the handsome cabin boy. kate bush

[wytchcroft]

there are LOADS of traditional songs about girls disguised as boys going off to Sea
and they influece my ship fics a lot - so here's a quick modern example of one of them.
i love it.

'Tis of a pretty female
As you may understand.
Her mind being bent for rambling
Unto some foreign land,
She dressed herself in sailor's clothes,
Or so it does appear,
And she hired with a captain
To serve him for a year.

Her cheeks they were like roses
And her hair rolled in a curl.
The sailors often smiled and said
He looked just like a girl.
But eating of the captain's biscuit
Her colour did destroy,
And the waist did swell of pretty Nell,
The handsome cabin boy.

'Twas in the bay of Biscay
Our gallant ship did plow.
One night among the sailors
Was a fearful flurry and row.
They tumbled from their hammocks
For their sleep it did destroy,
And they sworn about the groaning
Of the handsome cabin boy.

"Oh doctor, dear, oh doctor,"
The cabin boy did cry.
"My time has come, I am undone,
And I will surely die."
The doctor come a-runnin'
And a-smilin' at the fun.
To think a sailor lad should have
A daughter or a son.

The sailors when they saw the joke
They all did stand and stare.
The child belonged to none of them,
They solemnly did swear.
The captain's wife, she says to him,
"My dear, I wish you joy,
For 'tis either you or me's betrayed
The handsome cabin boy!"
 

Comments

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

wow beautiful... and fearful song!

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

folks songs - they are often so!!:))

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

and the melody itself - it's sounds for me like a spells chant... that could be even a lullaby, but what dreams could the child get then?

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

it IS a spells chant.... eeeeeeeeeeeeee!

real beauty

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4jvdt_kate-bush-my-lagan-love_music

Re: real beauty

[stoshagownozad.livejournal.com]

yep... she sounds excellent...

[alicia-h.livejournal.com]

This is a beautiful, wonderful song. Thank you so much for posting it! It's one of those songs you feel like you've half-heard before because of the complicated interwoven threads of traditional songs.

There's something about Kate that's so haunting and enthralling.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

oh i'm glad you liked it:)) it is a trad song so you may have heard another version. i wish there was a decent vid for Fairport's 'A Sailor's Life' and Pentangle's 'Twas a Maid Deep in Love', but ah well... and yeah, Kate's voice is something else:))

[recycledfaery.livejournal.com]

:) Another good one.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

glad you enjoyed it sweetie:))

[neversremedy.livejournal.com]

Ah! Hauntingly beautiful. I'm quite glad I had not yet made my "Ocean's Daughter" CD, because this might very well be the first song on it (with credit to you, of course).

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

credit to Kate you mean!:))) glad you enjoyed it:)

[neversremedy.livejournal.com]

No, credit to you for introducing me to the song. I adore Kate Bush, but I'd never heard her sing this before. ^_^

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

:)) ah - twas a b-side. check this out
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4jvdt_kate-bush-my-lagan-love_music

[neversremedy.livejournal.com]

Exquisite, and so very sad as many traditionals are. *sighs*

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

damn right. and stuff like this - a terrible influence! some folks grow up with bad habits like stooping or a squint or nail biitng. i grew up a heavy smoker with a requisite moody stare and an addiction to sitting on window ledges.

(gazing out with the above mentioned stare, natch!) ^^

[neversremedy.livejournal.com]

Ha! I grew up a melancholic daydreamer that fights windmills in the absence of a revolution.

I'm thinking of having my next set of business cards printed up to say, "Equal Opportunity Culture Thief." It should draw many blank stares and a few laughs.

I'd probably be a smoker too if it weren't for the bronchial pneumonia they give me.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

i think that's a genius slogan!!:D

and - HA! i laugh in the face of bronchial pneumonia!

(Hmmm... it's quite a wheezy laugh now i come to think of it...)

ps

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

if you like that old melody from Cabin Boy, well The Byrds wrote a song called '2001 space odysessy' on their 'Notorious byrd brothers' album, very 1960s moogy space future thing - but with the same old irish folk tune! interesting and weird, sci-fi folk crossover!:)

Re: ps

[neversremedy.livejournal.com]

Ooh, thanks for the recommendation! :)

Re: ps

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

tis but the geek muzo in me:)

Re: pps

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

yep, still a great icon you got there:)

[svetlana0777.livejournal.com]

Thank you for posting a such nice song!

For me it sounds like ballad... :)

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

oh it is! a very old Ballad. :)