"Sea Lion Woman" is a traditional American folk song

American folk music

American folk music is a musical term that encompasses numerous genres, many of which are known as traditional music or roots music. Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American...

 originally used as a children's playground song

Playground song

A playground song is a song sung by children, usually on a playground or other children's gathering place. Most such songs are traditional in nature and are passed, with constantly evolving regional variations, down the generations...

.

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

Herbert Halpert

Dr. Herbert Halpert was an American anthropologist and folklorist, specialised in the collection and study of both folk song and narrative.- Biography :...

 on May 13, 1939. Halpert was compiling a series of field recordings for the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

 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, Katherine and Christine, 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

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...

 (1964) under the name See-Line Woman, Ollabelle

Ollabelle

Ollabelle is a New York based folk music group named after the influential Appalachian songwriter Ola Belle Reed. The group is composed of five singing multi-instrumentalists hailing from disparate parts of the United States, Canada and Australia.-History:...

's version featured in the 2006 album Riverside Battle Songs

Riverside Battle Songs

Riverside Battle Songs is a 2006 album by Ollabelle. It was produced by Larry Campbell, best known for having played in Bob Dylan's band.-Track listing:#"See Line Woman"#"High On A Mountain"#"Heaven's Pearls"#"Fall Back"#"Dream The Fall"...

under the name See Line Woman and Feist's cover featured in the 2007 album The Reminder

The Reminder

The Reminder is the third full-length album by indie artist Feist. It was released on April 23, 2007 in countries outside of North America, and May 1, 2007 in the United States and Canada....

. The Easybeats

The Easybeats

The Easybeats were an Australian rock and roll band. They formed in Sydney in late 1964 and broke up at the end of 1969. They are regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960s, and were the first Australian rock and roll act to score an international pop hit with their 1966 single...

 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

Feature film

In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...

 The General's Daughter

The General's Daughter

The General's Daughter is a 1999 murder mystery film starring John Travolta. The plot concerns the mysterious death of the daughter of a prominent general. The movie is based on the novel by the same name written in 1992 by Nelson DeMille, and was directed by Simon West...

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Lyrics

Sea Lion Woman / Sea Lion

She drank coffee / Sea Lion

She drank tea / Sea Lion

And he gamble lie / Sea Lion

Way down yonder / Sea Lion

I'm going maul / Sea Lion

And the rooster crow / Sea Lion

And he got no lie / Sea Lion

Sea lion woman / Sea Lion

She drank coffee / Sea Lion

She drank tea / Sea Lion

And she gamble lie / Sea Lion

Sea lion woman / Sea Lion

She drank coffee / Sea Lion

She drank tea / Sea Lion

And a gamble lie / Sea Lion

Nina Simone version

Nina Simone

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...

 popularized the song as "See-Line Woman" on her 1964 album Broadway-Blues-Ballads

Broadway-Blues-Ballads

Broadway-Blues-Ballads is an album by singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone . It was her second album for Philips. In contrast to her first Philips album, the live In Concert, which was politically laden with civil rights motifs, this studio album is more playful...

. The song was remixed by Masters at Work

Masters At Work

Masters at Work is the house/garage production and remix team of "Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez. They first worked together using the name, which had been given to them by mutual friend Todd Terry , in 1990...

 for the 2002 compilation Verve//Remixed

Verve Remixed

Verve Remixed is a series of albums released by Verve Records centered on the concept of classic Verve tracks, remixed by contemporary electronic music producers and DJs...

.

Feist version

The song was covered by Feist

Leslie Feist

Leslie Feist , known professionally as simply Feist, is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene....

 on her 2007 album The Reminder

The Reminder

The Reminder is the third full-length album by indie artist Feist. It was released on April 23, 2007 in countries outside of North America, and May 1, 2007 in the United States and Canada....

. "Sea Lion Woman" is Feist's original title for this song but on the album it was shortened to "Sealion". Despite their version being based on the original lyrics, Feist and Bass were credited as writers for the Reminder recording. It charted in the Canadian Charts

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 under the name "Sea Lion Woman".

Charts

"Sea Lion Woman" has charted only in one country through digital downloads.

Chart (2008)	Position
Canada Canada Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...	74