Season 316 - The Sea, The Sea

Ave, Maris Stella

A lovely little hymn that provides as succinct a summary of the Catholic theology of salvation as 'Amazing Grace' does for the Protestant viewpoint. One we sang at my mum's funeral, as she set off on that final journey from whose bourn no traveller returns. Full lyric below if you're interested.




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Hail, Queen of Heav'n, the ocean Star,
⁠Guide of the wand'rer here below!
Thrown on life's surge we claim thy care,
⁠Save us from peril and from woe.
⁠Mother of Christ, Star of the sea,
⁠Pray for the wanderer, pray for me

O gentle, chaste, and spotless Maid,
⁠We sinners make our prayers through thee
Remind thy Son that He has paid
⁠The price of our iniquity.
⁠Virgin most pure, Star of the sea,
⁠Pray for the sinner, pray for me.

Sojourners in this vale of tears,
⁠O thee, blest Advocate, we cry,
Pity our sorrows, calm our fears,
⁠And soothe with hope our misery.
⁠Refuge in grief, Star of the sea,
⁠Pray for the mourner, pray for me.

And while to Him who reigns above,
⁠In Godhead One, in Persons Three,
The source of life, of grace, of love,
⁠Homage we pay on bended knee;
⁠Do thou, bright Queen, Star of the sea.
⁠Pray for thy children, pray for me
 
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Brandy (You're a fine girl)

Put on your disco shoes :cool:



I've crewed tall ships in the past. Here's a photo from one trip :)

Royalist.jpg
 
I tried this one earlier this week and was not happy with it, I think this version is a little better ;). This is my take on You Are by a band called Sea + Air, you should check out the original as it is superb. The lyrics also contains Sea so I guess it fits this theme like a glove.
 
My second this week is an old song of mine from my folk singing days (probably written about 1985). It examines the decline of British Seamen - which was very noticeable in the 1980s.

A few notes might be needed to fully understand the song:

A Scouser is a person from Liverpool
"The Old King Cole" is rhyming slang for the dole (unemployment benefit).
Tramps was an old expression for tramp steamers (cargo ships which did not ply a regular route, but rather picked up cargo wherever it was available and took it to wherever the client wanted).
The Pool is local slang for Liverpool. The Clyde is the river on which Glasgow's port is located.
Ships registered in Monrovia, Liberia had a shady reputation as they did not always meet health and safety concerns and their crews were not covered by modern regulations ensuring the lives of sailors.

Bootle is a suburb of Liverpool where many dock workers and sailors' families lived. It had a very bad reputation in the 1960s.

Anyway, here it is:

 
Dance Ti' Thy Daddy, or When The Boat Comes in.From the North East of England circa 1826 ,written by one William Watson according to those beardy folk lore people who know theses things. It became hugely popular in the 1970s (and again in 1981when the series was revived) when it was adopted as the opening theme music to the television series "When the boat comes In" set in the fictitious North Eastern town of Gallowshield.






The Lyrics: I have only sung the first 2 verses and chorusses..choruses ...chori (?):rolleyes:

Come here, maw little Jacky,
Now aw've smok'd mi backy,
Let's hev a bit o' cracky,
Till the boat comes in.

Dance ti' thy daddy, sing ti' thy mammy,
Dance ti' thy daddy, ti' thy mammy sing;
Thou shall hev a fishy on a little dishy,
Thou shall hev a fishy when the boat comes in.

Here's thy mother humming,
Like a canny woman;
Yonder comes thy father,
Drunk---he cannot stand.

Dance ti' thy daddy, sing ti' thy mammy,
Dance ti' thy daddy, ti' thy mammy sing;
Thou shall hev a fishy on a little dishy,
Thou shall hev a haddock when the boat comes in.

Our Tommy's always fuddling,
He's so fond of ale,
But he's kind to me,
I hope he'll never fail.

Dance ti' thy daddy, sing ti' thy mammy,
Dance ti' thy daddy, ti' thy mammy sing;
Thou shall hev a fishy on a little dishy,
I'hou shall hev a bloater when the boat comes in.

I like a drop mysel',
When I can get it sly,
And thou, my bonny bairn,
Will lik't as well as I.

