And now, that song is stuck in my head.
Thanks so VERY much.
Hahahahahaha! After I wrote it, I was stuck with it!
I recall seeing a thing a while back where they demonstrated with a mens choir how that shanty would have been sung...
It started with one man singing:
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Followed by a larger portion singing the next line:
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Followed by an even larger portion singing the next line:
What do you do with a drunken sailor?
Then the entire choir would sing loudly:
Early in the morning!
Then next stanza would be started by one man:
Stick him in the hawsepipe till he’s sober!
Followed by a larger portion singing the next line:
Stick him in the hawsepipe till he’s sober!
Followed by an even larger portion singing the next line:
Stick him in the hawsepipe till he’s sober!
Then the entire choir would sing loudly:
Early in the morning!
This went on for a bit, and the lyrics got bawdier and bawdier...I I realized “Yes...of course...they WOULD sing in in some way like that.
They probably didn’t all discuss as they were hoisting the sails or working a capstan what song they were going to sing, one guy would have started off, and the rest joined in in that fashion.
When the first line would come up for the next stanza, they would take turns either singing it, or in the case of this one, making up a new line. Some guys probably liked it and wanted to, some guys probably didn’t, but they were probably all comfortable singing the last line together every time.
It was probably the best thing to do for sailors who were hung over. And in a hard, dangerous, and mostly boring way of making a living, it probably added some life to it.
And there was probably a degree of hilarity (at least on a happy ship) when one guy who had a knack, would make up a funny or spicy new line and they would all start laughing.
Or the guy who nobody expected to do it piped in and made one up.
I loved it when that hit me. I had never given a sea shanty much more of a look than what I saw in an occasional movie...and when I saw that chorus, it just made sense!