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Haul Away for Rosie / Haul Away Joe

[ Roud 809 ; Ballad Index Doe004 ; trad.]

Shanties From the Seven Seas. Songs of American Sailormen

Lead Belly sang Haul Away Joe in a performance recorded by Moses Asch during the 1940s. This was included in 1997 on his Smithsonian Folkways anthology Bourgeois Blues: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 2, and in 2004 on the anthology Classic Maritime Music From Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Stan Kelly sang Away, Haul Away in 1958 on the Topic EP Liverpool Packet. This track was also included in 1971 on the Topic Sampler No 7, Sea Songs and Shanties, and in 2004 on the anthology Sailors’ Songs & Sea Shanties. Kelly and A.L. Lloyd noted in the original recording:

This was a favourite short-drag shanty, used almost exclusively for hauling aft the foresheet or sweating-up halyards to take in the slack—jobs that called for a short pull but a good ’un. Well-known both to British and American seamen on the Western Ocean run, it is first-cousin to the better-known Haul Away, Joe. The tune carries a whole anthology of verses, some decorous, others not.

Bob Roberts sang Haul Away Joe in a recording made by Peter Kennedy in the 1950s. It was included in 1994 on the Saydisc anthology Sea Songs and Shanties. Another recording made by Tony Engle on the Isle of Wight in August 1977 war released in the following year on Roberts’ Topic album Songs From the Sailing Barges. A.L. Lloyd noted:

[…] As for the work-shanties, Haul Away, Joe, Whiskey Johnny and Leave Her, Johnny, Bob converts them into lyrical social songs for the sake of their choruses.

Ewan MacColl sang Haul Away for Rosie on his and A.L. Lloyd’s Prestige album of 1962, A Sailor’s Garland. A.L. Lloyd noted:

A tack and sheet shanty, sometimes known as Haul Away, Joe. It has many tunes, but none better than this swingy Mixolydian one. Stan Hugill reports that, a generation ago, Liverpool children were using a variant of the disorderly final verses of this shanty as a skipping rhyme. Songs of innocence …

The Clancy Brothers with Louis Killen sang Haul Away Joe in 1973 on their album Greatest Hits, and Louis Killen sang Haul Away for Rosie in 1995 on his CD Sailors, Ships & Chanteys. He noted:

A halyard chantey similar to Haul Away Joe, the tack and foresheet chantey given in Hugill’s Shanties From the Seven Seas. The verses of the two songs are often interchanged.

Bernard Wrigley sang Haul Away for Rosie in 1974 on the Topic album Sea Shanties.

Frostwater sang Haul Away in 1978 on the Hudson River Sloop Restoration album, Clearwater II.

Graham Shaw sang Haul Away Joe in 1978 on his Traditional Sound album I Am the Minstrel.

Dave Burland sang Haul Away for Rosie in 1979 on his Rubber Records album You Can’t Fool the Fat Man. He noted:

Haul Away for Rosie was given to me by Messrs. Garside and Gough, well known shoe shop proprietors.

Danny Spooner sang Haul Away for Rosie on his 1988 album We’ll Either Bend or Break ’Er.

John Spiers and Jon Boden recorded the shanty iHaul Away, flanked by the tunes Jiggery Pokerwork and Seven Stars in 2003 for their Fellside duo album Bellow. They noted:

John wrote Jiggery Pokerwork as a tribute to the melodeon he started on. Haul Away is a version of the ubiquitous shanty favoured by the aforementioned Forest School Camps. The Seven Stars was learnt by John while playing for the Rogue Morris side in Oxford.

They returned to it in 2011 on their 10^th anniversary album The Works. Tn the meantime, this was also included in their big band Bellowhead’s live set and it can be found on both of their live DVDs, Live at Shepherds Bush Empire (2009) and Hedonism Live (2011), and on the DVD of the Cambridge Folk Festival 2011.

Mark Anthony Thompson sang Haul Away Joe in 2006 on the anthology of pirate ballads, sea songs and chanteys, Rogue’s Gallery.

Sam Lee sang Haul Away Joe in 2012 on the WildGoose project album Short Sharp Shanties Vol. 3: Sea Songs of a Watchet Sailor.

The Salts sang Haul Away for Rosie on their 2018 album Brave.

Lyrics

Stan Kelly sing Away, Haul Away

Talk about your harbour girls around the corner, Sally
    Away, haul away, haul away my Rosie
    Away, haul away, haul away my Johnnie-o
But they wouldn’t go to tea with the girls from Booble Alley
    Away, haul away, haul away my Rosie
    Away, haul away, haul away my Johnnie-o

King Louis was the king of France before the revolution
But the people cut his head off and it spoiled his constitution

Well now I’m leaving Liverpool bound for the Bay of Mexico
I thought I heard the Old Man say it’s time for us to roll and go

Danny Spooner sings Haul Away for Rosie

Ya can talk about yer Bootle gals like up in a corner, Sally,
    Away haul away, we’ll haul away for rosie,
    Away haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie Oh.
But there’s none that shove the jug like the gals from Dog-leg Alley,
    Away haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie,
    Away haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie Oh.

Once I had an Irish gal, her name was Kitty Flanagan,
She stole me boots, she stole me watch, she stole me pot and pannikin.

Then I had a Le Harvard gal and she was little and saucey,
Then I had a Mulatto gal and she was fat and lazy.

Once in me life I married a wife and damn her, she was lazy,
She wouldn’t work, she wouldn’t wash, she bloody near drove me crazy.

Went out one night and oh what a sight and where do ye think I found her,
Behind the pub wi’ her sheets pulled up and twenty men around her.

Reach up me lads, sit on yer arse and split her fanning cocks now,
Reach up me lads, sit on yer arse, I think we’ve hauled enough now.

Bellowhead sing Haul Away

When I was a little lad or so my mother told me
    Away, haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie
    Away, haul away, we’ll haul away for Johnnie-o
That if I didn’t kiss the girls my lips would grow all mouldy
    Away, haul away, we’ll haul away for Rosie
    Away, haul away, we’ll haul away for Johnnie-o

King Louis was the king of France before the revolution
And then he had his head cut off which spoiled his constitution