> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > Doodle Let Me Go (Yaller Girls)
> Louis Killen > Songs > Doodle Let Me Go

Doodle Let Me Go (Yaller Girls)

[ Roud 3221 ; Ballad Index Hugi380 ; trad.]

The Galliards sang the shanty Doodle Let Me Go (Yellow Girls) in 1960 on their eponymous Beltona EP The Galliards.

Colin Jewitt sang Yellow Girls live at Folk Union One in 1969; this was included in the same year on the privately issued album Blue Bell Folk Sing.

The Yetties sang Yeller Girls in 1970 on their Argo album Keep A-Runnin’—It’s The Yetties!.

A.L. Lloyd sang Doodle Let Me Go (Yaller Girls) live at the Top Lock Folk Club, Runcorn, on 5 November 1972. This concert was published in 2010 on the Fellside CD An Evening With A.L. Lloyd. Paul Adams noted:

Bert’s version seems to be based on that communicated to R.R. Terry by Harding ‘The Barbarian’—a black seaman from Barbados noted as “a fine shanty-man and first-rate seaman”.

Tony Hall recorded Yeller Girls during the sessions for his 1977 Free Reed album Fieldvole Music. The track was left out, however, and had to wait until 2007 to be included onto the album’s CD reissue.

Bob Fox and Stu Luckley sang Doodle Let Me Go (Yeller Girls) in 1978 on their Rubber Records LP Nowt So Good’ll Pass and in 1997 on their Fellside CD Box of Gold, which was also included in 2006 on Fellside’s 30^th anniversary anthology, Landmarks. Bob noted:

Doodle Let Me Go is a well known sea shanty that I learned during a great period of folk club prosperity in the North East that seems a lifetime ago now. Graham Whittley was the organiser of the Hartlepool Folk Club in the Nursery Inn (still going as I write these notes!) and this was one of his standards. We dedicate our version to him!

Jolly Jack sang Doodle Let Me Go on the 1986 anthology celebrating 10 years of Fellside Records, Flash Company. This track was also included in 1999 on the band’s Fellside anthology CD of shanties and songs of the sea, Rolling Down to Old Maui.

Danny Spooner sang Doodle Let Me Go on his 1988 album We’ll Either Bend or Break ’Er.

Louis Killen sang Doodle Let Me Go on his 1997 album A Seaman’s Garland: Sailors, Ships & Chanteys Vol. 2.

Roy Harris sang Doodle Let Me Go live in 1997 at The White Lion folk club in Wherwell, Hampshire; this was published om 199 on his WildGoose CD Live at the Lion. He also sang it on the 2004 Lancaster Maritime Festival anthology Beware of the Press-Gang!.

Jackie Oates and chorus sang Do Let Me Go in 2012 on the S&A Projects / WildGoose series of songs from the repertoire of Watchet sailor John Short (1839-1933), Short Sharp Shanties Vol. 3. The album notes commented:

Considering how widespread this shanty is in the revival, it is interesting to note that only Sharp and Terry give it, apart from Hugill—and his version comes (surprise, surprise) from Harding the Barbadian. ‘Doodle’, of course, is simply ‘Do’ with interpolated extra consonant(s) again! Short gave Terry only the first verse (“Mr. Short had one verse of words; I have perpetrated the remaining two”), but he gave Sharp more, which are duly recorded in mss, although he only published the first verse. Although Short starts with the more or less standard ‘merchant’s daughter’ verse, his text rapidly becomes the folk song Blow the Candle Out. Here, the Sharp fragments are expanded to coherent narrative from standard versions of Blow the Candle Out. The broadside text is however edited—the full text would over-fill even the longest of capstan tasks!

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd sings Doodle Let Me Go

It’s of a merchant’s daughter brought up in Callao
Hurrah, me yaller girls, doodle let me go
She took me in the parlour and said, “Won’t you be my boy?”
Hurrah, me yaller girls, doodle let me go
Doodle let me go, me girls, doodle let me go,
Hurrah, me yaller girls, doodle let me go

Oh all around the sofa, lads, and wasn’t it a show
And about the hour of twelve o’clock her own man he came home

As I was out a-walking down by the riverside
It was e’er I seen this pretty girl a-swimming in the tide

As I was out a-walking all in the bright moonlight
It was e’er I seen this girl a-swimming and arise, it shone so bright

I wish I was in Madame Gashay’s down in Callao
Where the girls hold on your bobstay and they never let it go

We’ll cast a line ’round Madame Gashay’s and take the house in tow
We’ll tow it back to Liverpool all the way from Callao

Bob Fox and Stu Luckley sing Doodle Let Me Go

Now once I had a Doo-Doo fair come down from Callao.

Chorus (after each line):
Hurrah, me yeller girls, doodle let me go!
Doodle let me go, me girls, doodle let me go
Hurrah, me yeller girls, doodle let me go!

She swung her hips, she clicked her heels, she winked her sassy eye.

So I took her in, I give her gin, I danced her on the floor.

The mate was drunk, the crew was drunk, the old man had a load.

Now once I had a Doo-Doo fair come down from Callao.

Danny Spooner sings Doodle Let Me Go

I met a merchant’s daughter once, belonged to Calio,
Hoorah me yaller gals, doodle let me go,
She rolled her hips, she winked her eye, it really was a show,
Hoorah me yaller gals, doodle let me go.
Doodle let me go me gals, doodle let me go,
Hoorah me yaller gals doodle let me go.

She took me in, she give me gin, and quickly barred the door,
We danced upon the sofa and we danced upon the floor.

“Don’t go ter sea,” she said ter me as in me arms she lay,
“For I ’ave gold and silver and I want fer you to stay.”

“Me ship she lies at anchor and awaits the mornin’ tide,
But if I do come back again I’ll make of you a bride.

“Farewell me little yaller gal, be sure to think of me,
I’ll wed wiv you next time around and I will quit the sea.”

Louis Killen sings Doodle Let Me Go

It’s of a pretty little maid down in Callao
Hurrah, me yaller girls, doodle let me go
She took me down to Madame Gashay’s, a place we all do know
Hurrah, me yaller girls, doodle let me go,
Doodle let me go, me girls, doodle let me go,
Hurrah, me yaller girls, doodle let me go.

She swung her hips, she winked her eyes, that sassy little whore
So I took her in, I gave her gin and danced her on the floor

Oh ’round and ’round the sofa, boys, wasn’t it a show
She grabbed hold of my bobstay and she wouldn’t let it go

The crew is drunk, the mate is drunk, the old man wouldn’t know
Let’s throw a line on Madame Gashay’s and take the place in tow