Thank Fiachra it’s Friday.
That can only mean one thing: another music competition to keep you entertained through the weekend.
With news of the container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal this week, I want to know: What’s your favourite song about ships or whose lyrics reference ships?
Here’s mine.
Reply below to be in with a chance of winning a €20 voucher redeemable at any Currys PC World store.
The winner will be chosen by my first man.
Please include video links if possible.
Lines close at Saturday 11am.
Nick says: Good luck!
Last week’s winner here
Sponsored Link
The brilliant other Elvis, with Shipbuilding!
https://youtu.be/IuPrrdRzlxc
Enjoy
Happy Friday, I’ll be back in a bit.
Double up with the brilliant Robert Wyatt
https://youtu.be/d-Zw1e1pmn8
The Ship Song – Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds.
https://youtu.be/T0spQCw35D4
No competition. This was the first dance at my wedding. I don’t normally go for ballads, but this was, and is, exceptional.
https://youtu.be/9vST6hVRj2A
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald Gordon Lightfoot.
Karl Wallinger left the Waterboys to lead World Party, and came up with this instant classic, Ship of Fools. Great chorus for singing along at festivals. Could also have been a contender in the Welsh category. https://youtu.be/ZHh0V7UjVXI
Just noticed your favourite. Spooky. And another Welshman too.
The late, great Scott Walker – My Ship Is Coming In
https://youtu.be/u96SurBlgbM
Because lets face it – we could all do with a similar level of optimism at this stage…
You can throw away that shabby dress
Buy yourself the finest things in town, girl
Dry your eyes, we’re celebratin’
Oh, there’s so many good times awaitin’, baby
My ship is coming in
And won’t it be fine
Girl, we’re gonna make it this time
I know it’s been tough on you
But through it all, you’ve been so true
Happy to be just lovin’ me
And anything you want, it’s yours ’cause baby
My ship is coming in
…to all the ships i passed in the night,here’s Lana from her new album,Chemtrails Over the Country Club.
Not all those who wander are lost
Not all those who wander are lost
Not all those who wander
All those who wander
All those who wander are lost
It’s just wanderlust
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aK_lWrowOwg
I’ll give you this, you have good taste in music. That’s lovely.
What the actual
Sticking close to home and a proper classic
The Pogues/Dubliners take the place apart with the Irish Rover. Yeeee ha!
https://youtu.be/cZXnJ4UYh40
The stunningly beautiful Aaliyah with ‘Rock the Boat”
https://youtu.be/A5AAcgtMjUI
Josh Ritter – Another New World
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b6W7ukD6dY
Complete with opening ‘fog-horneque’ effect, a mastery of storytelling through song.
Well, it’s this and I’ll brook no argument.
“Around Nassau town we did roam
Drinking all night
Got into a fight
Well I feel so broke up
I want to go home…”
The Beach Boys – Sloop John B
https://youtu.be/nSAoEf1Ib58
Got there before me! Great tune.
“I stepped on board a vision, and I followed with a will, ‘Til next I came to anchor at the cross at Spancil Hill…”
Irish emigrant Michael Considine dreams of journeying home.
Here’s Shane and Christy’s take on it.
https://youtu.be/aqlLJXYtRWg
Wanted to choose that beautiful Scott walker one but I was beaten to it. Gotta go for this. Haunting and then the scale of the track just looms larger and larger like the tankers of today…
https://youtu.be/lCCJc_V8_MQ
Split Enz – Six Months in a Leaky Boat
https://youtu.be/wswFjuJPbxg
This one helped carry me across the Tasman Sea in 2001
Well, then how about
Chris De Burgh – Don’t pay the Ferryman!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqZEp4Fb6qw
Sorry… I couldn’t help myself.
I do actually like it. It’s a secret shame.
Also, Chris’s eyebrows in the vid are hypnotic ;)
Micko, Brother Barnabas and I would like a word with you outside.
Who? ;-)
Wooden Ships, from Volunteers by Jefferson Airplane for the extinction that’s in it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAm_C6sGWa0
The Beautiful South – I’ll Sail This Ship Alone.
