> Folk Music > Songs > Oh Joe the Boat is Going Over

Oh Joe the Boat is Going Over

[ Roud 1777 ; Mudcat 35806 ; John Read]

Harry Green of Tilty, Essex, sang Oh Joe the Boat is Going Over to Fred Hamer in 1967. This recording was released first on his Veteran Tapes cassette Harry Green and in 2010 on the Veteran CD of Harry Green and other traditional singers from Essex, The Fox and the Hare. John Howson noted:

This song, which originated in the music halls, has two different versions which both share the same chorus. It is the most popular of the two that Harry Green sings, which was written, composed and performed by John Read and dates back to 1881. The tune to this song has probably been the most popular polka played in East Anglia by country musicians. This is particularly true of melodeon players and the best know—Norfolk’s Percy Brown and Suffolk’s Oscar Woods can both be heard playing it on VTDC11CD The Pigeon on the Gate.

Walter Pardon of Knapton, Norfolk, played and sang the melodeon tune and song Old Joe the Boat is Going Over to Mike Yates on 25 June 1978. This recording was included in 1983 on Pardon’s Home-Made Music album Bright Golden Store and in 2000 on his Musical Traditions anthology Put a Bit of Powder on It, Father. Mike Yates noted on the first album:

Although Old Joe is often thought of as an East Anglian dance tune (the late Harry Cox used to play it on the fiddle), it also turns up in Somerset as one of the tunes used to accompany the Minehead hobby-horse on its annual perambulation. Walter’s song fragment is part of a text printed c.1870 on a broadside by Henry Parker Such of south London. Other recordings include those by Reg Reeder (Suffolk) on The Earl Soham Slog (Topic 12TS374) and Percy Brown (Norfolk) & Oscar Woods (Suffolk) on English Country Music From East Anglia (Topic 12TS229).

… and Rod Stradling on the second:

Listeners familiar with East Anglian melodeon playing will be aware that many musicians would normally leave out the pauses (as Walter does here) when playing song tunes like this one. Oscar Woods always used to surprise me with this trait, until I got used to it.

Like I Wish They’d Do It Now, this is a polka tune which became extremely popular among southern English country musicians, particularly in East Anglia, but for which almost no-one seemed to know the words—although they did appear on a Such broadside that Mike Yates once saw.

The only other example of the song (a fuller version) being collected, and recorded in this instance, is from Harry Green of Tilty in Essex, recorded by John Howson, and released on Harry Green (Veteran VT135).

Lyrics

Harry Green sings Old Joe the Boat is Going Over

It happened on one afternoon all in the month of May,
Was walking out with a pretty little girl I unto her did say,
“Will you go with us for a row?” as we stood on the shore,
“It’ll do you good.” She exclaimed, “It would!” For she’d not been there before.

Chorus (after each verse):
“Oh Joe, the boat is going over,
Oh Joe, you naughty man,” she cried,
“Oh Joe, I wish you’d been in Dover,
Before you ever took me on the water for a ride.”

I pulled again with all my might and hadn’t gone very far,
Before my girl commenced to scream and said she’d tell her Ma,
And as those words fell from her lips a steamer come close by,
Which caused the boat to pitch and toss and her again to cry:

I felt uneasy in my mind I scarcely what to do,
I thought that girl would have died from fright, and so would all of you,
She said, “Dear Joe do take me home, here I cannot remain,”
And then there come another wave which made her shout again:

Now thinking it would ease her mind, I pulled towards the shore,
She said that I was very kind and would not go any more,
On the water for a row then now until this day,
And if you want to make her cross, you only have to say:

Walter Pardon sings Old Joe the Boat is Going Over

“Oh, Joe, the boat is going over,
Oh, Joe, you naughty man,” she cried.
“Oh, Joe, I wish you’d been in Dover
Had you ever took me on the water for a ride.”