“The Jolly Shanty Boy”

Description

Singer boasts of being a jolly (and jauntily dressed, if ragged) shanty boy, to whom women are always attracted. He sings, "For I don't care for rich or poor/I'm not for strife and grief/I'm ragged, fat and lousy, and/As tough as Spanish beef."

Supplemental text

Jolly Shanty Boy, The
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

The Gatineau Girls

From Edith Fowke, Lumbering Songs from the Northern Woods, #54, pp.190-191.
Collected from O. J. Abbott of Hull, Quebec, April 1960.

I am a jolly shantyboy, I love to sing and dance.
I wonder what my girl would say if she would see my pants.
Fourteen patches on the knees and sixteen on the stern,
I wear them when I'm in the woods, and home I do return.

REFRAIN.
  I'm on my jovial way, and I spend my money free.
  I have plenty, come and drink lager beer with me.

(2 additional stanzas)

References

1. Beck 21, "The Jolly Shanty Boy" (1 text)
2. Fowke-Lumbering #54, "The Gatineau Girls" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. ST Be021 (Partial)
4. Roud #4351
5. BI, Be021