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Just as traveling to transcribe sea shanties, this video is a wonderful contribution to preserving cultural histories and introducing them to new generations. Rather than just following a trend, diving into cultural histories promotes more cultural understanding and empathy. Well done!
Appreciate this comment, but I don't understand the dig at enjoying popular music. It's popular for a reason and just listening to music preserves it way stronger than anything else really can.
@@Robin-ty2wz No dig at enjoying popular music, just a recognition that acknowledging the culture behind the music as Rachel did and diving into the history is helpful. This can be done for other music as well. What experiences does music come from, what does it say about culture? Investigating these questions for ANY music is a different experience than just listening to it. There’s nothing wrong with only listening to music, but digging into what inspires music and the culture behind it is a step beyond just taking it at face value. I would love to see this done with other types of music, including popular contemporary music. I think music is a way that human express their culture, so it’s always worth looking past the music itself to what cultural phenomenon inspired it. This doesn’t mean listening to music without doing so is wrong or less desirable. It just means that there is room to contemplate it more.
It is quite amazing that many of the interpretations of Wellerman are almost happy. Apart from the fate of the whales, which plays no part in the lyrics, the song is about the loss of a whaling ship and all of her crew. For forty days or even more the whale pulled the ship, and now the ship is forever missing, so it is quite ironic, or even sarcastic, that the crew is still singing "Soon may the Wellerman come to bring us sugar and tea and rum, one day when the tounging is done, we'll take our leave and go".
I think that the got that popular during Covid again, doesn't just have to do with how they boost moral, but also with the stereotypical image of seafaring. We were all stuck inside and I at least yearned to travel, for new experiences and I think that there are few things that so perfectly capture wanderlust and adventure as well as the boring melancholy of isolation.
We used to sing sea shanties in the military. We'd take the basic ones and make them as crude or gory as we could while maintaining the rhyme and rhythm. You'd just start singing your version and people would start in. It was considered a "win" if we got in trouble for how vulgar it was lol
Loving this as a folklorist! My speciality is in folk architecture. However, work songs, including sea shanties, are a huge and long studied topics. There are so many other historical folk music genres that peep into the popular zeitgeist every once in a while but I am extremely happy that you are providing this knowledge in a super accessible and lovely way!
Tall ship sailor here! Tacking is actually a sail maneuver that basically means zig-zagging with the wind to move in a general direction even if the wind isn't blowing that way. Tacking is specifically to move the bow through the wind, while jibing (or wearing, on square riggers) is to move the stern through the wind. It has nothing to do with tacks as in nails. The word "tack" has about five different meanings on a ship that I can think of, but in this usage it's definitely referring to the sail maneuver
Also the bow line is pronounced how you're doing it, but that actually refers to the line that moors the bow of the ship to a dock. A bowline, however, is pronounced more like "bowl" and that's the one that's connected to the forward edge of the sail. Also halyard is pronounced like the name "Hal." Sailing terms are their own language!
I grew up on a boat in the Caribbean as a preteen, but shanties weren't really part of our music collection. But when the TikTok shanty trend cropped up it brought back that nostalgia. I think the "pirate and wenches" songs are a little cringe, but I take the liberty of the tradition of the flexibility in the lyrics to make them my own. So I'll sing little verses to myself as I go about my day; "Oh to pet my cat wouldn't do me any harm X 3, and we'll all hang on behind. And we'll roll the old chariot along, X 3 etc. Glad my neighbor moved out, they'd probably get annoyed. :P
Shanties kind of remind me of Girl Scout songs!! As the shanties travelled around the world I’m sure they altered just a bit, just like how the same Girl Scout song can be different depending on where you go
Yeah reminds me of my YMCA camp time 😆 the campfire songs were pretty catchy as well (and many were passed on by mouth before being collected) Edit: I looked up a few I remembered and there are actually many sea-themed ones! ☺️
This reminds me of the first song in Frozen sung by the ice pickers (?). That was stuck in my head for ages and I found myself humming it when I was doing menial tasks.
Thank you for the much needed distraction Rachel. My dog passed away two days ago and I've done nothing but screamed, cried, cried more and wanted the pain to stop. Please don't stop making videos, I hope this comment doesn't sound like a selfish rant but I know how much you love Kyra and she and you always brighten my day. Lots of love from a fellow Yorkshire lass
I have loved shanties ever since I was a toddler, so I was delighted they got more time in the lime light recently. I am even more delighted about you having put together this video, I can finally stop rambling at people and instead just redirect them back here. Thank you!😊
sea shanties rising in popularity means i now have to look for another obscure musical hobby to base my personality on. DAMN YOU, TIKTOK! lol also: thanks for mentioning the voice only vs. instrumental accompaniment. cos im one of those few people who love to make i difference there
The composer Malcolm Arnold (composer of the film score for "Bridge on the River Kwai") wrote a piece Three Shanties for woodwind quintet, which is, of course, based on several of the old sea shanties, "What do you do with a Drunken Sailor", "Boney was a Warrior", and "Johnny come down to Hilo". It has become one of the staples of the woodwind quintet repertoire, and is a fun piece!
