{"id":218,"date":"2013-06-29T13:37:55","date_gmt":"2013-06-29T17:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=218"},"modified":"2021-10-05T08:54:40","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T12:54:40","slug":"roll-the-ol-chariots","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=218","title":{"rendered":"Roll The Ol’ Chariots"},"content":{"rendered":"

Roll The Ol\u2019 Chariots<\/p>\n

The real name for this song is \u201cA Drop Of Nelson\u2019s Blood\u201d\u2026 It was most commonly used as a \u201cstomp and go\u201d chantey, useful at the capstan or any other job where the men were bodily moving along \u2013 a \u201crunaway\u201d job, as it were.\u00a0 The first verse was pretty much always the same, but subsequent versus were added to the whim of the chanteyman.\u00a0 The song appeared within other traditions but we need not go into that now beyond what I once learn some time ago that it had originally been a negro spiritual called \u201cThe Golden Chariot\u201d.\u00a0 If this is true, then the melody had moved on in the traditional folk sense of being reused\u2026 The spiritual versus featured such lines as: \u201cIf the sinner\u2019s in the way, then we\u2019ll stop and take him in <\/em>(three times), and we won\u2019t drag on behind<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 And \u201cIf the Devil\u2019s in the way then we\u2019ll roll it over him\u2026<\/em>\u201d and so on.\u00a0 I\u2019m really not sure which version came first, for it was certainly not unheard of for hymns to use the melody and format of a popular folk song as much as the other direction\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cNelson\u2019s Blood<\/strong>\u201d was a slang term applied to rum after the Battle of Trafalgar \u2013 1805 \u2013 where Admiral Lord Nelson was shot and killed by an enemy sniper.\u00a0 They had packed his corpse in a barrel of rum to preserve the body in order to bring him home from the Mediterranean to England and thus a State funeral and burial.\u00a0 Allegedly, the barrel was dry when they arrived home, it sometimes happening that sailors would steal away into the hold and tap a small hole in a rum barrel to sip a bit\u2026 It was said that the sailors had sipped every drop of Nelson\u2019s Blood, or so the legend went\u2026<\/p>\n

Jos. Morneault<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The somewhat original sea lyrics would go as follows:
\nOh a drop of Nelson\u2019s Blood wouldn\u2019t do us any harm
\nOh a drop of Nelson\u2019s Blood wouldn\u2019t do us any harm
\nOh a drop of Nelson\u2019s Blood wouldn\u2019t do us any harm
\nAnd we\u2019ll all hang on behind!
\nChorus:
\nSo we\u2019ll roll the old chariot along
\nWe\u2019ll roll the golden chariot along
\nWe\u2019ll roll the old chariot along
\nAnd we\u2019ll all hang on behind!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh a plate of Irish stew wouldn\u2019t do us any harm\u2026
\nOh a nice fat cook wouldn\u2019t do us any harm\u2026
\nOh a roll in the clover wouldn\u2019t do us any harm\u2026
\nOh a night in the jail\u2026
\nOh a nice watch below\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (remember this was shipboard)
\nOh some time with the girls\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

However, while we keep to the general feeling, we do simplify the chorus and we ad versus to our fancy\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Well a drop of Nelson\u2019s Blood wouldn\u2019t do us any harm.
\nWell a drop of Nelson\u2019s Blood wouldn\u2019t do us any harm.<\/em><\/strong>
\nWell a drop of Nelson\u2019s Blood wouldn\u2019t do us any harm.
\nAnd we\u2019ll all hang on behind!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

And we\u2019ll roll the old chariot along<\/em><\/strong>
\n We\u2019ll roll the old chariot along<\/em><\/strong>
\n We\u2019ll roll the old chariot along<\/em><\/strong>
\n And we\u2019ll all hang on behind!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Oh a plate of Irish stew wouldn\u2019t do us any harm\u2026
\nA cold pint of Guinness wouldn\u2019t do us any harm\u2026
\nA nice shot of Bushnell\u2019s wouldn\u2019t\u2026
\nA night at the Gris\u2026
\nA night with the Jovial Crew\u2026
\nA night with the girls\u2026
\nA night with a wench\u2026\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (And we\u2019ll all hang on her behind!)
\nAnd a little bit of nookie\u2026
\nIf ya want to do it now, better do it in the back\u2026
\nOh a night in the jail wouldn\u2019t do him any harm\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ad nauseum\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roll The Ol\u2019 Chariots The real name for this song is \u201cA Drop Of Nelson\u2019s Blood\u201d\u2026 It was most commonly used as a \u201cstomp and go\u201d chantey, useful at the capstan or any other job where the men were bodily moving along \u2013 a \u201crunaway\u201d job, as it were.\u00a0 The first verse was pretty much […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":21,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-218","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5704,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218\/revisions\/5704"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}