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about

Popular tradition has often identified the "cruel captain" of this ballad with Sir Walter Raleigh, and the ship with his vessel, the Sweet Trinity. This identification seems, in fact, to be fictitious, though the sentiments accord with contemporary
popular feelings about Raleigh himself. Whatever the original source, The Golden Vanity has been one of the most popular ballads in folk tradition. This version, with a truly fine air, was collected by the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould in Cornwall.
Barring-Gould had the annoying habit of editing out or rewriting those parts of songs which seemed to him unfit for gentle ears. Fortunately, there was nothing in the sentiments of The Golden Vanity to offend his reverend soul, so we have the words just as he heard them from the singer, James Oliver of Launceston.

lyrics

A ship I have got in the north countery
And she goes by the name of the Golden Vanity;
I fear she will be taken by a Spanish gallilee
As she sails by the lowlands low.

Chorus:
As she sails by the lowlands low
By the lowlands low.
As she sails by the lowlands low.

Then up there spoke a little cabin boy,
And he says, "What is my fee if the galley I destroy?
The Spanish gallilee, if no more it shall annoy,
As you sail by the lowlands low."

"Of silver and of gold I will give to you a store,
And my pretty little daughter that dwelleth on the shore;
Of treasure and of fee as well I'll give to thee galore
If you sink'em in the lowlands low."

So the boy bared his breast and he straight away leaped in,
And he bore all in his hands an auger sharp and thin,
And he swam until he came to the Spanish galleon,
As she sailed by the lowlands low.

Then he bored with his auger, he bored once and twice,
And some were playing cards and some were playing dice.
As the water flowed in, it a-dazzled their eyes,
And she sank by the lowlands low.

Then the boy swam around, all to the larboard side,
Saying, "Captain take me up, for I am drifting with the tide.
"I'Il shoot you, I will kill you!" the cruel captain cried,
"You may sink by the lowlands low."

Then the boy swam around, all to the starboard side,
Saying, "Messmates take me up, for I am drifting with the tide."
They pulled him up upon the deck, and he closed his eyes and died,
As they sailed by the lowlands low.

Then they sewed his body up in an old cow's hide,
And they cast the gallant cabin boy over the ship's side,
And left him without more ado, a drifting with the tide,
And to sink by the lowlands low.

credits

from This Side Of The Ocean, released December 28, 2021
David - Lead vocals • Group - Chorus

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about

Laurence Stevenson image

Laurence Stevenson Brighton, Ontario

Having been born in Scotland and moved to Canada in my high school years, my life has followed parallel (but musically related) paths.
A career in radio, firstly as a radio news tech then a sound effects guy to creator of the CBC Radio Experimental Audio Room and finally as an international award winning radio producer for the popular show, Outfront, has been tracked alongside a life as a fiddler. ... more

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