Drunken Sailor – Public Domain Sea Shanty | Hacker News Reader

Drunken Sailor – Public Domain Sea Shanty

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110 pointsapp4soft69 comments

Reminds me of this: https://twitter.com/peterswellman/status/1276883249369882625...

Possibly the world's greatest ever news report.

Brilliant!

Not sure where all the shanty love on HN has come from, but I'm loving it. Obligated to share my favorite, a youtube classic of sorts by this point: https://youtu.be/49FWp7WLYKw

Shanty love came from a TikTok viral video: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-delig...

To be clear, firstly it came from YouTube to TikTok, see my comment[0]

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25814759#25816838

Not sure I understand. It seems to me that while the original song was uploaded to youtube, it was the tiktok video that made it go viral.

It came from the Pirate Captain, no?

Every time I see that clip I feel obliged to point out the green shirt guy who shows up around 1:50 on the far left singing the harmony. He's essential to the richness of the sound of the chorus.

Which always leaves me wondering how common this would have been in the 1800s. Back in the days when listening to music at home meant playing it, was your average group of scalawags always going to have a few people who sang in the church choir as kids and knew things like oblique harmony?

I'm taking part in a kind of folk music revival scene in my country and thus interested in those kinds of stuff. The initial disclaimer is, given that this is "non-material cultural heritage", it's hard to be sure about details; however, just for some incomplete (from what I see - I'm surprised they don't even mention Ukrainian or Russian folk music at all) summary of what is known, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphony (based on this, polyphony existed for sure at least before year 900). For some especially exotic (for "us") stuff see e.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnGM0BlA95I

Now to get closer to answering your actual question: from what I heard from some researchers (for whom visiting remote villages is part of their work), in shortest words, I understand people who were surrounded by songs all their life would "feel what is missing" by ear, and join with their voice to "fill the gap". Expanding a bit more on that, basically among every local community there were some people that were better at singing compared to the others. And singing tended to be required in some form, as part of various rituals (e.g. marriage, death are moments in life where you can be pretty sure there was some accompanying community ritual; and moms would shush and lullaby their kids even just for practical reasons). So it was more or less unavoidable to be familiar with singing to some extent. Now, as to the specific harmonies used in the modern sea shanties scene, I don't know enough to be able to say whether any of them are grounded in harmonies actually used on ships - that's not an area I've ever researched.

edit: Two more things: (1) higher layers of society tended to be derogatory towards the culture of the lower layers (I guess somewhat necessarily in order to differentiate and maintain status), so a lot of what you learn about history of music tends to be just about the music of the nobility, which often was just a small percent of the population; (2) also, singing is actually very close to speaking and shouting (see e.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYO_B5Nj8QY), so it's not hard to imagine singing in general might be at least as old as speech itself...

> from what I see - I'm surprised they don't even mention Ukrainian or Russian folk music at all) summary of what is known, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyphony (based on this, polyphony existed for sure at least before year 900)

It is probably Varangians-Ukrainian folk music (ex-Kyiv Rus with a captital in Kyiv during period of 882–1240; actually Kyiv is a capital of Ukraine).[0]

> The Varangians later assimilated into the Slavic population and became part of the first Rus' dynasty, the Rurik Dynasty. Kyivan Rus' was composed of several principalities ruled by the interrelated Rurikid knyazes ("princes"), who often fought each other for possession of Kyiv.[1]

JFTR, Russia (ex-Moskovia) not exists until 1240s.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine#Golden_Age_of_Kyiv

A long time ago I had occasion to visit Wales and witnessed harmony singing at a very grand scale. But that may have been because a high percentage of individuals were in smaller choir groups as part of local culture. And if only half of the entire singing crowd sings 2 to 3 harmony parts rather than the lead line, it sounds amazing.

With a little practice from young age, it’s not too difficult to harmonize, if you know the lead line and have a sense of culturally common chord structures (also learned by immersion).

That is a really interesting question. I'd guess most would sing in unison, but I bet there were pockets where the musicianship was on point.

  What shall we do with a wayward pointer
  What shall we do with a wayward pointer
  What shall we do with a wayward pointer
  Early in the morning?

