View source for Annotation:So I'm Off with the Good St. Nicholas Boat

{{TuneAnnotation
|f_annotation='''SO I'M OFF WITH THE GOOD ST. NICHOLAS BOAT.''' AKA and see "[[Sally Lightfoot Jig]]."  Scottish, Air and Jig (6/8 time). A Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Skinner): AA’B (Cranford). "So I'm off with the Good St. Nicholas Boat" is from [[wikipedia:James_Scott_Skinner]]'s (1843-1927) '''Miller o’ Hirn Collection''' (1881). The melody was composed by Skinner, who labelled the tune “For Flirtation”, indicating it "may be played for the Circassian Circle."  Skinner clearly labelled the tune a 'Song', with words by La Teste, printed in his '''Poems''', one of several pieces from the author that Skinner took as inspiration.  Le Teste was the pen name of William Hay Leith Tester (1829-1892), originally from Crathie, Aberdeenshire, whose book of poetry was published in Elgin, Scotland, in 1875.  The poem Skinner referenced is entitled "The 'Saint Nicholas'" and was "Respectfully dedicated to Captain Angus and Blue Jackets." The first two stanzas go:
<blockquote>
''So, I'll off with the good Saint Nicholas boat''<br>
''To the pier of Grantonia again;''<br>
''For I'm never so happy as when I'm afloat''<br>
''On the wide wavy pathway to Jane.''<br>
''For the good Saint Nick is the boat for me,''<br>
''Though the waters be wild or still;''<br>
''So I'll oft to Jane Ann for a Christmas spree--''<br>
''Do you realy think I will, ''<br>
''Jane Ann?''<br>
''Oh, yes! I am sure I will.''<br>
<br>
''She wrote my last evening a bright 'billy-doo',''<br>
''Which came all the way by the rail;''<br>
''But what it contain'd, pray, 'tis nothing to you,''<br>
''And I an't the spark that will tell.''<br> 
''"Come up," wrote she, "to your Christmas pie,''<br>
''And have of plum-pudding a fill;''<br>
''I'll take no denial from ye, Willie, not I--''<br>
''Do you really think I will,''<br>
''Old boy?''<br>
''But you're wrong if you think I will.''<br>
</blockquote>
Sally Lightfoot is a Scottish Country Dance, for which Skinner's jig is played, thus earning it the additional title of "Sally Lightfoot Jig."  Two different species of brightly colored crab share the name Sally Lightfoot. 
<br>
<br> 
The real [[wikipedia:Saint_Nicholas]] was Archbishop of Myra in Lycia, renowned for his good and generous deeds, and for his power to calm wind and wave and to deliver ships from peril. 
|f_source_for_notated_version=fiddler Brenda Stubbert (b. 1959, Point Aconi, Cape Breton) who learned it from a recording by the influential fiddler Winston Fitzgerald [Cranford]. 
|f_printed_sources=Cranford (Brenda Stubbert’s), 1994; No. 88, p. 33. Skinner ('''The Miller o' Hirn Collection'''), 1881; p. 30. Skinner ('''The Scottish Violinist'''), 1900; p. 46.
|f_recorded_sources=Breton Books and Records BOC 1HO, Winston “Scotty” Fitzgerald - “Classic Cuts” (reissue of Celtic Records CX 17).
|f_see_also_listing=s
}}