Say “Sloop John B” to most baby boomers and their likely response is, “The Beach Boys!”
They’re not wrong. But they’re also not right enough. Not by a long shot. It turns out the tune that Brian Wilson and his lads put on their beloved Pet Sounds album was decades older than everyone on that room in 1966.
About the Song
In fact, it was a century ago that “Sloop John B” — which tells a story from the Bahamas of an ill-fated sea voyage plagued by a drunken crew, fights and legal trouble, leaving a weary sailor just wanting to go home — was collected by poet Carl Sandburg (as “The John B. Sails”) in his hugely popular 1927 collection of folk songs, The American Songbag.
Sandburg said he got the song from a friend, Chicago political cartoonist John T. McCutcheon, who in turn learned it while on holiday with his wife in the West Indies. McCutcheon told Sandburg, “Time and usage have given this song almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau.” But the tune goes back further than that.
Ten years before Sandburg published it, British author Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947) wrote a novel called Pieces Of Eight in which the narrator says at one point, “We sang one of the quaint Nassau ditties.”
Then the text records these opening lines:
Come on the sloop John B, my grandfather and me,
Round Nassau town we did roam;
Drinking all night, we got in a fight,
We feel so break-up, we want to go home.
But our roots quests takes us back even further. Fourteen years before Le Gallienne’s novel came the first published mention of a song called “Hoist the John B Sails,” sheet music for which (as a “two step for piano”) was released in the U.S. in 1903 by Eddy Warren Prouty, a Massachusetts-based orchestra leader and violinist.
In those days, Prouty’s band provided music for hotels owned by oil and railway magnate Henry Flagler. Those properties included two in Nassau, which gives us our link to the Bahamas. Historians think Prouty probably arranged an existing melody for the piece he copyrighted.
Writing in Financial Times in 2023, author David Cheal noted, “The Henry Flagler connection has given rise to suspicions in folk-music circles that the ‘John B’ song is not ‘authentic,’ that it was created for the tourism industry. But it tells a true story.”
Fact Checking
Cheal found evidence of a 19th century vessel that was named after a Welsh captain named John Bethel. It seems that Captain John built the sloop and sailed it until it was wrecked (some versions of the song are named “The Wreck of the John B”), ”though it’s not known if his boat was the scene of the revelry described” in the song.
Bahamian singer Blake Alphonso Higgs, who brought the song back home with his 1952 version, said the sloop called “John B” had been a sponger boat that one day went under with no one returning. Over the years, the popularity of the song and its legend triggered interest in the wreck’s whereabouts.
Weathered ribs of the craft were found in the 1920s, remnants imbedded in the Bahamian sands at Governor’s Harbor. Excavated relics were preserved in a watch tower on the coast.
Enter Lomax and Seeger
Now let’s flash forward to 1935. That’s when folk song collector Alan Lomax flew from Florida to Nassau to record music of the islands.
He hoped, Cheal wrote in his Financial Times article, “to capture the authentic spirit of Africa that he believed could be found in the songs, ‘chanteys’ and dances of the islanders, particularly the sponge fishers of Cat Island.” Lomax’s July 1935 field recordings included “Sloop John B” being sung by the Cleveland Simmons Group in Nassau and is probably the song’s oldest recording.
Fifteen years later, Pete Seeger and The Weavers brought the song to a wider U.S. audience, waxing it for Decca Records in the spring of 1950.
Lee Hays, The Weavers’ bass singer and vocal arranger, modified the melody a bit to fit the quartet’s vocal style. Because of his work, the label on the 1950 Decca single officially credited the songwriting/adaptation to Sandburg and Hays (taking advantage of standard copyright practices for traditional folk material at the time).
From There…
We’re almost up to The Beach Boys’ recording, but the sloop has a few more stops to make on its way to 1966.
Eight years after The Weavers’ seminal recording, The Kingston Trio brought the song into its repertoire. Then along came Johnny Cash who gave it what Cheal termed “a hopalong country-tropical vibe in 1959 under the title ‘I Want to Go Home.’” A year later, British skiffler Lonnie Donegan put his spin on it with a tango rhythm, trombones and strings.
Then six years later, Beach Boy Al Jardine, a fan of The Kingston Trio’s rendition, urged the band’s maestro Brian Wilson to let them cover it.
Speaking of the version that boomers remember so fondly, Cheal observed, “A hit single from their Pet Sounds album, it is notable for its pin-sharp harmonies and lush instrumentation and also for its a cappella section, unusual for a pop song of the time.”
Our Take on the Tune
All of which brings us home to Floodlandia. When Jim Rumbaugh and his sweet wife Donna dropped in at last week’s rehearsal, we drew them into The Flood’s latest project.
Listen to Jim join in singing chorus as well as contributing a cool bit of harmonica on this century-old siren song of the islands.
In Other News, Live Tonight at Bahnhof!
By the way, if your Friday night dance card isn’t already full, we hope you’ll take a spin with us.
The Flood is pleased to be playing tonight as part of Bahnhof Wvrsthaus & Biergarten’s Oktoberfest fun. We’re playing from 6 ro 9 at the 745 7th Ave. venue in Huntington.
And best of all, Floodster Emerita Michelle Hoge — the original Chick Singer! — is visiting from her Loveland, OH, home and will be sitting in with us for the entire show. Come on down for good food, good tunes and good times. Let’s make memories!
