Traditional square dance song found in Britain, the Bahamas, and the American
West. Common as "Hey, Lolly, Lolly". Became famous when recorded by Chubby Checker in 1963 (as "Loddy Lo")
And the melody was also used for the Weavers' "Pay Me My Money Down" and Vince Martin and the Tarriers' "Cindy, Oh Cindy".
The song is already mentioned in John and Alan Lomax's book Our Singing Country (1941).
As we see above mentioned in the Lomaxes book is a recording by Elizabeth Austin and a group of women with clapping accompaniment, recorded by Alan Lomax in July 1935 in New Bight, Cat Island, Bahamas.
Most Bahaman dance songs are faintly, if not markedly, scandalous. Like Haitian Mardi Gras songs, they serve, without naming names, to retail gossip about or to poke fun at an enemy or some person who has acted shamefully or ridiculously. The satire, however, is softened by the kittenish giggles of the young girls who do the singing
Besides the version by Elizabeth Austin, in 1935 there were a few more versions recorded by Alan Lomax on the Bahamas. In fact there was an even earlier recording on the same Cat Island.
(o) Gertrude Thurston and group (1935) (as "Married Man Will Keep Your Secret") .
Recorded by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle in July 1935 in New Bight, Cat island, Bahamas,
Matrix 392 B
Gertrude Thurston 1935
Taking into account the matrix-number, the recording by Elizabeth Austin was done a bit later.
(c) Elizabeth Austin and group of women (1935) (as "Married Man Going To Keep Your Secret") .
Recorded by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle in July 1935 in Old Bight, Cat island, Bahamas,
Matrix 420 B3
(c) Mixed group (1935) (as "Married Man Going To Keep Your Secret") .
Recorded by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle in July 1935 in Nassau, Bahamas
Matrix 486 A2
(c) Rowena Bell, Pappie and. Sweety Pie with drum (1935)
(as "Married Man Going To Keep Your Secret") .
Recorded by Alan Lomax and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle in August 1935 in Nassau, Bahamas
Matrix 529 Bl
Till now the above mentioned Lomax recordings haven't been released.
The first recording I could find:
(c) Woody Guthrie (1944) (as "Lolly Lo")
Woody Guthrie: voc & mandolin / Cisco Houston: voc & guitar / Sonny Terry: harmonica
Recorded April 25, 1944 by Moses Asch
Matrix MA 105
Released in 1945 on a 3 disc 78 RPM album-set on the Stinson label
It was on the B-side of disc # 627 in that album-set
Re-released (as "Hey, Lolly, Lolly") in 1952 on the album Woody Guthrie Volume 1 (Stinson label # SLP44)
Listen here:
Woody's version was also heard in the 1991 movie Dogfight.
In 1947 Bing Crosby and Burl Ives sang a version in Bing Crosby's Philco Radioshow.
(c) Bing Crosby and Burl Ives with John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra (1947)
(as "Hey Liley, Liley Lo")
Les Paul (gtr)
Date: April 23, 1947 in Hollywood, CAL.
Released on the album "Philco Radio Time #28"
Listen here:
(c) Pete Seeger (1954) (as "Hey Li-Lee, Li-Lee-Lo")
Listen here (after 4 min and 30 sec in the next YT)
Or here:
(c) Alan Lomax (1955) (as "Hey Lally Lally Lo")
Alan Lomax himself also recorded the song at his home in London circa 1955
(c) Weavers (1957) (as part of the "Around The World" medley)
Recorded December 24, 1955
Released on the album Weavers at Carnegie Hall, (Vanguard VRS 9010)
Listen here (after 1 min and 30 sec)
(c) The Vipers Skiffle Group (1957) (as "Hey Liley, Liley Lo")
Liesten here:
(c) Bill Maynard (1957) ( as "Hey Liley, Liley, Lo")
Listen here:
(c) Billy Lehman and The Rock-Itts (1958) (as "Lollie")
Listen here:
(c) Limeliters (1961) (as "Hey Li Lee Li Lee")
Listen here:
(c) Brothers Four (1960) (as "Hey Liley, Liley Lo")
Released on the album Rally 'Round! (Columbia CL 1479)
Listen here:
(c) Chubby Checker (1963) (as "Loddy Lo")
Chubby Checker had met Dutch model and beauty queen Catharina Lodders in 1963. Just a few months before their marriage in 1964 "Loddy Lo" was written as a declaration of love for her.
