Sea songs for children

Subject: Sea songs for children
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 02:31 PM

Does anyone know of sea songs (including Pirate songs) for children? I have conducted Shanty workshops for schools and I adapted the words of the shanties to suit the age groups.

The songs don't neccessarily have to be traditional

Thank you in anticipation.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 03:13 PM

"Herring's Head" is a wonderful children's song from England's East Coast. Chanyeys such as "John Kanaka" lend themselves well for kids. One can use names of kids you're singing to in rhyming verses. A good source of family-friendly chanteys is the book and CD combination "Songs of the Sailor" from Mystic Seaport Museum. Don't know if it's still in print, though. Also, the maritime park I work for (San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park) produced a CD specifically for elementary school kids and teachers called "The Hyde Street Pier Chantey Singers: Chanteys and Sea Songs." PM me if you'd like more info, and how to order.

Chanteyranger

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 04:56 PM

Kids love the Eddystone Light and relate the The Lowlands when it s explained before hand.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: SINSULL
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 04:57 PM

The Golden Vanity - Lowlands - The Reveille and a hundred other versions.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 04:57 PM

For very small ones; The Illy Ally O (Clancy Bros.)
There are several songs that name all the fishies, usually starting with the mackerel, for some reason; these can be turned into memory songs if you have to sing all prior fish too...

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 08:39 AM

Thanks for your comments - keep them coming. I would like more details on getting the lyrics & tunes, if possible?

Some of the suggested songs I already know.

Thanks again.

Dave R.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Banjiman
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 09:16 AM

Have a listen "Counting Dolphins" on Wendy's MySpace page . If it fits your needs she'll be happy to let you have lyrics etc.

Paul Arrowsmith

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 10:54 AM

What Do Ye Do With the Drunken Sailor?

Blow Ye Winds

A Rovin' (you might not want to explain exactly what trade the maid was mistress of!)

Rollickin' Bill (or Barnacle Bill) the Sailor (perhaps cleaned up a little)

Assuming rivers are acceptable as well as oceans:

Shenandoah

Un Voyageur Errant

Just last night I was looking at Frank Shay's _American Sea-Songs and Shanteys_ (I think that's the title). There are at least a couple songs about pirates in there.

_Henry Morgan_, of course, is about a pirate.

There are lots of songs involving the sea in Peter Kennedy's book _Folksongs of the Britain and Ireland_. I could have a look through my various songbooks.

Actual shanteys and other work songs were generally sung very slowly, to go along with the work. Many "sea songs" would rather have been sung in the forecastle (if memory serves).   I'm sure there are others here who are much more knowledgable on the subject.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: EBarnacle
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 11:18 AM

Be careful with drunken sailor--A friend was doing a school and asked for verses. The only contribution he he got was "Drag him 'cross the deck till he's full of splinters."
Charley O'Hagerty, where are you now?

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 12:20 PM

Some time ago I compiled this list- dunno where I got it, probably here on Mudcat!

Roll the Old Chariot Along
The Mermaid
Heart of Oak
Haul Away Joe
Stormalong
Spanish Ladies
Shenandoah
Whip Jamboree
Rio Grande
South Australia
Donkey Riding
Blow The Man Down
General Taylor
Stormy Weather
New York Girls
Windy Old Weather
Shoals Of Herring

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 03:50 PM

Many thanks everyone.
Some very good examples there.

A few of them I already use for my workshops.

I shall endeavour to dig out some sea songs (forebitters) to suit the age group.

I wrote this one myself - What think you?

Tommy A Tall(Ship)Story!

Tommy would a-sailing go
Across the sea, across the sea.
Tommy would a-sailing go,
All on a summer's day.
He joined his ship in Swansea Town;
It was a ship of great renown.
He sailed the wide world three times round
All in the month of May.

Tommy sailed East and Tommy sailed West
Across the sea, across the sea
Tommy sailed East and Tommy sailed West,
All on a summer's day.
On Monday he sailed from Swansea Town
In that ship of great renown
On Tuesday he docked in New York Town,
All in the month of May.

Tommy he drunk a barrel of rum,
A barrel of rum, a barrel of rum.
Tommy he drunk a barrel of rum
All on a summer's day.
He dance a jig and a hornpipe too,
With the captain, the bosun and all of the crew
On the tops'l yard whilst a hurricane blew!
All in the month of May.

