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The Saucy Sailor

[ Roud 531 ; Master title: The Saucy Sailor ; Laws K38 ; G/D 1:49 ; Ballad Index LK38 ; VWML GB/4/16 , HAM/2/1/20 , RoudFS/S160402 ; Bodleian Roud 531 ; GlosTrad Roud 531 ; Wiltshire 1188 ; trad.]

The Everlasting Circle The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs One Hundred English Folksongs Songs of the Ridings: The Yorkshire Musical Museum Songs of the West

Peter Bellamy sang The Saucy Sailor unaccompanied in 1968 on his first solo LP, Mainly Norfolk. He noted:

The songs which complete each side of the record are both “foreign” [i.e. not collected in Norfolk]—the reason for including them being that I like them too much not to. Both were collected by Cecil Sharp and published in his Folk Songs From Somerset [1915]: The Turtle Dove from Mrs Glover of Huish Episcopi and The Saucy Sailor from Mr Thomas Hendy of Ilminster [VWML RoudFS/S160402] .

Frankie Armstrong sang The Saucy Sailor in 1972 on her album Lovely on the Water with word similar to Peter Bellamy’s. She was accompanied by Jez Lowe on concertina.

Saucy Sailor was also collected by George Butterworth in Sussex in 1907 and published in the Journal of the Folk Song Society [VWML GB/4/16] . This was the source for Steeleye Span’s 1972 version of Saucy Sailor on their fourth album Below the Salt. This recording also appeared in 1978 on the B-side of their single Rag Doll. A live version from Steeleye Span’s 1978 farewell tour—then with Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick—can be found on their album Live at Last!. The original album’s sleeve notes introduced the song with:

Seven long years he strode the seven seas,
Seven league boots, salt-caked above the knees,
Seven bright stars, the road across the foam,
Seven light verses tell his coming home.

Steeleye Span’s singer Maddy Prior also recorded this song in 1993 for her solo album Year. She noted:

Saucy Sailor is a wonderful song to sing and I’ve sung it for many years with Steeleye and it is delightfully comfortable. Its cynical and spiteful lyrics simply trip off the tongue.

A live recording from Maddy Prior’s Arthur the King tour at Castle Hall, Liverpool on 8 May 2003 was included in her anthology Collections: A Very Best of 1995 to 2005.

Bernard Wrigley sang Saucy Sailor on his 1974 album Rough & Wrigley. He noted:

Cecil Sharp collected this in Somerset. The old story, but it has a very haunting tune in the mixolydian mode with an oft-repeated sub dominant (4th) note.

Tim Radford sang The Saucy Sailor Boy in 1975 on the Forest Tracks album Folk Songs From Dorset of songs collected in 1905-07 by the Hammond Brothers. Frank Purslow noted:

Unpublished. Mss.Sm20 from Mrs. Gulliver, Combe Florey, 1905 [VWML HAM/2/1/20] .

These are Mrs. Gulliver’s words, but the very fine tune in the mixolydian mode (which was almost certainly originally pentatonic—minus 2nd and 6th degrees) is from Tim’s own repertoire of tunes. This particular one he heard many years ago at Sidmouth and “it just stuck”. Should you feel that this is cheating, I can only point out that singers have been altering tunes and texts and changing the relationships of tunes and texts for centuries; it is, in fact, an essential part of the “folk process” and is the main difference between art music which is always performed as conceived by the original composer—and folk music—which depends on continual re-creation (regeneration or degeneration as the case may be) at the hands of each performer. The usual type of tune to which this song is sung is not, in fact, very English: a heavily accented 3/4 obviously inspired by the Ländler type tunes beloved of the German bands which used to be a regular feature of 19th century town life. I do not think the words are of very great age, probably not earlier than the 1830s. The broadside texts I have seen are all of a fairly late date.

Clive Collins sang The Tarry Sailor in 1976 on the Living Folk album Here’s a Health to the Man and the Maid.

