I don't know where this is from- I heard it when I was a kid. I don't even remember learning it. -GB Hugill prints several versions of this song, which he says was originally a pumping song, later used at windlass and capstan. Several versions have the. theme of a lost lover who appears in a dream, and Hugill believes this to be based on a shore-ballad from either the north of England or Scotland, but as the ballad passed into shanty use and filtered through the Gulf cotton ports it changed, losing much of its earlier sentimental nature. In fact, Hugill's southern version has lost the dream element altogether. The song, as sung by Gordon, seems closer to the latter. Colcord, in Roll and Go, says that this is what happened to the "lost lover" song after it had been adopted by the negro shanty-singers of Mobile.-Editor
Lowlands,
Lowlands no more, my John,
My old mother said to me,
Don 't go to sea no more.
Lowlands,
Lowlands no more, my John,
A dollar a day is hoosier's pay,
My dollar and a half a day.
Five dollars a day is sailor's pay,
Mm-mm-mm.
Lowlands,
Lowlands no more, my John,
I had a dream the other night,
Mm-mm-mm.
I dreamed I was coming home from sea,
Oh, mm-mm.
Lowlands,
Lowlands no more, my John,
My old mother said to me,
Don't go to sea no more. Don't go to sea no more.