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Mainsail Café / Songs / Johnny Boker

Johnny Boker

(Johnny Booker)

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Like Paddy Doyle, this tune was used for bunting a sail.

Nothing more seems known about Johnny Boker than his name.

According to Joanna Colcord in Roll and Go, the words of a popular American ballad "Aunt Jemima's Plaster" were sometimes adopted to the tune:

Last time I met my wife, she wasn't very civil;

So I stuck a plaster on her back and sent her to the devil.

Sheepskin, pitch and beeswax, they make a bully plaster;

The more she tries to get it off, it only sticks the faster!

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Do, my Johnny Boker, come rock and roll me over, do my Johnny Boker, do!

Do, my Johnny Boker, the skipper is a rover, do my Johnny Boker, do!

Do, my Johnny Boker, the mate he's never sober, do my Johnny Boker, do!

Do, my Johnny Boker, the bo'sun is a tailor, do my Johnny Boker, do!

Do, my Johnny Boker, come roll me in the clover, do my Johnny Boker, do!

From Roll and Go by Joanna Carver Colcord (1924)

Metadata

Roud Index: 353
DT Index: 8782
Hauling shanty, Furling shanty, Short drag shanty, Stamp-and-go shanty

Selected recordings:

Rollicking Sea Shanties Oscar Brand
Foc'sle Songs and Shanties Paul Clayton and The Foc'sle Singers

External links:

Tom Roberts recorded by Grainger (1908)

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