Singing shanties/trad songs in school can be tricky...you want to be as historically accurate as possible for educational reasons, but presumably you also want to get invited back. Of course when you remove or cleanse the songs that involve violence, incest, seductions and swearing, you end up with...pretty much the same stuff we all learned in grade school. I can't imagine singing Barretts Privateers other than the way it was wrote, but hell its a good yarn and entering the tradition, but not a fully mature folksong yet. So for whatever reason, there

A few years ago my buddy and I did some sea songs for a grade six class...all well and good, but the alarming part was when we got the class to make up new verses to "Drunken Sailor." Do not try this unless you're in a school with a very liberal attitude towards freedom of expression.

Went to the Mystic Seaport Sea Music Fest a few years ago, and the day after the pub sing, someone told me "you can always tell the Canadians at the pub sing. They stand around looking sullen, then all burst into 'Barrett's Privateers'." Since that was exactly what we had done, I decided it would be well to learn some new shanties....

Bill