Sloop John B.
MajicPat
Below is a copy of a message that I posted in the Beach Boys newsgroup,
alt.music.beach-boys. I have not received any replies on the meaning and
history of the song. I'd appreciate it if any of you could steer me in the
right direction. Many thanks!
Pat
Greetings:
"Sloop John B." was banned in our area when it was released. The reason
given by the local radio station was that the line "drinkin' all night. Got
into a fight" was
considered unacceptable for young, impressionable ears. If my memory serves me
right, the flip side was "You're So Good to Me," and that was the side that got
airplay in our town (Altoona, PA.) When I saw the BBs perform in nearby
Johnstown, PA in the spring of 1967, Mike Love introduced "Sloop" by saying
something like, "Now it's time for our dirty song."
Does anyone know if "Sloop" was banned in any other areas? Also, is there
anything remotely suggestive in the lyrics that I am missing ... or was Love
calling it a "dirty" song because it had a history of being banned?
And while we're on the subject of "Sloop," does anyone have any idea of the
origins of the song and what the words really mean? I've seen the song in a
couple of folk song books and have not seen any additional lyrics. The lyrics
I have seen published are the same (except for a word here or there) as the
BBs' version. (In one version, the first mate broke into the "people's trunk"
rather than the "captain's bunk." And the corn and grits were "the corn"
rather than "my corn." "Sheriff John Stone"... rather than "Sheriff
Johnstone", etc.) Do any of you folk music aficionados out there know what
story the singer of this song is trying to tell? What were the boy and his
grandfather doing on a boat together ... and carousing around Nassau? What
happened to the cook? Does "he got the fits" mean that he went crazy? Or is
it a forgotten term for some kind of illness? Why did he eat the grits and
then throw away the corn? And why is the corn so important to the singer,
anyway?
I've been wondering about the story of this song ever since I first heard
it (and fell in love with it) over 30 years ago. As far as I'm concerned, the
Beach Boys *made* this song their own with this arrangement. It wasn't until a
year or two after the song was released that I even learned that it wasn't an
original ... that it was folk song. I'd really appreciate it if any of you
could give some background on the song. I've looked in a few books on folk
songs, but haven't seen any that deal with "Sloop John B."
Sincerely,
Pat
HappyT
songster/band leader Blind Blake (not to be confused with the American blues
singer with the same name). When I heard Blake back in the seventies, he and
his band were serenading tourists in the airport lobby as they arrived in
Nassau. He was the source of some great songs, including "Run Come See,
Jerusalem" and "My Name is Morgan but it Ain't J.P." I may be wrong, but I
think he was the original source for "John B. Sails" or "Sloop John B," which
Pete Seeger and others then disseminated around the folk scene. The Beach Boys
no doubt learned it in that way, and made it into a semi-rock party song. We
used to sing it in Washington Square back in the fifties.
Happy Traum
Homespun Tapes
barry finn
the 20's, I've also heard it's related to the rowing song Come Row The Boat
Child, but can't as of yet substantiate this, if so this could bring it's
roots to the Georgia Sea Islands. The network of Black sailors throughout
the Eastern Seaboard, during the days of sail, could have easily brought
their songs & influence throughout the entire Atlantic rim. Barry
HappyT <hap...@aol.com> wrote in article
<199808020300...@ladder03.news.aol.com>...
SLHinton17
>Greetings:
> Below is a copy of a message that I posted in the Beach Boys >newsgroup,
>alt.music.beach-boys. I have not received any replies on the meaning and
>history of the song. I'd appreciate it if any of you could steer me in the
>right direction. Many thanks!
>
>Pat
[snip]
*******************************
The song appeared in print in Carl Sandburg's _American Songbag_, in 1927. (A
reprint edition, with a new intro by Garrison Keillor, was brought out by
Harcourt, Brace in 1990, and is available at Amazon books.) It might be worth
while to quote a part of Sandburg's head notes:
"John T. McCutchewon, cartoonist and kindly philosopher, and his wife Evelyn
Shaw McCutcheon, mother and poet, learned to sing this on their Treasure Island
in the West Indies. They tell of it, 'Time and usage have given this song
almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau. The weathered ribs of
the historic craft lie imbedded in the sand at Governor's Island......'"
