The Fisherman’s Tale
I went to Whitby by the sea
To find a lass who’d care for me
I found a lass down in the town
She took one look at me and frowned
She said fisherman, fisherman sling your hook
I don’t much care for the way you look
One hundred and ninety nine steps go climb
And don’t come fishing a second time
I went to Saltburn by the sea
To find a lass who’d care for me
I found a lass down in the town
She took one look at me and frowned
She said fisherman, fisherman sling your hook
I don’t much care for the way you look
Go for a long walk off our short pier
And don’t come fishing again round here
I went to Marske by the sea
To find a lass who’d care for me
I found a lass down in the town
She took one look at me and frowned
She said fisherman, fisherman sling your hook
I don’t much care for the way you look
Go and take shelter in St Germain’s
And don’t come fishing round here again
I went to Redcar by the sea
To find a lass who’d care for me
I found a lass down in the town
She took one look at me and frowned
She said fisherman, fisherman sling your hook
I don’t much care for the way you look
Head up the Beacon and try to fly
And don’t come fishing while I’m alive
Well now my fishing days are done
I stay ashore and drink my rum
I finally found a lass called Grace
Who doesn’t care about my face
She said fisherman, fisherman you’re a catch
I’ve been waiting for someone like you for a match
And now that you’re here and we’re finally wed
Bring that fishing rod to bed
© 2023 JG Songs
A tale of a fisherman visiting four places along the coast of northeast England. Starting at Whitby with it’s abbey atop 199 steps from the harbour, he travels north to Saltburn whose pier was cut in half when a ship ran through it in 1924, then Marske where the ancient church of St Germain whose nave was demolished in 1955 leaving only the tower and finally to Redcar where the Beacon, erected in 2013, is popularly known as one of the ugliest buildings in the area.
Written for my local shanty singing group, I had an idea about a man wandering along the coast trying to find a wife. I had it at breakfast so my mouth was a bit full. The original tune is nothing like the final song.
Developing this idea I thought it would be ironic if a fisherman was told to sling his hook so that was the key to the chorus lyrics forming
I started on the guitar in 4/4 but quickly moved to 6/8. It just seemed natural. You can hear that move 25 seconds into this clip during my first attempt to join the embryonic verse and chorus.
The “She said…” intro to the chorus is ripped off from the chorus of the church song Freely, Freely You Have Received (listen here).
I then thought about our town and it’s short peir and imagined the rejection being to take a long walk off a short pier.
From there, it was relatively easy to think of other local landmarks the women could tell him to take himself off to in other coastal towns nearby. This gave me the four towns and the northerly journey from one to another.
Then I simply jammed the melody over and over until I had something worked out. You can also hear me experimenting to find the best key in this next clip. Although even in the first clip below, I’m still in F, I settled on Eb for the final recording because it gives a more comfortable melodic range for group singing.
I purposely wanted it mostly repetitive as it’s the kind of song our shanty group will do in pubs where the audience will sing along.
The last verse came about simply because I wanted some form of resolution and the euphemism of the fishing rod was… ahem… too hard to resist. Here’s the first take I did once I had everything pretty much fleshed out although it’s still in F and therefore a bit high.