“Well they said if i wrote the perfect love song, that you would take me back”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NskZaSJk1Q
Absolute cracker! Well played.
Surreal nonsense from. Mr.Scruff, but a sea shanty nonetheless, The Whalefish song” and I think even has Patrick Stewart in it.
https://youtu.be/SQIsZbm8Y4E
Get this out of your head if you can….
https://youtu.be/DVx8L7a3MuE
When The Ship Comes in by Bob Dylan – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c9_XkYYjTU
Pogues version of the same song also worth a mention
Rowboat -Beck-
Perhaps the best song of Beck’s early years, Rowboat is a cry-in-your beer, heartbroken country song.
Johnny Cash will cover the song some years later on his album Unchained. About it, he’d have that to say:
“I”m not even going to ask Beck what the lines means, “I’ll be home with the gasoline.” Is it for her truck, or to burn her house? I know. In my head I know. I’ve been like that before. Rowboat, things are much better on the other shore.”
“And from the plains of Royal Meath
Strong men came hurrying through
While Britannia’s Huns, with their long range guns sailed in through the foggy dew…”
The Chieftains and Sinead – The Foggy Dew
https://youtu.be/13MQFCfCYdQ
Otis, This very tune won the St Patrick’s Day competition!
The late great Stuart Adamson and Big Country’s song Ships.
Stuart had a big heart that he wore on his sleeve that bled all too raw emotions, a superb musician and lyricist, like too many people that the world is to harsh for he died tragically at the age of 43.
Whenever I saw Big Country live , the audience and band would engage in a mutual exchange of energy to ensure live shows became more a celebration than mere gigs.
Enjoy the video for Ships and take some time to listen to the lyrics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5Acj_zKWZs
Always loved that song.
row row row your boat. obvs.
On a dull and cold day let’s sail to warmer climes and look ahead to a great summer. This song always lifts my mood, the lyrics, scenery, and delivery all evoke beautiful summer memories – exotic islands, broad expanses of open water and beachwear.
Welsh crooner and undergarment magnet Tom Jones delivers an unforgettable and especially visual performance that will live long in the memory and etched in your retinas forever. All aboard the Sloop John B!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ppo9z8A56k4
What the actual …??
The main tune was mentioned earlier, but I offer Christy and Back Home in Derry. A song I have sung in many a place and got many a free a free pint.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQLcOAAX9FY
Beautiful South – I’ll Sail This Ship Alone.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_NljLKfcwOc
Captain of a Shipwreck by Neil Diamond.
It’s a very pretty little song and while posted more so for the title, it’s just him, his guitar and worth a listen!
https://youtu.be/cQRLuA-EUFg
“It was on the good ship Venus,” the rest of the lyrics are not suitable for a family friendly website like Broadsheet!
The Sex Pistols – Friggin’ In the Riggin’
NSFW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRotvCVKAe8
it’s got to be ‘louie louie’.
got to be.
i mean, there’s just no way it can lose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQMIjFDNjs4
Sittin’ in the mornin’ sun
I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ comes
Watching the ships roll in
Then I watch ’em roll away again
Has to be Otis!
https://youtu.be/rTVjnBo96Ug
My first three favourite ship songs happen to be the first three listed above. So, my fourth favourite ship song is Flash and the Pan’s Down Among the Dead Men, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZFot2BUqsk
A beautifully evocative ode to the engineering pride of Belfast that last high-fived solid ground in Cobh before sailing out to meet her destiny.
I remember seeing these guys back in the day in the Olympic Ballroom, everyone got a bingo card on entering the venue and throughout the gig Andy Bell would draw a number, the winner got to go on stage and sing with the band!!
Third time around with the song of the same name,
Erasure – Ship Of Fools
https://youtu.be/ekc_aR5LyAk
Enjoy!
How about a bit of Rod?
Everyone loves a bit of Rod.
https://youtu.be/FOt3oQ_k008
Isn’t it extraordinary that a lyric that I heard 30 years ago has stayed with me till this day, penned by the brilliant Housemartins, I’ve always remembered this superb lyric,
“Paupers will be paupers, bankers will be bankers
Some own pennies in a jar, some own oil tankers”
The gulf of difference in poverty V riches !