Having grown up in a port city, I'm pretty familiar with sea shanties. They're still really popular here. One of my favorites, right now at least, is Maid on the Shore. The basic story of it is of a young, beautiful girl who wanders along on the shore. The captain of a ship sees her and demands she come aboard the ship. He gets his crew to convince her, and promises that as long as she is here, she can say good bye to all of her issues. So, she sings for him and the crew, and they fall asleep to the sound of her voice. Then she steals all their valuables and goes back to her shore and is just like "You should have gotten to know me better first." Honestly, I love that for her.
As someone living in a landlocked country, the only sea shanty I had heard was The Wellerman and that too, due to its popularity in tiktok, so I enjoyed this little glimpse into the history and significance of sea shanties.
One other point I think is kinda interesting regarding sea shanties is that if you take singing lessons, you almost always start off learning sea shanties, sea “songs” and folk songs. So sea shanties recent repopularisation probably reminds MANY people of their youth including singers and people who would have worked in the naval forces etc. Sea shanties may have been songs or “chants” designed with a purpose but I think the true power of the sea shanty is the way it has found it’s way in to many peoples lives and not only unites or brings people together, but they are truly emotionally tied to our memories in a way that transcends a typical “song”. I used to work in musical theatre so started off learning a lot of sea shanties but my favourite memory evoked by sea shanties is a memory of my mum’s friend’s kids, my brother and I all squished into the boot of a car (I have no idea why) singing drunken sailor and making up our own lyrics. Wow I’m tearing up remembering that now (I lost my mum at 15). And while I was/am a singer my brother and our friends most definitely had no interest in singing yet somehow we would come together to play table top games and sing and write sea shanties. Music has a special kind of power that transcends the differences in people and unites them and I really see that in this resurgence of sea shanties and I think that has a lot to do with it. I love seeing older people (like in their 70/80/90s) getting on TikTok and duetting sea shanties or the tiktoks of grandparents singing sea shanties with their grandkids. They continue to be passed down through generations - one could argue that sea shanties are very similar to fairytales in their ability to capture the hearts of people of all ages and in the way they refuse to disappear. It’s kinda beautiful.
No wonder I love hearing shanties when I am yraveling or doing repetitive things.. i always felt like they make it easier for me to concentrate om ehat I am doing.. and when I am traveling it makes me feel nostalgic and happy amd cheecky at the same time hehehe
My favorite sea shanty: 😊 The sailors say, "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl) "What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl) "Yeah, your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea"
@@Ikine557 I have no idea if it was a shanty or not. It was mostly a joke equating "Brandy" with a sea shanty because it happens to be told from a sailor's perspective. And yes, I love the song.
As someone who’s half Scottish and grew up hearing sea shanty-like songs, hearing Gaelic in music a lot, this trend was really fun to see. The entire world (of tiktok at least) was discovering my culture and the music I grew up with. Not all of them were even sea shanties, some of them were modern songs by bands like great big sea that’ve been big in the Celtic diaspora for years. It was wonderful. Thanks for covering this.
I saw a Tom Scott video about how formation flying works, and the squadron leader will speak over the radio somewhat melodically and at a very steady cadence. "Coming, right, now." and "hold-ing-the-bank, now" were the two examples in the video. Not exactly a shanty, but I guess melody is still one of the best ways of synchronizing people
Fantastic video, Rachel! The depth and detail of your research is incredible. I got sucked straight into the sea shanty trend when it got big on the internet, and I really appreciate learning about its history. I especially appreciate you mentioning that merchant ships often had crewmembers from all over the world, and the influence of African music on sea shanties. On the subject of sea shanties today, I absolutely love Derina Harvey Band! I discovered them thanks to the internet sea shanty trend and have been listening to The Last Shanty nonstop for months 😅
Your channel is amazing. You talk about such interesting topics and your commentary really enhances them. I love the energy you have when you talk about them. You remind me of my favourite history teacher I had in middle school. She made learning easy and fun, and inspire the same excitement and thirst for knowledge. Thanks Rachel!
I wish I would've had you for English & history in school! I'm 37... definitely older than you, lol. But I love the way you inform and your obvious passion for these things. 🤘
The topic for Academic Decathlon this year is water and we had to go over sea shanties and one of the songs was actually “Haul on the bowline” although it was actually titled “Haul away the bowline” I had to memorize that song and I can now sing the entire first half
I’m in Academic Decathlon (a competition in 10 areas including written tests for social science, literature, science, math, economics, music, and art) and the theme this year is water. We learned about music relating to about about water, one being “Haul Away the Bowline”. I actually have regional tournament on Saturday, and this was a nice review
Videos like these are why I love your channel. You can take things that otherwise I would probably never be interested by, and you make them so fascinating.
Honestly, as a historian this video made me really happy!! The research was well done, the way you presented the information and correlated the details between themselves and what we know about the periods, and the analysises!!! of today's appreciation for the topic!!!! It's quite literally what we learn in college, that any historical research has a basis on answering a question proposed by our contemporary experiences, so seeing you weave your video around contextualizing and comparing made me weep in joy!! Thank you so much for the hard work and the amazing care you took in exploring this topic historically and culturally!!! Much love from Brazil!! 😁😁❤️
Shanties are super popular in Canada thanks to the band Great Big Sea from Newfoundland. They have a mix of old and new shanties, the new ones often being about the collapse of the fishing industry which completely restructure the maritimes.
