Annotation:Tide come in (1) (The)
X:1 T:Till the Tide comes in T:Tide come in [1] M:C L:1/8 S:Bruce & Stokoe – Northumbrian Minstrelsy (1882) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G BA|GB d2d2 cB|Ac e2e2 dc|BdgB Aedc|B2G2G2 BA| GB d2d2 cB|Ac e2e2 dc|BdgB Aedc|B2G2G2:| |:(3def|gfgf gdBd|e2d2d2ef|gfgf gdBd|c2A2A2 BA| GB d2d2 cB|Ac e2e2 dc|BdgB Aedc|B2G2G2:|]
TIDE COME IN [1], THE. AKA and see “Leith Scots Measure,” "Till the Tide Comes In." English, Country Dance Tune (4/4 time). England, Northumberland. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Kidson): AABB (Stokoe & Bruce). Kidson (1890) identifies this as a popular Northumbrian song which has "been long known on the Tyne banks," however, the melody is a version of James Oswald’s composition “Leith Scots Measure.” The version Kidson prints is from A Collection of Marches, Quicksteps, Strathspey, and Reels...adapted for the Pianoforte by Thomas Calvert (Kelso, 1799), and he finds a somewhat different set in Topliff's Melodies of the Tyne and Wear (c. 1812). Calvert was a musician who lived in Kelso, in part supporting himself with “a variety of music and instruments, instruments lent out, tun’d and repaired.” The title appears in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. Stokoe and Bruce (1882) mention that Sir Cuthbert Sharpe, in his Bishoprick Garland:
Till the tide comes in, till the tide comes in,
We'll sit upon the pier till the tide comes in.
Frank Kidson (1890) prints these words from the "Tyne Songster" of 1840:
While strolling down sweet Sandgate street,
A man-o'-war's blade I chanced to meet:
To the sign of the Ship I hauled him in
To drink a good glass till the tide came in.
A similar song appears in the manuscript collection of Northumbrian collector John Bell (a librarian to the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne), and begins:
While strolling down by Sandgate Street,
A Shipmate there I chanc’d to meet;
“I’ll treat you with a pint of gin,”
Says he, “until the tide comes in,”
CHO:
Till the tide comes in, till the tide comes in,
Right merry will we be till the tide comes in;
We’ll music bring, and dance and sing
And kiss the pretty girls till the tide comes in.
Henry Robson, who wrote the list of Northumbrian tunes previously referred to, also wrote a more modern song about the beginning of the 19th century to the same air, and Stokoe and Bruce note it is generally found in collections of local Northumbrian songs; it is perhaps the one printed in the above "Tyne Songster."
