Ten thousand miles away

AKABlow the wind high-o!
The treadmill song
Botany bay
I’m off on the morning train
LyricsJB GeogheganMusicJB GeogheganRoud IndexRN1778
Music Hall performersThe Great Vivian US, 1870s
Harry Liston 1870s
JW Rowley 1880s
Folk performancesCollected from the singing of (a pre-war selection):
Welch, Lizzie England : Somerset; 1904
Hooper, Louie England : Somerset; 1904
Burroughs, Mrs. England : Somerset; 1906
Walker, Mrs.; Scotland; 1906
Rosher, Charles; England : London; 1907
Lyall, Mrs.; Scotland; 1908
Crichton, Mr. ; Scotland; 1908
Gillespie, Mrs. Margaret; Scotland; 1909
Busby, John; England : Warwickshire ; 1910
Lawson, Capt.; USA : New Hampshire ; 1927
Kennison, Josiah; USA : Vermont; 1930
Grubb, Minter; USA : Virginia ; 1932
From Sheet Music held in Bodleian Library:

TEN THOUSAND MILES AWAY
Written and composed and sung by JB Geoghegan
Published for the author by Hutchings and Romer

 Sing Ho! For a brave and valiant bark
 And a brisk and lively breeze
 A bully crew and a captain too,
 To carry me over the seas
 To carry me over the seas, my boys
 To my true love so gay
 She has taken a trip on a government ship
 Ten thousand miles away
  
 So blow the winds, I, Oh!,
 A-roving I will go
 I’ll stay no more on England’s shore,
 So let the music play,
 I start on the morning train,
 To cross the raging main,
 I’m on the move to my own true love,
 Ten thousand miles away.
 
 My true love, she is beautiful,
 My true love, she is young;
 Her eyes are blue as the violet’s hue,
 And silvery sounds her tongue.
 And silvery sounds her tongue, my boys,
 But, while I sing this lay,
 She’s doing the grand in a distant land,
 Ten thousand miles away
  
 Oh! That was a dark and dismal day
 When last she left the strand
 She bade goodbye with a tearful eye,
 And waved her lily hand. 
 And waved her lily hand, my boys,
 As the big ship left the bay,
 Adoo, says she, remember me,
 Ten thousand miles away.
  
 Oh! if I could be but a bos'n bold,
 Or only a bom-ba-dier,
 I’d hire a boat and hurry afloat,
 And straight to my true love steer.
 And straight to my true love steer, my boys,
 Where the dancing dolphins play,
 And the whales and sharks are having their larks,
 Ten thousand miles away
  
 Oh! The sun may shine through a London fog,
 And the Thames run bright and clear,
 The ocean’s brine be turned to wine,
 And I may forget my beer.
 And I may forget my beer, my boys,
 And the landlords quarter day,
 But I’ll never part from my own sweetheart,
 Ten thousand miles away

As mentioned in my post about JB Geoghegan, the great sea shanty expert Stan Hugill suggests this is a song that predates the Music Hall. He suggests that it was widely sung in the early 19th century under the title Botany Bay. It is possible that Geoghegan embellished an earlier song to make it his own, though I can’t find evidence of any thing very similar being sung before 1868. The balance of probability is definitely on the side of Geoghegan having written it in the mid- or late- 1860s and it having spread very quickly around the English-speaking world in the early 1870s. Hugill may be referring to one or other of several different songs written in the 1790s called Botany Bay, though I cannot find one that features a chorus similar to this version.

The Bodleian Library has two separate editions of the sheet music for Ten Thousand Miles Away, both dated 1870 and credited as follows:

  • Ten Thousand Miles Away
  • Popular song and chorus
  • Written, composed and sung by JB Geoghegan
  • Symphonies and accompaniments by J Batchelder.
  • Sung by Harry Liston.

The lyrics given above are taken from this sheet music.

