I'll Fire Dis Trip

DESCRIPTION: "I'll fire dis trip an' I'll fire no mo', fire down below! (x2)" "Miss Nancy Bell, I wish you well, fire down below! (x2)" "De bullies' boy is Uncle Gable, fire down below! Bring on day wood while you be's able! Fire down below."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown); possibly first printed 1850 (see Notes)
KEYWORDS: ship work fire
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 222, "I'll Fire Dis Trip" (1 text)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 222, "I'll Fire Dis Trip" (1 tune plus a text excerpt)
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, p. 115, "The Sailor Fireman" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #813
NOTES [103 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas suggests that this may be the original Negro song from which the tune of the verses of both "Ho for California" and "Camptown Races" stemmed. He found it in Sternvall's Sang under Segel (1935) where the author cites a book called Nigger Melodies, being the only entire and complete work of Ethiopian songs extant; Cornish Lamport & Co., NY, 1850. I found references to the book in WorldCat and other indexes, but haven't actually laid eyes on it. - SL
Roud lumps this with "Fire Down Below." There are similar words, but it seems to me the words are different enough to split them. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.0
File: Br3222

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography