Side 1.
1. You're A Liar (Brand-Frey)
2. Good Ship Venus (Brand-Frey)
3. We Set Sail (Brand-Frey)
4. Can't Ya Dance The Polka (Brand-Frey)
5. Bell Bottom Trousers (Brand-Frey)
6. A Clean Song (Brand-Frey)
7. Johnny Come Down The Hilo (Brand-Frey)
Side 2.
1. Turalai (Brand-Frey)
2. Backside Rules The Navy (Brand-Frey)
3. Blow The Man Down (Brand-Frey)
4. Jinny Wren Bride (Brand Frey)
5. Keyhole In The Door (Brand-Frey)
6. There's Nothing Else To Do (Brand-Frey)
7. Lulu (Brand-Frey)
Bawdy Sea Shanties
Oscar Brand, guitar-Dave Sear, banjo
Ahoy, landlubbers! Come aboard the good ship "Oscar Brand" and lend an
ear to as lusty a broadside of sea shanties as ever warmed the briny deep.
Here in timely tempo are set forth songs about rum and rapists, sinful
sailors and betrayed biddies. In these bawdy cadences you will find rich
fuel to prime the pump of enjoyment. In this sampling of lusty lyrics,
kindred spirits who hold drink, women and debauchery worth consideration
will find much in common. You'll enjoy the salty tack, well marinated with
liberal potions of the kind of love mother never talked about. Let all those
beware who blanch at the mere mention of whores and profligates. For those,
however, who relish an opportunity to "cut the sweet apple and share it,"
there is much here to whet the appetite and satisfy the desire. May this
collection of ballads bring lasting pleasure to you who enjoy hearing about
the doings of tars and tarnished wenches.
There's a saying among sailors that landsmen are at least two or three
drinks below normal. If you're a ballad lover, let alone a seaman, you won't
be startled by this claim, since you know that without the aid of proper and
adequate stimulants the sailor can't be induced to loose his tongue in song.
Only with fluid and the right kind of female inspiration is he able to get
the lead out of his pants and the frogs out of his throat. And once this
pleasant state is achieved, no amount of moralistic interference can stifle
the sound of a stout voice raised in ribald refrain.
Time was, not too long ago, when the establishments that dispensed liquid
refreshment boasted swinging doors and were known as saloons; when a bender
was called a bun; when the body that happened to be intoxicated was called
an old "toper" and not a "souse;" when the boys in the back room boasted
about having a preference for the company of buxom widows and because of
this enjoyed a reputation as men of the world; when girls were parlor
fixtures (unless men happened to take a notion to intrude on their
province); and when society could be satisfied by pool-parlor verses
demurely dressed up for front parlor delivery. Today, however, what was once
relegated to the back room is advertised in broad daylight; and what was
formerly carefully censored must be presented in all its original and pure
splendor if it is to enjoy any popularity.
The world's ocean lanes have seen their fill of villains vile and virtue
vanquished, and there is many a song that relates the doings of these
villains. Perhaps the music lover who professes to be a purist will dismiss
such songs as trivial. But the devotee of folklore and the musical
sociologist will recognize in them a genuine and significant current in the
stream of music history. Behind the aroma of distilled spirits that lurks
near such ballads, behind the cliches of the rapacious male and ravished
female animal, behind the maudlin sentimentality that drenches every
situation in which a fallen maiden is deserted by a forgetting sailor who
returns to sea—behind all this are a few moral lessons which remind us how
thin is the veil that separates sin from righteousness. And with all the
lessons that can be learned through respect for morality, every reveler
prefers sin to righteousness.
Vital people have experiences which generally inspire some kind of
creative activity or expression, and the sailor certainly fits into this
category. For many centuries the sailor has found an outlet for expression
in song. In song he has celebrated his experiences, including that
worthwhile experience of lovemaking. Sometimes the song was good musically;
more often it was not. But the important thing was not so much the quality
of the music as the fact that it represented a very real expression of the
sailor's experience. And because sailors have always led an extremely
confined existence at sea (not to mention the brief periods they spend
ashore), whatever experiences they have are felt with considerable emotion
and are remembered by them for a long time to come.
Most folksongs of the land treat of some specific geographical region
because they are part of the heritage handed down from generation to
generation in specific locales. Thus, American folksong literature includes
ballads about almost every section of the country—including the West,
California, Dixie, the Erie Canal region, etc. Songs of the sea, however,
are less restricted to specific geographical areas because they have been
handed down by men whose only home is the deck of a ship in a wide blue sea
and under an open sky. Sea shanties often are richer in philosophical
content than land folksongs; they also are apt to rely more on the human
animal and his foibles than on situations involving geographical factors.
The ballads represented in this recording are not mere random choices.
Without exception, they were selected by Oscar Brand because they either
rank as classics and deserve inclusion in any representative collection or
because they contain rarities of language or ribald situations. "Bell Bottom
Trousers", "Blow the Man Down" and "Keyhole In The Door" belong in the group
which hold a secure place as time-honored classics. "Backside Rules the
Navy" is a typical example of the literally thousands of blunt English
ballads that form the foundation of sea shanty literature. The same may be
said for "There's Nothing Else To Do," a rare beauty which Oscar Brand
discovered while he was in England and learned first hand from British tars.
This ballad has that rare feature so dear to poetry lovers—alliteration.
Then there is "You're A Liar," which contains a touch of pathos with all its
rip-roaring lustiness. All the selections, whose subtlest nuances of music
and verbal inflection are heard to best advantage through guaranteed total
frequency range recording, were chosen from hundreds of possibilities by
Brand on the basis of their familiarity to music lovers, also by virtue of
their failure to espouse virtue.
These, then, are ditties which nautical jongleurs have sung from Boston
to Bombay. They are presented in all their unexpurgated, tempting impurity
in order that you may commend them to your enjoyment. Their assonances and
dissonances, their delicious licentiousness, and their rollicking good humor
have been preserved intact. May they whet your appetite and fill your
listening with pleasure.
OSCAR BRAND. Just as there are musicians' musicians, so are there
balladeers' balladeers, and Oscar Brand is one of them. Folksongs have
threaded his brilliant career on radio, in motion pictures, the theater,
records and the concert hall. A native of Winnipeg, Canada, and a world
traveler, Brand has assembled a vast knowledge about folksongs from every
corner of the world. He personally has collected literally thousands of
songs and ballads on every subject from many nations. He has been heard
repeatedly at Town Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York, ana in other concert
halls throughout the United States and abroad. He is director of folk music
for the Municipal Broadcasting System, New York City's own Radio Station
WNYC, and has had his own song program on the station for years, enjoying
one of the widest and most loyal listener groups in the nation. In this
recording Brand presents versions of songs which are generally blue-penciled
on radio, in movies, in the theater and even in night clubs.
PRINTED IN U.S.A. COPYRIGHT 1958 BY AUDIO FIDELITY. INC.