They have great voices and interesting songs, but i wouldn't want to try to work to their singing! Working on board a sailing ship needed steady rhythmic singing, not the "lets see how fast we can sing this song" way that this group, and far too many others perform today. Better to listen to Jim Mageen and Johnny Collins.
Killer video Rachel! Well researched and extremely interesting. A similar concept is the songs we would sing during formations (marching/running) in the army which were called cadence. They were used to keep everyone in time with the steps. Always graphic and often funny to be sure. Good times.
I've grown up with my dad's love for shanties. More like lake shanties probably 😅 we'd go with my family to a lake in our region every year in the summer for a shanty festival. It has that sentimental feel for me, I think these songs are really powerful.
Cecil Sharp collected many songs from women, and was always very"gentlemanly" towards them, giving little presents, such as handkerchiefs etc, where as with the men he would often collect in pubs so buy them drinks. He collected many songs from a pair of sisters in Somerset, and actually bought one of them, Louie Hooper a concertina - this is now in the Somerset Museum in Taunton. As for The Wellerman....it is definitely not a sea shanty - at best it is a forebitter, but as it can only be traced to the late 19th century it is most likely to be a simple sea song. Nevertheless, thank you for taking much more time to research and try to understand the basics of sea shanties than any other You Tuber I have seen. I'm sorry I sound preachy - I sing shanties and folk songs, and as you can tell, I'm a bit passionate about it ;)
Does anyone else have call and response work chants at their crappy retail jobs? Cuz this video made me think about centuries from now if any of those will be seen as catchy little old times songs
I love how you dive in to different topics with such passion. In Sweden when I was a kid we all learned The drunken sailor in English in music class in elementary school.
I got into shanties a few years back and it made me go down the rabbit hole of their history for a bit, and I was so delighted to see more people get to know about them too. Thank you for this video
I remembered when I worked at Pita Pit in 2020, i called my boss captain and my boss called me leftenant (or whatever the british spelling is) and that was awesome and we kinda just called everything whaling terms
Growing up in south Florida, my elementary school had our chorus sing drunken sailor for all state chorus (can't fully remember the title of the thing) and it was such an event. The lyrics we sang are a little different, and the last line they had us stomp on the ground, but it always makes me happy to think about.
My favorite sort of sea-shanty inspired song is "the maid on the shore" I think it's by stan rodgers, because the lady ends up strait up robbing the ship and I appreciate that
Such an interesting video. I had no idea they had such a history. Question though, when you mention tacking...it's a sailing term of turning the sails to the wind when it's against your direction. ( I'm Not a sailor, so probably explaining that wrong). Don't think it has anything to do with tacks, but if so let me know!
You're correct. Tacking specifically means turning the bow through the wind. The opposite would be jibing on a fore-and-aft rig (wearing on a square rig), which means to take the stern through the wind. With tacking you "head up," moving the steering mechanism so that you're essentially pushing against the wind, so the bow moves through the wind first. With jibing/wearing, you "fall off," letting the wind push you so that the stern moves through the wind first. I hope that makes sense!
a video i did not know i needed but it was definitely interesting! Thank you for opening my eyes to some of the history and details of sea shanties/songs
We have become a shanty family. Whenever i go see my niece and nephew, they want to sing the Wellerman one. It is fun, like we are vikings or something. Also there os something adorable about little kids singing shanties.
Great video! I love history, and this was very informative and entertaining, always interesting to hear about multiculturalness(?lol) in the past and especially the oral history behind these songs resonates w me as a finn. If you're interested in more poem/singing history you should read into Kalevala! I can imagine that's something that would interest you :)
This is so fascinating, I love this video! You have such awesome interests, which I happily share! Your deep-dives into this and other topics (mushrooms, poetry, photography, etc.) honestly bring me so much joy! Thank you for doing all this work, I thoroughly enjoyed this video! 🤩
I really enjoyed the movie Fisherman's Friends about that! I also read the Ingo books by Helen Dunmore as a child, which is how I first learned about sea shanties. I'm a sailor now, and I think reading those books definitely had an impact on my desire to run away to sea!
My favorite shanty will always be The Last Shanty. This is because as a Millennial, I have seen the fast pace of technology changing throughout my life. It is wild! The Last Shanty will always have a good place in my heart. Edit My toddler also loves this song and thinks the last verse is about them. "Two cans of beer a day and that's your bleeding lot. And now we got an extra one because they stopped the tot." My toddler will stop dancing and say: I'm the Tot! You can't stop me! 🤣 One day, I will teach them "the tot" is the reserve of booze. For now, no, we can't stop the Tot. 😆
For some reason I listened to a pirate themed playlist while painting today and that song as on there and it stuck with me more than other songs, it's really cool
I'm confused by your summary of Canadee-I-O? you make it sound like she has a lover that sneaks her onto a ship, but while the first line mentions her falling for a sailor, she doesn't go with him, she bribes someone else to take her on board as a stowaway
In music classes over the years, we tended to sing a lot of rounds. Among the songs we sang were a few sea shanties. With this recent uprise in sea shanties, I tend to try and sing them as a round
This is really fascinating Rachel! While I'm not apart of TikTok and only know when dangerous trends are happening, this is definitely a welcomed surprise!
