Rogue’s Gallery: The Art of the Siren, #26

Song: White Magic: Long Time Ago (2:35 minutes)
from Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, ANTI- 2006.
Buy CD in Germany and elsewhere.
Image: Suicide Girls on Myspace.

Lyrics:

A long time was a very good time,
Long time ago.
A long time was a very long time,
Long time ago.

Around Cape Horn we got to go,
Around Cape Horn to Calleao.

You give me the girl and you take me away,
A long long time in the hull below.

Around Cape Horn with frozen sails,
Around Cape Horn to fish for whales.

I wish to God I’d never been born,
A long long time in the hull below.

Around Cape Horn where wild winds blow,
Around Cape Horn through sleet and snow.

A long long time in the hull below,
A long long time in the hull below.

Explanatory liner notes by ANTI-:

By the 1890s this is said to have been the most popular halyard chantey of all. Probably African-American in origin, there are versions in German and Norwegian.