"Blood Red Roses" (SP-1112)

16-beat Lead in:

Opener: On beat 12 Call: (SIDES FACE GRAND SQUARE)

Sailing Out Of Boston One Hundred Days At Sea
On The Good Ship Bonadventure, A'whaling Men Are We
We Set Sail For The Cape Horn, Where The Seas Are Cold As Ice
The Wind Will Bite Right Through You Like A Thousand Starving Mice
MEN STAR LEFT One Time Around You Go

STAR THRU, CALIFORNIA TWIRL

PROMENADE Her Home

Go Down You Blood Red Roses
Go Down You Pinks And Posies
Figure:

HEADS PROMENADE 1/2 WAY Around The Ring

SIDES SQUARE THRU 4 Hands Around I Sing

All The Way & Then A RIGHT & LEFT THRU For Me

With An EIGHT-CHAIN-SIX Get It Moving Around You See

Go Down You Blood Red Roses

Go Down You SWING & PROMENADE

Go Down You Blood Red Roses
Go Down You Pinks And Posies

Break:

FOUR BOYS PROMENADE Inside That Ring In Line

Get Back Home & SWING The Gal You Left Behind

Join Your Hands & CIRCLE To The LEFT Around You Go

ALLEMANDE LEFT With Your Left Hand

& A RIGHT & LEFT GRAND You Know

Go Down You Blood Red Roses
Go Down You SWING & PROMENADE

Go Down You Blood Red Roses
Go Down You Pinks And Posies

Figure:

SIDES PROMENADE 1/2 WAY Around The Ring

HEADS SQUARE THRU 4 Hands Around I Sing

All The Way & Then A RIGHT & LEFT THRU For Me

With An EIGHT-CHAIN-SIX Get It Moving Around You See

Go Down You Blood Red Roses

Go Down You... SWING & PROMENADE

Go Down You Blood Red Roses
Go Down You Pinks And Posies

Closer:

ALLEMANDE LEFT TO AN ALLEMANDE THAR
Go Forward Two & Build Your Thar, Boys Wheel In To The Back-Up Star and Go
SHOOT THAT STAR... A FULL TURN!

With A RIGHT TO THE HONEY & PULL HER BY...
ALLEMANDE LEFT THE CORNER & A RIGHT & LEFT GRAND You Fly

Go Down You Blood Red Roses
Go Down You... SWING & PROMENADE

Go Down You Blood Red Roses
Go Down You Pinks And Posies
Tag: ^ SIDES FACE, GRAND SQUARE... HALF-WAY!

Based on Rod Stewart’s rock rendition of an old sea shanty.

The story behind the song which is originally a Whalermen’s Sea Shanty:

Some old whalermen I knew in England when I was a boy told me the song was about killing whales. The whales were harpooned and then punctured in the lungs by long lances to hasten their demise. Until the whales were dead they often towed the harpooneer and his mates long distances and this was a dangerous event. Known as a "Nantucket Sleigh Ride". In the early morning or late afternoon the sun shining through the bloody spray that the dying whales blew out of their blow holes as they breathed their last breath, reminded the men of Roses and pinks and posies growing in the garden. As the whales slowly died, the spray got less and less. This made the mens job of towing the whale to the ship easier; and therefore was something they all wished for. Hence the line "Go down you blood red roses go down!