Nice to have confirmation. I've noticed that _Fifteen Men On A Dead Man's Chest_ has a good rhythm for a cadence for double march or paddling. Double march beat: {beat} FIFteen MEN on a DEAD man's CHEST {beat} YO ho HO and a BOTtle of RUM! {beat} DRINK and the DEVil had DONE for the REST! {beat} YO ho HO and a BOTtle of RUM! The MATE was BRAINED with the BOsun's PIKE, the BOsun FIXED with a MARlin SPIKE, and COOKie's THROAT was MARKED beLIKE it HAD been GRIPPED by FINgers TEN! Every eight beats, four steps with the left foot and four with the right, you'd pause to let the rest of the squad repeat the line. For paddling, you would make one stroke per line, IN, pull, UP, reach, IN, pull, UP, reach: FIFteen men on a DEAD man's chest, YO ho ho and a BOTtle of rum! DRINK and the Devil had DONE for the rest, YO ho ho and a BOTtle of rum! If you get out of time your paddles clash and you waste energy turning the boat back and forth rather than driving it forward. It necessitates a change from "By God she had stuff" to "By God she'd stuff" to make it fit at the end of verse four.
Thank you for accompanying me on my IBSy adventures! Moving house, just ate a takeaway and feel like shit. Thank you for your videos, they make me so happy!
There are still many of the used today and over the years. Particularly in the U.S. military. Some were adapted to marching as well. (Am a Navy Veteran, which is how I know)
Super informative, thank you for your hard work Rachel!! I also like to imagine one of the sailors forgetting to heave something because they were focused on those tiktok-perfect harmonies lol 😂 (Ik they didn’t actually arrange them but,,, it would be funny)
One of my favorites is Mingulay Boat Song. I was a bit disappointed though when I discovered it was written in the 40’s and was not an old shanty sung by fishermen at sea. Still it’s a great sea song.
Actually Bonny Ship the Diamond is probably a much darker whaling shanty in context given the entire fleet was crushed by an ice flow. The only surviving ship mentioned (The Eliza Swan) was captured by America under suspicion of piracy and thus wasn't with the others when the fleet was lost.
Is there a musical or movie about a shantyleader on a ship and their adventures? It seems like a very fitting format where the songs wouldn't feel out of place
Can't think of one with that specific storyline, but check out the movie Fisherman's Friends, which is a true story about a modern group of fishermen from Cornwall who formed a shanty band
Great video, interesting topic, not going to lie, I will use some of what I just learned for the homebrew table top role play game I'm about to start with my flatmates, should work perfectly for the opening scene as they will be arriving on an island with two different ships, one an official passenger, the other a stowaway :)
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Just as traveling to transcribe sea shanties, this video is a wonderful contribution to preserving cultural histories and introducing them to new generations. Rather than just following a trend, diving into cultural histories promotes more cultural understanding and empathy. Well done!
Appreciate this comment, but I don't understand the dig at enjoying popular music. It's popular for a reason and just listening to music preserves it way stronger than anything else really can.
@@Robin-ty2wz No dig at enjoying popular music, just a recognition that acknowledging the culture behind the music as Rachel did and diving into the history is helpful. This can be done for other music as well. What experiences does music come from, what does it say about culture? Investigating these questions for ANY music is a different experience than just listening to it. There’s nothing wrong with only listening to music, but digging into what inspires music and the culture behind it is a step beyond just taking it at face value. I would love to see this done with other types of music, including popular contemporary music. I think music is a way that human express their culture, so it’s always worth looking past the music itself to what cultural phenomenon inspired it. This doesn’t mean listening to music without doing so is wrong or less desirable. It just means that there is room to contemplate it more.
I’m always amazed at how Rachel has so much knowledge and does so much research for every video.
Thank you SO much! ☺️
It is quite amazing that many of the interpretations of Wellerman are almost happy. Apart from the fate of the whales, which plays no part in the lyrics, the song is about the loss of a whaling ship and all of her crew. For forty days or even more the whale pulled the ship, and now the ship is forever missing, so it is quite ironic, or even sarcastic, that the crew is still singing "Soon may the Wellerman come to bring us sugar and tea and rum, one day when the tounging is done, we'll take our leave and go".
From the whale's perspective, it would be a happy one!
I think that the got that popular during Covid again, doesn't just have to do with how they boost moral, but also with the stereotypical image of seafaring. We were all stuck inside and I at least yearned to travel, for new experiences and I think that there are few things that so perfectly capture wanderlust and adventure as well as the boring melancholy of isolation.
We used to sing sea shanties in the military. We'd take the basic ones and make them as crude or gory as we could while maintaining the rhyme and rhythm. You'd just start singing your version and people would start in. It was considered a "win" if we got in trouble for how vulgar it was lol
So you can kill someone but you can’t sing a vulgar song
@@AmyAberrant It's a weird world these days. lol. They think that vulgar songs might end up being sexual harassment.
