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Sea Shanties on YouTube
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Subject: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Naemanson Date: 31 Dec 06 - 08:36 PM This morning I followed a link to see a proa sailing on an unknown harbor (CLICK!). Then I thought I'd do a search for sea shanties. Here is just a taste of what I found: Port Isaac Cornish fishermen singing a shanty: CLICK! One or two of the Morgans (You'll need to wade through about 1:30 of bagpipes first): CLICK! Here is a promotional video for a group called Matelot. No shanty but I liked what I heard: CLICK! Here is a middle aged gent in his home singing WHEN THE FIELDS ARE WHITE WITH DASIES I'LL RETURN. He claims it's an old sea song. CLICK! Here is a Black & White TV program where a gent named Leonard Warren sings 'Blow The Man Down': CLICK! Here's another Black & White TV where Leonard Warren sings 'A-Roving': CLICK! There is much more. Much is poorly shot and some is very poorly presented. Enjoy your explorations. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Alice Date: 31 Dec 06 - 10:52 PM Hey, thanks! Wish I had a faster connection! |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Barry Finn Date: 31 Dec 06 - 10:53 PM Hi Bret & thanks The fella leading the first shanty is Geoff Kaufman an ex Mystic shantyman & the woman leading "Drop of Nelson's Blood" is Daisy Nell of Glouchester/Cape Ann area, a long time performer of shanties. I don't know the Morgans. Barry Happy New Year to you both |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Anglo Date: 01 Jan 07 - 02:52 AM Well, the Morgans are the people you'll often see with Don Sineti, if you're in the Hartford area. Chris Morgan in particular is a monster on the button accordion. But I didn't see any of them that I knew, not that I know them that well. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Naemanson Date: 01 Jan 07 - 03:10 AM I knew I recognized Geoff (couldn't remember his name though) but I thought he had been with the Morgans. Sorry. Happy New Year to you too, Barry. I hope you and the family are doing well. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Ron Davies Date: 01 Jan 07 - 08:02 AM Great to see these. Did you also check out "If You're Not From the Islands, Then You Must Be From Away"? Good song, recently written. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Marc Bernier Date: 01 Jan 07 - 11:43 AM Geoff has never been a regular member of the Morgans, though I wouldn't be surprised that he has performed with them from time to time. But more to the point there are no members of the Morgans in that video, that I can recognize, and I know most of them quite well. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Celtaddict Date: 01 Jan 07 - 10:27 PM This video (with Geoff) is from Sweet Chariot music festival on Swan's Island, Maine, in August 2001. No Morgans. Doug Day and David Dodson are also there. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Naemanson Date: 01 Jan 07 - 11:51 PM All right, all right, there are no Morgans! My mistake! **Grin** There are, however, some fun songs. There is one video of Tom Lewis leading something called Nassau Bound. He says it was never called The Sloop John B nor was it ever The Wreck Of The Sloop John B. There are a lot of verses in there I'd never heard but it sounds more like two songs sandwiched together. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Don Firth Date: 02 Jan 07 - 08:37 PM . . . picky picky picky. . . . Somebody from the Smithsonian found the song in 1938? Never was called "The John B. Sails" or "The Wreck of the Sloop John B?" Well, far be it from me to argue with a man armed with a ukulele, but the first place I encountered the song was in The American Songbag, collected and compiled by poet and troubadour Carl Sandburg. "Sandbag's Songburg" was published in 1927. Sandburg says that he learned the song (obviously prior to 1927) from "cartoonist and kindly philosopher" John T. McCutcheon and his wife, Evelyn Shaw McCutcheon, who spent a great deal of time in the Bahamas. They say of it that "Time and usage have given this song almost the dignity of a national anthem around Nassau. The weathered ribs of the historic craft lie imbedded in the sand at Governor's Harbor." I first heard the song actually sung by Walt Robertson in the very early 1950s, and learned it from him. Walt's version differed from the version in Sandburg by only a word or two. He had learned it while attending Haverford College (near Philadelphia) in the late 1940s from someone who had not learned it from the Sandburg book, but had learned it while in the Bahamas. The way Walt sang it, the song has a distinctively Caribbean rhythm (erroneously called "Calypso rhythm"), which, incidentally, the Kingston Trio (1958) never did get quite right. A few "sources" I've found on the internet credit the song to Lee Hayes of The Weavers, or say that it was written by Carl Sandburg. Obviously, said sources are not checking very thoroughly and sort of making it up as they go along. Some of them managed to trace the song all the way back to The Beach Boys' recording! It sounds to me like what Tom Lewis is singing is the Kingston Trio's version of the song interleaved with another song. But I'm afraid what he says about the song doesn't exactly qualify as solid ethnomusicology. