I recently jokingly described one of Lloyd's recordings as sounding like Druids singing at Stonehenge.

Now, my own performances might sound like constipated dogs howling in the night. Lloyd sounds more beautiful. But that doesn't mean it *doesn't* sound like Druids at Stonehenge! It could sound beautiful without sounding like an ancient pagan rite of the British Isles. The point isn't "Ugh, Lloyd sounds bad!" It's: "Hmm, wow, OK, Lloyd sounds this way and there is something to note about it."

The context was "Sailboat Malarkey," sung by Lloyd and crew on the 1974 Sea Shanties album.

Unless someone knows differently, I presume this was based on Bahamian singer Frederick McQueen singing in 1965, released on the album The Real Bahamas (1966).
https://youtu.be/PObmXcB_Fr4

Lloyd's group sings this:
https://youtu.be/_a5Si_xFvEU

Is it not fair to say "Hmm" and ask what were they thinking? Like, what imagery was running through their heads to convert a blues from a sunny island into walking through catacombs?

Musical style communicates a lot of information. I don't think Lloyd's rendition communicates any indication of the culture of the "original." It has been re-cast as something else. In the context of that _Sea Shanties_ album, and the wider context in which that album resonates with a particular vision of "sea shanties", this re-casting really does something to the song, I think. We go down the road from Lloyd's decision and arrive at things like this:
https://youtu.be/6d2tUWwsHWw

Now, lecture me on how everything changes, how people can do whatever they want, yada yada.

I don't disagree. But I *am* going to notice the numbers game, of media, of people with historical/systematic spheres of greater influence, and how, intentionally or not, things/people can get erased. And how, if one gets their vision of chanties from the Druids at Stonehenge, reinforced over and over through confirmation bias, they're bound to get off course from an accurate vision. No one has to care about that "accurate vision," but it just so happens that I do, so I speak up.