Shantyman Library

Stan Hugill – Sailortown (1967)

The Sailortown (1967)

The book Sailortown (1967) (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.). It is an excellent source of knowledge about what a merchant seaman did when he was not on a voyage.

During reading this unique book, I realized my great ignorance of seafaring life and what things, filled a huge part of a merchant sailor’s life. Another thing that I realized from this book is the fact, that focusing only on the musical aspect of the shanties and the forebitters. This was a complete misunderstanding and even ignorance on my part. This fact reduces the shanties and forebitters to music sheets and notations. In fact, the care for beautiful performance is all that was the least important in the shanties and forebitters.

Discover the tragic sailor’s lives described in the Sailortown (1967)

“Sailortown,” tells us how terrible and tragic albeit hilarious and challenging, was the land part of a sailor’s life. The book describes emotions and dangers mentioned, for example, such as Shanghaiing, prostitution, selling the corpses of sailors, horse riding in a brothel, or maybe beatings and mass orgies in whaling ports. It is an amazing mix indeed. The author gives us a description of all the most important “Sailortowns”, or port districts that were an alienated, exclusive world for sailors,

another name “Sailortown” or actually the first, as the author claims, it is “Fiddlers Green”

Yes, yes, we learn from the book that the meaning of “Fiddlers Green” as a paradise for sailors was secondary and invented much later. I could write more, but it would take too long. This book cannot be ignored by people who are shanty lovers. One of the fans of my FB page stated, with whom I fully agree, “If you start reading this book, take your time, let your mind enjoy it”.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to Stan Hugill – Shanties and Sailors’ Songs

Additional Stan Hugill’s books:

Shanties and Sailor’ Songs (1969)

Sea Shanties (1977)

Songs Of The Sea (1977)

Stan Hugill – Songs Of The Sea (1977)

Songs Of The Sea (1977) is a really big book

It is My great pleasure, to share the Songs Of The Sea (1977) book with you. One of the less (unfortunately) known books by Stan Hugill. A book in a huge size, my friend, shantyman, and great player on Melodeon Greg Bullough who knows Stan Hugill due to his active work in Mystic Seaport Museum says that …

Stan Hugill himself called this book the “coffee table”…

… the quality of photos and paper in this book can be compared to the most expensive albums in the field of painting. Excellent photos and a very interesting formula of “as if by hand” writing. The text of the song adds to the charm of this book. Inside, we can find real gems, in addition to the most famous shanties. We can find a large collection of songs and shanties: Danish, Norwegian, German, and other unique languages.

All non-English songs have an English translation aside.

Additionally, all non-English songs are divided into thematic chapters. I would like to add that in the Songs Of The Sea (1977) book you can find a huge amount of information about the life and customs of sailors living at the time when these songs were sung. As usual, this book has a huge amount of knowledge, not only about sea shanties but also maritime knowledge, which is really helpful to understand the mechanics of the sea shanties.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to Stan Hugill -Songs Of The Sea (1977)

Additional Stan Hugill’s books:

Sailortown (1967)

Sea Shanties (1977)

Shanties and Sailor’ Songs (1969)

So Early In The Morning (C)

Interesting Facts about So Early In The Morning (C)

Another version of “So Early In The Morning”. The Interesting Facts about So Early In The Morning (C) was sung at the capstan and pumps and is usually heard aboard ships in the West Indian Trade.

The song will be reconstructed by myself as the pump shanty.

The source of this sea shanty

The music: “Shanties from the Seven Seas” by Stan Hugill (1st ed p 57).

The lyrics: “Shanties from the Seven Seas” by Stan Hugill (1st ed p 57, 58). The Last Two verses have been added by me, they come from version (A) of the song to extend this song a bit, and give it minimal full song length.

The Record of the So Early In The Morning (C)

You also can find this record on my YouTube channel here or directly listen below. Additionally, if you want to share your opinion about the record or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or leave a comment at the bottom of this blog article.

The musical notation

so-early-in-the-morning-c - musical notation

The full lyrics

So Early In The Morning (C)

When ye gits to Bristol Town,
drink a health to them chowlah’s me boys,
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!
– Bottle-O! Bottle-O!
– Bottle of very good whisky-O!
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!

* 2 *

Now we’re bound to Kingston Town,
Where the rum flows round an’ round.
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!
– Bottle-O! Bottle-O!
– Bottle of very good whisky-O!
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!

* 3 *

The Mate wuz drunk an’ he went below
To take a swing o’ his Bottle-O!
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!
– Bottle-O! Bottle-O!
– Bottle of very good whisky-O!
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!

* 4 *

A Tread on me coat, and all-hands-in
A bully good rough an’ tumble-O!
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!
– Bottle-O! Bottle-O!
– Bottle of very good whisky-O!
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!

* 5 *

A drinkin’ song, a song o’ love!
a ditty o’ seas and shipmatessing-song-O!
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!
– Bottle-O! Bottle-O!
– Bottle of very good whisky-O!
– So early in the mornin;
– Sailor love the Bottle-O!

Related to this sea shanty

A-Rovin’ (A)

So Early In The Morning (A)

So Early In The Morning (B)

Stan Hugill – Shanties and Sailors’ Songs (1969)

Book description

Stan Hugill’s book – Shanties and Sailors’ Songs, was published in 1969 (Herbert Jenkins Ltd). Generally, if you are interested in shanties and maritime culture, this is an excellent book for you, no matter what level of knowledge you have mastered, you will enjoy this book. Due to the fact, that Stan Hugill was a sailor and shantyman, he tells us many interesting things in this book. Worth noting, this is not just a songbook, in fact, only half of this book are containing songs.

Starting from the end

So firstly, the shanties and forebitters you can find of course in the second half of the book. Worth to point out, that this book is written in a very characteristic and typical way for Stan Hugill, namely: “Page for description – page for a song”. So, each song contains a very extended description that highlights the history of the song. We can find there, the way how sung, and the specific vocabulary. As an example of how amazing these descriptions are, let me give you one example. An example of a super detailed description can be shanty “Ranzo”. We can read in this description even about the Polish accent that the title “Ranzo” was a Polish Jew.

How many shanties you can find in the book?

To point out, this book contains over 40 great sea shanties, several of each type. So we can learn about all types of work in relation to the shanties accompanying these works. The first part of this book presents descriptions of the types of sea shanties. The book contains great, extensive descriptions of shanties. Also, contain descriptions of the work environment depending on the type of shanty used. So, we will learn about, among others, shanties for windlass, capstan, pump (brake and Downton), halyard, stamp ‘n go, etc.

The amount of knowledge contains in this book really impressed me. The book also contains illustrations done by an author. Those illustrations show us, sailors, in action when they work and sing shanty.

Do you want to be more involved?

You can find excellent records of sea shanties here. If you want to discuss this book or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here, or below post in the comment section.

Related to Stan Hugill – Shanties and Sailors’ Songs

Additional Stan Hugill’s books:

Sailortown (1967)

Sea Shanties (1977)

Songs Of The Sea (1977)