If You Want to be a Shanty Man
Jerry Kaplan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rb1YO_S4yk

When I was just a callow youth I really liked to sing.
Opera or Broadway, I’d tackle anything.
And then on a vacation I went to Mystic town.
Where I heard someone singing and it turned my head around.

It was at the Mystic Seaport I first clapped eyes on him.
He had a belly like a tripod and whiskers on his chin.
He was singing something that I'd never heard before.
When I asked him what that music was, he this to me did roar.

“Oh sonny, I'm a shantyman and here's what I do.
I sing the old forebitters and sea shanties, too.
Long haul, short drag, capstan - halyard, windlass, pump.
Yes, it was the good old shantyman who made the sailors jump.”

I said that I would love to try and learn to sing like him.
He asked if I was serious or was it just a whim.
“Cross my heart and hope to die with a curse upon my head.”
He looked at me a moment and this is what he said:

“If you want to be a shantyman, here's what you do.
Get ahold of Hugill and Doerflinger, too.
Harlow, Shay and Colcord. Huntington and Whall.
If you want to be a shantyman you gotta read ‘em all.

“That's great.” I said. “Thank you. I'll get started right away.”
“Not so fast,” he answered. “I got something more to say.
Learnin’ all the songs is only one leg of the stool.
So sit right down and listen ‘cause there's another rule.”

“If you want to be a shantyman, here's what you do.
Get yourself a banjo and a concertina too.
A fiddle or harmonica or something else ya blows.
If you want to be a shanty man you must play one of those.”

I said I’d go right home and buy an instrument or four.
But once again he stopped me and said “There's one thing more.
You must consider carefully before you make your choice.
Because the most important thing of all is your voice.”

If you want to be a shantyman here's what you do.
Listen to Sineti and Bob Webb, too.
Killan, Collins, Lewis and don't forget old Stan
‘Cause that’s the kind of voice you need to be a shantyman

Well, I took this fella’s good advice and bought books by the score.
Boxes of recordings and instruments galore.
I practiced, read and listened till it was blood I sweat.
I reached my goal but now I am ten thousand bucks in debt.

Oh yes, I am a shantyman and here's what I do.
I sing sea songs at festivals and museums too.
In markets, pubs and restaurants - anywhere I can.
‘Cause I'm not very fussy now. I am a shantyman. (x2)