Repetitive songs in the military aren't working songs but used for brainwashing. That's kind of a perversion.
@@nuvey7939 wait til you hear about the rape and sexual assaults y’all have been committing since the beginning of time
@@AmyAberrant Aberrant indeed.
Loving this as a folklorist! My speciality is in folk architecture. However, work songs, including sea shanties, are a huge and long studied topics. There are so many other historical folk music genres that peep into the popular zeitgeist every once in a while but I am extremely happy that you are providing this knowledge in a super accessible and lovely way!
Tall ship sailor here! Tacking is actually a sail maneuver that basically means zig-zagging with the wind to move in a general direction even if the wind isn't blowing that way. Tacking is specifically to move the bow through the wind, while jibing (or wearing, on square riggers) is to move the stern through the wind. It has nothing to do with tacks as in nails. The word "tack" has about five different meanings on a ship that I can think of, but in this usage it's definitely referring to the sail maneuver
Also can confirm, raising an anchor can take a full day, especially if it's sunk several feet into thick, suctiony Chesapeake Bay clay mud 😩
Ohhh! That’s absolutely my mistake then, thank you so much for the correction!!
Also the bow line is pronounced how you're doing it, but that actually refers to the line that moors the bow of the ship to a dock. A bowline, however, is pronounced more like "bowl" and that's the one that's connected to the forward edge of the sail. Also halyard is pronounced like the name "Hal." Sailing terms are their own language!
I grew up on a boat in the Caribbean as a preteen, but shanties weren't really part of our music collection. But when the TikTok shanty trend cropped up it brought back that nostalgia. I think the "pirate and wenches" songs are a little cringe, but I take the liberty of the tradition of the flexibility in the lyrics to make them my own. So I'll sing little verses to myself as I go about my day; "Oh to pet my cat wouldn't do me any harm X 3, and we'll all hang on behind. And we'll roll the old chariot along, X 3 etc. Glad my neighbor moved out, they'd probably get annoyed. :P
How did you come to grow up on a boat and then stop living there?
That was adorable
I studied singing many years ago at university. I learned a lot from this video. Well researched and presented. Thank you so much.
Thank you!! :)
Shanties kind of remind me of Girl Scout songs!! As the shanties travelled around the world I’m sure they altered just a bit, just like how the same Girl Scout song can be different depending on where you go
Yeah reminds me of my YMCA camp time 😆 the campfire songs were pretty catchy as well (and many were passed on by mouth before being collected)
Edit: I looked up a few I remembered and there are actually many sea-themed ones! ☺️
This reminds me of the first song in Frozen sung by the ice pickers (?). That was stuck in my head for ages and I found myself humming it when I was doing menial tasks.
Thank you for the much needed distraction Rachel. My dog passed away two days ago and I've done nothing but screamed, cried, cried more and wanted the pain to stop. Please don't stop making videos, I hope this comment doesn't sound like a selfish rant but I know how much you love Kyra and she and you always brighten my day. Lots of love from a fellow Yorkshire lass
I have loved shanties ever since I was a toddler, so I was delighted they got more time in the lime light recently. I am even more delighted about you having put together this video, I can finally stop rambling at people and instead just redirect them back here. Thank you!😊
sea shanties rising in popularity means i now have to look for another obscure musical hobby to base my personality on. DAMN YOU, TIKTOK! lol
also: thanks for mentioning the voice only vs. instrumental accompaniment. cos im one of those few people who love to make i difference there
The composer Malcolm Arnold (composer of the film score for "Bridge on the River Kwai") wrote a piece Three Shanties for woodwind quintet, which is, of course, based on several of the old sea shanties, "What do you do with a Drunken Sailor", "Boney was a Warrior", and "Johnny come down to Hilo". It has become one of the staples of the woodwind quintet repertoire, and is a fun piece!
Having grown up in a port city, I'm pretty familiar with sea shanties. They're still really popular here. One of my favorites, right now at least, is Maid on the Shore. The basic story of it is of a young, beautiful girl who wanders along on the shore. The captain of a ship sees her and demands she come aboard the ship. He gets his crew to convince her, and promises that as long as she is here, she can say good bye to all of her issues. So, she sings for him and the crew, and they fall asleep to the sound of her voice. Then she steals all their valuables and goes back to her shore and is just like "You should have gotten to know me better first." Honestly, I love that for her.
Wow I didn’t know that watching a video about sea shanties before work was gonna make my day, but I guess it did! Thanks Rachel!
As someone living in a landlocked country, the only sea shanty I had heard was The Wellerman and that too, due to its popularity in tiktok, so I enjoyed this little glimpse into the history and significance of sea shanties.
Ah that was from TikTok. I learned to love shanties from Assassins Creed Black Flag and wondered where the hype came from :D
Excellent game! :)
That was where I learned shanties from too
One other point I think is kinda interesting regarding sea shanties is that if you take singing lessons, you almost always start off learning sea shanties, sea “songs” and folk songs. So sea shanties recent repopularisation probably reminds MANY people of their youth including singers and people who would have worked in the naval forces etc.
