Friday, December 7, 2012

Boney Was A Warrior




The next time you are playing the British side in a Napoleonic battle, here is a little ditty that your troops can sing before those French start "coming on in the same old way".



Boney was a Warrior
Boney was a warrior
Away, a-yah!
A warrior and a terrier
Jean Francois!

Boney fought the Russians
Away, a-yah!
The Russians and the Prussians.
Jean Francois!

Moscow was a-blazing
Away, a-yah!
And Boney was a-raging.
Jean Francois!

Boney went to Elba
Away, a-yah!
Boney he came back again.
Jean Francois!

Boney went to Waterloo
Away, a-yah!
There he got his overthrow.
Jean Francois!

Then they took him off again
Away, a-yah!
Aboard the Billy Ruffian.
Jean Francois!

He went to Saint Helena,
Away, a-yah!
There he was a prisoner,
Jean Francois!

Boney broke his heart and died
Away, a-yah!
Away in Saint Helena
Jean Francois!

8 comments:

  1. First 30 seconds or so....

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXPX9FkR9Jk

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  2. Aha! This is what the British troops were shouting out before the battle commenced in the Rod Steiger-Christopher Plummer version of Waterloo (1970). Thank you for solving this mystery, Jim.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  3. Beaten to it by both the above!Although, going of the last few verses, the song must post-date Waterloo?

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  4. And, from the rhythm and refrain, it is clearly a sea shanty - not something the 'lobsters' would know or sing!

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  5. I wonder if some of the earlier verses were done before Waterloo and the rest of them added after the demise of Napoleon.

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  6. a little net search gives - probably written around 1820s in 6/8 time (whatever that is) as a sea shanty. www.shanty.org.uk/archive_songs/boney.ht

    one interesting point I discovered about St.Helena while doing this. Zulu king Dinizulu incarcerated there for 7 years in the 1890s!

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  7. The shanty was used to time hoisting the capstan according to my sources. I've seen a few minor variations on it and personally sing a different one, ardent Bonapartist though I am.

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  8. There's a modern rock version of "Boney was a Warrior" on Rogue's Gallery - a CD compilation of modern sea shanties and 'pirate' ballads that Johnny Depp had a hand in producing (post-Pirates of the Caribbean). It's performed by an ensemble calling themselves Jack Shit (!) and is describe in the CD notes as a "halyard or fore-sheet chantey". It rocks along pretty well - electric guitars and everything. Almost Punk.

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