Shanties from the Seven Seas: Shipboard Work-Songs and Some Songs Used as Work-Songs from the Great Days of Sail

by Stan Hugill

This book contains not only more than 400 sea shanties but as much of their history as Stan Hugill could collect in his extraordinary career as sailor, scholar, author, artist, and inspiration to new generations of sea-music enthusiasts and performers.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction

452 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 1980

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coupling this with a streaming music service is key.

[Audrey Flug · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic I’ve learnt so much

[Vasha7 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thick, wonderfully comprehensive and informative book. Not only does Hugill include a huge repertoire, but he is very good at explaining how they were used, ways of singing, ways of working. Good at making the technical aspects of sailing somewhat comprehensible. Even includes a glossary. There's so much background information that I'm enjoying just reading through it.

Two things bother me: one, that Hugill altered and disguised all "obscenity" in the source material. It would have been better to leave it as a historical documentation; after all, readers mostly won't be performing this in public, and they can pick and choose what to sing if they do. (In contrast to what a modern writer would be tempted to do, Hugill didn't tone down the racist aspects at all, in fact even unselfconsciously used slurs in his own notes.) Secondly, in the case of a couple of Scandinavian and German pieces he includes, he gives an English translation fitted to the tune, but doesn't print the original. I'd rather have the real thing, please.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dunno, could be the definitive volume....

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is awesome.