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HURRAH, SING FARE YE WELL

Lead: Richard

copy of CD cover with link to CD home page

LYRICS:

Solo: Oh fare ye well me bonny young gal
Chorus: Hurrah! sing fare-ye-well!
Solo: Sing fare ye well, oh, fare-ye-well
Chorus: Hurrah! sing fare-ye-well!

We're bound away to Callyo
Oh, fare ye well, me Liverpool gal

I may come back to you some day
With a spankin' big fat pay-day

But when we get to Callyo
I'll find some nice gal there, you know

As I walked out one mornin' fair
I met a puta [flash girl] standin' there

She winked at me I do declare
Black as night was her raven hair

She was a Spanish beauty bold
Her name was Carmen, so I'm told

Oh, fare ye well, we're bound away
We're bound away this sailing day

With Okay Pete to serve as cook
He's sure to get a dirty look

And when our ship she makes a port
We'll go ashore and find some sport

Oh, fare ye well, we're bound away
We're bound away this sailing day

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NOTES:

This is another hauling song from Stan Hugill's book Shanties from the Seven Seas. Collector Captain Whall calls it O Fare Ye Well, My Bonnie Young Girl and says it was a favorite in London ships. After a few verses the shantyman would improvise, since there was no regular story as a rule. Hugill's version, with perhaps a few more regular verses than usual, was obtained from an old Liverpool seaman now dead. Normally there was one pull in the refrain on the second syllable of 'Hurrah.'

Cecil Sharp collected a version of this shanty from John Short that differs in the rhythm of the chorus line.

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