Bud Francois

DESCRIPTION: "Francois de bully man, Way oh! Francois de bully man, Bud Francois!" He stole Mrs Clement's cock, hid in a cellar and hung himself on a mango tree, but John Thomas cut him down. The singer would bury him.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1954 (Elder-FolksongsFromTobago)
KEYWORDS: theft escape suicide rescue parody shanty Caribbean
FOUND IN: West Indies(Tobago)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Elder-FolksongsFromTobago 38, "Bud Francois" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Boney" (original shanty)
NOTES [74 words]: This is a localization to the point of parody of "Boney." Elder-FolksongsFromTobago has this "very famous sea chanty sung by most Tobago fishermen" about "Bud Francois," "a real hero figure in the Moriah, village. Long before I recorded this shanty, in fact near to fifteen years before that, I had met Pa Bud (as they called Old Bud Francois) then and had spoken with him about some of his great escapades as a 'highway man', Tobago style." - BS
Last updated in version 4.0
File: ElTo038

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