singer, to whom and to whose audiences a thoroughly miserable story was as the breath of life; and the "Lowlands" refrain is found in more than one old song and ballad, like the well-known "Golden Vanitee," and that which tells how "The Lowlands of Holland have twined my Love and me."

Version A

Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
Lowlands away, I heard them say,
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
Lowlands away, I heard them say --
My dollar and a half a day!

A dollar a day is a hoosier's pay --
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
A dollar a day is a hoosier's pay --
My dollar and a half a day!

Oh my old mother wrote to me --
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
She wrote to me to come home from sea
My dollar and a half a day!

Lowlands away, I heard them say,
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
Lowlands away, I heard them say --
My dollar and a half a day!

Version B (same melody)

I dreamed a dream the other night --
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
I dreamed a dream the other night --
My lowlands away!

I thought I saw my own true love --
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
I thought I saw my own true love --
My lowlands away!
I thought my love was drowned and dead --
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John!
I thought my love was drowned and dead --
My lowlands away!

*Harlow (1962)
[1962 Harlow, Frederick Pease. _Chanteying Aboard American Ships_. Barre, Mass.: Barre Publishing Co.]

I believe he created something that was partly based his 1870s memories and partly in print versions that he'd referenced. If my analysis is correct, the latter would have been both Masefield and Davis.

Oh, were you ever in Mobile Bay?
Lowlands, lowlands, away my John.
A-screwing cotton all the day,
My dollar and a half a day.

A black man's pay is a dollar a day;
A dollar and a half is a white man's pay.

Oh, were you ever in New Orleans?
That's where you meet the Southern Queens,

I wish I was in Slomes Hall,
A-drinking luck to the old Black Ball.

Oh, my old mother, she said to me,
"Come home my boy and quit the sea."

I dreamed a dream the other night,
I saw my love dressed all in white.

She stood and gazed in one blank stare,
And combed the ringlets of her hair.

Her face was pale and white as snow;
She spoke to me in accents low.

"I'll cut away my bonny hair,
No other man shall think me fair.

"I'll cut my breasts until they bleed,
From you, my love, I'll soon be freed.

"I'll jump into the Lowland Sea,
And drown myself for love of thee.

"With seaweed green about my head,
You'll find me there, but I'll be dead."

I then awoke to hear the cry,
"Hey, you sleepers! Watch ahoy!"
...

To summarize my interpretation here:

In the wake of Davis and Masefield's presentations, numerous, subsequent non-scholar writers ran with the powerful and attractive idea that "Lowlands" must have been based originally in the ballad theme of a dead lover appearing in a dream. The idea sounded most plausible to people in the early 20th century who had begun to construct a narrative of chanties as old English products – a notion that can be contrasted with 19th century commenters' characterization of chanties as something more recent and largely American (incl. Afro-American).

Critical review of the writing, however, reveals that the dead lover theme is found in only a few original, non-field sources, of ambiguous authenticity. Alden's was one. The verse he gave only suggested that a lover appeared in a dream, and not necessarily that a dead lover narrative was to be spun out following. Even he claimed that this was not the "original," however, but his opinion was lost in subsequent derivative presentations of the text. The ground zero for full versions of that theme (Davis, and Masefield) consists of highly dubious texts. A horizontal study, such as comparison with other songs, may suggest something else. But from my reading of this evidence related to this specific song, it's  suspect whether a "dead lover" theme existed in tradition.

If, for the sake of argument, one imagines that it did exist, then we must still concede that it was quite uncommon. And yet, due to all the copying of suggestive texts, and to their own very suggestive nature ("my bonny hair" just screams Scotland/Northern England for those wanting to believe!), the impression of the nature and origins (= regarding form in use in chanty days) has been greatly skewed.

Stan Hugill cemented the skewed interpretation when he accepted, uncritically, the terms set out by prior non-scholar writers. He collated their material and presented what seemed to emerge as distinct strains or versions, when really the empirical studies gave only one "version" (with lots of improv/variety, as in most chantying) and a bunch of other fanciful presentations. 

Whew!

Now for Hugill's versions, which I learned and recorded.

First off, while Hugill was known for popularizing this song, the version he sang matched NONE of the 4 given in his book. He used lyrics from his Version "(A)", which was set in his book to a minor melody much like the Alden print version that spawned so many copies. But he sang a major mode melody that corresponds to the "dollar" forms documented in tradition. As Hugill was not familiar with music notation, he probably knew the tune as it was actually sung (i.e. by ear)—but he chose to sing the "dead lover/dream lover" style of lyrics, which could be obtained from print sources.

What is funny in all of it is that he remarks (more than once -- in his books and live performances) that "Lowlands" was unique in permitting sentimentality, "sob stuff"—which he claims was highly uncharacteristic of chanties. Well....maybe it was because these lyrics never were part of the tradition, and sentimentalist like Davis and Masefield made them up!!!

When I first recorded Hugill's Version "(A2)" I was influenced by his recorded performances, so I also used (contrary to the notation) the major key melody (I thought maybe he had messed up the key signature in noting it!).

This was the Davis/Tozer narrative, as filter through later authors, where the dead lover is female. In Version (A1), the dead lover is male, after the Masefield version. I got the melody right this time.

Version (B) appears only in the unabridged edition, as it is rather similar to the preceding ones.  It is basically the Davis/Tozer version.

Then Hugill presents a totally different melody variant, learned in the field from a Nova Scotian sailor:

And finally comes the "Dollar" form!!:

[Edit: Here's a more recent rendition of the chanty according to my vision of how it could be sung:]

G'night,

Ranzo :{