raymondcrooke
352. The Chinese Bumboat Man (Traditional English) - Dave Ellis
I can find very little information about this politically incorrect little ballad, also known as "Wing Chang Lu" (or "Wing Chang Loo"), except that it has been recorded by a folk group called Clam Chowder.
I have this song in an old Penguin book - "The Weekend Book, Volume 2," which was first published in 1924. It seems to be well-known to the English members of the Hong Kong Folk Society.
Lyrics:
I'll sing you a song of trouble an' woe,
That'll cause ye to shake and shiver,
Concernin' a Chinese bumboat man
That sailed on the Yangtze river.
He was a heathen o' high degree,
As the joss-house records show.
His family name, it was Wing Chang Lu,
But the sailors all called him Jim Crow-ee-eye-oh-ee-eye!
Itch-y-kum, kitch-y-kum, yah, yah, yah
Sailorman no likee me.
Ye savvy the story of Wing Chang Lu
Too much of the barb-er-eye-ee, kye-ah
Now Wing Chang Loo he fell in love,
With a gal called Ah Chu Fong,
She had two pretty eyes like pumpkin seeds,
And slippers just three inches long,
But Ah Chu Fong loved a pirate bold
With all her heart and liver,
He was the captain of a double-decked junk,
That sailed on the Yangtze river-eye-iver-eye!
When Wing Chang Lu, he heard of this,
He swore an horrible oath:
“If I can not marry Ah Chu Fong,
I’ll make sausage meat out of them both!”
So he hoisted his blood-red battle flag,
Set course for the Yangtze river,
He steered to the east and the north and west,
Till that pirate he did diskiver-eye-iver-eye!
The drums they beat to quarters and
The cannon did loudly roar,
The red hot dumplings flew like lead,
And the scuppers were running in gore.
The pirate paced the quarterdeck
With never a shake nor a shiver,
Till hit in the stern with a hard-boiled egg,
That penetr-i-ated his liver-eye-iver-eye!
The dying pirate he feebly cried,
"We'll give the foe more shot,
If I can not marry Ah Chu Fong,
Then Wing Chang Lu shall not!"
When a pease-pudden hot hit the bumboat's side,
And caused an horrible scene.
It upset a pot of bow-wow soup,
And exploded the magazi-eenee-eyeeenee!
For further information, check out hultonclint's video of the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3fZ4vZFC84
Here it is sung by Dave Ellis, who has a huge repertoire of songs, always sung a capella. He's also pretty good on the tin whistle.
Lyrics and chords of many of my songs are no longer available, as my website has expired. I am currently posting lyrics to the information panels on all my videos and those that are too long to post in full will be found here: https://raymondsfolkpage.wordpress.com
