• Song Database
  • Albums
  • Print Collections
  • External Links
Mainsail Café / Songs / Bring 'em Down

Bring 'em Down

Suggest changes Random song
Lyrics
Information
Melody
Share

A. L. Lloyd sang this shanty with Ewan MacColl on the 1962 album A Sailor's Garland. Others have reported that Bert was the author, but the sleeve notes read:

Like Bold Riley O, this tune (a Dorian one) was brought to Liverpool from the West Indies where a variant of it had served as a challenging stick-fight song. Among the vessels that adopted the tune as a shanty for heavy hauling were those running up the coast of Chile. Old-time sailors, who had a high regard for Valparaiso women, pronounced the name of the country to rhyme with "versatile"

Direct link:

Temporarily disabled. Sorry. Please use the contact form in the sidebar.

In Liverpool I was born,
Ch: Bring 'em down,
London is me home from home,
Ch: Bring 'em down.

In Liverpool I was bred,
Strong in the back and thick in the head.

Callao gals I do love so,
Waggle their arse with a roll and go.

Liverpool gals I do adore,
Rob yer blind and ask fer more.

When I git home from off the sea,
It's Jinny will ya marry me.

Bring 'em down it is the cry,
The bloody topmast sheave is dry.

Rock and roll her over boys,
Get this damned job over boys.

As sung by Danny Spooner

Metadata

DT Index: 933
Hauling shanty

Selected recordings:

Steady as She Goes Various artists
Songs Of The Sea: San Francisco, 1979 Stan Hugill and and others
Sailors' Songs and Sea Shanties Various artists
Songs of the Sailor Mystic Seaport Chanteymen

External links:

Mainly Norfolk entry

Explore similar songs

  • Supen Ut, En Dram Pä Man Heaving shanty
  • As I Went A-Walking Down Ratcliffe Highway Forecastle song
  • Swansea Town Forecastle song
  • Sling the Flowing Bowl Forecastle song
  • Unmooring Forecastle song
Mainsail Café, 2025 Contact