Sea shanties
Sep. 17th, 2007 12:24 amI love sea shanties.
What is it about traditional English seafarers' songs that appeals to me so much? I don't know, but one of the first songs I have ever learned was Drunken Sailor, a capstan song, courtesy of my parents playing it off an old Paul Robson note collection. I think the fact that most of them are sang by a whole bunch of people at once adds to the appeal.
While looking for this stuff around on the Net, I came across a crew called The Seadogs. They have a CD out called "Paddy West School Of Seamanship", which lists some of the most popular shanties, like Nelson's Blood, Blow The Man Down, South Australia, Liverpool Judies, Ten Thousand Miles, Homeward Bound, Leaving Liverpool. Not bad at all.
And no - Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest (Yo, Ho, Ho and a bottle of rum) is not an English traditional song. It was picked up by R.L. Stevenson from a book by Charles Kingsley, and then was later expanded by other people and made into a musical piece.
What is it about traditional English seafarers' songs that appeals to me so much? I don't know, but one of the first songs I have ever learned was Drunken Sailor, a capstan song, courtesy of my parents playing it off an old Paul Robson note collection. I think the fact that most of them are sang by a whole bunch of people at once adds to the appeal.
While looking for this stuff around on the Net, I came across a crew called The Seadogs. They have a CD out called "Paddy West School Of Seamanship", which lists some of the most popular shanties, like Nelson's Blood, Blow The Man Down, South Australia, Liverpool Judies, Ten Thousand Miles, Homeward Bound, Leaving Liverpool. Not bad at all.
And no - Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest (Yo, Ho, Ho and a bottle of rum) is not an English traditional song. It was picked up by R.L. Stevenson from a book by Charles Kingsley, and then was later expanded by other people and made into a musical piece.