Johnny Doughty sang The Saucy Sailor Boy on a 1976 home recording made by Mike Yates. This recording was published in 1977 on his Topic LP of traditional songs from the Sussex coast, Round Rye Bay for More. This song was included with the title Come My Own One, Come My Fond One in 1998 on the Topic anthology My Ship Shall Sail the Ocean (The Voice of the People Series Volume 2). Mike Yates noted on the original album:

According to William Alexander Barrett, The Saucy Sailor has been in print since at least 1781. He cites it as being highly popular with East London factory girls and, judging by the efforts of other song collectors—Cecil Sharp alone noted it eleven times—t must indeed have been widespread at one time. Johnny’s version comes from his grandmother, who was constantly singing it, and it is hard to say who was the more surprised, Johnny or myself, when, after recording the song, he told me that he hadn’t sung it for at least 60 years!

Walter Pardon of Knapton, Norfolk, sang The Saucy Sailor on 26 October 1979 to Mike Yates. This recording was included in 2000 on his Musical Traditions anthology Put a Bit of Powder on It, Father. Rod Stradling noted:

Aside from a handful of examples crossing the pond to North America, all of Roud’s 63 instances of this song are English, with the majority of these being from Somerset (23 versions, all collected by Sharp and Karpeles). It does not appear to have survived well into the era of sound recordings for, in addition to Walter, only Emily Bishop (Bromsberrow Heath, Herefordshire) and Johnny Doughty (Brighton, Sussex) have been recorded singing it. Johnny’s version is very similar to Walter’s and was to be heard on his Topic LP.

Fred Jordan sang The Saucy Sailor on a 1982 recording by Sybil Clare. This was included on his Veteran 2CD anthology A Shropshire Lad.

Leslie van Berkum recorded Saucy Sailor in 2003 with Steeleye Span’s arrangement for her self-titled album Leslie van Berkum.

Mike Bosworth sang The Saucy Sailor on his 2004 CD of songs from the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould Collection, By Chance It Was. He was accompanied by John Kirkpatrick on accordion.

The Witches of Elswick sang The Saucy Sailor in 2005 on their second and last CD, Hell’s Belles. They noted:

Bryony [Griffith] first heard a version of this on a borrowed Steeleye Span record at the age of 14 and was most impressed that a folk song had her name in it. This is a different version that she found in a Baring-Gould and Cecil Sharp book of English Folk Songs for Schools. Sadly no source details are given but the preface clearly states that the collection “meets the requirements of the Board of Education”, so we think the sailor might once have been a lot saucier.

Viv Legg sang Saucy Sailor on her 2006 Veteran CD Romany Roots. Mike Yates commented in the liner notes:

The earliest known versions of this song can be dated to the end of the 18th century. A number of mid-Victorian broadside printers kept the song in print (Disley, Fortey and Such in London, and Pratt in Birmingham, for example) and several Edwardian song collectors, including Cecil Sharp, George Butterworth, Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Gardiner and Percy Grainger (all in England), and Gavin Greig in Scotland, noted many sets. The song has also turned up in several locations along the eastern seaboard of North America (from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia in the north, to as far south as Florida) and, on occasion, in Kentucky and West Virginia. Other recent English singers, including Walter Pardon of Norfolk and Johnny Doughty of Sussex, had the song in their respective repertoires.

John Roberts sang The Saucy Sailor on his 2007 CD Sea Fever. He noted:

Frankie Armstrong and Maddy Prior both recorded The Saucy Sailor, adapting a Somerset tune collected by Sharp. Mine is a variant of a different tune family from the same collection.

Mawkin:Causley recorded The Saucy Sailor in 2009 for their CD The Awkward Recruit and sang it at Wat Tyler Folk Festival on 5 September 2009:

Jon Boden sang Saucy Sailor as the 18 August 2010 entry of his A Folk Song a Day, commenting, “The Steeleye version of this is one of my favourite of their tracks,” but goes on to name his source for this as The Witches of Elswick adding, “but this version is much more robust and most suited for massed voices.”

Andy Turner sang Saucy Sailor as the 11 September 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week. He cited Steeleye Span’s album as the one that turned him onto folk music, but referred to the VWML website for further versions of Come My Own One collected by George Butterworth.

Andy Turner also sang Saucy Sailor on his and Mat Green’s 2024 WildGoose album Time for a Stottycake. They noted:

From a Mr. H. Webb at Stanton St. John near Oxford. It was collected by George Butterworth in May 1907 and included in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society in 1913 [VWML GB/4/16, RoudFS/S160402] . The couplet “I will sail o’er the briny ocean / Where the meadows are so green” makes no sense of course, but then Oxford is a very long way from the sea—

Rob Williams sang The Saucy Sailor Boy in 2012 on his album of songs collected by the Hammond Brothers in 1905 form Jane Gulliford of Combe Florey, Somerset, Outstanding Natural Beauty.