Tommy, he was homeward bound,
Homeward bound, homeward bound.
Tommy, he was homeward bound
All on a summer's day.
A storm did rise with a terrible roar,
The masts and yards were there no more.
So Tommy he rowed the ship to shore,
All in the month of May

Tommy, he became a captain bold,
A captain bold, a captain bold,
Tommy became a captain bold.
All on a summer's day.
He took aboard his pet kangaroo,
An old seadog and a packet rat too.
And the cook, he made one heck of a stew
All in the month of May.

Tommy he came from sea,
Home from sea, home from sea.
Tommy he came from sea,
All on a summer's day.
One day, when drinking in Swansea Town
He staggered out of the Rose and Crown;
He fell in a puddle and Tommy was drowned,
All in the month of May.

Dave R.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: plastic cod'ead
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 05:16 PM

Hi Skipper Jack

the kids I work with really enjoy Donkey Riding and Haul on the Bowline. Roll the Old Chariot is great too, you can get them making up their own verses.

sean

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 09:29 PM

Dave-

You done good! ;~)

I find that children enjoy complex songs, songs with lots of gore but where no one really gets hurt. Here's one from John Masefield where I've channeled a tune:

From SALT-WATER POEMS AND BALLADS, edited by John Masefield, published by The Macmillan Company, New York, US, © 1921, pp. 64-65.
Adapted by Charles Ipcar, 10/3/07
After "On the Range of the Buffalo"
Key: Cm (3/Am)
A Ballad of John Silver


Dm-------------------------------Gm------------Dm-------------Am-Dm
We were schooner-rigged and rakish, with a long and slend-or hull,
-------------------------------------------------Am--------------------Dm
And we flew the fearsome colours of the cross-bones and the skull;
----------------------------------------------Am------------Dm
We'd a big black Jolly Roger, flapping grimly at the fore,
-------------------------------Gm-------------------Dm---------Am-Dm
And we sailed the Spanish Wa-a-ters in those happy days of yore.

We'd a long brass gun amidships, like a well-conducted ship,
We had each a brace of pistols and a cutlass at the hip;
It's a point which weighs against us, and a fact to be deplored –
That we chased the goodly merchant-men and laid ourselves aboard.

Then the dead men fouled the scuppers and the wounded filled the chains,
And the paint-work all was spatter-dashed with other people's brains,
They were boarded, they were looted, they were scuttled till they sank,
And the pale survivors left us by the medium of the plank.

Then, having washed the blood away, we'd little else to do
Than to dance a lively hornpipe, as the old salts taught us to;
Oh the fiddling on the fo'c's'le, and the slapping barefoot soles,
And the genial "Down the middle, Jake, and curtsey when she rolls!"

Chorus:

Oh the fiddling on the fo'c's'le, I can still recall,
And the clash of pike and cutlass, and the roar of cannon ball;
How I miss them feisty pirates with that black flag at the fore,
When we cruised the Spanish waters in those happy days of yore!

Ah! the pig-tailed, feisty pirates and the pretty pranks we played,
All have since been put a stop-to by the naughty Board of Trade;
The schooners and their merry crews are laid away to rest,
A little south the sunset – in the Islands of the Blest. (CHO)

Here's a link to a MP3 file of the above song: click here for website

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 06:41 AM

A couple of corrections:

"Henry Martin" not "Henry Morgan". I think there was a pirate named Henry Morgan, though.

"Un Canadien Errant" not "Un Voyageur Errant". There's another song called "The Young Voyageur" ("Le Jeun Voyageur" or "Le Voyageuer Jeun", perhaps?)

"The Coast of High Barbary" is about pirates.

John Connelly's "Fiddler's Green" is about a fisherman.

Shel Silverstein's "The Unicorn" involves Noah's ark.

"The Greenland Whale Fisheries"

"Jamaica Farewell"

"The Sloop John B"

You can probably find the lyrics and possibly the chords easily in the internet. The melodies may prove to be more difficult. _The Fireside Book of Folksongs_, once very popular but now out of print, has some of the songs I've mentioned and several others.

The book I mentioned by Frank Shay is probably long out of print. I didn't have the title quite right. I believe it's _American Sea-Songs and Chanteys_, but I will have to check again.

"Henry Martin" is in _The Joan Baez Songbook_.