Listen here:
(c) Hootenanny Singers (1964) (as "Hey Liley Liley Lo")
Listen here:
In 1964 Dutch singer Johnny Lion with the Jumping Jewels made a cover of the Chubby Checker version
(c) Johnny Lion with the Jumping Jewels (1964) (as "Loddy-Lo")
Listen here:
On January 24, 1969 during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions the Beatles also sang 11 seconds of "Hey Liley, Liley Lo" in between the 2 songs "Diggin' My Potatoes" and "Rock Island Line".
(the song was attributed to The Vipers Skiffle Group, who had recorded the song in 1957)
Listen here at 48 seconds in the next YT
And on January 25, 1991 during the rehearsals of MTV Unplugged, Paul McCartney also sang 11 seconds of "Hey Liley, Liley Lo" in between the 2 songs "Cumberland Gap" and "Freight Train"
Listen here:
(c) Dolly Dots (1980) (as "Hela-Di-Ladi-Lo")
Listen here:
More versions here:
"Hey Liley Liley Lo" is melodically very similar to "Pay Me My Money Down", a work song popular among the Negro stevedores working in the Georgia Sea Islands. It was collected by Lydia Parrish and published in her 1942 book, "Slave Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands"
Lydia Parrish published her collection in 1942 after many years of research and collecting.
Here is the version she collected, a shanty, probably only used for loading logs.
PAY ME MY MONEY DOWN
Chorus:
Pay me, Oh pay me,
Pay me my money down,
Oh Pay me or go to jail !
Pay me my money down
Pay me, Oh pay me,
Pay me my money down,
Oh Pay me or go to jail !
Pay me my money down.
Think I heard my captain say,
Pay me my money down,
T'morrow is my sailing day."
Pay me my money down.
Wish't I was Mr. Coffin's son
Pay me my money down
Stay in the house and drink good rum.
Pay me my money down
You oweme, pay
Pay me my money down
Pay me or go to jail
Pay me my money down
Wish't I was Mr. Foster's son,
Pay me my money down
I'd set on the bank an' see the work done.
Pay me my money down
Lydia Parrish says about the last verse
"Mr Foster was the "Big Boss" at the Hilton-Dodge Mill on the west side of St. Simon's and the stevedores tell me they always sang this verse when they saw him coming."
Lydia Parrish, wife of Maxfield Parrish, began her own “folklife studies” on St. Simons Island, where she lived. She would pay men and women who lived on the island to share their songs and memories, which she documented.
Around 1920, Parrish sponsored the formation of the Spiritual Singers of Georgia, who performed for guests at the Cloister Hotel. Bessie Jones, a young woman from Dawson, Georgia, who had moved to St. Simons Island with her husband, joined the choral group in 1933.
The other significant documentation of the group came from famed folklorist Alan Lomax. He originally visited the island in 1935, accompanied by author and fellow folklorist, Zora Neale Hurston. They met Parrish and Jones and experienced the Spiritual singers.
Lomax returned in 1959 and 1960 to conduct extensive recordings of this group.
In October 1959 Alan Lomax was on St Simons Island, Georgia to record a version of "Pay Me" by this group of stevedores and fishermen. This particular version was sung by Joe Armstrong.
It was released in 1961 on an album in the Southern Journey series on the Prestige label.
Or here:
But before that, in January 1944, Alan Lomax had recorded a version of "Pay Me My Money Down" sung by a group of Negro longshoremen of the Bell Steamship Company in Tampa Florida.
Till now this version has't been released officially.
In 1960 "Pay Me" was published in Lomax's "The Folk Songs of North America"
It was song #279 on page 530
PAY ME
1. Pay me or go to jail
Pay me my money down
Pay me or go to jail
Pay me my money down
CHORUS
Pay me, o pay me
Pay me my money down
Pay me, o pay me
Pay me my money down
2. Pay me, Mr. Stevedore
Pay me my money down
Pay me, Mr. Stevedore
Pay me my money down
3. This is not the end of the song;
the remaining stanzas will
be left to the reader's devising.
Lomax wrote:
They bellowed songs as they hoisted, heaved and screwed down their cargoes, as had twelve generations of their forebears. By the 1940s, however, their songs were no longer nostalgic or oblique. . . . [Their songs] said directly and openly what they thought, and their song has proved enormously appealing to young people all across America.
One of those young people was Pete Seeger, who learned it from his sister in the 1950's. She got it out of a book by Lydia Parish called "Songs of the Georgia Sea Islands" (1942)". SEE ABOVE
It was also the inspiration for Pete to write another song: "Living In The Country".
