Admiral_Of_The_Fleet Posted February 23, 2015 Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) Wooden Ships and Iron Men Sea Shanties were work songs sung on ships during the age of sail. They were used to keep rhythm during work and make it more pleasant. Because these songs were used to accomplish a goal, rather then for pure entertainment, the lyrics and melody were not very sophisticated. Still, the songs were usually meaningful and told of a sailor’s life, which included backbreaking labor, abuse from captain and crew, alcohol, and longing for girls and dry land. A typical shanty had a call-and-response format. One sailor(a shantyman) would call out a verse, to which the rest of the sailors would respond in unison. The work would occur usually on the last syllable of the response or some other cue. An example can be found in the movie Moby Dick: Shanties were divided into several categories, named after the work they were used for. There were long haul shanties and short haul shanties for long and short rope pulling. There were windlass shanties for pumping out water(all wooden ships leaked to some extent and water would have to be pumped out regularly), and capstan shanties for raising and lowering the anchor. There was also a fifth kind of sailor song, which wasn’t really considered a true shanty because it was not used for work. Foc’sle, forecastle or forebitters were songs sung after the work was over. They were named after the sailor’s living quarters, where they would gather around to drink and sing wild ballads. The categories weren’t set in stone and sailors would often borrow songs and change the melody and rhythm to suit their work. It seems the only rules regarding sea shanties were that the songs talking about life at sea were sung on the outward part of the journey, and songs talking about coming home and dry land were sung while the ship was homeward bound. Today, not many people know about the existence of sea shanties. They are usually sung at sea festivals and pirate shows. You can sometimes hear them in movies about the sea, such as Master and Commander and Moby Dick. But the true tradition of shanties ended with the age of sail. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZJz1eQ5DtY Edited February 23, 2015 by Admiral_Of_The_Fleet
Grim DeGrim Posted February 23, 2015 Posted February 23, 2015 Though I cannot say that it qualifies as a true sea shanty, here is one that I know quite well from home...as you'll see, so does everyone else too. PS, not me in the vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-FNtplM3Ac
Flashman Posted February 23, 2015 Posted February 23, 2015 (edited) This was written in the 70's, but I think we can all agree this carries on the noble and free Shanty! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwzRkjn86w Barrett's Privateers by the fantastic Stan Rogers Edited February 23, 2015 by Rear Admiral Aubrey
Grim DeGrim Posted February 23, 2015 Posted February 23, 2015 Ah, I was considering posting some Stan tunes. Excellent choice.
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