- Oscar Brand
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Bawdy Songs and Backroom Ballads: Volume 5. Bawdy Sea Shanties.
(1958)
- You're A Liar [aka Four Old Whores From Winnipeg] Time: 1:29
- Good Ship Venus Time: 2:24
- We Set Sail Time: 2:10
- Can't Ya Dance The Polks Time: 2:29
- Bell Bottom Trousers Time: 3:02
- A Clean Song Time: 1:22
- Johnny Come Down The Hilo Time: 1:43
- Turalai Time: 3:34
- Backside Rules The Navy Time: 1:38
- Blow The Man Down Time: 2:23
- Jinny Wren Bride Time: 2:31
- Keyhole In The Door Time: 1:51
- There's Nothing Else To Do [aka Friggin' In The Riggin'] Time: 1:22
- Lulu Time: 1:48
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a study in Stereophonic High Fidelity AUDIO FIDELITY STEREODISC AFSD 5884
Side 1.
1. You're A Liar (Brand-Frey)
2. Good Ship Venus (Brand-Frey)
3. We Set Sail (Brand-Frey)
4. Can't Ya Dance The Polka (Brand-Frey)
5. Bell Bottom Trousers (Brand-Frey)
6. A Clean Song (Brand-Frey)
7. Johnny Come Down The Hilo (Brand-Frey)
Side 2.
1. Turalai (Brand-Frey)
2. Backside Rules The Navy (Brand-Frey)
3. Blow The Man Down (Brand-Frey)
4. Jinny Wren Bride (Brand Frey)
5. Keyhole In The Door (Brand-Frey)
6. There's Nothing Else To Do (Brand-Frey)
7. Lulu (Brand-Frey)
Bawdy Sea Shanties
Oscar Brand, guitar-Dave Sear, banjo
Ahoy, landlubbers! Come aboard the good ship "Oscar Brand" and lend an ear to as lusty a broadside of sea shanties as ever warmed the briny deep. Here in timely tempo are set forth songs about rum and rapists, sinful sailors and betrayed biddies. In these bawdy cadences you will find rich fuel to prime the pump of enjoyment. In this sampling of lusty lyrics, kindred spirits who hold drink, women and debauchery worth consideration will find much in common. You'll enjoy the salty tack, well marinated with liberal potions of the kind of love mother never talked about. Let all those beware who blanch at the mere mention of whores and profligates. For those, however, who relish an opportunity to "cut the sweet apple and share it," there is much here to whet the appetite and satisfy the desire. May this collection of ballads bring lasting pleasure to you who enjoy hearing about the doings of tars and tarnished wenches.
There's a saying among sailors that landsmen are at least two or three drinks below normal. If you're a ballad lover, let alone a seaman, you won't be startled by this claim, since you know that without the aid of proper and adequate stimulants the sailor can't be induced to loose his tongue in song. Only with fluid and the right kind of female inspiration is he able to get the lead out of his pants and the frogs out of his throat. And once this pleasant state is achieved, no amount of moralistic interference can stifle the sound of a stout voice raised in ribald refrain.
Time was, not too long ago, when the establishments that dispensed liquid refreshment boasted swinging doors and were known as saloons; when a bender was called a bun; when the body that happened to be intoxicated was called an old "toper" and not a "souse;" when the boys in the back room boasted about having a preference for the company of buxom widows and because of this enjoyed a reputation as men of the world; when girls were parlor fixtures (unless men happened to take a notion to intrude on their province); and when society could be satisfied by pool-parlor verses demurely dressed up for front parlor delivery. Today, however, what was once relegated to the back room is advertised in broad daylight; and what was formerly carefully censored must be presented in all its original and pure splendor if it is to enjoy any popularity.
The world's ocean lanes have seen their fill of villains vile and virtue vanquished, and there is many a song that relates the doings of these villains. Perhaps the music lover who professes to be a purist will dismiss such songs as trivial. But the devotee of folklore and the musical sociologist will recognize in them a genuine and significant current in the stream of music history. Behind the aroma of distilled spirits that lurks near such ballads, behind the cliches of the rapacious male and ravished female animal, behind the maudlin sentimentality that drenches every situation in which a fallen maiden is deserted by a forgetting sailor who returns to sea—behind all this are a few moral lessons which remind us how thin is the veil that separates sin from righteousness. And with all the lessons that can be learned through respect for morality, every reveler prefers sin to righteousness.
Vital people have experiences which generally inspire some kind of creative activity or expression, and the sailor certainly fits into this category. For many centuries the sailor has found an outlet for expression in song. In song he has celebrated his experiences, including that worthwhile experience of lovemaking. Sometimes the song was good musically; more often it was not. But the important thing was not so much the quality of the music as the fact that it represented a very real expression of the sailor's experience. And because sailors have always led an extremely confined existence at sea (not to mention the brief periods they spend ashore), whatever experiences they have are felt with considerable emotion and are remembered by them for a long time to come.
Most folksongs of the land treat of some specific geographical region because they are part of the heritage handed down from generation to generation in specific locales. Thus, American folksong literature includes ballads about almost every section of the country—including the West, California, Dixie, the Erie Canal region, etc. Songs of the sea, however, are less restricted to specific geographical areas because they have been handed down by men whose only home is the deck of a ship in a wide blue sea and under an open sky. Sea shanties often are richer in philosophical content than land folksongs; they also are apt to rely more on the human animal and his foibles than on situations involving geographical factors.
The ballads represented in this recording are not mere random choices. Without exception, they were selected by Oscar Brand because they either rank as classics and deserve inclusion in any representative collection or because they contain rarities of language or ribald situations. "Bell Bottom Trousers", "Blow the Man Down" and "Keyhole In The Door" belong in the group which hold a secure place as time-honored classics. "Backside Rules the Navy" is a typical example of the literally thousands of blunt English ballads that form the foundation of sea shanty literature. The same may be said for "There's Nothing Else To Do," a rare beauty which Oscar Brand discovered while he was in England and learned first hand from British tars. This ballad has that rare feature so dear to poetry lovers—alliteration. Then there is "You're A Liar," which contains a touch of pathos with all its rip-roaring lustiness. All the selections, whose subtlest nuances of music and verbal inflection are heard to best advantage through guaranteed total frequency range recording, were chosen from hundreds of possibilities by Brand on the basis of their familiarity to music lovers, also by virtue of their failure to espouse virtue.
These, then, are ditties which nautical jongleurs have sung from Boston to Bombay. They are presented in all their unexpurgated, tempting impurity in order that you may commend them to your enjoyment. Their assonances and dissonances, their delicious licentiousness, and their rollicking good humor have been preserved intact. May they whet your appetite and fill your listening with pleasure.
OSCAR BRAND. Just as there are musicians' musicians, so are there balladeers' balladeers, and Oscar Brand is one of them. Folksongs have threaded his brilliant career on radio, in motion pictures, the theater, records and the concert hall. A native of Winnipeg, Canada, and a world traveler, Brand has assembled a vast knowledge about folksongs from every corner of the world. He personally has collected literally thousands of songs and ballads on every subject from many nations. He has been heard repeatedly at Town Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York, ana in other concert halls throughout the United States and abroad. He is director of folk music for the Municipal Broadcasting System, New York City's own Radio Station WNYC, and has had his own song program on the station for years, enjoying one of the widest and most loyal listener groups in the nation. In this recording Brand presents versions of songs which are generally blue-penciled on radio, in movies, in the theater and even in night clubs.
PRINTED IN U.S.A. COPYRIGHT 1958 BY AUDIO FIDELITY. INC.