My Johnny Was a Shoemaker My Johnny was a shoemaker and dearly he loved me My Johnny was a shoemaker but now he's gone to sea With pitch and tar to soil his hands And to sail across the sea, stormy sea And sail across the stormy sea His jacket was a deep sky blue and curly was his hair His jacket was a deep sky blue, it was, I do declare For to reive the topsails up against the mast And to sail across the sea, stormy sea And sail across the stormy sea Some day he'll be a captain bold with a brave and a gallant crew Some day he'll be a captain bold with a sword and spyglass too And when he has a gallant captain's sword He'll come home and marry me, marry me He'll come home and marry me ---------------------------------------------------------------- recorded by Steeleye Span on "Hark! The Village Wait" (1970) "This version, taken from Colm O'Lochlainn's excellent 'Irish Stree Ballads (Vol.II) is only one of several, the song having attained wide currency in both Britain and Ireland, even turning up in a Welch version in 4/2 time. The word 'reive' in the second verse, not to be confused with 'reef', means to draw cord through eyelet holes; implying perhaps that Johnny will be doing a new kind of sewing." MJ
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!