Dance ti' thy daddy, sing ti' thy mammy,
Dance ti' thy daddy, ti' thy mammy sing;
Thou shall hev a fishy on a little dishy,
Thou shall hev a mackerel when the boat comes in.

May we get a drop,
Oft as we stand in need;
And weel may the keel row
That brings the bairns their bread.

Dance ti' thy daddy, sing ti' thy mammy,
Dance ti' thy daddy, ti' thy mammy sing;
Thou shall hev a fishy on a little dishy,
Thou shall hev a salmon when the boat comes in.
 
Here's a Courtney Barnett jam about a trip to the beach. Turns out it's not as good as it once was.

Fair warning, this song is nearly 7 minutes long and a good deal of it is deliberate cacophony. The original is very minimalist, until about halfway through where a reverb and distortion-drenched instrumental cuts in. I've tried to capture that and it gave me a decent chance to try out a trick I stumbled upon a little while back. Wanted a simple way to jam in Em to make it easier to join in with the guitarists at open Mic, so I downtuned my C string to B, which gave me an open Em chord to drone with and the A string to do some cool slidy runs with. Lends itself really well to this song and the voicing on the A and G chords was really cool too. Even stumbled upon an awful sounding chord that actually added some cool dissonance to the song.

Anyway.

 
Remember me? Sorry to have disappeared. It wasn’t you at all. I unfortunately spent several weeks contending with an upper respiratory issue which, while not bad enough to keep my out of work, trashed my voice for quite a while. I’ve been better but busy, then busted a string and took a couple of days to let a mismatched one settle into holding tune.

So anyway, ahoy! Here’s a bathroom rendition of the very first song that leapt to mind for the theme. Don’t start it and go for coffee. It’s brief. With apologies to The Kooks, and hoping no one’s done this already — I didn’t check...

 
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No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue...

First bonus for me

 
Inspired by this week's theme, "Over The Sea" an original written and recorded this week.

So many great videos this season. Glad to be a part of it. :)

 
WHere the mountains of mourne sweep down to the sea

Exiles are often deluded in two respects.
They paint fanciful pictures of the places where they now live,
and they live on memories of the the places they have left.

 
This is my third song this week. Is this a recent record? And I even plan to get a Bonus in tonight or tomorrow!

It is a history of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's iron clad ship S.S. Great Britain which ended its days as a wreck in the Falkland islands and was brought back to Bristol as a hulk.

The song was written due to two coincidental events in my life. I was living in Bristol and had a good friend with an artist's studio near the S.S. Great Britain (which is moored in Bristol docks) and I was still feeling sick from the awful jingoism of the previous year when Mrs Thatcher had launched a war to boost her flagging popularity. The most shameful moment of that war for me being when a leading popular newspaper (The Sun) published a picture taken from the periscope of a British submarine showing the sinking Argentinian battleship General Belgrano (with the loss of 750+ lives) under the triumphalist single-word headline "Gotcha!" - I had never been so ashamed of having been born in Britain.

Now jingoism is back with a vengeance due to the Brexit fiasco, I am doubly proud that I drew on my family tradition and took out Irish nationality some years back.

Anyway - here is "S.S Great Britain"



PS If you are ever in Bristol, a visit to the refurbished ship is a must.
 
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Ahoy, Seasonistas! It's weekend and our "Sea" Season 316 has almost 2 days to go. If you are working on a song or just got an idea, there is still plenty of time until the end of the Season.

I've listened to your fine songs and updated the playlist. And I must say, I've had great fun! Overall, I'm very impressed with the songs you have brought to this Season - be it great originals, forgotten gems or well-known classics. Also, I've really enjoyed the photos and video footage that you have used to illustrate your songs. Thank you all so much!
 
"Rotterdam", a traditional song about sailor's life, sung in Estonian. I've been coughing the whole week, so I've got even less voice and pitch than usually, but wanted to join the party.
 
An Otis Redding tune that was one of the first that came to mind when I discovered your theme this week. Much more difficult than I anticipated! Would have liked to contribute more this week, but it's been crazy busy. . .

Thanks for hosting Hummingbird!

 
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