“Blow the man down”, that is to knock a man down or strike with a fist, belaying pin or capstan bar, is a popular sea shanty.
There are a great variety of texts of this halyard shanty, with the same melody, and after the version for the cartoon character “Popeye” it has also become a song for children!
Leggi in italiano
[ Roud 2624 ; Ballad Index Doe017 ; Mudcat 49738 ; trad.][1]
♫ Knock a Man Down (John Short & Cecil Sharp)
♫ Blow a Man Down (Paradise street)
♫ Blow a Man Down (Black Baller)
♫ Blow a Man Down (Flying Fish sailor)
♫ Blow a Man Down (The Fishes)
♫ Blow the man down (The Milkmaid)
♫ Blow the man down (Bungyereye)
♫ Blow a Man Down (carribean version)
Knock a man down
“Knock a man down” comes from African-American work songs and most likely influenced the later shanty entitled “Blow the man down”, which ended up in the repertoire of liners along the transatlantic route [2].
We find it in On Board the Rocket (1879) in which Adams transcribed some of the sailors’ work songs heard in the 1850s and then again in Cecil Sharp’s collection collected in the field by seaman John Short (1914).
This version with the chorus after each verse and a big chorus is considered a capstan or pump shanty. Sharp writes that since Short remembered only two verses of the shanty he added other lines typical of Blow the man down
“English Folk Chanteys” Cecil James Sharp (1914)
Knock a man down, kick a man down ;
way ay knock a man down,
knock a man down right down to the ground,
O give me some time to knock a man down.
The watchman’s dog(1) stood ten feet high
way ay knock a man down,
The watchman’s dog stood ten feet high
O give me some time to knock a man down.
A livery ship and a lively crew.
O we are the boys to put her through
I wish I was in London Town.
It’s there we’d make the girls fly round.
John Short sings a very personal version in the arrangement for the Short Sharp Shanties the authors write ” Fox-Smith, Colcord and Doeflinger all comment on the number of different texts which the shanty carried. Hugill gives six different sets of words and Short’s words are not really related to any of them – so we have added ‘general’ verses from other versions. Specifically, we’ve added the ‘Market Street’, ‘spat in his face’ and ‘rags are all gone’ verses – the rest are Short’s.”
As I was a-walking down Market street
a bully old watchman I chanced for to meet
[big chorus]
The watchman’s dog stood ten feet high ,
The watchman’s dog stood ten feet high.
So I spat in his face by gave him good jaw
and says he “me young fellow you’re breaking the law!”
[Cecil Sharp version]
I wish I was in London Town.
It’s there we’d make them girls fly round.
She is a lively ship and a lively crew,
O we are the boys to put her through
[big chorus]
[“Short Sharp Shanties” ]
The rags are all gone and (?the chains they are jam?)
and the skipper he says (? “If the weather be high”?)
[big chorus]
(1) it was not unusual that the watchmen since the Middle Ages were accompanied with a dog, as can be seen from many vintage illustrations
Prime seamen onboard a Black Ball
The oldest version is the one in which the novice sailors are soon aware of the harsh and violent climate on the Black Baller.
As Hugill says ” Chief Mates in Western Ocean ships were known as “blowers”, second mates as “strikers”, and third mates as “greasers.”
A Packet ship was one which had a contract to carry packets (formerly “paquettes”) of mail. The earliest and most famous transatlantic packet route was the Liverpool service, started in 1816 by the Black Ball Line, with regular departures from New York on the 1st and 16th of every month without fail, regardless of weather or other inconveniences. These early ships of 300 to 500 tons averaged 23 days for the eastward voyage and 40 days to return westward. Cabin passengers were usually gentlefolk of good breeding, who expected to find courtesy and politeness in the captains with whom they sailed. Packet captains were remarkable men, hearty, bluff, and jovial, but never coarse, always a gentleman.
The mates, on the other hand, had no social duties to distract their attention, and devoted their time and energies to extracting the very maximum of performance from both their vessel and its crew, so it is no surprise that it was on board the Black Ball liners that “belaying pin soup” and “handspike hash” first became familiar items of the shipboard regime. A hard breed of sailor was required to maintain the strict schedules whatever the weather, and it took an even harder breed of mate to keep this rough and ready bunch in some sort of order. If all else failed then then Rule of the Fist applied: to “blow a man down” was to knock him down with any means available – fist, belaying pin, or capstan bar being the weapons most often preferred. [3]
“Capstan Bars”, David Bone 1932
CHORUS
oh! Blow the man down, bullies(1).
Blow the man down W-ay! hey? Blow the man down(2)!
Blow the man down bullies. Blow him right down,
give us the time and we’ll blow the man down!
Come all ye young fellers that follows the sea.
W-ay! hey? Blow the man down!
