Lyr Req: Got No Use for a Shantyman

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Got No Use for a Shantyman
From: Wotcha
Date: 14 May 00 - 03:38 PM

Folks, thanks for the information. Very weird to have to go all the way to Kuwait to collect Liverpool shanties! I even met a fellow who sang with Tim Hart's brother who apparently lived in Kuwait for a while ...
BAZ, I'm off to Chicago for a year, so won't be in the UK till next year, but I'll try and direct folks to your neck of the moor ...
Meanwhile I am trying to get the Irish Society to sing "Somewhere Along the Road" since it goes great with an Irish voice!
Cheers
Brian

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Got No Use for a Shantyman
From: Kernow John
Date: 14 May 00 - 03:19 PM

Brian
We had The Rum and Shrub Shantymen at our club last Saturday and this is one of the songs they did. I think it is on thier new CD. I'll see if I can get hold of a copy.
regards Baz
Ps. Are you coming over this year?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Got No Use for a Shantyman
From: MarkS
Date: 14 May 00 - 01:51 PM

Found it!
It is "Chantyman" by Glenn Yarbrough and available on the Calabasas label, # CL62184-2 MarkS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Got No Use for a Shantyman
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 14 May 00 - 10:35 AM

Tom Lewis has a line in one of his songs and I can't remember which one (guess I killed the too few brain cells I possesed) "Hoist Blue Peter for the Shantyman" About the Tall ships returning, which they are in Halifax on the 19th July to the 24th...Cant wait to see em again mates. Good music festival planned too! Yours, Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Got No Use for a Shantyman
From: MarkS
Date: 13 May 00 - 11:34 PM

This song is on a nice CD by (I think) Glen Yarborough, called (I think) Shantyman. Will check for the details next time I head to the basement and post a correction if I am wrong about the specifics, as well as posting the label
MarkS

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Got No Use for a Shantyman
From: GutBucketeer
Date: 13 May 00 - 10:39 PM

Thanks Malcolm for posting this song!!!

I have it on a CD put out by the London Shanteymen and Rod Shearman. I didn't realize that the Shantey Crew had recorded it.

It is one of my favorites.

JAB

Subject: ADD: Shantyman ^^
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 13 May 00 - 09:36 PM

So far as I can tell, this isn't lurking about in the Forum, so:

SHANTYMAN

Written by Bob Watson

Now modern ships carry mighty funny gear,
And away, get away, you shantyman.
Ain't seen a halyard in many's a year,
An' they got no use for a shantyman.
Slick new fittings are all your style,
And away, get away, you shantyman.
All very clever, but it just ain't right;

An' they got no use for a shantyman.
Shantyman, Oh, shantyman,
Who's got a berth for a shantyman?
Sing you a song of a world gone wrong,
When they got no use for a shantyman.

Levers to jerk and buttons to press
And real live sailors they need them less;
Pushing on the buttons and hauling on the levers
And they got no use for horny-handed heavers.

The cargo is stored in a polythene pack,
Raised and lowered by a dry bollocks jack;
Floating computer dressed like a ship,
Skippered and crewed by a micro chip.

Soon they'll be sailing by remote control,
An' that'll be pleasing to the owners' souls;
They'll send their ships from dock to dock,
All sat upon their arses in an office block.

New-fangled gear's no use to you
When you're off Cape Horn with your fuses blew;
Then's the time for to curse the day
You sent your shantyman away.

A sailor's life it once was hard,
Laid out aloft on a tops'l yard;
Now it don't matter if the winds blow high;
You can take force ten with your feet still dry.

Old-time ways are forgotten and gone,
For no-one listens to a shantyman's song.
Things no longer as they used to be;
It's the knacker's yard for the likes of me.

Listen at night and you might hear
A ghostly sound on the quiet air;
Is it a ghost from the distant past,
Or just a breeze in the radar mast?

Bob Watson has this to say about his song:

"Somewhere about 1983 I heard Jim Lloyd on the BBC (Folk on Two) interviewing The Spinners, one of whom remarked that there was a demand for new sea songs written in the style of the old.  I remember thinking; "What on earth would one write new sea songs about?"  It took a year before any constructive ideas were formed, then suddenly a load of songs came pouring out of me.  Amongst them was The Shantyman, although I don't know exactly what was the inspiration behind it.  Most of my songs take a long time from first draft to finished version, sometimes years, but this song progressed faster because of the interest shown by Tony O'Neil when he saw a rough draft.  Tony liked the song, but not all the verses, so I went home and rewrote some of them.  This led to the song making its debut at Bracknell Folk Festival in 1984, sung by Tony, and its live recording is a treasured possession.  From that first performance other people heard it and have taken to singing it..."

Text and notes are quoted from The Shanty Crew's 1989 recording, Stand To Yer Ground (PROP 1885A)

Malcolm ^^

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Got No Use for a Shantyman
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 13 May 00 - 05:43 PM

I think Foc'sle, from one of the Bexley (or is it Sidup?) Kent, UK, clubs sing this. I don't know if they have a website.

Subject: Got No Use for a Shantyman
From: Wotcha
Date: 13 May 00 - 05:06 PM

Appreciate any information/lyrics on this modern shanty bemoaning the loss of a profession ...

Cheers,
Brian