Drunken Sailor Song

[Janet the Wicked]

Just happened upon this today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02lCSqCPsZ4

[GooberCollins]

Would simply posting "THAT WAS BILL MALLOY'S FAVORITE SONG!" be spam, or would it be what everyone was thinking anyway?   

Seriously, though. It they had said, "That was Bill Malloy's favorite drinking song," I could buy that quite easily. But his favorite song? The one he would have on repeat on his phonograph for hours as Quentin did with his theme? I know that, with a few exceptions, DS didn't license music, but... his favorite song?!?!

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Well, that crowd in the video are certainly into it. 

Who knew there are so many different versions on YouTube? I especially like the one featuring scenes of Johnny Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. 

[Julianka7]

I always thought that it was his favorite song to sing, which doesn't mean
he'd listen to it from a radio or record.

[GooberCollins]

But that's not what they said. As I said, if they had said it was his favorite drinking song or something like that, then I could buy it. But the very notion of that being anyone's favorite song in the traditional sense of the phrase is hilarious.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

Apparently it was a popular folk song. So, if it was Bill's favorite song, I suppose we might assume he was folkie. He may have even played/sang Puff, the Magic Dragon around the house and the canary.   

[GooberCollins]

And to this day, Mrs. Johnson still cries for her beloved Bill whenever she hears Peter, Paul, and Mary.

[Janet the Wicked]

From Wickepedia:

Drunken Sailor was a work song often sung when raising a sail or raising the anchor, which is the reference for “Up She Rises” in the song’s chorus. Such songs were the only ones allowed in the Royal Navy. Most often, only two or three verses were sung but verses were often added until the task was completed.

The music was first reproduced in printed form in 1824–25 in Cole’s Selection of Favourite Cotillions published in Baltimore. However, the lyrics were first published in 1891 under the title "What to do with a Drunken Sailor?".

Dig it. Also from Wikepedia:

This was the favorite song of sea captain Bill Malloy in the daytime soap Dark Shadows. When the character is murdered, his ghost appears and sings the song.

(edited)

[Lydia]

I suspect that the real reason Bill Malloy liked "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor?" was that he was very good at making up the sort of variations on it that one would not  sing in front of Elizabeth Collins Stoddard.

[Mysterious Benefactor]

One never knows - Liz might have been the type to be quite bawdy after she got a few too many brandies in her. Under that polished, well bred exterior there might have been a wild woman desperate to get out! 

[GooberCollins]

Carolyn had to get it somewhere, and I always just got the impression that Paul was not really that wild. Elizabeth probably was a "funny drunk."