Zappa notwithstanding I'd say Sea Shanties are an essential aspect of Western Culture. I reckon just as many people 'know' The Drunken Sailor as they do Happy Birthday - and will sing the 1st verse & chorus (at least) quite happily. Indeed if you listen carefully to the one surviving* off-air recording of the old radio concert of the Third Ear Band doing Eternity in D (January 17th 1971) you can hear the Cliff Adams Singers cutting through with Drunken Sailor at the end.

Third Ear Band - Eternity in D (1971)

(The collage / critique is my own by way of total fan-art; I created a new channel especially for my Third Ear Band fan-films then didn't do any more...)

Anyway, in my life I recall the Cliff Adams Singers doing a lot of folk / maritime songs, though the last time I heard Sing Something Simple they did Satisfaction which struck me as deeply subversive with respect of the angrier edge of the alt-as in-Altamount-culture ethos espoused by the Stones back i' th' day. I don't expect many of The Folk Fellowship (Chantey Heads in particular) to get the Cliff Adams Singers though, much less consider their particular brand of vocal harmony in any way Authentic, much less Traditional with respect of Shanty Singing. Naturally, I would argue that it was evert bit as Authentic and Traditional as any other Shanty Crew, just different. One dry-land shanty reconstruction is just as valid as any other.


* In all my life every version of this radio concert I have heard all derive from this particular recording with the Cliff Adams Singers at the end. If any one has a better one please get in touch!!