Musical Map of Newfoundland and Labrador

The authorship of I'se the B'y, the best known of all Newfoundland folksongs, is shrouded in mystery. There is evidence to suggest that the song was written in the Notre Dame Bay community of Moreton's Harbour by Joseph Deer and/or Mark Gatehouse, both of whom lived in the area in the 1880s. Coincidentally, both men married women with the first name Eliza, as in "brings 'em home to Lizer". In his extensive study of the song folklorist Philip Hiscock suggests that, prior to its canonization as a comic song in the present form, it was like many dance tunes for which the words were often merely a vehicle, sometimes bawdy, for memorizing the music. Hence the song existed in many versions all over the province and in essence had no single author: "I think it floated around as a useful musical frame, probably for a couple of generations or more in the early twentieth century, with whatever verses people wanted to add in, before someone popularised the now-standard words."

I'SE THE B'Y

1) I'se the b'y that builds the boat,
I'se the b'y that sails her;
I'se the b'y that catches the fish,
And brings them home to Lizer.

CHORUS:

Hip your partner Sally Tibbo,
Hip your partner Sally Brown;
Fogo, Twillingate, Moreton's Harbour,
All around the circle.

2) Sods and rinds to cover your flake,
Cake and tea for supper;
Codfish in the spring of the year,
Fried in maggoty butter.

CHORUS

3) I don't want your maggoty fish,
That's no good for winter;
I can buy as good as that,
Down in Bonavista.

CHORUS

4) I took Lizer to a dance,
As fast as she would travel;
And every step that she did take,
Was up to her knees in gravel.

CHORUS

5) Susan White, she's out of sight,
Her petticoat wants a border;
Old Sam Oliver, in the dark,
He kissed her in the corner.

CHORUS

6) I'se the b'y that builds the boat,
I'se the b'y that sails her;
I'se the b'y that catches the fish,
And brings them home to Lizer.