This video shows Bryony Griffith, Fay Hield and Jon Boden singing The Saucy Sailor at the Soundpost Full English Weekend in October 2015:

Lyrics

Peter Bellamy sings The Saucy Sailor

“Come you dearest, come you fairest,
Come tell unto me.
Could you marry a poor sailor boy
Who has just come from sea?”

“I can’t marry no poor sailor,
No poor sailor for me.
For to cross the wide ocean
Is a terror to me.

And you’re ragged, love, and you’re dirty, love,
And your clothes they smell of tar.
So be gone, you saucy sailor boy,
So be gone, you Jack Tar.”

“I may be ragged, love, I may be dirty, love,
And my clothes they smell of tar,
But I’ve got silver in my pocket
And gold in great store.”

When she heard these words come form him
Down on bended knees she fell,
Saying, “I’ll marry my dear sailor boy
’Cause I love him right well well.”

“Do you think that I am foolish love?
Do you think that I am mad?
For to marry with some poor country girl
Where no fortune’s to be had?

I will cross the briny ocean,
When the meadows they are green,
Since you have had the offer, love,
Another may have the ring.

For I’m young, love, and I’m frolicsome,
I am easy and I am free,
And I don’t give a straw, love,
What the world may think of me.”

Steeleye Span sing Saucy Sailor

“Come my own one, come my fair one,
Come now unto me.
Could you fancy a poor sailor lad
Who has just come from sea?”

“You are ragged, love, you’re dirty, love,
And your clothes smell much of tar.
So be gone, you saucy sailor lad,
So be gone, you Jack Tar.”

“If I am ragged, love, and I’m dirty, love,
And my clothes smell much of tar,
I have silver in my pocket, love
And gold in great store.”

And then when she heard him say so
On her bended knees she fell,
“I will marry my dear Henry
For I love a sailor lad so well.”

“Do you think that I am foolish love?
Do you think that I am mad?
For to wed with a poor country girl
Where no fortune’s to be had?

I will cross the briny ocean,
I will whistle and sing.
And since you have refused the offer, love,
Some other girl shall wear the ring.

Oh, I am frolicsome and I am easy,
Good tempered and free,
And I don’t give a single pin, my boys,
What the world thinks of me.”

Walter Pardon sings The Saucy Sailor

“Come my dearest, come my fairest
And tell unto me,
Will you wed a poor sailor lad
Who’s just come from the sea?”

“You are ragged, love, you’re dirty, love,
And your clothes smell of tar.
So be gone, you dirty sailor lad,
So be gone you Jack Tar.”

“If I’m ragged love, if I’m dirty, love,
And my clothes smell of tar,
I’ve silver in my pocket, love,
And I’ve bright gold in store.”

When she heard him thus address her,
Down upon her knees she fell,
Saying, “Ragged, dirty sailor lad,
You I love oh so well.”

“Do you think I am foolish?
Do you think I am mad?
That I’d wed a poor country girl
With no fortune to be had?

“I will set sail in the morning
When the meadows are green,
Because you have refused me, love,
Not for you the gold ring.”

The Witches of Elswick sing The Saucy Sailor

“Come my own love, come my true love,
Come and listen unto me.
Could you wed with a poor sailor lad
𝄆 Who has just returned from sea?” 𝄇

“I will indeed not wed a sailor lad
For his clothes smell strong of tar.
You’re a dirty, ragged, saucy sailor lad,
𝄆 Now begone, you Jacky Tar!” 𝄇

“Although I’m dirty and though I’m ragged
And my clothes of tar do smell,
I have silver in my pocket
𝄆 And a store of gold as well.” 𝄇

And when she’s heard him say these words unto her
Down upon her knee she fell,
Saying, “Dirty, ragged, saucy sailor lads
𝄆 I love more than words can tell.” 𝄇

“Oh do you think me to be foolish?
Do you think that I am mad?
That I’d wed with the likes of you, my lass,
𝄆 When there’s others to be had?” 𝄇

“For I shall cross o’er the briny ocean
And my ship shall spread her wings,
And there I’ll find a better love than you, my lass,
It’s 𝄆 not for you, this wedding ring.” 𝄇

“For you may cross all the briny ocean
And your ship shall spread her wings,
No more will I refuse a saucy sailor lad
𝄆 Lest he bears a wedding ring.𝄇
No more will I refuse a saucy sailor lad
Lest he bears a wedding ring.”