Brilliant band and brilliant song, from one of the best albums ever.
https://youtu.be/JMie4Ov2uT0
Enjoy!
Actually, this one is more apt for the situation in the suez canal
‘Ship of fools’ – The Doors
https://youtu.be/75dZn_Te_y8
From 1968, Reparata and the Delrons – Captain Of Your Ship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2rPrEJAHPs
Even more Christy, this time with Planxty….The good ship Kangaroo
https://youtu.be/apkP_dzZUIg
From 1968, Reparata and the Delrons – Captain of your ship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2rPrEJAHPs
I was mistaken before. Its got to be this:
https://youtu.be/avaSdC0QOUM
I’M ON A BOAT!!
This is a version of Ewan MacColl’s ‘shoals of herring’ done by Oscar Isaac from the Coen brothers movie Inside Llewyn Davis
https://youtu.be/NWJz_-hseJQ
Wow, indeed.
Florence & the Machine ‘ship to wreck’ is bit of a choon
https://youtu.be/B9v8jLBrvug
https://youtu.be/WQeGujSwC24
When the Pogues were at their peak in the mid 80s there was few who could touch them.
Greenland Whale Fisheries, for your pleasure..
“Did I dream you dreamed about me?
Were you here when I was full sail?
Now my foolish boat is leaning
Broken lovelorn on your rocks…”
Song to the Siren has been covered by many, but the original is the best. Here’s Tim Buckley performing it on the final episode of The Monkees TV show aired on March 25, 1968.
https://youtu.be/vMTEtDBHGY4
“My ship’s a sail, can you hear its tender frame…”
Echo and the Bunnymen – Ocean Rain
https://youtu.be/p_AsT8Ney4A
Right so, last shot!
The best ship that I want to be on,
https://youtu.be/WLLSqpYyPD8
Have a brilliant weekend!
Enjoy!
Not wishing gaze at the complementry equine’s molars, but €20 won’t go far in Curry’s?
Oh, and Rivers of Babylon.
*complimentary
Emmet Spiceland – Báidín Fheilimí
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F87yZsnuvB8
O.K. so we’re not talking about a massive death toll but that was one hell of a boat
It has to be Don’t stop the dance by Bryan Ferry, since he still qualifies as a ship…?
it has to be Andy White and “The Whole Love Story”. A tape I bought in a French discount store in 1993. This song is finishes with the BBC Shipping Forecast… its just so lovely. I am adding this in spite of my other half who suggested Brian Ferry (!) would be a good bet in being the bride instead of the bridesmaid that I always seem to be..
https://youtu.be/DZ9Vv8XfStY
Niamh Parsons – Fear a’bháta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E0oo3fq9ME
Music to row to
Song To The Siren.
Tim Buckley’s original is brilliant but I also like Sinéad O’Connor’s version and Bryan Ferry’s
Given he has a ship-related surname, here is Ferry’s…
https://youtu.be/qqgIZCw-lbIp
it has to be Andy White and “The Whole Love Story”. A tape I bouught in a French discount store in 1993. This song is finishes with the BBC Shipping Forecast… its just so lovely. I am adding this in spite of my other half who suggested Brian Ferry (!) would be a good bet in being the bride instead of the bridesmaid that I always seem to be..
https://youtu.be/DZ9Vv8XfStY
“Watching the Mail Boat and the harbour Madonna glow, I thought of the times I was glad to go..”
The Stars of Heaven – Widow’s Walk*
https://youtu.be/a56NwKdvF2Q
*bonus points for featuring on the Holyhead EP which also featured the instrumental song Before Holyhead.
Imagine, if you will, ships as “Trains Across The Sea”…
Then here’s a brilliant Ohtis cover of the Silver Jews song.
https://youtu.be/w_NF7K6ps7Q
Bit of Leadbelly – The Titanic
https://youtu.be/hNlnl8nbfSE
My favourite song referring to ships or the sea is Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden. Particularly the Live after Death version below.
https://youtu.be/ulfnJ0E34fU
This song introduced me to the poetry of Samuel Taylor Coleridge as a teen, much to the amusement of my English teacher. Methinks Coleridge would have been a doom or stoner metal head were he born a few centuries later.