I’ll sing ye a song if ye’ll listen t’ me.
Give us the time an’ we’ll blow the man down!
‘Twas in a Black Baller I first served my time.
and in a Black Baller I wasted my prime.
‘Tis when a Black Baller’s preparin’ for sea.
Th’sights in th’ fo’ cas’le(3) is funny t’ see
Wi’ sodgers (4) an’ tailors an’ dutchmen an’ all,
As ships for prime seamen(5) aboard th’ Black Ball.
But when th’ Black Baller gets o’ th’ land
it’s then as ye’ll hear th’ sharp word o’ command.
oh! it’s muster ye sodgers an’ tailors an’ sich.
an’ hear ye’re name called by a son of a bitch.
it’s “fore-topsail halyards”(6), th’ Mate(7) he will roar.
“oh, lay along smartly you son of a whore”.
oh, lay along smartly each lousy recroot.
Wor it’s lifted ye’ll be wi’ th’ toe of a boot.
FOOTNOTES
(1 ) bully boys (bullies) are the sailors (also John Bull) the overbearing boys, a character with an almost animalistic strength like a bull and equally strong, powerful and voracious.
(2) Blow=knock. An interesting deconstructive analysis by Jessica Floyd[4] if “the man” is symbolically “the Old Man” i.e. the commander of the ship the sailors could covertly allude to a mutiny
(3)the forward part of a ship below the deck, traditionally used as the crew’s living quarters.
(4) sodger variant of soldier is used as an insult in the sense of ambush, slacker, one who always tries to escape from work, that when there is work, goes away or retires
(5) the inexperienced and the novices are good only for the easy maneuvers
(6) fore-topsail halyards= In sailing, a halyard or halliard is a line (rope) that is used to hoist a ladder, sail, flag or yard; fore-topsai the sail above the foresail set on the fore-topmast
(7) Mate= first officer
A lot of variants[5]
The Seekers version
I
Come all ye young fellows that follow the sea
To me weigh hey blow the man down
And pray pay attention and listen to me
Give me some time to blow the man down
I’m a deep water sailor just in from Hong Kong
If you’ll give me some rum I’ll sing you a song-
II
T’was on a Black Baller I first spent my time
And on that Black Baller I wasted my prime
T’is when a Black Baller’s preparing for sea
You’d split your sides laughing at the sights that you see
III
With the tinkers and tailors and soldiers and all
That ship for prime seamen onboard a Black Ball
T’is when a Black Baller is clear of the land
Our boatswain then gives us the word of command
IV
“Lay aft” is the cry “to the break of the poop
Or I’ll help you along with the toe of my boot”
T’is larboard and starboard on the deck you will sprawl
For Kicking Jack Williams commands the Black Ball
Aye first it’s a fist and then it’s a pall
When you ship as a sailor aboard the Black Ball
I’m a `Flying Fish’ sailor
A further version[6] tells the story of a “flying-fish sailor” just landed in Liverpool from Hong Kong, swapped by a policeman for a “blackballer”. The sailor reacts by throwing the policeman on the ground with a sting and obviously ends up in jail for a few months.
Stan Hugill & Pusser’s Rum
I’ll sing you a song if you give some gin (whisky)
– Timme WAY, hay, BLOW the man down!
?? down to the pin
Ooh! GIMME us some time to BLOW the man down!
As I was rolling [a-walkin’ ] down Paradise street(1)
a big irish scuffer(2) boy I chanced for to meet,
Says he, “You’re a Blackballer from the cut of your hair(3);
you’re a Blackballer by the clothes that you wear(4).
“You’ve sailed in a [some] packet that flies the Blackball,
You’ve robbed some poor Dutchman
of boots, clothes and all.”
“O policeman, policeman [mister], you do me great wrong;
I’m a `Flying Fish’ sailor(5) just home from Hong Kong!”
So I stove[spat] in his face and I smashed [stove] in his jaw. Says he, “Oh young feller, you’re breaking the law!”
They gave me six months in Liverpool[ol’ Walton] town
For bootin’ and a-kickin’ and a-blowing him down.
We’re a Liverpool ship with a Liverpool crew
A Liverpool mate(6) and a Scouse skipper (7)too
We’re Liverpool born and we’re Liverpool bred
Thick in the arm, boys, and thick in the head
Blow the man down, bullies, blow the man down
With a crew of hard cases(8) from Liverpool town
[Now all ye young fellers what follow the sea,
Put yer vents on the wind an’ just listen to me.
I’ll give ye a warnin’ afore we belay,
Steer clear o’ fat policemen, ye’ll find it’ll pay.]
FOOTNOTES
Stan Hugill collected some variations, indicated in square brackets.
