Douglas Morgan (1)

Less interesting than I expected. I've seen some very clever wordplay in shanties - but it seems those were the bowlderized versions, when they needed something that fit and was not obscene. Here we have the straightforwardly obscene language, with very little cleverness to it. There are a few songs that are interesting, either because of wordplay or because of their subjects, but... And he missed my two favorite verses of the title song. Annoying. I'd have liked to see his footnotes on the longboat verses. The footnotes are interesting in themselves, though uneven to me - some things I knew, some things I didn't know, some things I'm not sure I believe. Most of the songs are from the wooden-ship era, though there are a few at the end from the modern US Navy - I wonder when they're sung? Since the wooden-ship ones are mostly work songs, and there's relatively little mass work on a modern Navy ship. The style and subjects, though, are unchanged - women and booze, mostly. I'm not sure I'll reread, or even keep, this.… (altro)