Sea shanties may have been songs or “chants” designed with a purpose but I think the true power of the sea shanty is the way it has found it’s way in to many peoples lives and not only unites or brings people together, but they are truly emotionally tied to our memories in a way that transcends a typical “song”.
I used to work in musical theatre so started off learning a lot of sea shanties but my favourite memory evoked by sea shanties is a memory of my mum’s friend’s kids, my brother and I all squished into the boot of a car (I have no idea why) singing drunken sailor and making up our own lyrics. Wow I’m tearing up remembering that now (I lost my mum at 15). And while I was/am a singer my brother and our friends most definitely had no interest in singing yet somehow we would come together to play table top games and sing and write sea shanties.
Music has a special kind of power that transcends the differences in people and unites them and I really see that in this resurgence of sea shanties and I think that has a lot to do with it.
I love seeing older people (like in their 70/80/90s) getting on TikTok and duetting sea shanties or the tiktoks of grandparents singing sea shanties with their grandkids.
They continue to be passed down through generations - one could argue that sea shanties are very similar to fairytales in their ability to capture the hearts of people of all ages and in the way they refuse to disappear. It’s kinda beautiful.
No wonder I love hearing shanties when I am yraveling or doing repetitive things.. i always felt like they make it easier for me to concentrate om ehat I am doing.. and when I am traveling it makes me feel nostalgic and happy amd cheecky at the same time hehehe
wellerman is a banger lol
My favorite sea shanty: 😊
The sailors say, "Brandy, you're a fine girl" (you're a fine girl)
"What a good wife you would be" (such a fine girl)
"Yeah, your eyes could steal a sailor from the sea"
Was that a shanty? I love the modern version of that song.
@@Ikine557 I have no idea if it was a shanty or not. It was mostly a joke equating "Brandy" with a sea shanty because it happens to be told from a sailor's perspective. And yes, I love the song.
As someone who’s half Scottish and grew up hearing sea shanty-like songs, hearing Gaelic in music a lot, this trend was really fun to see. The entire world (of tiktok at least) was discovering my culture and the music I grew up with. Not all of them were even sea shanties, some of them were modern songs by bands like great big sea that’ve been big in the Celtic diaspora for years. It was wonderful. Thanks for covering this.
I saw a Tom Scott video about how formation flying works, and the squadron leader will speak over the radio somewhat melodically and at a very steady cadence. "Coming, right, now." and "hold-ing-the-bank, now" were the two examples in the video. Not exactly a shanty, but I guess melody is still one of the best ways of synchronizing people
Fantastic video, Rachel! The depth and detail of your research is incredible. I got sucked straight into the sea shanty trend when it got big on the internet, and I really appreciate learning about its history. I especially appreciate you mentioning that merchant ships often had crewmembers from all over the world, and the influence of African music on sea shanties.
On the subject of sea shanties today, I absolutely love Derina Harvey Band! I discovered them thanks to the internet sea shanty trend and have been listening to The Last Shanty nonstop for months 😅
Your channel is amazing. You talk about such interesting topics and your commentary really enhances them. I love the energy you have when you talk about them. You remind me of my favourite history teacher I had in middle school. She made learning easy and fun, and inspire the same excitement and thirst for knowledge. Thanks Rachel!
I wish I would've had you for English & history in school! I'm 37... definitely older than you, lol. But I love the way you inform and your obvious passion for these things. 🤘
The topic for Academic Decathlon this year is water and we had to go over sea shanties and one of the songs was actually “Haul on the bowline” although it was actually titled “Haul away the bowline” I had to memorize that song and I can now sing the entire first half
I’m in Academic Decathlon (a competition in 10 areas including written tests for social science, literature, science, math, economics, music, and art) and the theme this year is water. We learned about music relating to about about water, one being “Haul Away the Bowline”. I actually have regional tournament on Saturday, and this was a nice review
Videos like these are why I love your channel. You can take things that otherwise I would probably never be interested by, and you make them so fascinating.
Honestly, as a historian this video made me really happy!! The research was well done, the way you presented the information and correlated the details between themselves and what we know about the periods, and the analysises!!! of today's appreciation for the topic!!!!
It's quite literally what we learn in college, that any historical research has a basis on answering a question proposed by our contemporary experiences, so seeing you weave your video around contextualizing and comparing made me weep in joy!!
Thank you so much for the hard work and the amazing care you took in exploring this topic historically and culturally!!! Much love from Brazil!! 😁😁❤️
Thank you so so much!
Shanties are super popular in Canada thanks to the band Great Big Sea from Newfoundland. They have a mix of old and new shanties, the new ones often being about the collapse of the fishing industry which completely restructure the maritimes.
yessss Rachel, get those sponsorships!! C: Thanks for the interesting history lesson! Love these type of videos.
I just signed up for Wren through your link! So excited to see the progress on their projects ☺️
The Longest Johns are a really amazing sea chanty band.
Truly wonderful, l especially love Bones in the Ocean and Ashes.
They have great voices and interesting songs, but i wouldn't want to try to work to their singing! Working on board a sailing ship needed steady rhythmic singing, not the "lets see how fast we can sing this song" way that this group, and far too many others perform today. Better to listen to Jim Mageen and Johnny Collins.
