Barge Come Ploddin'

Classic Barge in NYC (www.BargeMusic.org)

Long hours at the helm or scull give one a lot of time to sing, with none but the gulls to hear.

And, if one is sailing or sculling a barge, songs that have something to do with them are extra fun!

The barge repertoire is kinda limited, however. Lessee...

Lotta barges on the Erie Canal... even a song of that name (by the great Springsteen Hisself!). The E-R-I-O was a'Risin' is a rockin' tune, heading up a mixed list of barge-based songs of inebriation. Shawnee Town, by Chris Vallillo is a beaut from the O-hi-O.

Then there's Barges, a deceptively cutsie Girl Scout camp song. [CAUTION: It's an earworm that's hard to kill!] Or the beautiful but mysterious Barge Song  by Malkah Duprix. Even Denis Leary gets on board with Love Barge.  8)

Or the classic chantey of the Volga Barge Haulers, aka 'boatmen' (check out the Glenn Miller version of '41... I presume it topped the charts after Hitler invaded the USSR in June of that year???).

Or -- if you squint -- Gordon Bok's Liza Jane or Old Fat Boat... they could be about barges. Or not. [CAUTION: To hear these, you may have to quickly squelch the ad-blast for Euro-Barge by the Vandals. Or not!]

Somewhere out there is even the Star Wars soundtrack for Jabba the Hutt's Barge!

*****

Alright. A good handful, but none of these exactly celebrate the barge itself. So I  whipped up a ditty to fill the gap. Hopefully y'all are as tolerant as the gulls!

Note: I apologize for any formatting errors some of you may see below... the art of WYSIWYG is in sad decline. If you have to copy it out, all the vertical bars should align.

Barge Come Ploddin' 
Words by Dave Zeiger PUBLIC DOMAIN 2013
 
Tune of John Johanna (JOHN JOHANNA), traditional... repeat 3rd and 4th phrase for chorus... Slow and easy, or fast an fierce... Bars indicate the first downbeat of each line. If you're brave, you can hear me slaughter it here.

                       Am                      C
                     | First Boat was a log, you know;
                       C                               Am
                     | Second come the raft.
                       Am                          C
                     | Next Boat was a Barge, my Friends;
                       C
                 A | most persistent craft!
                       Am
                     | Hulls that shaped the Age of Sail
                       C                            Am
          Have | all but passed a-way;
                       Am                         C
      But the | humble Barge is out there;
                       C                             Am
         She's | haulin' freight to-day.


                                Am
CHORUS:         | Who that on the water,
                                C                                       Am
           When the | others done been and gone?
                                Am                       C
                              |Takin' her time, haulin' her load,
                                C                     Am
                              | Barge come ploddin' along!


                | Some folks call her Barge, my Friends;
                | Some might name her Scow.
                | Sometimes goes by other names;
                | It don't matter nohow.
                | Sailin' down the river,                          (| up)
          Or | up along the coast                                (| down ... shore)   
                | Haulin' her load on big, wide feet
    Come | wind nor rain nor frost.               (And | comin' round for more)

[May repeat this verse, with alternate words to end song.]

                | Sailin' in deep water;
                | Skimmin' o'er the shoals;
                | Takin' the ground as a matter of course,
                | Neapin' out the blows.
                | Cheap to build, cheap to run,
                | Born to haul car-go.
    She'll | stretch that Almighty Dollar
 Just as | far as it'll go!

          So | let that yachty feller
          A-  | lookin' down his nose
                | Talk o' spit and polish
And the | Beauty of a Rose.
       Just | smile and nod and wink yer eye;
                | Let him have his say.
       And | when that tide come a'risin'...
   HOIST | SAIL and slip away!

[May repeat second verse, with alternate words to end song.]


 ******

So there ya go.

If any of you with the skills care to put together a track to spread around the public domain, please give it a go! Send me a link and I'll post it here. 

Ditto if you know of any more barge songs.

Let's hum a few bar(ge)s!

A Solstice Reflection

Sailor's Carol

Words by Charles Causley

Music & Arrangement by Gordon Bok

Lord, the snowful sky / In this pale December

Fingers my clear eye / Lest seeing I remember

Not the naked baby / Weeping in the stable

Nor the singing boys / All round my table.

Not the dizzy star / Bursting on the pane

Nor the leopard sun / Pawing the rain

Only the deep garden / Where green lillies grow

And the sailors rolling / In the sea's blue snow.

Sailor's CaroGordon Bok's Version of Sailor's Carol

(Sorry, it's a pop-up with ads, and it'll roll into other songs if you don't close/stop it...

I'm still learning how to drive this thing!)

A Solstice Reflection

There are few things on this wide planet so fulsome with awe as winter dusk coming down hard at sea under a press of snow.

It's a time to draw our selves together. Batten our hatches and stoke our fires against the coming night. The loon's cry never sounded so beautiful, as winging across darkling water. Never the light so gorgeous as when it fades away.

I'm not worried. The mere fact of a night passage no longer taunts me with fear of the dark. Night sailing in inshore waters has its own tricks and techniques (I'll write about these, another time). Play it safe, work your vessel from point to point, keep your focus and you'll do fine.

And yet. And yet. Winter nights are long. The eye strains after what it cannot see. The mind, working hard to cast meager perception as coherent picture, may lapse into a moment's disorientation, brief but shaking. When snow wraps us close about... when wind and water, compass and lead are our only clues, save only the sometime alarum of breakers. When Darkness and Death - those ancient companions - lean on your shoulder, whispering mutiny. It helps to have something to take the mind in hand; to lead it in calming circles when it wants to fret and shy.

Sailor's Carol is one of my favorites. Couldn't quite say what it means. All my favorite poems seem a little inscrutable to me; brimful of vivid imagery, dark and diffuse as dream. But Gordon Bok's rendition is perfect for singing, over and over in that awe-full black of snow and cold, on a night crowded with mortal reflection.

Especially on this, the longest night of the year.