Songs about boats, No disasters!

Subject: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:04 PM

A previous thread (Don't do X with Y - Mousethief) Got me to thinking. Someone said that all of the interesting songs about boats involve a disaster. Surely there are lots of them. (Edmond Fitzgerald, The Irish rover etc.) But are there good one which don't involve disaster? Christian Island (G. Lightfoot), Southern Cross (S. Stills), Old Polina and Lukey's boat (Nfld. Trad) all come to mind. Are there others? What are your favourites?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:07 PM

Nope... no good boat songs without disaster!

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: GUEST,iains
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:10 PM

some songs are about boats but not about boats. Two songs come to mind. Nancy Spain and the Voyage.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Midchuck
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:11 PM

When we do The Mary Ellen Carter we often explain that it's almost impossible to write a happy song about ships, because if anything interesting happens on a voyage, it's likely to result in the ship sinking, and if nothing interesting happens, what's to write a song about? Stan, we explain, got around the problem by sinking the ship in the very first line, so it had nowhere to go but up.

Kinda like Rolling Home, as done by Kendall and by Ed Trickett, 'tho.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:16 PM

Sloop John B.? Banana Boat Song? Good Ship Lollipo...well, maybe not.

Grey Funnel Line is a particular favorite; haunting and yearning, yes, but certainly not tragic. Beautifully sung by June Tabor, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Deckman
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:18 PM

Hey, how about the "Queen of Connamra."? CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: nutty
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:19 PM

The Kipling?/Bellamy classis BIG STEAMERS is a favourite of mine

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:43 PM

Great Big Sea does a tune called "Lukey" or "Lukey's Boat" Lukey's Boat is painted green Ah Ha me Boys , Lukey's Boat is painted green It's the prettyest boat that you've ever seen, ah ha me boys a riddle-I day!

Now there is a dead wife mentioned but it is not a disaster.

I say Lukey your blinds are down "Me wife is dead and she's underground" Ah ha me boys A riddle-I day

I says Lukey I dont care I'll get me another in the spring of the year ah me boys etc.

They have two versions, one on the CD "UP" and another version they play with the Chieftans, that one is on a CD called Fire in the Kitchen, the also made a video for that one that aired on Canadian Music Televison, I have it as a Realplayer file.

Two other songs they do with strong boat content are, Ferryland Sealer, only a disater if you are one of the 900 seals "sculped" and Excursion around the Bay, not so much about the boat as where it goes, and once again there is the loss of wife.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:45 PM

We have often conjectured about a song about a voyage wherin nothing goes wrong. Generally it makes for a pretty boring song.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 01:46 PM

Ps Ferryland Sealer is in the D-Trad data base

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Gareth
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:08 PM

Hmmm ! No Sinkings, No disasters
McColls "the Shoals of Herring ", "The Leaving of Liverpool", "Swansea Town", Tawney" British Submarine","Flash Packet", "Liverpool Packet", "Black Ball Line", Masfields "Cargos"(ok the peom can be put to music), "Whip Jamboree".

The list is long

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: mytoycar
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:15 PM

May I suggest the safest song about a boat or rowing a boat that kiddies favourate and it has actions too!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: GUEST,guest Pat Nowell
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:17 PM

There a farewell song that Pete Seeger often sang called "Sweet Roseanne" collected by Alan Lomax (Southern Journey vol.1, Rounder Records. Sung by Bright Light Quartet). More recently, Cathy Barton and Dave Para have a wonderful version on their "Riding the River" CD.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: kendall
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:20 PM

The Marco Polo by Jim Stewart. He turned this into a saga, and, did a really great job on it.

This Old Boat as sung by Gordon Bok.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Shields Folk
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:31 PM

The Mingulay Boat Song!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: SINSULL
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:37 PM

Michael, Row The Boat Ashore
The Owl And The Pussycat
Winken, Blinken, and Nod...I am reaching here.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Shields Folk
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:39 PM

It's not a song but how about the Catspaw Dinghy

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Stewart
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:43 PM

"Song for the Bowdoin" by Larry Kaplan. The 1921 arctic research schooner fell into hard times by about 1950, but was then restored and now sails again off the New England coast. Other fine songs of the sea by Larry Kaplan on his Folk Legacy recording (CD-122) "Worth all the Telling."

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 02:55 PM

Kendall, the Marco Polo also sinks in the last verse, but it's a fine song. There are a few songs I can think of that celebrate particular vessels such as "The Dreadnaught", "The Bold Princess Royal," and "The Mary L. MacKay."

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: MMario
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:04 PM

Bonny Ship the Diamond

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:05 PM

"The Bonny Ship The Diamond" for example.

The german shanty "Magellan" is also not about a catastrophy... but about catastrophical conditions on a ship. Maybe that doesn`t count. Bs. did you know german sailors were forbidden to sing this one? It was too true on too much ships...

Then there is "Proud Mary" of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: GUEST,Annegi
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:17 PM

The Balena is a song celebrating a Scottish whaler.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:18 PM

Well, after I submitted my last post I got to thinking about it and started remembering all the songs that fit this category. Besides those above there is the first Marco Polo song, the one we designate as Marco Polo I, that doesn't involve a sinking. Plus there is Bok's Liza Jane, the C. Fox Smith poem Ships That Pass, and Somos El Barco.

There is another one that Bok does about a ship that gets repainted in mid voyage. Nice Carribean rhythm and once you hear it then you are stuck with it in your head for the rest of the day.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:26 PM

Last Farewell, Roger Whittaker? Brandy, Looking Glass?