Viv Legg sings Saucy Sailor

“Come, my dear one, come, my fair one,
Come, my sweetheart unto me,
For soon we shall be married,
And my wife you shall be.”

“Be gone, my saucy sailor lad,
Be gone, my jack tar,
Be gone, you dirty sailor lad.
Your clothes they smell so strong of tar.”

“If I’m ragged, love, or if I’m dirty, love,
Or if my clothes they smell of tar,
There is silver in my pocket, love,
And gold in great store.”

When she did hear him say so,
On her bended knees she fell,
Saying, “I’ll wed you, jolly Henry,
Love a sailor lad still.”

“Do you think that I am foolish, love?
Do you think that I’ve gone mad?
To be wed to a poor country girl,
Where there’s no fortune to be had.”

“I’ll travel across the briny ocean, love,
Where the meadows are growing green,
And since you’ve refused the offer, love.
Then another girl shall wear the ring.”

John Roberts sings The Saucy Sailor

“Come, my dear one, come, my fair one,
Come and tell it unto me;
Could you fancy a poor sailor boy
That’s just come from the sea?

“You are ragged, love, and you’re dirty, love,
Your clothes, they smell of tar.
So begone, you saucy sailor boy,
So begone, you Jack Tar.”

“If I’m ragged, love, if I’m dirty, love,
If my clothes, they smell of tar,
Then I’ve silver in my pockets, love,
And gold in great store.”

And when she heard these words come from him,
On her bended knee she fell,
“I will marry my dear sailor boy
For I love him right well.”

“Do you think that I am foolish, love?
Do you think that I am mad?
Fot to wed with a poor country girl
Where no fortune’s to be had.

“I will cross the briny ocean, love,
I will whistle, I will sing.
And since you’ve refused the offer, love,
Some other shall have the ring.

“For I’m young, love, and I’m frolicsome,
I’m good-tempered, kind and free.
And I don’t care a single pin, my boys,
What the world thinks of me.”

Jon Boden sings Saucy Sailor

“Come my own love, come my true love,
Come and listen unto me.
Could you wed with a poor sailor lad
𝄆 Who has just returned from sea?” 𝄇

“Oh indeed I’ll not wed a sailor lad
For his clothes smell strong of tar.
You’re a dirty, ragged, saucy sailor lad,
𝄆 So begone, you Jacky Tar!” 𝄇

“Although I’m dirty, love, and I’m ragged
And my clothes of tar do smell,
I have silver in my pocket, love,
𝄆 And a store of gold as well.” 𝄇

And when she’s heard him say these words unto her
Down upon her knee she fell,
Saying, “Dirty, ragged, saucy sailor lad
𝄆 I love more than words can tell.” 𝄇

“Do you think me to be foolish?
Do you think that I am mad?
For to wed with the likes of you, my lass,
𝄆 When there’s others to be had?” 𝄇

“For I shall cross o’er the briny ocean
And my ship shall spread her wings,
And there I’ll find a better love than you, my lass,
𝄆 It’s not for you, this wedding ring.” 𝄇

“Oh, you may cross all the briny ocean
And your ship shall spread her wings,
No more will I refuse a saucy sailor lad
𝄆 Lest he bears a wedding ring.” 𝄇

Rob Williams sings The Saucy Sailor Boy

“Come my only one, come my fond one,
Come, my dearest unto me!
Won’t you wed with this poor sailor­boy,
Just returned from the sea?”

“No! you’re a ragged love, no! you’re a dirty love,
And you smells so strong of tar.
You begone! you saucy sailor­boy!
You begone! you Jack Tar.”

“If I am a ragged love, if I’m a dirty love,
If I smell so strong of tar,
I have silver in my pocket, love,
And I’ve gold in bright store.”

So soon as she heard him say,
On her bended knee she fell,
Saying, “I’ll wed with my dear Henery,
For I love my jolly sailor well.”

“No! I’d rather cross the briny oceans,
Where there’s no field to be seen,
Since you’ve refused the offer, love,
Some other shall wear the ring.”