My wife mentioned that she used to sing this when she was 4-5 on the way to school. At the time she did not know who Boney was, did not know when it was written and did not know the full words.
As you can expect, a quick Google was called for to find the full lyrics and the date. To the best I can discern, it was a sea shanty written in 1830. It talks about the Napoleonic wars, Waterloo and Napoleon's imprisonment on St Helena. He died in 1821.
See https://www.songfacts.com/lyrics/traditional/boney-was-a-warrior
It used to go Away yea yar when I was at school.
ReplyDeleteI hated the song.
73 Steve