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Round the Bay of Mexico

Fieldworkers
Date
Track ID 61813
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1953.242.A3

Original Tape ID

SA1953.242

Summary

A shanty that derives from the economic 'war' between two Liverpool shipping lines:

Around the Bay of Mexico,
[Refrain:] Hey, Susianna!
O, Mexico is the place I belong in.
[Refrain:] Round the Bay of Mexico.

[Likewise:]

Them Liverpool girls they love me so ...
Because I don't tell 'em all I know ...

Them Liverpool girls ain't got no comb ...
They comb their hair with a kipper backbone ...

When I was a young girl in my prime ...
I knocked them pretty boys two at a time ...

Item Notes

4 verses (couplets with interlinear refrain).

See:
'Folk Song USA' (A. Lomax, 1947) pp. 136-137
'Folk Songs of North America' (A. Lomax, 1960) p. 54
'Sam Henry's Songs of the People' (G. Huntington, 1990) pp. 96-97
'Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman' (W. M. Doerflinger, 1972) pp. 78-80

Recording Location

County - Midlothian

Parish - Edinburgh

Village/Place - Edinburgh

Language

English

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R207

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good