Old Dan Emmit's
Original Banjo Melodies
Emmit, Brower, Whitlock, Pelham
"De Boatman Dance" (1843)
by Daniel Decatur Emmett, 1815-1904
Leader of the Virginial Minstrels
Arranged for the Piano Forte
by Thomas Dartmouth Rice, 1808-1860

[Source: at Levy; and
pages 146-147 from
"Minstrel Songs, Old and New" (1883)]]

CHORUS
Hi ho, de boatmen row,
Floating down the river on de Ohio.

1.
De boatman dance, de boatman sing,
de boatman up to ebry ting,
An when de boat men gets on shore,
he spends his cash and works for more,

[REFRAIN]
Den dance de boatman dance,
O dance de boatman dance,
O dance all night till broad daylight,
an go home wid de gals in de morning.

(CHORUS)

2.
De oyster boat should keep to de shore,
De fishin smack should venture more,
De schooner sails before de wind,
De steamboat leaves a streak behind.

(REFRAIN)
(CHORUS)

3.
I wen on board de odder day
To see what de boatman had to say;
Dar I let my passions loose
An dey cram me in de callaboose.

(REFRAIN)
(CHORUS)

4.
I've come dis time, I'll come no more,
Let me loose I'll go on shore;
For dey whole hoss, and dey a bully crew
Wid a hoosier mate as captin too.

(REFRAIN)
(CHORUS)

5.
When you go to de boatman's ball,
Dance wid my wife, or dont dance at all;
Sky blue jacket an tarpaulin hat,
Look out my boys for de nine tail cat.

(REFRAIN)
(CHORUS)

6.
De boatman is a thrifty man,
Dars none can do as de boatman can;
I neber a see putty gal in my life
But dat she was a boatman's wife.

(REFRAIN)
(CHORUS)

7.
When de boatman blows his horn,
Look out old man your hog is gone;
He cotch my sheep, he cotch my shoat,
Den put em in a bag an toat em to de boat.

(REFRAIN)
(CHORUS)