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I'se the b'y that builds the boat
And I'se the b'y that sails her !
I'se the b'y that catches the fish
And takes 'em home to Lizer.
Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo !
Hip yer partner, Sally Brown !
Fogo, Twillingate, Mor'ton's Harbour,
All around the circle !
Sods and rinds to cover yer flake
Cake and tea for supper,
Cod-fish in the spring o' the year
Fried in maggoty butter.
Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo !
Hip yer partner, Sally Brown !
Fogo, Twillingate, Mor'ton's Harbour,
All around the circle !
I don't want your maggoty fish
That's no good for winter;
I can buy as good as that
Down in Bonavista.
Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo !
Hip yer partner, Sally Brown !
Fogo, Twillingate, Mor'ton's Harbour,
All around the circle !
I took Lizer to a dance
And faith but she could travel
And every step that she did take
Was up to her knees in gravel.
Hip yer partner, Sally Tibbo !
Hip yer partner, Sally Brown !
Fogo, Twillingate, Mor'ton's Harbour,
All around the circle !
This is one of many variants based on a song collected in 1951 from Lloyd Soper and Bob MacLeod of St. John's, NL, by Kenneth Peacock as I's The B'y That Builds The Boat and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 1, p.64, by The National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved.
A variant was arranged and recorded as I's The B'y by Great Big Sea (Great Big Sea, 1993).
A variant was also recorded Pre-GBS as I'm The B'y (Rankin Street Tape - Live At The Blarneystone, 1991).
See more songs by Great Big Sea.
Ryan's Fancy was recorded live performing I'se The Bye at The Black Knight Lounge in Halifax, Nova Scotia by Jack Hutchinson and George Taylor (An Irish Night At The Black Knight Lounge, trk#1, 1971, Marathon Music Incorporated, Scarborough, ON). That same variant was also self-produced as a studio recording by Ryan's Fancy (Times To Remember, trk#1, 1973, Audat Records, Oshawa, ON).
See more songs by Ryan's Fancy.
A variant was also recorded as I'se The B'y That Builds The Boat by Gordon Bok (North Wind's Clearing: Songs Of The Maine Coast, 1995).
Another variant was recorded by Shanneyganock as I'se Da B'y (Scallywags, 2002).
See more songs by Shanneyganock.
From the Encyclopedia of Music in Canada we are told that although the song may have originated in the 1870s, probably in a Newfoundland fishing village, interest in I's The B'y did not spread outside Newfoundland until after the song was heard and transcribed by two researchers interested in Newfoundland's folk traditions, Kenneth Peacock and Gerald S. Doyle. Its melody and lyrics were transmitted throughout Canada in the songbook Folk Songs of Canada by Edith Fowke and Richard Johnston (1954), relying on Peacock's transcription. Teachers and students outside Newfoundland were eager to learn about the music of the newest province, which had joined Canada a mere five years earlier, and I's the B'y quickly became a favourite of classrooms and choirs across the country.
From the Dictionary of Newfoundland English:
Flake — a platform built on poles and spread with boughs for drying cod-fish on the foreshore.