  God damn! Exception raised
  God damn! Exception raised
  God damn these exceptions raised
  Early in the morning

LOL

This song reached Poland in the early 20 century, and it is known here by the title "Morskie opowieści" (Marine Tales) - we've got creative, so there are something like 500 different verses recorded. I remember singing that a lot on my high school/college parties :)

> This song reached Poland in the early 20 century

Ukrainian Cossacks sings such songs since XVII century sailing in the Black Sea ;)

[0] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1350811772245172228

One of my favorite sea shanties: Jack was Every Inch a Sailor [0]

I play this on my ukulele while my kids dance and sing along. For an endless supply of sea shanties, look up Newfoundland folk music. Also an honorable mention: Heave Away [1]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLeGXzZki-s

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdhdC0Mbqak

Another good one: Barrett's Privateers [2]

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwzRkjn86w

My favourite. I suspect there are some historical inaccuracies, since most of the privateers who preyed on American shipping worked during the war of 1812, not the revolutionary war, but it's such a great song. Such enthusiasm, such bitterness! Stan Rogers at his best.

  Upon the isle of Newfoundland there lived a sailor boy
  He was a handsome sailor lad, his father's pride and joy
  He was born on board his father's ship on a dark and stormy morn
  And he helped the crew harpoon a whale on the day that he was born

I might be biased, but I really like the one the crew on Statsraad Lehmkuhl sings when the ship sails into it's home port of Bergen [0]. I believe it's based on the old shanty "South Australia" but they've changed the lyrics to be about "the coast of Norway".

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RALnF8RtITs

Some much much better versions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X8T1MonrPs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_RWtdm81WU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkJtHXfRH74

Warning: incredibly sexist lyrics in one of the verses

Are you talking about the captains daughter line? That was a nickname for a cat o nine tails, aka a flogger.

I'll be damned. I didn't know that. Thanks a million.

> Some much much better versions

Just open MIDI file in MuseScore (or MMPZ file in LMMS) and improve it ;)

I just played[0] with speeding it from 120BPM to 240BPM.

And here is lyrics video[1] composed with famous Ukrainian animation "How the Cossacks cooked kulish"[2,3]

[0] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1350904572450123778

[1] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1350932615889616898

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKpolq7-8yM

[3] https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%AF%D0%BA_%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B...

I don't think was posted because of its sound quality, but because it was implemented using an OPL2 aka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_YM3812

> sound quality

To be clear, there also MMPZ & MIDI (score) files available, so you may do anything to "improve" quality by editing it with LMMS or MuseScore apps, even by fully replacing instruments or much deeper mixing ;)

Those were much, much more enjoyable to listen to.

Another better one, synthesized rather than recorded: https://youtu.be/idXYwYgcFEs (Cylob)

Great Big Sea’s version is my favourite:

https://youtu.be/uTIzotr2If0

Leave her Johnny was one of my favorites from the Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Soundtrack. https://youtu.be/Lfbg251D378

That's a great version of it. I'm also pretty partial to the Stan Rogers one.

I'm wondering how many people are working on Sea Shanty Tech right now

A lot!

FTR, I just re-rendered this Sea Shanty MIDI file into looped video[0] with a 240BPM (original is 120BPM) using MuseScore 3.6[1] app.

Enjoy the song and sing along! ;)

[0] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1350904572450123778

[1] https://musescore.org/en/3.6

Blockchain where the proof-of-work is shanties.

2021 is the year of the Sea Shanty!

I was into sea shantiea before they were cool! /s

Seriously though, my favorite: Johhny Depps collab sea shanty albums with many famous artists: Rogues Gallery 1 and 2. They went under the radar but I really like hearing new takes, and I want Bonos "A Dying Sailor to his Shipmates" played at my wake. Frission every time I hear it.

Only for so long until Rust is taking over.

RuneScape has been on this for a while!

"Soon may the Wellerman come" remix: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zDTaeqUEWNQ

And The Irish Rovers just few hours ago premiered their "The Wellerman" lyrics video, filmed in New Zealand, in 1977.[0,1]

[0] https://twitter.com/TheIrishRovers/status/135089392047392358...

