Just posted in the Mudcat Songbook - Australia/NewZealand.

Despite a love of folk songs featuring the historical practices of Whaling, many of us were also part of the 60s-70s campaigns to try and stop the slaughter of these extraordinary, intelligent and sentient beings on this planet - or, at least many remember those times.   Apparently this song was used by the International Whaling Commission to assist in the campaign to stop International Whaling, but so far I’ve not found the info on-line to corroborate this …..


THE WHALES ARE SINGING TO ME (A WHALER’S LAMENT)

Kevin Johnson

I went to sea; there were no other choices for me
A Whaling ship – what greater adventure could there possibly be
The first day out we found them; circled our ships around them
Fired our harpoons till the sea ran red
In no time at all, those whales were dead.

We towed them in; oh how we drank that night at The Sailor’s Inn
Singing whaling songs, as the Captain played on his violin
But drinking was something I’d never known
So I staggered back to the ship alone
As drunk as a young man could ever be, listening to the night around me.

Was it the sound of the violin, drifting in on the cool night wind
Or was it something that came from the moon (?)
Could it be? That whales were singing to me
Perhaps they sung of those terrible things I’d done.

I have to say, when I look back over that dreadful day
There was treachery, that hadn’t really occurred to me
There seemed to be a kind of trust, as though they had nothing to fear from us
We got so close like we were friends, but then
We slaughtered them.

It wasn’t the sound of a violin, drifting in on the cool night wind
No, it was something that came from the moon, yet to me
Those whales were singing to me
Now they sung of the terrible things I’d done.

I left the sea, there were no other choices for me
A Whaling ship – what greater misfortune could there possibly be
And now I’m as old as a man can be, even today it’s still haunting me
Though my deeds have long since gone, sadly I see
It still goes on.

Now the Captain plays on his violin and I walk by the sea in the cool night wind
And I hear something that calls from the moon, has to be
The whales are singing to me, those things we’ve done
Of those terrible things we’ve done.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoiHgTrWb0o&t=12s   
an illustrative film clip with a recording from Kevin Johnson’s 2018 album entitled “Milestones 1”, but I think the song is much earlier.
Also, there are a few words I am having difficulty discerning!
I’ve not found the song’s provenance currently online. If anyone can assist, I’d be grateful.


Cheers, R-J
(who still has her LP of Dr Roger Payne's iconic recording of "Songs of the Humpback Whale" 1970 :)

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/31/calls-from-the-deep-do-we-need-to-save-the-whales-all-over-again    :   "Calls from the deep: do we need to Save the Whales all over again?" 1st Jan2021