Paddy Doyle's Boots
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
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Lyrics:
To me way ay, ay-ay,
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.
To me way ay, ay-ay,
And we will drink whisky and gin.
To me way ay, ay-ay,
And we will shave under the chin.
To me way ay, ay-ay,
And we will throw muck at the cook.
To me way ay, ay-ay,
For the crusty old man on the poop.
To me way ay, ay-ay,
We'll pay Paddy Doyle for his boots.
According to Stan Hugill this chanty was very popular in the days of sail.<br> It was also known as "Paddy Doyle". The chanty was used specifically for<br> "tossing the bunt," or furling the sail. Two or three verses were usually<br> enough for the job. This is one of the few shanties reserved for bunting the<br> fore or mainsail. Men aloft, furling the sail, would bunch the canvas in their<br> hands till it formed a long bundle, the ‘bunt’. To lift the bunt on to the yard,<br> in order to lash it into position, required a strong heave. Bunt shanties<br> differ from others in that they employed fewer voices and were sung in chorus<br> throughout.<br> Hugill speculates that Paddy Doyle was a Liverpool boarding master. Doerflinger<br> suggests Paddy Doyle was Irish. <br> Sailors often stayed with boarding masters, who ran houses in every large<br> seaport. They furnished "indifferent board and lodging" and also arranged<br> berths for sailors with outward bound ships. Boarding masters often took men<br> in on credit, but usually found a ship before the sailor's advance was used up.<br> The sailors could then use the balance of the advance they received from the<br> ship for clothes and gear for the voyage. They then usually purchased a sea<br> bag with dungarees, oilskins, sea boots, belt, sheath, knife and a pound of<br> tobacco from the boarding master. The gear was low quality and boarding masters<br> had a poor reputation. Sailors referred to boarding masters and their henchmen<br> as "crimps."<br> It appears in the Roud Folk Song Index as #4695.<br> It was printed in Stan Hugill's Shanties from the Seven Seas.<br> Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd sang it in about 1956<br> on their and Harry H. Corbett's album The Singing Sailor. It was<br> reissued on Row Bullies Row, Singing Sailors, Off to Sea Once More,<br> and on the compilation CD Sailors' Songs & Sea Shanties.<br>
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