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Oh Joe! the Boat is
Going Over – but which boat?
Whenever I think of East Anglian music,
especially that used to accompany step-dancing, I usually think of the
tune Oh, Joe! The Boat’s Going Over (Roud
1777). Why? Well, because just about every East Anglian musician seemed
to know it, and it is a tune that is easy to remember. But what of the
title? Most step-dance tunes have titles that indicate the type of tune
that is being played – Sheringham Breakdown
or Yarmouth Hornpipe for example –
whereas Oh, Joe! suggests something
else. A song, perhaps? And, about 35 years ago, I did discover that the
title was associated with a song, one printed by the London broadside
printer Henry Parker Such. I found the song listed in a catalogue issued
by Such from his premises at 177, Union Street, Southwark. The song was
listed towards the rear of the catalogue and, unlike the earlier
entries, did not bear an issue number. But, it did say that another
song, The Warrior’s Little Boy, was
also printed alongside Oh, Joe! on the
same sheet. Such moved to Union Street in the 1840’s, originally to
number 123. In 1862 the buildings in the street were renumbered and
Henry’s print shop became number 177. The street was again renumbered in
1886, and so we can suggest that the catalogue must date from sometime
during the period 1862 – 1886. However, this may not be the case, as at
least four of the songs listed at the rear of the catalogue appear not
to have been written until after 1886. Michael Kilgarriff, in his
monumental book Sing Us One of the Old Songs –
A Guide to Popular Song 1860 – 1920 (Oxford, 1998), dates
Young Men Taken In and Done For to 1888
and Across the Bridge, Don’t Leave Your
Father, Boy and Where Are Those Boys?
to 1889. So presumably the Such Family - old Henry had died in 1882 -
kept adding new titles to their catalogue without bothering to amend
their address. Alternately, it may be that the songs were written prior
to 1886, but that Kilgarriff’s dates are later publication dates.
Eventually I came across a broadside without printer’s imprint which
contained the two songs The Warrior’s Little
Boy and Oh, Joe! The Boat’s Going Over. I can only assume that
this is the sheet mentioned in the Such catalogue, although, according
to Steve Roud in his Index, Oh, Joe!
was also issued on a broadside by the Edinburgh printer Charles
Sanderson. The broadside text for Oh, Joe!
runs as follows:
Oh, Joe! the Boat’s Going Over
I loved a charming creature, such a very
timid maid,
She can stand almost anything but of water she’s afraid,
She’ll have a tidy fortune when her uncle dies some day,
While on a voyage to Dover once, that girl to me did say.
Oh! Joe the boat’s 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.
The wind was blowing rather rough she clung
so tight to me,
The boat began to pitch and toss, all on the briny sea,
She looked so wild she cried aloud in a frantic sort of way,
Her arms she flung around my neck and then to me did say –
I said Matilda don’t be afraid now there’s a
dear,
With a smile she looked into my face, and gave me such a leer,
A kiss then from her cheek I stole, oh, she seemed rather shy,
And while I was kissing her, that girl to me did cry.
We landed safe in Dover, her uncle there we
found,
He died two days after that, and left her eight hundred pounds,
I made Matilda my dear wife we’re so happy night and day,
While sitting by her fireside sometimes she’ll say –
In 1967 the collector Fred Hamer recorded a number of songs from an
elderly Essex singer, Harry Green. One song collected from Harry was a
version of Oh, Joe! but it was not the
song issued by Henry Parker Such, although it did have the same chorus.
Harry’s song was actually written by the Music Hall performer and
songwriter John Read (1839 – 1920), who wrote most of his own material,
including the well-known song Down by the Old
Mill Stream – composed in 1885. Read’s song is given below:
Oh, Joe, the Boat’s Going Over
It happen’d on one afternoon in the month of
May,
While walking out with a pretty little girl, I unto her did say;
Will you go, Miss, for a row, as we stood on the shore,
‘Twill do you good, she exclaim’d it would, as she’d not been there
before.
SPOKEN:- And fool like I hired a boat and
when we got on the water,
just because the boat began to rock a bit she exclaimed -
Oh! Joe, the boat’s a going over,
Oh! Joe, you naughty man, she cried.
Oh! Joe, I wish you’d been at Dover,
Ere you ever took me on the water for a ride.
I pull’d with all my might, had not gone
very far,
Before the girl commenced to scream, and said she’d tell her ma;
And as these words fell from her lips a steamer came close by
Which caused the boat to pitch and toss and her again to cry –
I felt uneasy in my mind, I scarce knew what
to do,
I thought the girl would die with fright and so would all of you;
She said “dear Joe, oh take me home. Here I cannot remain,”
And then there came another wave which made her shout again –
Now thinking it would ease her mind, I
pull’d towards the shore,
She told me I was very kind but would not go anymore
On the water for a row, and now unto this day,
If you want to make her cross, of course you only have to say –
John Read’s version of
Oh, Joe!, words and music, was
published in London by Charles Sheard & Company in 1881. They also
printed a piano version of the tune – one that had been arranged by
T.W.Steinway.
Clearly the Such broadside text and the Read songs are related. They
both tell a story about a man taking a girl for a row on the water, and
they share the same chorus. Presumably they also share the same tune.
Read’s version, with its spoken patter
is clearly intended for the stage. But did Read compose both songs? Was
the success of one sufficient for him to follow up with another similar
piece, or, more unlikely I think, were the two songs composed by
different people? There is no trace of Oh,
Joe! in Kilgarriff’s book, though he does list two other songs
with similar titles – Oh, Joe, I Want to Go to
the Picture Show and Oh, Joe, With Your
Fiddle and Bow – which could, I suppose also have been composed
by John Read. Oh, Joe, I Want to Go to the
Picture Show was popularised by Arthur Reece (1870 – 1964), while
Oh, Joe, With Your Fiddle and Bow was
sung by a group known as ‘The Versatile Four’, who were active during
the years 1892 – 1927.
As I said before, the tune Oh, Joe! The Boat’s
Going Over remained especially popular with East Anglian
musicians. But, it has occasionally turned up elsewhere, most notably as
one of the tunes used to accompany the Minehead Hobby Horse in Somerset.
The Sussex musician Scan Tester also played a variant of the tune, which
he called Not for Joe. No doubt other
musicians remembered the tune, but, to my knowledge, the following are
all that remain on vinyl and/or CD:
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