Here are the words to the song as Sandburg printed them 62 years ago:
THE JOHN B. SAILS
Oh, we come on the sloop _John B_,
My gran'fadder an' me.
Round Nassau Town we did roam.
Drinking all night, we got in a fight,
I feel so break-up I want to go home!
REFRAIN:
So hoist up the _John B._ sails,
See how the the mains'l set,
Send for the Capt'n ashore, Lemme go home!
Lemme go home! Lemme go home!
I feel so break-up I want to go home!
De first mate he got drunk,
Broke up the people's trunk,
Constable come on board an' take him away.
Mr. Johnstone, please let me alone,
I feel so break-up I want to go home!
REFRAIN:
De poor cook, he got fits,
Tro' way all de grits,
Then he took and eat up all o' my corn!
Lemme go home, I want to go home!
Dis is de worst trip since I been born.
REFRAIN.
--------------------------
This doesn't seem mysterious to me -- the singer and his grandfather arrived in
Nassau on the boat, after a lot of adventures with drunk or crazy mate and
cook. The 'corn" that the cook ate up all of may have referred to whiskey:
during Prohibition, "corn whiskey" was often called simply "corn." I think
Mr. Johnstone may have been the name of the constable who came on board to
arrest the mate, who had damaged the luggage of the passengers. Just a guess!
It's a good song. I think Prof. Roger Abrams may have mentioned it in his
study of Caribbean sea songs, _Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore_, but I can't
find my copy to verify that.
Sam Hinton
La Jolla, CA
MajicPat
>From: slhin...@aol.com (SLHinton17)
>Date: Sun, Aug 2, 1998 00:29 EDT
>Message-id: <199808020429...@ladder01.news.aol.com>
Greetings:
Many thanks for your replies on the subject of "Sloop John B." It looks
as though I certainly came to the right place for good information. I guess
what I was hoping for was the possibility of more verses to the song or of
slightly different verses that would tell a more complete story of what the
narrator of the song is trying to tell us. I guess that, by and large, there
really isn't anything more to the song than is in the popularized versions.
(The Weavers' version is titled "The Wreck of the John B." which made me think
that maybe there was an additional "chapter" to the tale ... that some other
catastrophe occurred that eventually sunk the boat.)
The idea that the corn is really whiskey *did* occur to me, but then I
figured that the line would have then been "drank up all my corn" rather than
"eat up ..." but perhaps some singers didn't know that corn whiskey=corn and
they substituted "ate" somewhere in passage.
Anyway, I do appreciate your feedback. I'll repost your replies in the
Beach Boy newsgroup, where I'm sure they will enjoy them a lot. Many thanks.
Pat
Abby Sale
>
>It's a good song. I think Prof. Roger Abrams may have mentioned it in his
>study of Caribbean sea songs, _Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore_, but I can't
>find my copy to verify that.
Look on the third shelf up, way on the left. But I just happen to have it
on Inter-Library Loan & open in front of me. "Michael Row..." &
"Shenandoah" are there but I see no ref. to "Sloop."
It's still a good song. Good background you posted.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---
I am Abby Sale - abby...@orlinter.com (That's in Orlando)
not given
One Beach Boys song I don;t like is California Girls, if we had a disco at my church youth club it was one record we insisted never got played , the lyrics just made you feel uncomfortable and upset too, what do others think?
Dave Levenson
Sloop John A -Les Barker
We looked for the Sloop John A;
We looked for it all day;
Round Nassau Town we did roam,
A man on the pier, Said it wasn't here;
Oh we didn't find it, And then we went home.
Chorus:
Oh where can the John A be?
Maybe the A's at sea;
We had a good look round, then we went home.
Then we went home, We had to go home.
Well we didn't find it, And then we went home.
The first mate was not there,
Maybe he was elsewhere;
Maybe he was on board the Sloop John A;
Wherever he was, We didn't meet him because
We didn't find it, And then we went home.
The day was total con,
It seemed the A had gone;
Then they told us that there's another called B.
B was okay; I had my heart set on A;
Oh we didn't find it, And then we went home.