So now our musical journey brings to travel over water, so i thought i would start with some ‘Sea Shanties’. Sea shanty songs are traditionally belted out by sailors, hard at work on the open seas on ships and boats. Typically, a true sea shanty (or chanty, as it is sometimes called) is sung as a team. And yes, a vast majority of famous sea shanty songs were performed by men. Keep in mind, many of these top sea shanties are hundreds of years old, passed down through generations. Good sea shanties like “Blow the Man Down” and “Drunken Sailor” have been belted out with great gusto and harmony for as long as anyone can remember. Many of the best sea shanties included here are filled with rhythmic repetition. They are fun to sing, and that’s exactly the point. The best sea shanty songs are designed to motivate seafarers as they go about their often difficult, physical labor on the open waters.
“Spanish Ladies” A ballad by this name was registered in the English Stationers Company in December 1624. The oldest mention of the present song does not, however, appear until the 1796 logbook of HMS Nellie, making it more likely an invention of the Napoleonic era. The song predates the proper emergence of the sea shanty. Shanties were the work songs of merchant sailors, rather than naval ones. However, in his 1840 novel Por Jack, Captain Frederick Marryat reports that the song “Spanish Ladies”—though once very popular—was “now almost forgotten” and he included it in whole in order to “rescue it from oblivion”.The emergence of shanties in the mid-19th century then revived its fortunes, to the point where it is now sometimes included as a “borrowed song” within the genre.
“Drunken Sailor“, also known as “What Shall We Do with a/the Drunken Sailor?“, is a traditional sea shanty, listed as 332 in the Roud Folk Song Index. It was sung onboard sailing ships at least as early as the 1830s, and it shares its tune with the traditional Irish folk song “Oro se do bheatha abhaile”. The song’s lyrics vary, but usually contain some variant of the question, “What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?” In some styles of performance, each successive verse suggests a method of sobering or punishing the drunken sailor. In other styles, further questions are asked and answered about different people. “Drunken Sailor” was revived as a popular song among non-sailors in the 20th century, and grew to become one of the best-known songs of the shanty repertoire among mainstream audiences. It has been performed and recorded by many musical artists and appeared regularly in popular culture.
“Haul Away Joe” is a short-drag chantey and was used mainly for tightening the sheet. The last word ‘Joe’ was the moment for all hands to haul together. .Additional verses were added by the chanteyman until the duty was done to the mate’s satisfaction. This chantey is thought to have appeared on Yankee ships sometime between 1812 and the Civil War, although it was known much earlier among British sailors.”
“Rolling Down to Old Maui” (or Mohee) (Roud 2005) is a traditional sea song. It expresses the anticipation of the crew of a whaling vessel of its return to Maui after a season of whaling in the Kamchatka Sea. Although the words have been found in records going back to the mid 19th century, there is some dispute about the accuracy and provenance of the melody. The words of Rolling Down to Old Mohee have been found in a copybook of a sailor called George Piper, who was on a whaling ship between 1866-1872. Similar lyrics were recorded by Joanna Colcord in her collection in 1924, where she stated that the melody had been forgotten.
“Roll, Alabama, Roll” is an American-British sea shanty of the nineteenth century. It is based on the exploits of the CSS Alabama, a sloop of war of the Confederate States Navy which enjoyed success as a commerce raider against Union shipping during the American Civil War. The lyrics describe the ship from its construction by John Laird of Merseyside until its sinking at the Battle of Cherbourg in June 1864. The words were set to the melody of the older song “Roll the Cotton Down” which originated amongst black longshoremen in southern ports of the United States. In 2014 the song was recorded by the Bellowhead.
“Santiano” is a 1961 song, inspired by the sea shanty “Santianna”, which uses the same tune. The song tells of a ship from Saint Malo bound to San Francisco, which is described as a place of great wealth. The French-language version was popularized first in the 1960s by Hugues Aufray. British folk band The Longest Johns released a cover of “Santiano”, performed in collaboration with French neofolk band SKALD. This version is sung in both French and English.
“Soon May the Wellerman Come“, also known as “Wellerman” or “The Wellerman” [c. 1860–70] is a sea song from New Zealand. The song refers to the “wellermen”, pointing to supply ships owned by the Weller Brothers who were settlers from England. In early 2021, versions by English folk group The Longest Johns, Scottish singer Nathan Evans, and Scottish pirate metal band Alestorm became viral hits on the social media site TikTok, leading to a “social media craze” around songs erroneously considered sea shanties.
