Traditional Newfoundland
Can't remember where or when I learned this song, but the 'ghosts' verse was given to me by Greg Brown, a fine Newfoundland fiddler, when we were performing in Texas a few years ago. The tine on the end is Ragtime Annie (or Raggedy Ann) that I used to play with the likes of Havilah Hawkins Sr., and Adrian Beal (of Stonington and Beal's Island). We played for a lot of dances out in the island towns when I was in my roaring twenties.
Gordon – 12-string guitar
Anne, Cindy, Matt, & Will - vocals
'Deed I am in love with you
Out all day in the foggy dew
'Deed I am in love with you
Mussels in the corner
I took Jenny to a ball
Jenny could not dance at all
Sailed her up 'longside the wall
Left her there till Sunday
All the people from Belle Isle
Don't get up till half past nine
Wash their face in kerosene oil
Polly, you're a corker
Here they come as thick as flies
Dirty shirts and dirty ties
Dirty rings around their eyes
Dirty old Tor Bay men
Here they come as white as ghosts
Bay men in their little boats
It's a wonder that they floats
Dirty old Tor Bay men
Ask a Bay man for a smoke
He will say his pipe his broke
Ask a Bay man for a chew
He will bite it off for you
Mussels in the Corner is recorded on the album Apples in the Basket, the cassette tape February Tapes Vol II, and is in the songbook One to Sing, One to Haul