The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #94304   Message #1824077
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
31-Aug-06 - 08:05 PM
Thread Name: Stan Hugill - the real words?
Subject: RE: Stan Hugill - the real words?
It's not as simple as "real words or bowlderised words" - as Stan used to say, chanty men would vary the words according to the occasion, and if a song was being sung when there were passengers present or maybe on the dockside the words would be modified to fit.

Chanty-singing sailors were as liable to exercise what they saw as good manners as anybody, when it seemed fitting. Old-fashioned manners and old-fashioned songs have a lot in common.

This kind of thing isn't really the same as genteel collectors rewriting the songs and coming up with versions that noone had ever sung. In this case, all the words are "real words", and would have been sung, even the one's that don't turn the air blue.

Drunken Sailor - "it is not in shanty format". There are lots of formats for working shanties, and I'd say the Drunken Sailor is in typical form for a capstan shanty, say for raising the anchor.