Said Pete: "I was fooling around on the guitar in the D tuning (6th string down one whole tone). I started with another song, “Pay Me My Money Down”, and gradually improvised a new tune off of it. I may never compose a better piece of guitar music (I’d like to but I probably won’t.)".
Here's Pete Seeger's arrangement of "Pay Me My Money Down" recorded by The Weavers.
It was also credited to Lydia Parrish, who was not the writer, but she obtained the copyright by publishing the song first, as was the habit of folklorists until recently.
(c) Weavers (1955) (as "Pay Me My Money Down")
Recorded live on Christmas Eve 1955 in Carnegie Hall, New York City
Listen here:
"Pay Me My Money Down" was played by an unnamed bluegrass band with Jerry Garcia on banjo in August 1961 in San Carlos, California
They also sang it at an unknown venue in Burlingame in January 1962.
Bruce Springsteen recorded the song during the second recording session on March 19, 2005 for the Seeger Sessions album.
(c) Bruce Springsteen (2006) (as "Pay Me My Money Down")
Listen here:
Capitalizing on the Weavers' folk success with "Pay Me My Money Down", Robert Barron (=Robert Nemiroff) and Burt Long (=Burt D'Lugoff) appropriated the melody unchanged for their pop song "Cindy, Oh Cindy", originally recorded in 1956 by Vince Martin with The Tarriers, and quickly covered by Eddie Fisher.
(c) Vince Martin with The Tarriers (1956) (as "Cindy, Oh Cindy")
Listen here:
Not to be confused with this "Cindy" SEE: Joop's Musical Flowers: Cindy (1927)
The English deep water shanty "Pay Me The Money Down" is believed to be somewhat related to this log loading shanty.
In 1888 a version of "Pay Me The Money Down" was published in Laura Alexandrine Smith's book "The music of the waters. A collection of the sailors' chanties, or working songs of the sea, of all maritime nations. Boatmen's fishermen's, and rowing songs, and water legends".
Miss L.A. Smith writes that it was used as a pumping song and it is known as an English comic song.
Here's the 1888 published version from Miss Smith.
Pay Me The Money Down
Your money, young man, is no object to me
Pay me the money down
Half a crown's no great demand
Pay me the money down
Money down, money down
Pay me the money down.
But even before that, the song was published in the July 1858 edition of THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY. It contains an article on "Songs of the Sea."
Here are some passages about work-songs.
The classic sea shanty.
Then there are pumping-songs. "The dismal sound of the pumps is heard," says Mr. Webster's Plymouth-Rock Oration ; but being a part of the daily morning duty of a well-disciplined merchant vessel,—just a few minutes' spell to keep the vessel free and cargo unharmed by bilge-water,—it is not a dismal sound at all, but rather a lively one. It was a favorite amusement with us passengers on board the --- to go forward about
pumping-time to the break of the deck and listen. Any quick tune to which you might work a fire-engine will serve for the music, and the words were varied with every fancy.
"Pay me the money down," was one favorite chorus, and the verse ran thus:
Solo: Your Money young man is no object to me
Cho: Pay me the money down!
Solo: Half a crown's no great amount
Cho: Pay me the money down!
Solo and Cho: Money down, money down, pay me the money down!
Not much sense in all this, but it served to man and move the brakes merrily.
Stan Hugill has this version in "Shanties from the Seven Seas" (1994 edition, page 370).
He got this halyard chantey from Harry Lauder of St. Lucia, with additional lines from Harding of Barbados. He thought it may have been a West Indian shore work-song taken to sea.
PAY ME THE MONEY DOWN
Your money young man is no object to me
Pay me the money down;
Oh, money down, oh, money down
Pay me the money down
I went for a cruise, boys, around the town...
I there met a gal called Sally Brown...
I put me arm around her waist,
Sez she, "Young man, yer in great haste."
"My price for love is half a crown,
An' money down, 'tis real money down."
Oh, the Yankee dollar some gits for their pay,
Will buy us rum, boys, for many a day.
A dollar a day is a white man's pay,
Stowin' cotton all the day.
Oh, if I had silver dollars galore,
I'd pack me bags and stay on shore.
I wisht I had ten thousand pound,
I'd sail this ol' world, around an' around.
I wisht I wuz Ol' Stormy's son,
I'd build a ship o' a thousan' ton.
We'd stay at the ports where we wuz in,
Drinkin' beer an' whisky an' gin.
When the ship it ties up an' the voyage is through,
I wants me pay, sir, every sou.
Listen here:
So this version is (lyrically) surely related to the "Pay Me My Money Down" version.
But it has NOT the familiar tune.
