Now modern ships carry mighty funny gear And away, get away, you Shantyman!
Ain’t seen a halliard in many’s the year, And they got no use for a Shantyman!
Slick new fittin’s is all you’ll sight And away, get away, you Shantyman!
All very clever, but it just ain’t right And they got no use for a Shantyman!
CHORUS: Shantyman, oh, Shantyman!
Who’s got a berth for a Shantyman?
(Oh!) Sing us a song of a world gone wrong
When they got no use for a Shantyman!
Dials and buttons is all they need,
And your real live sailor, he’s a vanishing breed;
It’s pushin’ on the buttons and pullin’ on the levers,
They got no use for the horny-handed heavers … Chorus
Old time ways is forgotten and gone,
And nobody listens to the Shantyman’s song
No, things no longer like they used to be
It’s the knackers yard for the likes of me Chorus
Ships’ll soon be sailing by remote control,
And that’ll be pleasin’ to the owners’ soul,
They’ll move their ships from dock to dock,
All sat on their arses in an office block Chorus
New fangled gear’s no use to you,
When you’re off Cape Horn with your fuses blew
Then’s the time for to curse the day
You sent your shanty crew away Chorus
Now listen at night and you might hear,
A ghostly voice on the quiet night air
Is it a voice from the distant past?
Or just the wind a-whistling in the radar mast? Chorus
Here’s a couple more alternative verses:
Now a seaman’s life it once was hard
Way up aloft in the tops’l yard
Now it don’t matter if the wind blows high
You can face force ten with your feet still dry
Cargo comes stowed in a polythene pack
Raised and lowered by a dry bollocks jack (hydraulic jack)
Floating computer dressed up as a ship
All skippered and crewed by a microchip
GENERAL NOTES:
1. Words given on Page 1 are the verses that I would normally sing myself. The appended verses also fell off my pen at the time of writing, but as time goes by I’ve found that 6 verses are enough in any one rendition, and a lot of other people seem to have come (independently) to the same conclusion.
2. Most singers start with Verse 1 and finish with Verse 6, but what gets sung in between seems to vary quite a bit. Some sing more (or less) verses, and some mix ‘n’ match by combining pairs of lines taken from different verses.
3. Additional Verse Add/1 is sung by some people, but one should be aware that some parts are not strictly true!
4. Over the passage of time—coming up thirty years—various word variations have arisen &hellips; hardly surprising with a song often learned orally.
5. Hopefully readers will enjoy singing the song—whatever way the chosen mode of handling it!
Give good gifts to one another,
Peace, joy and comfort gladly bestow;
Harbor no ill ’gainst sister or brother,
Smooth life’s journey, as you onward go.
Broad as the sunshine, free as the showers,
So shed an influence, blessing to prove,
Give for the noblest of efforts your pow’rs;
Blest and be blest, is the law of love.
The folknik song pages are lovingly produced by Barbara Millikan.
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Copyright for all songs published on this page remains with the authors.
