Roll the Woodpile Down

DESCRIPTION: Pumping or capstan shanty. Verse lines end with "way down in Florida" and "an' we'll roll the woodpile down." Full chorus: "Rollin' rollin' rollin' the whole world round. That brown gal o' mine's down the Georgia Line, an' we'll roll the woodpile down."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1961 (Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong
FOUND IN: West Indies US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 160-161, "Roll the Woodpile Down" (1 text, 1 tune) [AbEd, p. 128]
DT, WOODPLDN*
Roud #4443
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Haul the Woodpile Down
NOTES [154 words]: Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas states that this is the sea version of "Haul the Woodpile down." [Indexed as "Hold the Woodpile Down," which is a more Dave Macon-ish version of the title. - RBW] Probably originated in the West Indies of American south, and was popular at sea right up to the end, one of Hugill's sources remembers it sung on board as late as 1920. Technically this could have been entered under "Hold the Woodpile Down"; however that entry kept making references to "Roll the Woodpile Down" and there was no entry for that cross-reference so I decided to add one, especially since this is likely the original that Uncle Dave Macon's version came from. - SL
This is a complicated question; the original is by Harrigan and Braham, which perhaps got converted to this, which then got Dave Maconized. Probably the two should have been handled differently, but they're staying split for historical reasons. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.2
File: Hugi160

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