Lyrics
One More Pull
Maritime-themed Song
Lyrics by Ken Stephens, Music by Ian Woods (RIP) and Ken Stephens
Ken Stephens endorsed our recording of this song. At the Falmouth Maritime Music Festival in 2017 he told Christie Dalby (who sings the lead on our version of this song) that he had more pieces for us to consider performing.
Giant combers, ocean rollers,
Living waves upon the sea.
But for us, boys, there’s no future.
It’s not like it used to be.
CHORUS: One more pull, boys. That’ll do, boys.
Soon we’ll draw alongside.
Hoist her upwards. Swing her inboard,
For the journey’s nearly o’er.
Iceland’s dangers, Greenland’s fog banks,
Northern storm’s intensity,
It’s all gone now. Turn her homeward,
For the market won’t reach the fee. CHORUS
No more codfish off Newfoundland
Dancing silver down the hatch.
Drifters, trawlers and purse seiners
All laid up or sold for scrap. CHORUS
So heave the line, boys, one last time, now.
Then we’ll have the final trawl.
No need to wonder where it’s all gone to.
Only time to heave ‘n’ haul. CHORUS
WHERE TO FIND IT
Song Notes
There are two versions of the song, “One More Pull”. Each version shares the same lyrics in the chorus and the same melody while having different lyrics in the verses. Both versions of the song are lovely and where the Ian Woods version is more of a love song, the Ken Stephens version focuses more on the demise of the fishing industry.
The version with lyrics written by Ken Stephens is the one performed by Bounding Main and appears on our CD, Fish Out of Water.
You may be asking yourselves, how did these two versions come about? According to a discussion thread on the folk music site, Mudcat Café, there are two different theories.
One theory is that Ian Woods wrote his version first and then Ken Stephens wrote his version after that.
The second theory is that Ian Woods and Ken Stephens wrote the chorus and tune together at a festival, then went off and produced two completely different sets of verses. Christie, Bounding Main’s soloist for the piece, prefers this theory!
You may also be wondering what kind of sea shanty is this? According to Ian Woods, the speed of the song is correct for a Downton pump shanty. A Downton pump has a longways pump with a handle on each side. Our version is perhaps a little slower than how the Ian Woods version is traditionally performed.
We had the incredible opportunity to meet Ken Stephens when he introduced himself to us at the Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival. We were so star struck that we forgot to ask him to confirm the true origin story for his piece!
If you would like to hear the song performed with the lyrics written by Ian Woods, we highly recommend the version sung by the duo Loctup Together.
— Christie Dalby