Interesting that this thread came back around this week as a trip back memory lane to conversations with Don Firth and Bob Nelson (Deckman) about a time when my father (John Dwyer) was first learning a few popular folk songs that had to do with ships and sailing. The remarks from here sent me looking for another song I associate with this period (though they aren't related) - Venezuela.

Don and Bob participated in both of these threads. A bunch of the folksingers of the early 1960s were performing these songs, and I remember a reticence growing in Dad about performing Sloop John B because it had become popular on the radio, where as Venezuela didn't have the same broad appeal, though it made the rounds on folk records. (I was a child at the concert Don cited, where Richard Dyer-Bennet performed Venezuela.) I think it had to do with his interest in performing songs known well in folk circles but staying out of the popular music arena.