Annotation:Sailors are all at the bar (The)

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X:0 T: Sailors all at the Bar (The) C: M: 6/8 K: D S: A. Mackintosh "A Collection of Strathspeys, Reels, Jigs &c." (after 1797) d|AFD DEF|GBG F2 D|GBG AFD|CEE E2d| AFD DEF|GBG F2D|FGA Bcd|AFD D2:| g|fdf ece|dAG F2D|GBG AFD|CEE E2g| fdf ece|dAG F2D|FGA Bcd|AFD D2:|

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SAILORS ARE ALL AT THE BAR, THE. AKA – “AKA and see “Cheshire Rolling Hornpipe,” “Rolling Hornpipe (The).” English, Air (9/8 time). England, Northumberland. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. While one might imagine a bevy of sailors in a local pub, the title actually has to do with the fact that ships needed to be floated above a sand bar on the River Tyne, presumably waiting until the tide came in to allow them safe passage over it. "(This tune) was all that remained of what had evidently been a longer ballad when Bell's Rhymes of the Northern Bards was published in 1812, and it was included in that work. The tune is above a century old, and is very likely one of the old bagpipe hornpipes" (Bruce & Stokoe).

The Mouth of the Tyne, 1881. The narrow sand bank is shown to the right of the picture, with a wooden structure at the end of it. The light which is placed in this structure is to warn mariners entering the Tyne from approaching too near the dreaded Herd Sands.

The sailors are all at the Bar,
They cannot get up to Newcastle,
They cannot get up to Newcastle;
Up with smoky Shields,
And hey for bonny Newcastle,
And hey for bonny Newcastle.

See also the similar “Drunken Sailor (5)” from Scottish fiddler and dancing master David Young's McFarlan Manuscript (c. 1740), and London publisher Daniel Wright’s “Rolling Hornpipe (The).”