"Sea Lion Woman" (also "Sea-Line Woman", "See Lyin' Woman", "She Lyin' Woman", "See-Line Woman", or "C-Line Woman") is a traditional American folk song originally used as a children's playground song.
The exact origins of the song are unknown but it is believed to have originated in the southern United States. It was first recorded by folklore researcher Herbert Halpert on May 13, 1939. Halpert was compiling a series of field recordings for the Library of Congress in Byhalia, MS, when he ran across Walter Shipp, a minister, and his wife Mary, a choir director of a local church. Halpert recorded Shipp's daughters, Katharine and Christeen, singing a sparse version of "Sea Lion Woman" that defined the basic rhymes and rhythm of the song.
Notable covers include a version by Nina Simone (1964) under the name See-Line Woman, Ollabelle's version featured in the 2006 album Riverside Battle Songs under the name See Line Woman and Feist's cover featured in the 2007 album The Reminder. The Easybeats also recorded it, the song closing their 1967 album Friday On My Mind. A version remixed by Greg Hale Jones and Russell Ziecker entitled She Began To Lie, contains extracts from the original traditional song performed by the Shipp sisters and was used on the soundtrack of the 1999 feature film The General's Daughter.
Read more about Sea Lion Woman: Lyrics, Nina Simone Version, Feist Version, Bob Sinclar Version
Famous quotes containing the words sea, lion and/or woman:
“Morality without religion is only a kind of dead reckoningan endeavor to find our place on a cloudy sea by measuring the distance we have run, but without any observation of the heavenly bodies.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (18071882)
“A work in progress quickly becomes feral. It reverts to a wild state overnight. It is barely domesticated, a mustang on which you one day fastened a halter, but which now you cannot catch. It is a lion you cage in your study. As the work grows, it gets harder to control; it is a lion growing in strength. You must visit it every day and reassert your mastery over it. If you skip a day, you are, quite rightly, afraid to open the door to its room.”
—Annie Dillard (b. 1945)
“I assert that the first, and fundamental right of every woman is to be allowed the free exercise of her own belief; and that free exercise is not allowed when she is in any way restrained either morally or intellectually.”
—Margaret Anna Cusack (18291899)