Lyr Add: Mutiny on the Bounty (Dave Rudolf)

Subject: Lyr Add: MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (Dave Rudolf)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Jul 19 - 11:11 AM

I was looking for something else when I ran across this song. Now I can’t even remember what I was looking for, so I don’t know where to post this! Did someone recently ask for songs related to the story Mutiny on the Bounty? If so, I can’t find the thread.

So I decided to make a new thread. I found it on Spotify. It’s my transcription and, as you can see, some phrases were unintelligible to me:


MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
Tune: Mick McGuire
As recorded by Dave Rudolf on “All Folked Up, Vol. 3” (2016)

I like a sea chantey with a liltin’ air that’s easy on the ears
With a bit of a minor key in there for summonin’ up the tears,
Ah, but it’s either fish or cut bait when the last verse rolls around.
Mate, I wouldn’t rate it quite complete unless somebody drowns.

CHORUS: Aye, me hearties, shiver me timbers, for to thrill ye to yer bones
While ev’ry last crew member’s driftin’ down to Davy Jones.
A capella out in the county, concertina in the town.
There’ll be mutiny on the Bounty, lads, unless somebody drowns.

When ye commit to thirty-six verses ...(?).
If there’s no drowndin’ in the end, my friend, then what’s a chantey for?
Ask the sailors harmonizin’ Port-au-Prince to Puget Sound,
What makes it worth the memorizin’? It’s the endin’ where they drowned. CHORUS

Take your Titanic, for example; they were ...(?) ev’ry noon
Wi’ their boatin’ fate was gloatin’ waitin’ like Clancy to lower the boom.
They were out there on the ocean when a bit o’ ice commotion
Caused the band to get the notion to play that “Nearer My God to Thee.”

Then they drowned so conscientious, they did the right thing, don’t you see?
...(?) minches from Liverpool to Barbary.
Whether you pay the piper’s assessment in dollars or in pounds,
Well, it’s hardly worth the investment unless somebody drowns. CHORUS

And your Canadian sea chanteys, they will brook no substitute.
When it’s time to drown, they don’t mess around; it’s not what they’re aboot.
When all hands they lie full fathom five down in some watery trench,
There’s a law that says ya gotta revive ‘em again an’ drown ‘em again in French. CHORUS

Then your Edmund Fitzgerald, it’s a chantey so sincere,
If you want to sing the whole damn thing it takes about a year.
It’s got a decent dose o’ drownin’s but it’s such a lengthy song,
Ye could sail to Madagascar and get back before it’s done. CHORUS TWICE


[The album seems to be all parodies in various styles, and is worth a listen.]