{"id":13258,"date":"2021-10-26T09:08:15","date_gmt":"2021-10-26T09:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=13258"},"modified":"2021-10-26T09:08:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T09:08:17","slug":"oh-joe-the-boats-a-going-over","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/oh-joe-the-boats-a-going-over\/","title":{"rendered":"Oh Joe! The Boat’s A-Going Over"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Old Joe, the boat’s going over.<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1880<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>John Read<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN1777<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>John Read<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Green, Harry; England: Essex; 1967
Pardon, Walter; England: Norfolk; 1978<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Version 1 from a Broadside in the Frank Kidson Collection \nAt the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library<\/a>\n\nOH JOE! THE BOAT'S GOING OVER\n\nI loved a charming creature, such a very timid maid,\nShe can stand almost anything but of water she's afraid,\nShe'll have a tidy fortune when her uncle dies some day,\nWhile on a voyage to Dover once, that girl to me did say.\n\nOh! Joe the boat's going over,\nOh! Joe you naughty man she cried,\nOh! Joe I wish you'd been in Dover,\nBefore you ever took me on the water for a ride.<\/em>\n\nThe wind was blowing rather rough she clung so tight to me,\nThe boat began to pitch and toss, all on the briny sea,\nShe looked so wild she cried aloud in a frantic sort of way,\nHer arms she flung around my neck and then to me did say-\n\nI said Matilda don't be afraid now there's a dear,\nWith a smile she looked into my face, and gave me such a leer,\nA kiss then on her cheek I stole, oh, she seemed rather shy,\nAnd while I was kissing her, that girl to me did cry-\n\nWe landed safe in Dover, her uncle there we found,\nHe died two days after that, and left her eight hundred pounds.\nI made Matilda my dear wife we're so happy night and day,\nWhile sitting by her fireside sometimes she'll say-\n\n\n\nVersion 2 from March's New Songs and Ballads<\/strong>, Broadsheet at Bodleian Ballads<\/strong><\/a>\nOh, Joe, The Boat's Going Over<\/strong>\nC. Sheard High Holborn\n\nIt happen'd on one afternoon in the month of May,\nWhile walking out with a pretty little girl, I unto her did say;\nWill you go, Miss, for a row, as we stood on the shore,\n'Twill do you good, she exclaim'd it would, as she'd not been there before.\n\n[Spoken: -And like a fool I hired a boat and when we got on the water, just because the boat began to rock a bit she exclaimed-]\n\nOh! Joe, the boat's a going over,\nOh! Joe, you naughty man, she cried,\nOh! Joe, I wish you'd been at Dover,\nEre you ever took me on the water for a ride.<\/em>\n\nI pull'd again with all my might, had not gone very far,\nBefore the girl commenced to scream, and said she'd tell her Ma;\nAnd as these words fell from her lips a steamer came close by,\nWhich caused the boat to pitch and toss and her again to cry-\n\nI felt uneasy in my mind, I scarce knew what to do,\nI thought the girl would die with fright and so would all of you;\nShe said, \"dear Joe, oh take me home, here I cannot remain,\"\nAnd then there came another wave which made her shout again-\n\nNow thinking it would ease her mind, I pull'd towards the shore,\nShe told me I was very kind but would not go any more\nOn the water for a row, and now unto this day,\nIf you want to make her cross, of course you only have to say-\n<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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A Music Hall song which lived on as a polka in East Anglian instrumental folk music. The song itself is also occasionally sung and Mike Yates found two versions of the lyrics, both of which are reproduced above. It was commonplace for songs to be written in multiple versions, or with additional verses, so it may be that both versions come from the pen of John Read. The song was a big hit in 1880 when it was published by Charles Sheard and it appears to have been sung in the pantomime Dick Whittington and his Cat at the <\/em>Theatre Royal Nottingham, December 1880.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Jan. 1, 1881;  <\/strong>The Era <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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You can hear  Walter Pardon play the polka and sing the chorus at the VWML here<\/a>.  To hear the full song search for the Harry Green version on well-known streaming services..<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here is Gavin Atkins playing an instrumental version:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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