Ewan MacColl & A. L. Lloyd‎– Blow, Boys, Blow (1960)

A phenomenal collection of sea shanties and sailing songs performed by two of Great Britain's most outstanding musicologists. MacColl recorded a great deal during his career, which is fortunate, though he might well be best remembered by some for writing "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Lloyd performed a great deal and was highly regarded for his research and his attention to old, almost-lost songs, but his recordings are sadly few in number, and mostly unavailable.

Some of the songs included in this recording are familiar; "The Handsome Cabin Boy" has been recorded many a time, with notable performances including one by Kate Bush. Many songs are less familiar, however, and are quite deserving of attention. MacColl and Lloyd's performances have enthusiasm and vigor, and are given able support from a small ensemble. If you can find it, "Blow Boys Blow" is a worthy album to have in hand.

Sleeve Notes:

"These are songs from the days when ships were moved by white canvas, hemp rope and brute force. Songs from the days when a skipper would forecast his arrival-date partly by tile weather and partly by the heart his deck-hands put into their singing.

The sailing-ship sailors had shanties to ease their working hours, and "forebitter" songs to embellish their leisure time. For the backbreaking jobs of heaving at the halyards and manning the capstan or the pumps, they had the hard-driving salty work-songs set in primitive leader-chorus patterns. For the spells off-watch, when time might hang heavy even for the mat-makers, coconut carvers and fashioners of model ships in gin-bottles, there were the ballads, sentimental or ironical, bawdy or nostalgic, to fit the mood of the moment.

Behind many of these profane and rowdy "forebitters", as behind the shanties, there is a deep feeling for beauty. Some of the foc'sle ballads are as stylised as the popular woodcut prints of Jolly Jack Tar. Others are full of technical talk, and their quality was judged by standards of nautical correctness. All reflect in unequivocal terms the common run of a sailor's experience ashore or afloat. In the songs, the enemies are hard weather, bullying mates and thieving girls. The friends are few — a skipper such as Stormalong, perhaps as much feared as respected, or a sweetheart like Nancy of London, on whose fidelity some desperate hope is set. The stereotype of the roaring brutal sea-dog is present in nearly all the songs in this album, but the careful listener will perceive, beyond the toughness and the irony, a deep unease, an ache, a longing for something better."

Tracklist:

Side One:

Row Bullies Row
Paddy Doyle
Wild Goose Shanty
While Cruising Round Yarmouth
Old Billy Riley
The Handsome Cabin Boy
South Australia
Blow, Boys, Blow

Side Two:

Whup Jamboree
The Banks of Newfoundland
Whiskey Johnny
Do Me Ama
Jack Tar
Paddy West
Haul On The Bowline
A Hundred Years Ago

Ewan MacColl & A. L. Lloyd - Blow, Boys, Blow (1960)
(256 kbps, front cover included)