"Henry Martin" and the "Greenland Fisheries" are in Klaus Buh'e's (that's supposed to be an "e" with an acute accent) _Englische Lieder and Balladen_ (English Songs and Ballads), published, I believe, by Schott. I bought it recently. The keys are suited for the guitar and not particularly for singers.

There are probably songs involving the sea in the various volumes of Heinrich M"oller's "Das Lied der Voelker". Sadly, this series has gone out of print again, and I only own a handful of them.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Splott Man
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 07:32 AM

Hi Dave,

I rewrote Skipper Jan Rebec for littl'uns, I'll dig it out.
Will you be with the Baggies on Friday night? If so I'll give it to you then.

Splott Man

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 07:52 AM

Bobby Shaftoe and Row the boat spring to mind. From my school days I remember teh afore mentioned Donkey Riding (clean version) and Johnny Todd.

Good luck.

Dave

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Melissa
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 08:02 AM

"I love to be beside your side
beside the sea
beside the seaside
by the beautiful sea"

Name is possibly "By the sea"..from the 20s

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: SINSULL
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 09:11 AM

The Sailor's Alphabet is fun with an easy chorus.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 01:51 PM

Thanks to one and all for your very helpful ideas.

Yes Ned, I will be there along with the "Baggies" on Friday evening and I look forward to seeing you and Pat.

Dave R.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 02:44 PM

A lot of schools used to sing a song about Willie getting drownded in the deep blue sea
The only line I can remember is "It was Willie,what got drownded in the deep blue sea"

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: AnneMC
Date: 17 Jun 08 - 04:40 PM

I would thoroughly recommend the Dan Zane CD "Sea Music". Has some great songs for kids and it's for adult enjoyment too.
Plus his web site (http://www.danzanes.com/main/lryics_chords.shtml) provides all the lyrics and chords for every song.
CD has : strike the bell, farewell nova scotia, cape cod girls, shenandoah, blow ye winds in the morning, all for me grog,leaving of liverpool, windy old weather, sloop john b , long time ago, mingulay boat song, deep blue sea, the mermaid, rolling home.

AnneMC

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Piers Plowman
Date: 18 Jun 08 - 02:50 AM

I checked Peter Kennedy's _Folksongs of Britain and Ireland_ and it seems I was wrong about there being "a lot" of songs involving the sea. I remember at least a couple in the sections of Gaelic and Welsh songs and there's a song called "The Soldier and the Sailor", I believe, in the chapter "Songs of Occupations". I didn't look at it, though.

"La Paloma" is another song about the sea. I have it in the form of sheet music and it's published by Schott. However, it only has the lyrics in Spanish, French and German, not English.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 08 - 03:04 PM

Look to Dan Zanes for neat renditions of chanteys and other sea songs that work well for children.

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 18 Jun 08 - 06:37 PM

Mudcatter KT's 'Old Salt' is a beauty.
Perhaps she'll post it here.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Splott Man
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 04:00 AM

These are the verses of Skipper Jan Rebec I adapted or wrote for the under-6s ("toddlerised" we call it):

Who's the King of the fighting Dutch? - Skipper Jan Rebec.
Who do the sailors fear so much? - SJR

Ja, ja, leave your hammocks,
Ja, ja, hands on deck,
Ja, ja, break your backs for SJR.

Who do the sailors think is scary?
Who is big and strong and hairy?

Who can fight a hundred men?
And then come back and do it again?

Who is strong and brave and bold?
Who stole all the Spanish gold?

Who stole all the tea from China,
And sold it all in Carolina?

Who can drink ten cups of tea,
And never needs to have a wee?

Who can eat a ton of jelly?
It goes wobble wobble wobble wobble in his belly?

Not exactly original, but they're effective.

---

Here are some extra verses to Drunken Sailor too:

Comb his hair and clean his glasses.

Put him in the shower and dress him up tidy.

Lock him in the cabin with the captain's parrot.

Sign him up for a month in the Priory.

----

Of course not all of them work for toddlers...

Splott Man

Subject: RE: Sea songs for children
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 19 Jun 08 - 07:47 AM

Thanks Ned.

I like yor version of Skipper Jan Rebeck.

Here's one of the lines I added to Drunken Sailor, it goes down well with the school kids.

"Put him in detention, that'll teach him!"

See you tomorrow!

Dave R.