Great Big Sea: Sea Shanties with Attitude

Last updated on: December 4, 2014 at 8:16 pm by willduquette

Great Big Sea: Sea Shanties with Attitude 2014-12-04T20:16:27-05:00 willduquette

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The more time you spend with folk music of the British Isles, the more you’re exposed to songs of the sea; and when you like those, Pandora eventually introduces you to Great Big Sea,* a folk band from Canada that specializes in folk songs and sea shanties from Newfoundland. Mind you, some of their songs are a little too, um, ribald for my taste, or at least for my image; but here are some of the ones I like.

First, here’s a tale from the late 1800’s about a memorable sort of funeral—”The Night Pat Murphy Died”, a song that makes “Finnegan’s Wake” look staid:

Next, here’s a more purely nautical song from same time period. It’s about a remarkably fast whaling ship called the “Old Polina“:

And finally, here’s a genuine shanty, “General Taylor“, from around the 1840’s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYo6KqaSd3o

And then, just for fun, here’s another version of “General Taylor” performed by Steeleye Span that I found on YouTube. I’ve been a fan of Steeleye Span since I was in college, and have almost all of their albums; and what fascinates me about this track is that not only isn’t it on any of the albums I’ve got, I’d only heard it once before, in college, in the dorm room of the guy who first introduced me to Steeleye Span. I recognized the song itself, way back then; I’d heard it once at a live performance of sea shanties, and so I was pleased to hear it again. And then it dropped completely out of my life, except for once in a while I’d remember it, until I heard Great Big Sea’s version. Anyway, here it is:

____
* Yes, Joseph, I remember you pointing me at their song “Lukey” quite a while ago now. But I was already familiar with the first two of the songs listed here. It’s just taken me quite a while to get around to talking about them.

Woof Guide to Popular Music

great big sea

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