> Cyril Tawney > Songs > In Frisco Bay (Noah’s Ark Shanty)
In Frisco Bay / Noah’s Ark Shanty (A Long Time Ago)
[
Roud 318
; Ballad Index Doe037
; VWML GG/1/14/887
; trad.]
A group of men from Andros Island, led by David Pryor, sang Long Time Ago in an August 1935 field recording made by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle. It was included in 1999 on the Rounder anthology Bahamas 1935 in the Alan Lomax Collection / Deep River of Song series.
Stan Hugill sang the long drag or halyard shanty A Long Time Ago at the Seattle Chantey Festival during the American Sail Training Association’s 1978 Tall Ships Pacific. This recording was published a year later on the Folkways album Sea Songs Seattle.
Swan Arcade recorded Noah’s Ark Shanty in Workington in August 1991 for the Fellside anthology of English traditional songs, Voices. Paul Adams commented in the album’s notes:
Shanties were work songs and finding an example was not difficult. Which one was much more difficult. This one is interesting because (a) as an aetiological work song it is probably unique in the English tradition, (b) it was collected by the greatest of the folk song collectors, Cecil Sharp on the 3rd June, 1914 from Capt. Hole of Watchet, Somerset (the famous Watchet sailor!) and (c) Swan Arcade are not usually associated with the singing of sea shanties. Their dramatic, hard hitting harmony style coupled with their uninhibited repertoire makes them great favourites in folk song circles. They are Dave and Heather Brady and Jim Boyes. Dave does his damnedest to make this a Yorkshire song.
But even if Swan Arcade were not usually associated with the singing of sea shanties, they did record Blood Red Roses a year earlier for their CD Full Circle.
Cyril Tawney sang In Frisco Bay (Noah’s Ark Shanty) in 1992 on his cassette of sea songs for children, Little Boy Billee.
Jon Boden sang Noah’s Ark Shanty as the 4 September 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.
Pete Coe sang Noah’s Ark Shanty in 2011 on his CD Tall Tailes.
Fay Hield learned this song from Swan Arcade’s recording and sang it with the title A Long Time Ago in 2016 on her third album, Old Adam.
The 2020 book Southern Songster has a version of A Long Time collected by George Gardiner from James G. Bounds at Portsmouth Workhouse on 16 August 1907 [VWML GG/1/14/887] . This version has completely different verses than the above about Noah’s Ark; instead a Portsmouth sailor parts from his girl to sail to Hongkong. Here this version is sung by Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne who did the musical notation for the book:
Lyrics
James G. Bounds sings A Long Time
A long time and a very long time,
To my way, hay, aye ya,
A long time and a very long time,
A long time ago
In Portsmouth town where I was born
’Twas there I joined the boys in blue
And in Portsmouth town there lived a girl
And this young girl I loved her so well
It was through her I first went to sea
So we sailed away from Portsmouth town
To Hong Kong town where we was bound
So good-bye, Sally, good bye, my dear
Swan Arcade sing Noah’s Ark Shanty
In Frisco Bay there were three ships
To me way, hey, hey-oh
In Frisco Bay there were three ships
A long time ago
And one of them ships was Noah’s old ark
All covered all o’er wi’ hickory bark
They took two animals of every kind
They took two animals of every kind
The bull and the cow they started for t’ row
The bull and the cow they started for t’ row
Then said old Noah with a flick of his whip
“Come stop this row or I’ll scuttle the ship”
But the bull struck his horn through the side of the ark
And the little black dog he started fer t’ bark
So Noah took the dog, shoved its nose up the hole
And ever since then dogs’ nose has been cold
It’s a long, long time and a very long time
A long, long time and a very long time
Fay Hield sings A Long Time Ago
In Frisco Bay there were three ships
To me way, hey, hey-oh
In Frisco Bay there were three ships
A long time ago
And one of them ships was Noah’s old ark
Covered all o’er wi’ hickory bark
Chorus (repeated after every other verse):
It’s a long long time and a very long time
A long time ago
He took two animals of every kind
The great big stag and his heathery hind
The cat bit the rat with a howl and a yowl
The bull and the cow they started t’ row
“Ah now,” said Noah with a flick of his whip
“Come stop this row or tha’ll scuttle the ship”
But the bull struck his horn through the side of the ark
The little black dog he started t’ bark
Noah took the dog, shoved its nose up the hole
Ever since then dogs’ nose has been cold
It’s a long, long time and a very long time
A long, long time and a very long time
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Georgina Boyes for correcting an embarrassing mondegreen.