Shenandoah
(Shanadore / Shanadar)
Shanadore version
O Shanadar, I love your daughter
Ch: Hooray, you rolling river
Shanadar, I love your daughter
Ch: Ha Ha... I'm bound away to the wild Missouri
O seven years I courted Sally.
And seven more I couldn't gain her.
She said I was a tarry sailor.
Farewell my dear I'm bound to leave you;
I'm bound away but will ne'er deceive you.
Shenandoah version
Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you
Ch: Away, you rolling river.
Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you.
Ch: Away, I'm bound to go... cross the wide Missouri
Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter,
Oh Shenandoah, I love your daughter.
'Tis seven long years since last I see thee,
'Tis seven long years since last I see thee.
Oh Shenandoah, I took a notion
To sail across the stormy ocean.
Oh Shenandoah, I'm bound to leave you.
Oh Shenandoah, I'll not deceive you.
Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you,
Oh Shenandoah, I long to hear you.
Several distinct melodies and verses have developed from this song, which has occasionally been called the first American folk song. Traditionally, Shenandoah (which is also a river, a river valley, and a mountain range in Virginia) refers to an Indian chief.
The river Missouri is typically pronounced Mi-zoo’-rye. Frank Shay (An American Sailor's Treasury) adds that the pronunciation Shannadore was ubiquitous among the old sailors.
In Songs of the Sea, Stan Hugill writes that this shanty version was used when drawing a ship nearer to her anchor. The version probably came into circulation from the American boatsmen of the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi rivers in the 1840s.