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We had a guy who used to sing sea shanties at our local folk club. He was a helicopter pilot

I'm pleased to say that my article at r/SeaShanties describing accessible and affordable ways to take up traditional sailor instruments is now live.

If anyone has any feedback or adjustments I should make, I'm all ears, and I've name-dropped this sub, so maybe we'll get a few curious visitors.


Taking up a traditional musical instrument to play sea shanties and sea songs (for total novices or experienced musicians)

https://www.reddit.com/r/seashanties/co ... rument_to/

While not all sailor songs are shanties, some sailors sing songs, some play instruments, and sooner or later, people who aren't sailors or playing instruments, sing songs about the life of a sailor, or fishing, or travel, or being in love with strangers met on those great migrations that used to happen when people moved on from trouble, to new lives in new places. Perhaps it was a thing in port cities used as a kind of news service. Perhaps it was sometimes just fun. Take one of those "story" songs, refine it down to catch lines and a simple melody, and you've got yourself a shanty.

Here's an example. Of what, I'm not sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITlOYuu3A9U

Glad there's some interest in it, at least, and hopefully some of the folks over on your sub will wander in here!

I'm a mod on r/AskHistorians, and we did see a bit of an uptick in sea shanty-related questions for a while. Reddit is both a wonderful and a terrible place for discourse, but I'm glad at least some sections of it are being put to good use!

kenny wrote:We had a guy who used to sing sea shanties at our local folk club. He was a helicopter pilot

Being a helicopter pilot and being on board ship at sea are not mutually exclusive occupations!

An old acquaintance got a job as a helicopter pilot on a huge fishing vessel that sailed out of Alaska- there was a helipad/helideck on the ship, his job was to fly around and spot the huge schools of fish, and direct the ship to them.

Thank you. I was just coming to ask about this?

My fav, so far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dN3wEdK ... byx80e9rhk

I keep hearing that 2021 is "The Year of the Sea Shanty", but despite my glowing anticipation, people are still performing only The Wellerman (or parodies thereof), and nothing else. One tired song? Please. That's a meme, not a movement.



"I don't always sing sea shanties, but when I do, it's The Wellerman."

Nanohedron wrote:I keep hearing that 2021 is "The Year of the Sea Shanty", but despite my glowing anticipation, people are still performing only The Wellerman (or parodies thereof), and nothing else. One tired song? Please. That's a meme, not a movement.

"I don't always sing sea shanties, but when I do, it's The Wellerman."

Yes. And, as I've said, it isn't even a sea shanty.

Sea Shanty...... ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW8Wrs-MDoY

benhall.1 wrote: "I don't always sing sea shanties, but when I do, it's The Wellerman."

Yes. And, as I've said, it isn't even a sea shanty.[/quote]

I have noticed that people who are overall pleased about this but want to be more accurate have been saying "sea shanties and sea songs."

While Wellerman is the "Gangam Style" of the month, on places like r/seashanties on Reddit I do see the young kids covering and making memes about other sea songs like "Leave Her Johnny" or "Rolling Down to Old Maui" and the like, so it's not exclusively a one-hit wonder.

Fundamentally, however briefly, this involves more people enjoying trad music on at least some level, so thus far I'm still chalking it firmly in the "W" column.

fatmac wrote:Sea Shanty...... ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cW8Wrs-MDoY

That was much better than I thought it was going to be! Nice-sounding pipes, well in tune, and good playing.

By the way I used to play in a band that did Drunken Sailor as sort of a crowd-pleaser singalong and I would play this polka behind it, functioning like a descant:

Riding On A Load Of Hay https://thesession.org/tunes/1239#setting40402

I just now added my setting of that tune, the way I learned it 40 years ago, and a better setting I think than the ones already there.

TapTheForwardAssist wrote:the "W" column

I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with the term.

Nanohedron wrote:

TapTheForwardAssist wrote:the "W" column

I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with the term.

Ah, meaning "I mark a sheet of paper with 'Wins' and 'Losses', and when I notate the event I'm referring to, I will write it down under the 'Win' category because I think, all things considered, it's a positive thing."

A related but opposing expression of the same metaphor is "take the L", meaning "accept that you have lost the competition in this instance."