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Fire Maringo
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Fire Marengo
Fire Maringo / Fire Marengo
[
Roud -
; Ballad Index Hugi016
; trad.]
The Young Tradition recorded four sea shanties, Fire Maringo, Hanging Johnny, Bring 'em Down, and Haul on the Bowline, for their 1967 EP Chicken on a Raft. Royston Wood sang lead on the first and third shanty, Peter Bellamy on the second and fourth. All tracks from the EP were included in the compilation album The Young Tradition Sampler and CD Galleries / Chicken on a Raft / No Relation. The EP sleeve notes commented about Fire Maringo:
Royston was cruising through Hugill's fine book of sea songs and shanties [Shanties from the Seven Seas, p. 16] when he found a fragment of an old cotton screwing worksong. There was no tune attached, and only four verses, so he added some floating verses and made a tune for it. Cotton screwing was about the hardest shipboard task there was: the bales of cotton were forced into the hold until they were packed solid. The men who worked at this would be shorebound sailors, working in the South American harbours till they had saved themselves some money; all nations were represented, so the songs they sang would perhaps contain references to Sally Brown's counterpart in all parts of the world; for the purposes of this song, the sailor came from Liverpool.
Bellowhead sang this shanty as Fire Marengo on their 2006 CD Burlesque and 2009 DVD Live at Shepherds Bush Empire. Jon Boden also sang it as the 24 November 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.
John Jones sang Fire Marengo in 2009 on his Westpark album Rising Road. He noted:
I first heard this song by the Young Tradition many years ago. I have added verses from A.L. Lloyd's book Folk Song in England.
Lyrics
Stan Hugill's version | The Young Tradition sing Fire Maringo |
---|---|
Lift him up and carry him along |
Lift him up and carry him along |
Ease him down and let him lay, |
Ease him down and let him lay, |
Stow him in his hole below, |
Stow him in his hole below, |
When I get back to Liverpool Town, I'll haul her high and I'll haul her low, Oh, Sally, she's a pretty little craft, Screw the cotton, screw him down. | |
Bellowhead sing Fire Marengo | Jon Boden sings Fire Marengo |
Oh, lift him up and carry him along |
Oh, lift him up and carry him along |
Stow him in his hull below, |
Ease him in and let him lay, |
Screw that cotton, screw it down, |
Oh, screw that cotton, screw it down, |
When I get back to Liverpool Town, |
When I get back to Liverpool Town, |
I'll haul her high, I'll haul her low, |
I'll haul her high, I'll haul her low, |
Now Sally, she's a pretty little craft, |
Oh Sally, she's a pretty little craft, |
(repeat firsrt verse) |
Links
See also the Mudcat Café thread Lyr Req: Fire Maringo / Fire Marengo.