Great choices above but surprised no one has mentioned Van Morrison Into the Mystic
https://youtu.be/cpPSBzGEklE
And when that foghorn blows
You know I will be coming home
As the OP says “one of the greatest songs ever written”
Lots of great selections, Otis Blue’s choices always worth the price of admission. Here’s a nice chilled out tune from Here We Go Magic, “Over the Ocean” –
https://youtu.be/dH79W3xHJ5w
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Iron Maiden
An epic track based on the Samuel Coleridge epic poem – where romantic poetry meets heavy metal. It’s an enthralling interpretation of the story of the mariner and the doomed ship, The Albatross. Full of atmosphere with thundering guitar play, galloping bass and an eerie middle, before roaring up again… you won’t even feel the near 14 mins pass as you follow the story to its end.
Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/OSDZj_jh5cE
Just checked… It’s 37 years old now… and now I feel old :0)
….if after that epic journey you fancy dialing it back a little.
This is off Brian Eno’s recent release,Film Music 1976-2020,from Saoirse Ronan’s,Lovely Bones.
Coffee and this,perhaps a smoke,have a great weekend.
Ship in a Bottle.
https://youtu.be/n_eX9K5zGXE
-ps that’s a timeless classic clampers.
Lovely piece… got an ad for a meditation app when I clicked… Well placed ad :)
Correction, I think, on my original post… I don’t think the ship is called the Albatross :)
Well, no one else did it and it’s one of the most amazing, hauntingly beautiful songs ever, Finbarr Furey and the Lonesome Boatman. Hairs on your neck time.
https://youtu.be/ntGIkGuFBL8
Little Slightly wants to learn this on the feadóg íseal. But her hands are small.
I live just up the road from Finbar, and it was my pleasure to meet him once. I hope to introduce the Little ‘un to him when she comes.
She wants to do her bagpipes thingy when she is here. I need a contact number for Davy Spillane, the master.
Went to college with his daughter and he came to the graduation, I think everyone got a photo with him, lovely guy.
Well done your daughter!
Classic… enjoyed that :)
A lovely gentle song, from little Ireland across our sea. The Dubliners, and The Leaving of Liverpool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJLi0k3Q4s8
Can’t believe we missed this, given the theme of subject matter!
Night boat to Cairo!!! Madness in the house!!
https://youtu.be/lLLL1KxpYMA
Good afternooon,
I see paul heaton in many guises, one more in the mix
House martins – The mighty ship
https://youtu.be/bwxSfZ9cpew
Is a boat outside the remit ?
OCS – the riverboat song
https://youtu.be/KFNUIyzZiXU
is a submarine just an underwater ship ?
Village People – In the Navy
https://youtu.be/w_57AxfDKbg
How you gonna sail any seven seas without a ship ?
They Want You
The inevitable …..
Good ship venus
I am going to let you find your own link to this,
There is a version by Loudon Wainwright III
which is a different take on it, all good clean fun
Stretching things a bit again
A take on the banana boat song featuring shaggy
https://youtu.be/sy9l7y7npGs
I’m off now because…..
Me ship came in
https://youtu.be/YK3yiApUCzw
Might Mikey T on the keys – Style Council
I’ll get my boat……
happy saturday
Ps I just noticed The goo ship venus is up earlier, I found a Muppets version of it a while ago – is nothing sacred ?
My very last post today –
Fred Locks – Black Star Liner
https://youtu.be/uRNR7QFtR0g
All Tomorrow’s Parties documentary of the festivals of the same name…
I’m sure one of the festivals took place near water at some point… which may make it relevant to the comp…
Anyway, I just watched it and had to share :)
Well cool, fun music doc – https://youtu.be/NVtIjrY-Q4c
https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ
Jaysus t’night lads how come no one suggested this?
https://youtu.be/uGP2oJnjyVw
Luke Kelly the Shoals of Herring
No mention of a ship in it is probably the simple answer.
Out of Yarmouth harbour I was faring
As a cabin boy on a sailing lugger
Definitely no mention of a transit van!