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I'll Go and List for a Sailor
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Unfortunate Tailor
The Unfortunate Tailor / I'll Go and List for a Sailor
[ Roud 1614 ; Master title: The Unfortunate Tailor ; GlosTrad Roud 1614 ; Wiltshire 235 ; Mudcat 25049 ; Harry Clifton (1868)]
Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones Alan Helsdon: Vaughan Williams in Norfolk Volume 2
John Kirkpatrick sang the lament I'll Go and List for a Sailor in 1972 on Ashley Hutchings and Friends' first Morris dance album Morris On. Another version by the Albion Country Band recorded on 9 May 1973 for BBC's Bob Harris Show was released on the CD The BBC Sessions.
Edward II sang List for a Sailor in 2004 on the “Folk on the Pier” anthology celebrating 200 years of Cromer's lifeboats, Someone Was Calling.
Martin Carthy sang this song as Unfortunate Tailor in 2006 on his and Dave Swarbrick's album Straws in the Wind. He commented in the sleeve notes:
Unfortunate Tailor is the one song not from the Penguin collection. I learned it from John Kirkpatrick one day when he wasn't looking and am very grateful to him for not turning round before the end. Don't know why it is that tailors are so ridiculed in songs and story but they are, and this luckless sod is genuinely pathetic. Can't imagine why he thinks he'll have a better time in the navy either.
The Askew Sisters played The Unfortunate Tailor / The Shaalds of Foula in 2007 on their CD All in a Garden Green. They noted:
We used to dance to the A part of The Unfortunate Tailor as the Sherborne Morris jig I'll Go and Enlist for a Sailor. We found this version complete with a B part in volume II of Dave Townsend's English Dance Music. It can also be found as the tune to a song of the same name. We learnt the second tune as an English jig but we recently discovered that it's actually from the Shetland Islands (we didn't know the right name at the time!)
Jim Moray sang I'll Go and List for a Sailor n his 2008 album Low Culture.
Andy Cutting and Tim Harries played I'll Go and List for a Sailor as a Morris dance tune on June Tabor's 2011 CD Ashore.
Eddy O'Dwyer sang Go and 'List for a Sailor as the title track of his 2012 CD Go and 'List for a Sailor.
Andy Turner learned The Unfortunate Tailor from John Kirkpatrick singing it on Morris On. He sang it as the 17 October 2020 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.
Cambridge and Walker sang Unfortunate Tailor on their 2021 CD Wheel and Dive. They noted:
Great words and a new tune with a rather apt playground rhyme to finish.
Lyrics
John Kirkpatrick sings I'll Go and List for a Sailor | Martin Carthy sings Unfortunate Tailor |
---|---|
Oh list, oh list to me sorrowful lay, |
Oh list, oh list to me sorrowful lay, |
For once I was happy as a bird in a tree, |
Oh, once I was happy as a bird in a tree, |
Why did Sarah serve me so? |
Why did Sarah serve me so? |
Oh, my Sarah was the daughter of a publican, | |
Now me days were honey and me nights were the same, |
Oh, my days were honey and my nights were the same, |
Well he spent his money both frank and free, |
And he spent his money both frank and free, |
Well, once I was with her, when in came Cobb |
He come swaggering down, this Captain Cobb, |
So now I'll cross the raging sea, |
So now I'll cross this raging sea, |
And so now, kind friends, I'll bid you adieu, |
Oh now, kind friends, I'll bid you adieu, |
Acknowledgements
Transcribed by Reinhard Zierke and Garry Gillard