Killer video Rachel! Well researched and extremely interesting. A similar concept is the songs we would sing during formations (marching/running) in the army which were called cadence. They were used to keep everyone in time with the steps. Always graphic and often funny to be sure. Good times.
I've grown up with my dad's love for shanties. More like lake shanties probably 😅 we'd go with my family to a lake in our region every year in the summer for a shanty festival. It has that sentimental feel for me, I think these songs are really powerful.
Cecil Sharp collected many songs from women, and was always very"gentlemanly" towards them, giving little presents, such as handkerchiefs etc, where as with the men he would often collect in pubs so buy them drinks. He collected many songs from a pair of sisters in Somerset, and actually bought one of them, Louie Hooper a concertina - this is now in the Somerset Museum in Taunton. As for The Wellerman....it is definitely not a sea shanty - at best it is a forebitter, but as it can only be traced to the late 19th century it is most likely to be a simple sea song.
Nevertheless, thank you for taking much more time to research and try to understand the basics of sea shanties than any other You Tuber I have seen. I'm sorry I sound preachy - I sing shanties and folk songs, and as you can tell, I'm a bit passionate about it ;)
I've always loved sea shanties. Drunken Sailor was my ringtone for like 12 years lol. So I'm actually stoked they got popular.
Does anyone else have call and response work chants at their crappy retail jobs? Cuz this video made me think about centuries from now if any of those will be seen as catchy little old times songs
Commenting for that juicy algorithm exposure. Amazing video and get that coin hunny xx
I love how you dive in to different topics with such passion. In Sweden when I was a kid we all learned The drunken sailor in English in music class in elementary school.
Really great video! Always love when you talk about these topics in such an informative way.
I got into shanties a few years back and it made me go down the rabbit hole of their history for a bit, and I was so delighted to see more people get to know about them too. Thank you for this video
I remembered when I worked at Pita Pit in 2020, i called my boss captain and my boss called me leftenant (or whatever the british spelling is) and that was awesome and we kinda just called everything whaling terms
I've been into sea shanties since I was a kid. It was so weird to see them suddenly blow up.
Great video, Rachel! I've always been interested in history, and I'm a musician too, which made your video even more fascinating.
I love that Kyra is always smiling 🦦🥰
Growing up in south Florida, my elementary school had our chorus sing drunken sailor for all state chorus (can't fully remember the title of the thing) and it was such an event. The lyrics we sang are a little different, and the last line they had us stomp on the ground, but it always makes me happy to think about.
My favorite sort of sea-shanty inspired song is "the maid on the shore" I think it's by stan rodgers, because the lady ends up strait up robbing the ship and I appreciate that
Such an interesting video. I had no idea they had such a history.
Question though, when you mention tacking...it's a sailing term of turning the sails to the wind when it's against your direction. ( I'm Not a sailor, so probably explaining that wrong). Don't think it has anything to do with tacks, but if so let me know!
You're correct. Tacking specifically means turning the bow through the wind. The opposite would be jibing on a fore-and-aft rig (wearing on a square rig), which means to take the stern through the wind. With tacking you "head up," moving the steering mechanism so that you're essentially pushing against the wind, so the bow moves through the wind first. With jibing/wearing, you "fall off," letting the wind push you so that the stern moves through the wind first. I hope that makes sense!
a video i did not know i needed but it was definitely interesting! Thank you for opening my eyes to some of the history and details of sea shanties/songs
We have become a shanty family. Whenever i go see my niece and nephew, they want to sing the Wellerman one. It is fun, like we are vikings or something. Also there os something adorable about little kids singing shanties.
Great video! I love history, and this was very informative and entertaining, always interesting to hear about multiculturalness(?lol) in the past and especially the oral history behind these songs resonates w me as a finn. If you're interested in more poem/singing history you should read into Kalevala! I can imagine that's something that would interest you :)
Off topic, but you look very beautiful in this video!
And around the Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Twelve, whenever American sailors heard British sea shanties, they were impressed!
You. You, I like.
This is so fascinating, I love this video! You have such awesome interests, which I happily share! Your deep-dives into this and other topics (mushrooms, poetry, photography, etc.) honestly bring me so much joy! Thank you for doing all this work, I thoroughly enjoyed this video! 🤩
In Cornwall shanties are massive part of life still
I really enjoyed the movie Fisherman's Friends about that! I also read the Ingo books by Helen Dunmore as a child, which is how I first learned about sea shanties. I'm a sailor now, and I think reading those books definitely had an impact on my desire to run away to sea!
My favorite shanty will always be The Last Shanty. This is because as a Millennial, I have seen the fast pace of technology changing throughout my life. It is wild! The Last Shanty will always have a good place in my heart.
Edit My toddler also loves this song and thinks the last verse is about them.
"Two cans of beer a day and that's your bleeding lot. And now we got an extra one because they stopped the tot."
My toddler will stop dancing and say: I'm the Tot! You can't stop me!
