Eventually, sailors on American clipper ships carried the song around the world. Whall, Master Mariner)įlatboatmen carrying goods on the American rivers in the early 19th century may also have sung versions of "Shenandoah." Sailors on packet ships along the Mississippi River sang it while they hauled in the anchor. (from Ships, Sea Songs and Shanties Collected by W.B. He winked his eye, and he tipped his flipper.Īnd 'cross the river he stole his daughter. The chief disdained the trader's dollars: Support for the English may be the reason that the chief forbade the love between his daughter and the French trader, if the story in this early version of "Shenandoah" is true.Īh-ha, I'm bound away, 'Cross the wide Missouri. Skenandoa supported the English against the French in the Seven Years (or French and Indian) War.
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Most musicologists agree that the chief mentioned in "Shenandoah" is the Oneida Iroquois chief John Skenandoa. Heaving songs such as this set an appropriate, manageable pace and inspired the sailors to accomplish the task at hand, which could be quite long in duration. "Shenandoah" was one of the most popular capstan shanties. The lines are a call from the homeland to the sailor wandering far out across the seas, a call not from a sweetheart, a house, or even a town, but from the land itself, its rivers and its familiar and loved hills. The sonorous succession of long vowels and soft and liquid consonants blend perfectly with the romantic air. The melody has the roll and surge and freedom of a tall ship sweeping along before a trade wind.
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In summing up the beauty and appeal of the song, John and Alan Lomax write in their book Best Loved American Folk Songs: Some use names, including Sally Brown, Polly Brown, Darby Doyle, Paddy Doyle, or Dan O'Shea, in place of the word Shenandoah. Versions of the song have linked it to riverboat men, cavalry men, mountain men, and soldiers on both sides of the Civil War. It has commonly been sung as a sea shanty (also spelled chantey or chanty), though it most likely originated with early French Canadian fur traders. There are few melodies as recognizable as that of the American folk song "Shenandoah." As with most folk songs, there are many different variations and versions, and it is impossible to determine the song's exact origin.