> Cyril Tawney > Songs > In Frisco Bay (Noah's Ark Shanty)

In Frisco Bay / Noah's Ark Shanty (A Long Time Ago)

[ Roud 318 ; Ballad Index Doe037 ; VWML GG/1/14/887 ; trad.]

Stan Hugill sang the long drag or halyard shanty A Long Time Ago at the Seattle Chantey Festival during the American Sail Training Association's 1978 Tall Ships Pacific. This recording was published a year later on the Folkways album Sea Songs Seattle.

Swan Arcade recorded Noah's Ark Shanty in Workington in August 1991 for the Fellside anthology of English traditional songs, Voices. Paul Adams commented in the album's notes:

Shanties were work songs and finding an example was not difficult. Which one was much more difficult. This one is interesting because (a) as an aetiological work song it is probably unique in the English tradition, (b) it was collected by the greatest of the folk song collectors, Cecil Sharp on the 3^rd June, 1914 from Capt. Hole of Watchet, Somerset (the famous Watchet sailor!) and (c) Swan Arcade are not usually associated with the singing of sea shanties. Their dramatic, hard hitting harmony style coupled with their uninhibited repertoire makes them great favourites in folk song circles. They are Dave and Heather Brady and Jim Boyes. Dave does his damnedest to make this a Yorkshire song.

But even if Swan Arcade were not usually associated with the singing of sea shanties, they did record Blood Red Roses a year earlier for their CD Full Circle.

Cyril Tawney sang In Frisco Bay (Noah's Ark Shanty) in 1992 on his cassette of sea songs for children, Little Boy Billee.

Jon Boden sang Noah's Ark Shanty as the 4 September 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Pete Coe sang Noah's Ark Shanty in 2011 on his CD Tall Tailes.

Fay Hield learned this song from Swan Arcade's recording and sang it in 2016 on her third album, Old Adam.

The 2020 book Southern Songster has a version of A Long Time collected by George Gardiner from James G. Bounds at Portsmouth Workhouse on 16 August 1907 [ VWML GG/1/14/887 ] . This version has completely different verses than the above about Noah's Ark; instead a Portsmouth sailor parts from his girl to sail to Hongkong. Here this version is sung by Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne who did the musical notation for the book:

Lyrics

James G. Bounds sings A Long Time

A long time and a very long time,
To my way, hay, aye ya,
A long time and a very long time,
A long time ago

In Portsmouth town where I was born

'Twas there I joined the boys in blue

And in Portsmouth town there lived a girl

And this young girl I loved her so well

It was through her I first went to sea

So we sailed away from Portsmouth town

To Hong Kong town where we was bound

So good-bye, Sally, good bye, my dear

Swan Arcade sing Noah's Ark Shanty	Fay Hield sings A Long Time Ago
In Frisco Bay there were three ships To me way, hey, hey-oh In Frisco Bay there were three ships A long time ago	In Frisco Bay there were three ships To me way, hey, hey-oh In Frisco Bay there were three ships A long time ago
And one of them ships was Noah's old ark All covered all o'er wi' hickory bark	And one of them ships was Noah's old ark Covered all o'er wi' hickory bark
	Chorus (repeated after every other verse): It's a long long time and a very long time A long time ago
They took two animals of every kind They took two animals of every kind	He took two animals of every kind The great big stag and his heathery hind
The bull and the cow they started for t' row The bull and the cow they started for t' row	The cat bit the rat with a howl and a yowl The bull and the cow they started t' row
Then said old Noah with a flick of his whip “Come stop this row or I'll scuttle the ship”	“Ah now,” said Noah with a flick of his whip “Come stop this row or tha'll scuttle the ship”
But the bull struck his horn through the side of the ark And the little black dog he started fer t' bark	But the bull struck his horn through the side of the ark The little black dog he started t' bark
So Noah took the dog, shoved its nose up the hole And ever since then dogs' nose has been cold	Noah took the dog, shoved its nose up the hole Ever since then dogs' nose has been cold
It's a long, long time and a very long time A long, long time and a very long time	It's a long, long time and a very long time A long, long time and a very long time

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Georgina Boyes for correcting an embarrassing mondegreen.