🤣 One day, I will teach them "the tot" is the reserve of booze. For now, no, we can't stop the Tot. 😆
For some reason I listened to a pirate themed playlist while painting today and that song as on there and it stuck with me more than other songs, it's really cool
I'm confused by your summary of Canadee-I-O? you make it sound like she has a lover that sneaks her onto a ship, but while the first line mentions her falling for a sailor, she doesn't go with him, she bribes someone else to take her on board as a stowaway
In music classes over the years, we tended to sing a lot of rounds. Among the songs we sang were a few sea shanties. With this recent uprise in sea shanties, I tend to try and sing them as a round
This video was so good and GOODNESS does Rachel look beautiful in it! ✨
This is really fascinating Rachel! While I'm not apart of TikTok and only know when dangerous trends are happening, this is definitely a welcomed surprise!
Wow this was great and informative ♥️
Oh my gosh I'm so glad you did this. What a wholesome and awesome video topic :'3
Nice to have confirmation. I've noticed that _Fifteen Men On A Dead Man's Chest_ has a good rhythm for a cadence for double march or paddling. Double march beat:
{beat} FIFteen MEN on a DEAD man's CHEST {beat} YO ho HO and a BOTtle of RUM! {beat} DRINK and the DEVil had DONE for the REST! {beat} YO ho HO and a BOTtle of RUM!
The MATE was BRAINED with the BOsun's PIKE, the BOsun FIXED with a MARlin SPIKE, and COOKie's THROAT was MARKED beLIKE it HAD been GRIPPED by FINgers TEN!
Every eight beats, four steps with the left foot and four with the right, you'd pause to let the rest of the squad repeat the line.
For paddling, you would make one stroke per line, IN, pull, UP, reach, IN, pull, UP, reach:
FIFteen men on a DEAD man's chest, YO ho ho and a BOTtle of rum! DRINK and the Devil had DONE for the rest, YO ho ho and a BOTtle of rum!
If you get out of time your paddles clash and you waste energy turning the boat back and forth rather than driving it forward.
It necessitates a change from "By God she had stuff" to "By God she'd stuff" to make it fit at the end of verse four.
Thank you for accompanying me on my IBSy adventures! Moving house, just ate a takeaway and feel like shit. Thank you for your videos, they make me so happy!
Sea shanties are amazing! And they work in real life too, cleaning is a lot more fun when you sing them 😊
Listening to the history of merchant crews reminds me of the Aubrey-Maturin books series my parents were obsessed with back in the day
This is so interesting, I didn't know most of this
Love this video format from you, thanks Rach
There are still many of the used today and over the years. Particularly in the U.S. military. Some were adapted to marching as well. (Am a Navy Veteran, which is how I know)
9 seconds in but you look so pretty here especially with the paintings in the background it works so well idk why
I love this video! Thanks Rachel!
Comment for engagement :)
Can i just say i like the music in the opening😂 Props to Rachel with an amazing video again.
Thanks so much for this well researched video!
My favorite shanty is Lowlands Away.
Algorithm comment! More people should see this lovely and informative video ❤️
I love these videos about the history of random things.
This video feels different I like it!
Very interesting video!
Super informative, thank you for your hard work Rachel!! I also like to imagine one of the sailors forgetting to heave something because they were focused on those tiktok-perfect harmonies lol 😂 (Ik they didn’t actually arrange them but,,, it would be funny)
One of my favorites is Mingulay Boat Song. I was a bit disappointed though when I discovered it was written in the 40’s and was not an old shanty sung by fishermen at sea. Still it’s a great sea song.
What was the name of the band she mentioned who wrote the newer shanty called Josephine? I could quite catch the name of it.
I couldn't figure it out at first either, then found "Stornoway"
@@SkySpiral8 Thank you so much!
Is the acoustic church version on youtube?
Actually Bonny Ship the Diamond is probably a much darker whaling shanty in context given the entire fleet was crushed by an ice flow. The only surviving ship mentioned (The Eliza Swan) was captured by America under suspicion of piracy and thus wasn't with the others when the fleet was lost.
Great research as always.
oh my god your dog is so cute
Give "South Australia," sung by Barney McKenna of The Dubliners a listen.
“Or the English word chant meaning…to…chant”
I’m dying 💀🤣
Also giggled here, especially since the English word chant is taken from French (chant is an archaic word for song in French)
@@brookegipson1560 I know!!! 😭😂
Whenever I hear drunken sailor I have to think of drunk space pirate by the mechanisms xD
Oh what a wonderful video!
Dear lord girl, is that your art collection back there?!? That's very impressive!
This video is so well done 🤩👌
Is there a musical or movie about a shantyleader on a ship and their adventures? It seems like a very fitting format where the songs wouldn't feel out of place
Can't think of one with that specific storyline, but check out the movie Fisherman's Friends, which is a true story about a modern group of fishermen from Cornwall who formed a shanty band
amazing video!!
Great video!
best sea shanty's bully in the alley and Leave her Johnny
Yes! Though I think my favorite is probably Boney Was a Warrior
Great video, interesting topic, not going to lie, I will use some of what I just learned for the homebrew table top role play game I'm about to start with my flatmates, should work perfectly for the opening scene as they will be arriving on an island with two different ships, one an official passenger, the other a stowaway :)
Ooh that sounds so much fun!!