Whup Jamboree
(Whoop Jamboree / Whip Jamboree)
Whall version
O Jamboree, O Jamboree O its get away you black man, Don't you come a nigh me! O Jamboree, O Jamboree! O I wonder if my clothes are out of pawn!O it's now we're past o' the Lizard lights, The Start, boys, next we'll heave in sight; We'll soon be abreast of the Isle of Wight; O I wonder if my clothes are out o' pawn. O when we get to the Blackwall docks, The pretty young girls come down in flocks; Some in their petticoats, some in frocks; O I wonder if my clothes are out o' pawn.
There were other verses but I do not find them in my records
Source: W. B. Whall, Sea Songs and Shanties
John Short version
Whip jamboree, whip jamboree, O you long-tailed black man poke it up behind me Whip jamboree, whip jamboree, O Jenny get your oatcake doneNow my lad's we're round the Rock All hammocks lashed and chests all locked, We'll haul her into the Waterloo Dock, O, Jenny, get your oat-cake done. Now, my lads, we're all in dock We'll be off to Dan Lowrie's on the spot; And now we'll have a good roundabout O, Jenny get your oat-cake done.
Source: Sung by John Short of Watchet; English Folk-Chanteys (1914) and The Shanty Book, Part II (1926)
Liverpool packet version
Jamboree, oh, jamboree! Go away, black man! Don't-cher come nigh me! Jamboree, oh, jamboree! Jimmy, get your oatcake done.Now, my boys, we are all right, For I think I see old Tusker light; We'll make Holyhead before daylight; So, Jimmy, get your oatcake done. Now, my boys, we're round the Head; No more we'll eat old Tapscot's bread; A hand in the chains to heave the lead! So, Jimmy, get your oatcake done. And now I hear the welcome cry That right ahead is the old Bell Buoy: "Keep her east-southeast!" the pilot cries. So, Jimmy, get your oatcake done. And now, my boys, we're 'round the Rock, Right straight into the Waterloo dock, With hammocks lashed and chests all locked; So, Jimmy, get your oatcake done.
Source: Letter signed "I. O. I.", New-York Tribune, December 12, 1913
As sung by A. L. Lloyd
Whup Jamboree, whup jamboree A long-tailed black man come up behind Whup Jamboree, whup jamboree Jenny get yer oats, me sonOh, now we pass the Lizard lights And the Start, me boys, will heave in sight. Soon we're abreast of the Isle of Wight, Come and get yer oats, me son! Oh when we get to the Blackwell Docks. Them pretty young girls come down in flocks, With their short-legged drawers and long-tailed frocks, Come and get yer oats, me son!
Source: A. L. Lloyd, Blow Boys Blow (1957)
Capt. W. B. Whall (1910) is one of the few sources of this wild, provocative shanty. He identifies it as stemming from a minstrel song, and indeed, one exists with the title but a separate melody. This was a homeward bound song, and “the chorus lends itself to the occasion,” although Whall acknowledges that when no passengers were on board, an “unprintable” version was sung instead. In his experience, the line “I wonder if my clothes are out of pawn” was directly substituted when necessary.
There has been much speculation about the innuendo within the verses and chorus. Stan Hugill introduced the clever entendre “Jenny keep your ringtail warm” as the ringtail is a small, aft-ship sail but also connotes vigorous lovemaking upon the return of the sailor. In the early 1900s, John Short evidently provided Cecil Sharp the line “Jenny get your oatcake done,” a chorus which also appears in a mid-19th century minstrel song.
Various references within the verse trace out a particular course of navigation, but in practice, it is likely that the details of the song were composed specifically for the journey at hand.
- In a few more days we’ll sight Cape Clear: bound for England from the West.
- Pigtail sailormen: with long hair in a tarred queue, rather than the short-cropped hair of American packet sailors.
- The Pilot he looks out ahead: An individual with local knowledge taken aboard near questionable waters
- A hand in the chains and a-heaving on the lead: sailing lingo for sounding depths, etc.
- And now we’re past the Lizard Lights: a lighthouse in Cornwall, southernmost Britain, built in 1751 and incrementally improved since.
- Blackwall Docks in Wapping, Docklands area of London, built 1612-1614, which fell into disuse during WWII.
- I’ll say farewell to my Limehouse whore: district of London near the Blackwall, East India, and West India docks.
The tune is related to Santy Anna and the structure, says Cecil Sharp, is akin to Spanish Ladies. In Sharp’s version,
- Rock Light is in Cheshire at the mouth of Mersey.
- Old Dan Lowrie’s was a popular playhouse on Paradise Street, Liverpool, near the Waterloo dock.
A fuller Liverpool text appeared a few years after Whall, in a letter to the New-York Tribune of December 12, 1913. The writer, signing himself “I. O. I.”, had sailed in the early 1860s and remembered the song as “very popular in the days of the Black Ball and Swallow Tail and Tapscot lines,” a capstan chanty “sung while warping a ship into the Liverpool docks.” The chantyman sat on the capstan head while thirty or forty men at the bars took the chorus, and “there was always a crowd of people on the dock to hear the chanties sung.” His verses follow the packet’s track home past the Tuskar light off Wexford, Holyhead, and the Mersey Bell Buoy, and “no more we’ll eat old Tapscot’s bread” bids farewell to ship’s fare on the Tapscott emigrant line.
Lloyd’s verse mentions
- the Start lighthouse, at Start Point, Devon, England, built in 1836.