Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Wave over Wave" has been done by Great Big Sea (quite well, actually), and it's on iTunes. Worth checking out the artist even if you're not interested in another version of the song.

And I decided to put the end of the first verse and start of the chorus in my signature. Congrats for inspiring my first sig change in months. rofl

It's good, but nothing compared to the Shifty Sailors.

Aye, 'Shifty Sailors' out of Whidbey Island.

But if you want really good stuff, look out for 'Woods Tea Company'. I'll post more groups in teh near future.

Woods Tea Company is on iTunes? I didn't see that one coming...

How often are sea-shantys on a popular music source?

"There was an ancient carver that carved of a saint,
But the parson wouldn't have it, so he took a pot of paint,
And changed it's angelic garments for a dashing soldiers rig,
And said it was a figurehead and sold it to a brig.

The brig hauled her mainsail to an offshore draft,
Then she shook her snowy royals and the Scillies went abaft;
And cloudy with her canvas she ran before the trade,
Till' she got to the Equator, where she struck a merry-maid.

A string of pearls and conches were all the mermaids togs,
But the flying-fish and porpoises-- they followed her like dogs;
She had a voice of silver, and lips of coral red,
She climbed the dolphin striker and kissed the figurehead.

And every starry evening in the Doldrums calms,
She'd wriggle up the bobstay and throw her tender arms,
About his scarlet shoulders and fondle him and cry,
And stroke his curly whiskers, but he never winked and eye.

Songs o'love she sings to him, the livelong day;
And she hangs upon his bosom and sobs the night away,
But he never, never answers, for beneath his soldier paint,
The wooden-headed lunatic still thinks that he's a Saint."

~ from "The Figurehead, A Salty Yarn"

The Mermaid Song
When I was a lad in a fishing town
My old man said to me:
"You can spend your life, your jolly life
Sailing on the sea.
You can search the world for pretty girls
Til your eyes grow weak and dim,
But don't go fishing for a mermaid, son
If you don't know how to swim"

'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
I loved that girl with all my heart
I only liked the upper part
I did not like the tail

So I signed aboard of a whaling ship
And my first very day at sea
There I spied in the waves,
Reaching out for me
"Come live with me in the sea said she,
Down on the ocean floor
And I'll show you many's a wonderous thing
That you've never seen before

So over I jumped and she pulled me down,
Down to her seaweed bed
A pillow made of tortoise-shell
She placed beneath my head
She fed me shrimp and caviar
Upon a silver dish
From her head to her waist was just to my taste
But the rest of her was a fish

'Cause ...

Then one day, she swam away
So I sang to the clams and the whales
"Oh, how I miss her seagreen hair
And the silvery shine of her scales
Then her sister, she swam by
And set my heart awhirl
From her head to her waste was an ugly fish
But the rest of her was a girl

'Cause her hair was green as seaweed
Her skin was blue and pale
I loved that girl with all my heart
I did not like the upper part
And that's how I get my ...

lol...is that a good OMG, or a bad OMG?

This is one my dad used to sing to me when I was little.

Rhyme of the Chivalrous Shark
Most chivalrous fish of the ocean
To ladies forbearing and mild,
Though his record be dark,
is the man-eating shark,
Who will eat neither woman nor child.

He dines upon seamen and skippers,
And tourists his hunger assuage,
And a fresh cabin boy
will inspire him with joy
If he's past the maturity age.

A doctor, a lawyer, a preacher,
He'll gobble one any fine day,
But the ladies, God bless 'em
He'll only address 'em
Politely and go on his way.

I can readily cite you an instance
Where a lovely young lady of Breem,
Who was tender and sweet
and delicious to eat
Fell into the bay with a scream.

She struggled and flounced in the water,
And signaled in vain for her bar,
And she'd surely been drowned
if she hadn't been found
By a chivalrous man-eating shark.

He bowed in a manner most polished
Thus soothing her impulses wild.
"Don't be frightened," he said,
"I've been properly bred,
And will eat neither woman nor child."

Then he preoffered his fin and she took it
Such gallantry none can dispute.
While the passengers cheered
as the vessel they neared
And a broadside was fired in salute.

And they soon stood alongside the vessel,
When a life-saving dinghy was lowered
With the pick of the crew,
And her relatives too
And the mate and the skipper aboard.

So they took her aboard in a jiffy,
And the shark stood attention the while,
Then he raised on his flipper
and ate up the skipper
And went on his way with a smile.

And this shows that the prince of the ocean,
To ladies forbearing and mile,
Though his record be dark
Is the man-eating shark,
Who will eat neither woman nor child.