Billy Boy

A traditional variant of the English folk song “My Boy Billy”, collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams and published in 1912.  Richard Runciman Terry’s The Shanty Book, published 1921, claims it’s originally a Northumbrian Capstan Shanty - though Hugill heard sailors from other parts sing it too. Our version was learnt on Tyneside more than 60 years ago. Every which way, it sounds better in a Geordie accent.  (‘Singing Hinnies’ are a Northern girdle scone - you can add ‘sma coo fizzors’ (small coal fizzers) as they say up there: burnt currants to taste. )

On deck it was often used as a sailors as a capstan shanty and would sometimes be sung by two shanty men, singing question and answer.  Its familiarity derives from having been recorded by a range of artists that includes Burl Ives, the Dale Sisters, Jerry Lee Lewis and the Miles Davis Quintet! 

Billy Boy

Where hev ye been äal the day,
    Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Where hev ye been äal the day, 

   Me Billy Boy?
I've been walkin' äal the day
With me charmin' Nancy Grey,
    And me Nancy kittl'd me fancy
    Oh me charmin' Billy Boy.

Can she cook a bit o' steak
    Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Can she cook a bit o' steak, 

    Me Billy Boy?
She can cook a bit o' steak,
Aye, and myek a gairdle cake,  And me Nancy ...

Can she myek an Irish Stew
    Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Can she myek an Irish Stew, 

    Me Billy Boy?
She can myek an Irish Stew
Aye, and ‘Singin' Hinnies’ too, And me Nancy ...

 

Can she myek a feather bed

    Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

Can she myek a feather bed 

    Me Billy Boy?

She can meyk a feather bed

Aye, and snuggle a sailors head, And me Nancy ...

 

Will she kiss and cuddle thee,

    Billy Boy, Billy Boy?

Will she kiss and cuddle thee

    Me Billy Boy.

Aye, she’ll kiss and cuddle me

Close as the bark is to the tree, And me Nancy ...

 

The inquisition can carry on as long as the shanty requires - many of the more erotic questions and answers obvious but never printed anywhere. All the same it seem unusually an account of an intimate encounter that may end more happily than many of Jack or Billy’s amorous (Mis)adventures shantied elswhere.

 

Is she fit to be yer wife
    Billy Boy, Billy Boy?
Is she fit to be yer wife, 

    Me Billy Boy?
She's as fit to be me wife
As the fork is to the knife,  

    And me Nancy kittl'd me fancy
    Oh me charmin' Billy Boy.