Sister Seusan

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English seaman and chantyman Frank Bullen heard this chanty early in his sea career (ca1869) while in erstwhile British Guiana. It was one of the chanties sung by local stevedores. • Bullen included this verse and music notation in his The Log of a Sea-Waif (1899). The description of the context is full of praise for the locala Demerara stevedores and their singing. • Streaming with sweat, throwing their bodies about in sheer wantonness of exuberant strength as they hoisted the stuff out of the hold, they sometimes grew so excited by the improvisations of the chantey man, who sat on the corner of the hatch solely employed in leading the singing, that often, while for a minute awaiting the next hoist, they would fling themselves into fantastic contortions, keeping time to the music. There was doubtless great waste of energy; but there was no slackness of work or need of a driver. Here is just one specimen of their songs; but no pen could do justice to the vigour, the intonation and the abandon of the delivery thereof. • Bullen later included this item in his collection Songs of Sea Labour (1914), however, without the vocal harmony parts. • Hugill is the other seaman to have relayed a version, learned from Harry Lauder of St. Lucia. It was published in his Shanties from the Seven Seas (1961) and I posted a rendition of it a few years ago: • • Sister Susan [390-391] (298-299) • Harlow also published this under the title Gwine To Git a Home Bime By. It appears in the back section of his Chanteying Aboard American Ships (1962)—a section that is a miss-mash of material drawn from other sources but with rarely proper credit given. The idiosyncratic spelling of words and the melody are identical to Bullen's, and there is every reason to think Harlow copied it from there. However, Harlow provides four additional verses! Where were they from? Did he make them up for publication? Well, two of these are identical to verses in the song Ain't No Use o' My Workin' So Hard, as found in the publication On the Trail of Negro Folk-songs (1925). In other words, Harlow, though he calls it a 'Badian Hand over Hand chanty, likely pieced it together secondhand. • The revival group Forebitter developed and recorded a rendition of this. Theirs, judging from the lyrics, is clearly based on Harlow's book. However, they have taken many liberties with the tune; it is not Harlow's (i.e. Bullen's), but rather seems to be something made up after glancing at Harlow! • Compare this also to the song in Allen et. al.'s Slave Songs of the United States (1867), pg.81, Jesus, Won't You Come By-and-Bye.

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