{"id":170,"date":"2016-02-20T07:00:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-20T12:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=170"},"modified":"2023-03-09T09:13:44","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T14:13:44","slug":"sloop-johnb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sloop-johnb\/","title":{"rendered":"Sloop John B. (\u00e0 la Joseph Spence)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sloop John B\" width=\"474\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7pzj-u2am2U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I have no idea where or when I first heard &#8220;Sloop John B.&#8221; a.k.a. &#8220;John B. Sails&#8221; &#8212; it could have been in elementary school or\u00a0 at the singalongs Phyllis Switzer led every summer at the MBL Club in Woods Hole, or any number of other places. It&#8217;s in the Cisco Houston songbook, but I don&#8217;t recall ever hearing his version, and I always thought of it as a kids&#8217; song until I heard Joseph Spence do it. <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-172 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/john-b-sails.jpg?resize=232%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"john b sails\" width=\"232\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/john-b-sails.jpg?resize=232%2C300&amp;ssl=1 232w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/john-b-sails.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/>Of course, I was wrong about that; it was one of the most popular anthems of the fishermen working out of Nassau, as described in a 1916 <em>Harper&#8217;s Monthly Magazine <\/em>article by an English poet named Richard Le Gallienne. That version was five verses long, but Cisco and Phyllis and pretty much everyone else just sing the three-verse version\u00a0 Carl Sandburg included in his <em>American Songbag<\/em>. Sandburg wrote that he had learned it from friends who lived in Nassau, but his three verses are identical to the first three in the <em>Harper&#8217;s <\/em>piece, which makes me suspicious&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Le Gallienne wrote, in the typical prose of the time, &#8220;These Negro songs of Nassau, though crude as to words, have a very haunting, barbaric melody, said to come straight from the African jungle, full of hypnotizing repetitions and absurd choruses, which, though they may not attract you much at first, end by getting into your blood, so that you often find yourself humming them unawares. The best known of them&#8230;is &#8216;The John B. Sails.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-176 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/spence-lipscomb-web.jpg?resize=150%2C252&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"spence-lipscomb-web\" width=\"150\" height=\"252\" \/>By the time I heard the song, the melody was more boring than barbaric, and when I heard the Beach Boys&#8217; version, that didn&#8217;t help. But then I heard Joseph Spence do it. I&#8217;d heard his guitar playing already, on the Folkways album Sam Charters recorded, which was in a box of records my half-brother David left with us for a year or two. The Folkways album didn&#8217;t include much singing, and I didn&#8217;t really understand Spence&#8217;s music until I saw a poster in the Harvard Coop, when I was twelve, saying that he and Mance Lipscomb would be at the Harvard Student Union. I didn&#8217;t recognize his name, but I knew Lipscomb&#8217;s, so I went, and that was that.<\/p>\n<p>I sing the usual Sandburg verses, but play roughly Spence&#8217;s guitar accompaniment &#8212; anyone who has heard Spence knows why I don&#8217;t sing his lyrics, and anyone who has not heard Spence should <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-174 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Arhoolie-Spence-LP.jpg?resize=200%2C200&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Arhoolie Spence LP\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Arhoolie-Spence-LP.jpg?w=200&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/Arhoolie-Spence-LP.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/>immediately hear him. He recorded &#8220;John B Sails&#8221; for Arhoolie, and if you don&#8217;t know his work, I have a guide to his recordings on my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/spence.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spence page<\/a> (which also has info about my how-to-play-Spence DVD). He may be my favorite guitarist ever, and I&#8217;ll be playing more of his arrangements before this project is finished (so far, I&#8217;ve done &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/glory-of-love\/\">The Glory of Love<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/brownskin-girl\/\">Brownskin Girl<\/a>,&#8221; &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wing-and-a-prayer\/\">Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer<\/a>,&#8221; and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/spence-medley\/\">medley of Spence pieces<\/a> ). I&#8217;m the first to admit that no one else plays them like he did, but it&#8217;s a lot of fun to try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The most popular Bahamian fisherman&#8217;s anthem, first printed in 1916, played in the style of the magnificent Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-link"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Sloop John B (a la Joseph Spence) - Elijah Wald Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The most popular Bahamian fisherman&#039;s anthem, first printed in 1916, played in the style of the magnificent Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sloop-johnb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sloop John B (a la Joseph Spence) - Elijah Wald Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The most popular Bahamian fisherman&#039;s anthem, first printed in 1916, played in the style of the magnificent Bahamian guitarist Joseph Spence.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/sloop-johnb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-02-20T12:00:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-03-09T14:13:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/john-b-sails-232x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/sloop-johnb\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/sloop-johnb\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Sloop John B. 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I love Spence's singing, whether on his own or with his in-laws, the Pinder family, and if I had to take one Spence recording to the proverbial desert island it\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/spence2-300x230.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1828,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/glory-of-love\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":1},"title":"Glory of Love (Joseph Spence)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Before heading to Europe, I sat down with my records and made four or five cassettes that served as my music library for the next couple of years. I had various criteria for choosing the cuts, but most were songs or guitar parts I wanted to learn. It was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/annecy-005-300x223.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5595,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/burma-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":2},"title":"Burma Road (Joseph Spence\/Ronnie Butler)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"January 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I first learned this when I was immersing myself in the guitar style of Joseph Spence, preparatory to making an instructional video on his playing -- but at the time I had no idea it was more than a charming little ditty with a bunch of sections and variations. On\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Burma-road-clip.webp?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4448,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/spence-medley\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":3},"title":"Joseph Spence Medley","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"October 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Anyone who has followed this project knows how much I love Joseph Spence's guitar style. I've already posted my versions of his\u00a0 \"Coming In on a Wing and a Prayer,\" \"Happy Meeting in Glory,\" \"Brownskin Girl,\" \"Sloop John B.,\" and \"Glory of Love,\" and written about how I fell in\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Spence-Folkways-CD-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3289,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/brownskin-girl\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":4},"title":"Brownskin Girl (Joseph Spence)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"December 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been fascinated by the Bahamian genius Joseph Spence since I was a kid, and by 1986 I'd worked out rough and inaccurate approximations of a few of his pieces. This was one of my favorites off his Folkways album, and it came in handy when I hitchhiked down through\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Belize-300x205.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":206,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/pay-me-my-money-down\/","url_meta":{"origin":170,"position":5},"title":"Pay Me My Money Down","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"February 7, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/i7FgKZ2xT54 I play this in an African-influenced guitar style I developed much later, but it is one of those songs I \"always\" knew. My original source was Phyllis Switzer (later Goldstein), who led a folksong singalong for kids at the MBL (Marine Biological Laboratories) Club in Woods Hole every summer.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"Phyllis Switzer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Phyllis-Switzer-209x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":482,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}