The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #73406   Message #1272948
Posted By: Lighter
15-Sep-04 - 08:50 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Asshole Rules the Navy
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: 'Asshole Rules the Navy'
Oscar Brand recorded his version (as "Backside....") in 1958 on the Audio-Fidelity LP "Bawdy Sea Chanteys." Copyright was claimed by "Brand-Frey." Seems to me he wrote all but a few words, despite the rather equivocal liner-note assertion that he got it from Royal Navy sources. I'd be most surprised to find an earlier version with just those incidents and that cast of characters. (Notice that version 2, which also features a bee sting, is a lot cruder than Brand's urbane comedy. Brand is a pro at "sivilizin'" rough material, as Huck Finn might say.)

Interestingly, the line in Micca's song about seeing the Quack is basic to Stan Hugill's bawdy "Sacramento" shanty, which he learned in the 1920s.