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Charley Noble Date: 02 Jan 07 - 09:09 PM Don- I've heard Tom Lewis introduce this song (Sloop John B) and he says the odd combination of melodies is what was traditionally sung in the Bahamas. Maybe we should check with Tom for further clarification. Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Don Firth Date: 02 Jan 07 - 09:21 PM Yeah, Charlie, what I have on the song is pretty sketchy, but since the late 50s, I've heard it introduced with so many cockamammie stories as to its background that my "suspicious neurons" tend to get kind of knee-jerky. But I'm always game to learn. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Barry Finn Date: 03 Jan 07 - 02:12 AM You can hear a version collected by Allen Lomax on his "River of Song" collection "Bahamas 1935; Chanteys & Anthems from Andros & Cat Island" on Rounder. There it's called "Histe Up The John B Sail". Sung by Cleveland Simm group. Recorder at Old Bight, Cat Island, Bahamas in JUly 1935. Allen goes on, "A fisherman ballad made world-famous by the Weavers in the early 1950's. Their Decca recording was based on a version from a collection by Carl Sandburg. The American Songbag published in 1927. "The John B was an old sponger boat whose crew were in the habit of getting notoriously merry, whenever they made port, say the notes to an album of Blind Blake, a popular Nassau entertainer who recorded a string band version with the Royal Calypsos in 1952. (Art ALP-4) The accompanied version from Cat Island presented here is perhaps the earliest recording of this song." This version is fairly close to how the Beach Boys recorded it (I don't know about the Blind Blake, Sandburg or Weaver's versions) except that the Calypso style they didn't come close to capturing nor do the harmonies compare but it is basicly the same structure, melody & wording (somewhat). Barry |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: GUEST,armstrongs patent Date: 18 Apr 07 - 09:05 AM |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: GUEST,TW Date: 18 Apr 07 - 11:53 AM Anymore videos of Geoff Kaufmann? Or perhaps, Rick Spencer? |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: GUEST,Mrs M keighley Date: 17 Aug 07 - 01:28 PM Ive searched the web for the words to a song that my father used to sing when i was young but to no avail the song is When the fields are white with dasies I'll return |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Barry Finn Date: 17 Aug 07 - 01:58 PM Hi Mrs M keighley You might want to create a separate thread, say something like Lyr "Fields Are White" of if it's a sea shantey question "Looking for sea song/Fields R White?. You'd have a far better chance of catching someone's eye. The chances of having someone look at the bottom of an old & unrelated thread & answer are much slimmer. Good Luck Barry |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: katlaughing Date: 17 Aug 07 - 06:42 PM Here you go, Mrs. M. Keighly, I've started a thread for you, just CLICK HERE. All the best, kat |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: Big Al Whittle Date: 19 Jul 08 - 04:48 PM Did anyone see the Birmingham Rep version Treasure Island (currently on tour)? theres a rip your heart out version of Lowlands Away that the cast perform. I gave my programme away to a little kid I felt sorry for - but I'll be bound theres a real folkie involved somewhere! I wish I'd checked before being so bloody generous. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: topical tom Date: 21 Jul 08 - 07:18 AM I realize that this is not You Tube buthereis a good collection of John Roberts and Tony Barrand sea shanties. |
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Subject: RE: Sea Shanties on YouTube From: GUEST,Guest Ian Date: 21 Jul 08 - 09:23 AM This is a link to an interview that was done at the Shanty festival in Liverpool. http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool/content/articles/2008/06/11/video_nation_sea_shanty_video_feature.shtml As a group we tend to class ourselves as singing songs of a maritime nature but we do include a number of sea shanties. We do this purposefully as we feel there are some great exponents around of pure shanty singing such as Liverpool's own Stormalong John. I think what has been interesting for us is the number of young people who come and talk to us about the songs and delivery after we have finished a festival session. |
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