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhYPCb4RQDc

Approved by Elon Musk.[0]

[0] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1349466269121179653

I welcome this.

All the comments seem to be aware of some context that this fits in to. Anyone care to share?

For whatever reason, old-timey Sea Shanties have become a popular music genre among young people in the last few weeks. In particular, a song called The Wellerman has become wildly popular.

TikTok had a viral sea shanty: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-delig...

It appears to be related to the New Yorker's attempt to rehabilitate TikTok.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_TikTok

Sea Shanties are a big TikTok meme right now.

> Sea Shanties are a big TikTok meme right now

... and on Twitter too ;)

[0] https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1349466269121179653

[1] https://twitter.com/search?q=sea+shanty+OR+seashanty+OR+seas...

I keep seeing references to sea shanties everywhere, but I haven't been able to figure out why either.

TikTok had a video go viral: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-delig...

I may NOT agree that it came from TikTok (as said on December 2020)

On May 5, 2020 "Wellerman" Sea Shanty by The Longest Johns posted on YouTube[0] (now has 6.5M views).

And only after that, few month later TikTok users starts to sing along to Wellerman.

FTR, On May 5, 2020 also few other Sea Shanties from The Longest Johns's «Between Wind and Water» (2018) album, uploaded on YouTube: "Santiana"[1], "Off to Sea"[2], "Spanish Ladies"[3], "Haul Away Joe"[4], "General Taylor"[5], "Mingulay Boat Song"[6], "Banks of Newfoundland"[7], "Sugar in the Hold"[8], "Wild Mountain Thyme"[9].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KO7cofMJH0

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nD4gLEBGSkE

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-OJtDapSuA

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24O3dtse-94

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dIA6H9vLKU

[5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mVWlZqxM4k

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7OkqjVFmFA

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3qhmblFEL4

[8] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmmxbNm33Y

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=go6v6R5pD7A

That may be true, but going viral on TikTok garners a lot more media coverage than going viral on YouTube these days.

The original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl-HPIu5kcs&t=29s

That top comment made me lose it at 4am :D

“Let us go crazy together.” (from video description)

One of my favorites as a kid. Of course it was on a 33 1/3 LP.

Playing back the midi tune reminds me on Monkey Island

I loved the darker 'dishonored' version

Drunken Whaler. Here it is as used in a trailer for the game: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rUtX8pFl6Wc

Two great action stealth games came out in 2012 that share many similarities (or perhaps, their Thief legacy): Dishonored and Mark of the Ninja. The latter is by far the best gameplay wise; Dishonored has unsurpassed world-building. Sometimes I idly think of just modding Dishonored's setting and visual design into Mark of the Ninja.

By the way, they are both now available DRM-free.

> Drunken Whaler. Here it is as used in a trailer for the game: https://youtube.com/watch?v=rUtX8pFl6Wc

Just shortened it to fit Twitter 2:20 time limit, pulling out fragments with no lyrics.[0]

[0] https://twitter.com/app4soft/status/1351125588292067329

> By the way, they are both now available DRM-free.

Source?

They are both available from e.g. GOG, which sells DRM-free games. I'm not going to link to e-commerce sites in a thread about public domain music, sorry.

Here's an official statement, if you like, regarding Dishonored: https://twitter.com/gogcom/status/1229435857213575173

Mark of the Ninja: https://twitter.com/klei/status/1009866739172007936

Thanks!

What do we do with an internet fad? What do we do with an internet fad? What do we do with an internet fad? Early in the morning?

We upvote of course... love the shanties.

super picky, but your words either require an awkard mellisma on "fad" or the wrong accent: interNET because of the substitute of SAILor for NETfad.

Sometimes there's no easy solution to such puzzles. Best I got (which is not great) is: what do we do with a trendy fad post?

I definitely took liberties with extending fad to be two syllables covering the last two notes. It’s tricky and quickly becomes an ear worm.

Ah it has infected hacker news too.

lock him in the galley till he gets sober

a.k.a. Sea Shanty 1

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