|
 |
| Maggie
May reputedly lived on Duke Street. |
My
first job was as an office boy in Duke Street and I鈥檇 heard the
rumour that Maggie May lived at number 17. One day somebody came
in and said a funeral has just gone by and it was Maggie May and
that was in 1952. I thought that can鈥檛 be true because I鈥檝e always
known the song; there鈥檚 two versions.
|
|
|
The
supposed residence of Maggie May on Duke Street
|
It
seems that the landsmen sing the dirty version and the sailors sang
the
clean version. Sailors were very puritanical in that way because
they reserved their dirty songs, and there were hundreds of them,
for on board ship. When ashore, they wouldn鈥檛 sing their working
songs, their shanties, they would sing what they call forebitters,
which are songs they sang for their own amusement.
There is a clue in the song as to when Maggie May was born.
' Four pound ten a month it was, my pay.'
So I found out what an able seaman鈥檚 pay was, when it was four pounds
ten. That gave me an idea of the date. So was she still alive in
the 50s? It is possible. Maggie May had many contemporaries of course.
One was called Jumping Jenny and the famous one was The Battle Ship,
pretty ominous really.
听
 |
Hear
the Maggie May folk song |
| Real
Player required: More
Info |
Oh
Maggie Maggie May, they鈥檝e taken her away,
And she鈥檒l never walk down Lime Street anymore. For she鈥檚 robbed
so many sailors
And Captains of the Whalers
That dirty, robbing, no good, Maggie May. |
|
|
|
|
|