Reaching a bit.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 03:31 PM

Bluenose

Jock

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Naemanson
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 04:02 PM

Stan Roger's Last Watch ends in the destruction of a ship but by the breaker's torch. How does that one count?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: kendall
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 04:10 PM

Charlie, the Mary L McKay also sank.
I should have posted the right name, it should be This Old Ship by Bok.

Naemanson, that song is Belemana. (sic)

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: kendall
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 04:11 PM

Old Fat Boat by Gordon Bok

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: GUEST,geordie
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 04:33 PM

The Bluenose; Mike Stanfield,a happy story.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 05:42 PM

The Loch Tay Boat Song, too. Silly Wizard's rendition is wonderful.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: RangerSteve
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 12:37 AM

The Handsome Cabin Boy.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: kendall
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 07:58 AM

Are we talking about boats, or ships?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: MMario
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 09:04 AM

damn- kendall - I can never remmeber which is which - a boat can be taken aboard a ship, right? except for submarines, which I believe are all classed as "boats"?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 09:12 AM

Well you're getting some Jack......But you've been sailing long enough to realize why there are so few. Remember the old line? "Sailing is 98% pure boredom and 2% sheer terror."

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 09:28 AM

I don't care if is a boat or a ship. We do have some good ones here. It is certian the shipwreck makes for abetter song.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Naemanson
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 09:48 AM

Oh great! Kendall, the minute you named that song the tune flooded back into my mind and now I can't get rid of it! Argh!

Good tune, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:21 PM

'Spaw,

I've heard the same proportional statement applied to flying by a friend who is a commercial airline pilot. In essence, a safe flight is a boring flight, while an exciting flight is a memorable experience if you live to tell the tale...and a memorial experience if someone else has to tell it!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Trapper
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:24 PM

How about "If I Had A Boat" by Lyle Lovett?

- Al

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: ChanteyMatt
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:26 PM

How about "One More Pull" and "Bluenose Line" by Geoff Noble (currently residing in Nova Scotia).

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:32 PM

Mountain Dog

I think you are right. But there seem to be more Air related songs, not about disasters. Back in the USSR, leavin on a jet plane, early morning rain etc. but for my money they don't compare to "Deportee" by Woody Guthrie.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: GUEST,Nick
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 02:12 PM

Gee Ranger "Handsome Cabin Boy?" The imprgenation of an underage transvestite by the male parnter of a couple who are both cheating with the same person is not a disaster (?) No actually it is another Jerry Springer Segment!

This is a very funny song, though not really about the ship.Sounds more like a cabin in the Ozarks!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Mudlark
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 11:10 PM

How about Reuben Renzo, When I went to Liverpool, The Water is Wide (not HAVING a boat, but still), We'll Rant and We'll Roar Like True Born Young Whalermen, Skye Boat Song (the BOAT never got into trouble), ..

I can't swim a stroke but really like boat/ship songs...

nancy

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 08:32 AM

The Rosabella is my favourite. Good banjo tune too! Yours, Aye. Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From:
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 11:57 PM

If I were a Boat?

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Amos
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 12:05 AM

I will build me a boat of silver -- steer it with a golden oar... (G. Bok)

And about three or four others of his whose names escape me at the moment -- "the Nancy Jean had a new fore truck, 'twas a fine piece o' wood but it wouldn't stay stuck"... and the one about refurbishing the ancient schooner. The Golden Vanity has a fine fight in which the good guys win, so no tragedy there. And "Blow Ye Winds In The Morning" and a hatful of other traditional sea-songs are more about jollies than tragedies, including "Donkey Jacket" (The Banks of Newfoundland), for example. "Whoop Jamboree", "The Walloping Window Blind", "Bound for South Australia"... not a tragic note among 'em.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 12:20 AM

Larry Kaplan's "Old Zeb" should be included, along with his "Song for the Bowdoin."

Also note: Cathy Barton and Dave Para's CD is actually titled Living on the River. Folk-Legacy has it, and Kaplan's CD as well.

Sandy

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 12:24 AM

Another good one - the capstan chantey "Paddy Lay Back," taking place on "the limey barque, the Hotspur." Not a disater song, though the sailor in the song has a disastrous time aboard this ship.

Richard Grainger's "Scarborough Fisherman" tells of their dangerous task, and is a great song. No specific boat here, though, if that's what you're looking for.

-chanteyranger

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Naemanson
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 06:18 AM

Amos, that song is "the Liza Jane had a new fore truck, 'twas a fine piece o' wood but it wouldn't stay stuck". Good song too.

I think we are straying from the original premise of the thread. Quite a few of the songs mentioned above are not about boats but about the sailors on the boats.

One more: Rocks of Baccalieu - a song about a near miss in a snow squall.

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Shields Folk
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 11:25 AM

Mudlark, the whole idea of having a boat is not having to swim!

Subject: RE: BS: Songs about boats, No disasters!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 11:31 AM

Kendall, I don't believe the "Mary L McKay" sank, at least not in the song I know; she just made record time from Portland, Maine, to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, in record time, propelled by Portland rum.

However, "The Walloping Window Blind" DOES come to grief on a reef, although the sailors later successfully hijack a junk, leaving its crew to chew on the bark of the whatever tree.

Then there's "The Champion of the Seas" or the older version about one of McKay's earlier clippers "The Sovereign of the Seas."