Margot Evans (Let the Bullgine Run)

Oh the smartest clipper you can find,
Oh hey, oh ho, are you 'most done?
Is the Margot Evans of the Blue Cross line,
So clear the track, let the bullgine run!

cho: To me hey rig-a-jig in a low black car,
Oh hey, oh ho, are you 'most done,
With Liza Lee all on my knee,
So clear the track, let the bullgine run.

O the Margot Evans of the Blue Cross line,
Oh hey, oh ho, are you 'most done?
She's never a day behind her time.
So clear the track, let the bullgine run!

Oh, when I come home across the sea,
Oh hey, oh ho, are you 'most done?
It's Liza, will you marry me?
So clear the track, let the bullgine run!

As printed in Alan Lomax's "The Folk Songs of North America." The
only recording I have every heard of this song (by a group called
"The Swagmen"; I know no more about them than you do) had the same
first verse, but was followed by two different stanzas: Oh, I'm
sailing home across the sea, It's Liza, will you marry me? Oh, the
girls are waiting at the pier; I'll soon be home with you, my dear.
However, as the song is credited on that record to Milton Okun and
Al Grossman, those two verses may be composed. As printed in
Lomax, the song clearly dates from the days of the packet ships
(early nineteenth century), the first vessels to guarantee to make
a crossing of the Atlantic in a fixed amount of time. (they carried
packets of mail--RG) RW
RW