Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/16/sea-shanties-are-cool-and-so-are-union-work-songs.html
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At the confluence of these two ideas, you’ll find the Canadian folk-rock group Great Big Sea, who were doing this style of music before it became popular, and who did a version of the chemical workers’ song:
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This reminds me in sound, a lot of Billy Brag.
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When I was a kid, we were treated to Isla St Clair singing “You Dirty Blackleg Miner” on children’s BBC.
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(How I wish I were in Sherbrooke now…)
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Always worth giving the Chumbawamba album English Rebel Songs 1381–1914 (or 1381–1984 depending on which recording you are looking at) a listen. Struck a cord in the late 80’s early 90’s in the UK what with the Student Loans and Poll tax protests.
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Gosh darn them all!
(Credit to Nigel Russell)
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For union songs, protest tunes, and political satire, you might want to check out LeftTwitch’s own chaos bard, Jacob Minter, aka @Mitnerd33. (The timing on this stinks, because as I type he’s just finishing up a livestream.) But he’s got a lot of work posted on YouTube too.
(Content warning-- there’s swearing, sexual references and such involved, so please consider the livestreams NSFW.)
He hasn’t done any sea shanties yet.
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Thematically but not musically similar, we have
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Here’s a good version of that song:
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One of my favs:
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As opposed to the not-good version? To me Stan Rogers’s original has a sea shanty feel that this lacks (granted that Rogers wrote it in 1976 or thereabouts).
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My favorite collection of sea shanties
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Workers song from the modern era. The kids almost did it too.
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I love this old textile mill worker song, too.
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The Wobbly Little Red Song Book includes the music, or what song it was set to (using existing music made it easier for the songs to prolagate, because the music was already known).
Don’tforget Utah Phillips, and Woody Guthrie.
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Stan Rogers’ best IMO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVY8LoM47xI Not union, or all that nautical, but an exploration epic.
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They are both good!!!
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