An alternative opening verse:
[I’m a deepwater sailor just home from Hong Kong,
If ye give me some whiskey I’ll sing ye a song,]
(1) once the fun way for sailors, the 19th century Paradise street left today the place for Liverpool One,
(2) [handsome fat policeman] or sassy policeman or big Irish copper: scuffer is a typical nineteenth-century term for policeman
(3) all the Black Baller sailors wore their hair cut short
(4) According to Hugill a flying-fish sailor is a sailor ” who preferred the lands of the East and the warmth of the Trade Winds to the cold and misery of the Western Ocean“
(5) first mate
(6) scouse is a term used by the people of Liverpool which is also the name given to the local dialect. Originally born from the habits of the sailors of Liverpool to eat the stew of lamb and vegetables probably derived from the Norwegian “skause”. It refers to the English spoken language typical of Irish immigrants
(7) hard cases: a tough or intractable person, a person who is hard to get along with.
CARRIBEAN VERSIONS
Two variants from the Nevis and Carriacou islands so Gibb Schreffler writes in the notes: “The variation from Nevis, with its repeated phrase “in the hold below”, suggests the song was once associated with stevedores loading cargo. This is fascinating, because it is consistent with (my reading of the) evidence that “Blow the Man Down” was initially a stevedore song, in which the act of blowing “the man down” was perhaps a metaphor for stowing each piece of cargo. Also, the many variations, “hit,” “knock,” “kick,” “blow” are consistent with other historical data that “knock a man down” was an/the early form.“
[1] https://mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/blowthemandown.html
[2] According to Stan Hugill “the shanty was an old Negro song Knock A Man Down. This song, a not so musical version of the later Blow The Man Down, was taken and used by the hoosiers of Mobile Bay, and at a later date carried by white seamen of the Packet Ships.”
A mainly African-American work song of the Southern states was probably learned by migrant sailor-workers and taken up by the largely Irish crews of the American packet ships, to which various ballad themes were worked in. Voila!: Sea chanteys. [Gibb Schreffler]
https://traditionalshanties.com/2022/04/26/knock-a-man-down/
[3] http://shanty.rendance.org/lyrics/showlyric.php/blowdown
[4] In deconstructing the line through this gloss of the term blow, the collective strength of the sailors would be singing out and pushing/pulling while simulating the force of collectively knocking someone down; namely, this nameless “man.” The collective violence of this reading is interesting; for, it further underscores and supports the popular contemporary construction of the sailor as rough, ready, and prone to altercations. .. it could be inferred that sailors are embracing the popular constructions or narratives of who they were; however, it could also be a satirical barb to demonstrate that they both know about and understand the narrative but that they are also fighting against it. The addition of “Give me some time to blow the man down” almost indicates a sly barb that hides the admission “oh, I haven’t done anything violent, yet, but I will very soon, if you only ‘give me some time.’” This reading could also intimate that the collective power and force necessary for both the successful running of the ship and also the successful construction of the maritime brotherhood takes time, concerted collective effort, and a touch of violence.
https://globalmaritimehistory.com/close-reading-of-an-old-favorite-part-i-in-a-series-of-posts-on-blow-the-man-down/
[5] http://www.contemplator.com/sea/blowdown.html
https://traditionalshanties.com/2022/05/01/blow-the-man-down-b1-first-method/
https://traditionalshanties.com/2022/05/01/blow-the-man-down-b2-second-method/
http://shanty.rendance.org/lyrics/showlyric.php/blowdown
[6] I’m a `Flying Fish’ sailor
https://traditionalshanties.com/2022/05/01/blow-the-man-down-c/
http://www.tomlewis.net/lyrics/blowthemandown.htm
[5]ttp://www.contemplator.com/sea/blowdown.html
REFERENCES
The Chanty Man Sings (words only)(p19-20, 22-3),
Roll And Go(p10-14),
Capstan Bars(p77-81),
American Sea Songs and Chanteys(words only)(p39-40),
Sea Songs and Shanties(p69-70),
Everyman’s Book of Sea Songs(p62-3),
The Oxford Book of Sea Songs(p221-23),
Songs of American Sailormen(p54-9),
Shantymen & Shantyboys(p18-22),
Naval Songs(p79),
The Book of Navy Songs(p60-1),
Music of The Waters(p18,31-2),
Deep the Water, Shallow the Shore(p63),
Chanteying Aboard American Ships(p92-5),
Songs of Sea Labour(p27),
A Book Of Shanties(p50-1),
Shanties And Sailors’ Songs(p178),
Songs of the Sea(p76),
Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman(V)(p18-22),
The Way Of The Ship(p52-3),
Shanties from the Seven Seas(VI)(p158-67),
Shanties from the Seven Seas (complete)(VI)(p203-14),
The Seven Seas Shanty Book(p36-7),
Songs of the Sea & Sailors’ Chanteys(p245-7)
