Bold Riley oh is a sea shanty collected by A.L. Lloyd who recordered for his album “A Sailor’s Garland” (1962)
“Shellbacks manning the windjammers of the West Indies trade brought back to Liverpool and Bristol more than sugar, bananas and rum; they also brought back many songs. Some of these they kept to themselves, some they handed on to vessels sailing in other waters. Thus the fine hexatonic tune of Bold Riley O, which started life as a Tobago reel, was sung at the halyards of many an East Indiaman bound for Bombay and the Bengal ports.”
Part of the song was found in the Georgia Sea Islands where a work song entitled “Riley” was collected (Roud 18160, also in The Friends of Old Time Music: The Folk Arrival 1961-1965 – Smithsonian Folkways anthology 2006), but it is only after Lloyd’s recording that the song knew a certain popularity in the folk circuits during the 70s.
A.L. Loyd from “A Sailor’s Garland” 1962
Clayton Kennedy from Assassin’s Creed Rogue
A Farewell sea shanty: Bold Riley O
The folk versions prefer a slower melody that emphasizes the farewell / lament mood
Johnny Collins & Jim Mageean from Shanties and Sea Songs (1996) who sing a more extensive version of the one reported
Kate Rusby from Hourglass 1997 who learned the song from Jim Mageean’s version
The Wailin’ Jennys live 2014 (also in Live at the Mauch Chunk Opera House, 2009) except first stanza
BOLD RILEY O
Chorus :
Goodbye, my darling,
goodbye, my dear O,
Bold Riley O, boom-a-lay (1)
Goodbye, my sweetheart (2),
goodbye, my dear O,
Bold Riley O, gone away
The anchor is weighed
and the rags we’ve all set,
Bold Riley O, boom-a-lay
Them Liverpool judies we’ll never forget,
Bold Riley O, (has) gone away
The rain it is raining all the day long,
The northerly winds they blow so strong.
Cheer up, Mary Ellen (3), and don’t look so glum,
On Whitestocking Day (4) you’ll be drinking (hot) rum.
We’re outward bound for the Bengal Bay (5)
Get bending, my lads, it’s a hell of a way.
NOTES
- Nautical term in the folk versions is replaced by “Bold Riley”
- or my darling
- Kate Rusby sings “Well come on, Mary”
- also quoted in Rio Grande (Boung for the Rio Grande) the Whitestocking Day was the day when the wives (mothers) of the sailors dressed well to go and collect the advance on the salary accrued by the sailor, the promissory note (advance note) it was only payable if the sailor had actually embarked the month before. The Allotment of Pay was instead issued by the Admiralty (since the Napoleonic wars) to pay in the due month, part of the salary of the sailor to his wife or to the boarding master. A practice spread also at the merchant marine that became mandatory with the Merchant Shipping Acts in the late 1800s. White cotton stockings were synonymous with elegance.
- typhoons that are formed in the Bengal Bay have two seasonal peaks one in April and the other in October-November in conjunction with the monsoon winds
LINK
https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/boldriley.html
http://www.shanty.org.uk/archive_songs/bold-riley.html
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=50732
https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=17866