My searches in the 19th century newspaper archives suggest that the song was being sung several years before publication – songs were often only published as sheet music after they had proved successful in the Halls:

  • Notices in The Era state the song was sung on the British music hall stage by Harry Liston on his Provincial tour in the summer of 1868 (The Era 19 July 1868).
  • Later that year The Era reviewed Liston singing it at Sam Collins’s Hall in South London: “Mr Harry Liston, who looks quite fresh after his provincial tour… [dressed] as a sailor, singing lustily and merrily “Ten thousand miles away” which is new to us, deserves to become popular.”
  • The earliest report of an amateur performance of a song called Ten Thousand Miles away occurs on 29 November 1869 in an Irish newspaper in a report of a “weekly entertainment of readings and music at the military barracks of the 54th W. Norfolk Regiment” by “Private Russell” (Northern Whig 29 November 1869)
  • According to the Freeman’s Journal, it was sung by “Miss Markham”, the leading character in the pantomime Robinson Crusoe, at the Theatre Royal Dublin in December 1869.
  • The words were printed as “Poetry” in the April 1 1870 edition of The Waterford Chronicle, an Irish newspaper. The words are essentially identical to those given the sheet music, except that “bosun bold” verse is omitted and I’ll stay no more on England’s shore becomes I’ll stay no more on Ireland’s shore.
  • Ten years later it was revived: The great favourite Mr JW Rowley gave “Heigho, says Rowley” and new words to the old song “I’m off by the morning train” or “10,000 miles away” at The Sun Music Hall, London. (The Era 11 Jan 1880)

The song was published in several different British broadsides usually with lyrics very close to the ones given above. One early undated British broadside version replaces the verse about the final goodbye with its waving of “the lily hand” with something which makes it much more explicitly about transportation:

Oh, that was a dark and dismal day, when last I saw my Peg,
She had a government band around each arm and another one round each leg; Another one round each leg, my boys; togged in the suit of grey,
Goodbye said she, remember me, ten thousand miles away

Music Hall performers routinely modified the songs they were singing, adding and taking away verses for example. It’s possible that Geoghegan, Liston, Rowley, Miss Markham or another performer added this extra verse.

The song was circulating in America from the early 1870s. It appeared in Henry de Marsan Singer’s Journal No. 42, which I estimate was published between Dec 1869 and April 1870. It included the verse about Meg in her “government bands” and stated that it was being sung by “Wm F Sinclair certainly the Greatest Serio-Comic Singer now in the United States”.

The earliest verifiable dated instance of the song in Australia seems to be a humorous anecdote published in Melbourne in 1874, describing how:

..the party had to take shelter at a low pot house filled with noisy station hands, who made the night hideous with a dreadful song, with one verse concerning Rattling Meg:

[With] a government band around each hand
And another around each leg,
So let the music play, my boy, so let the music play,
For she’s doing the grand in a distant land
Ten thousand miles away

Melbourne Punch, July 9 1874

Other publications from Melbourne in the mid 1870s advertise the song as Billy Emerson’s Ten Thousand Miles Away “as sung by Miss Maggie Moore and Billy Emerson” (The Australasian January 19, 1875). Several parodies occur in later editions of the Melbourne Punch, indicating that in Melbourne at least it was a well-known song.

Ten thousand miles away was a very widely parodied song, and the parodies seem to be reflected in a number of the versions collected from traditional singers. One parody which seems to have had a particular impact often appeared under the title A capital ship (Roud 24507). I am currently investigating this song – watch this space!

The first person to have a hit with Ten thousand miles away was British Music Hall comedian Harry Liston (1843-1929) in the late 1860s . Liston was born in Stockport and his first job was as a commercial traveller. He made his debut in Glasgow in 1863, initially adopting the style of a Lion comique. He then appeared in Liverpool where a one week booking was extended to 19 . He later toured with a two hour one-man show called The Stage Struck Hero – holding the attention of an audience in a Music Hall with its attendant drinking and rowdiness was no mean feat! He later led touring concert parties, and another extended one-man show, Merry moments, advertised as shown here. His best-known song was arguably Johnny I hardly knew ye which also written by JB Geoghegan. Other songs performed by Harry Liston which have entered the folk tradition include: I wish mama was here and I love the verdant fields

Ten thousand miles away was was also sung in America in the 1870s by an Englishman, Charles Vivian (a.k.a. “The Great Vivian”). Vivian arrived in New York in 1867, apparently already an accomplished musical variety star specialising in comic songs and playing roles in Gilbert and Sullivan. In 1868 he established the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. He seems to have spent the 1870s touring various theatres in America and Canada, and died in 1880 in Colorado. Vivian’s version has the subtitle: “The Treadmill Song” – not sure why!

For more on  JW “Over” Rowley follow the link

The song has appeared in broadsides and songbooks from Ireland, Canada, Australia, America and England, going back to the 1870s. It has been collected from the singing of a range of source singers in the UK and Canada.

  

Sources

A lively version by Bellowhead

Last Updated on February 5, 2024 by John Baxter | Published: December 7, 2019

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