Songs About Ships

[Lisnaholic]

By dipping into Janszoon's Vinyl thread, I found a song that was new to me:-

It made me think that ships, ocean voyages* have been a popular theme in music for the longest time. What songs can you think of? Don't worry if they're not as powerful as Janszoon's (indirect) choice - mine certainly isn't:-

* oops! And river voyages too - rivers, lakes, boating ponds. I'm sure you get the idea.

[Janszoon]

The Book of Knots—"Back on Dry Land"
A great song about life at sea from a whole amazing album about life at sea.

[Lexi Darling]

Do submarines count as ships?

And also that Enya track takes me back to my 90s childhood in the best way. My mom owned one of those Pure Moods compilations they used to run ads for late at night in the mid to late 90s and that track was on there.

Was very cool to actually own the synthesizer she used on that song, my old Roland D-50; the main pluck sound is a preset sound on it.

[Psy-Fi]

This was the first one I thought of...

Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

[Janszoon]

Jimmy Buffett—"Son of a Son of a Sailor"
I know old Jimmy is probably not a popular artist around these parts, but this really is a great song. Bittersweet and mellow, with a great use of a ship bell.

[innerspaceboy]

Brian Eno's twenty-fifth solo album is titled, The Ship and is a glacially-paced meditative ambient feature.

It rewards carefully and considered listening, and the "I'm Set Free" nod to the VU is a nice album closer.

[Guybrush]

I doubt anyone's interested, but I first thought of this old Norwegian classic about a steamboat called Dampen 😄

Related to the topic, I like Gentle Giant's Wreck:

It's got some great lyrics and is about the people who make their living from the sea and who eventually meet a watery end.

Also thought of a few more, with this one among them:

Privateering was a thing here in the South of Norway as well and there were quite a few ships back in the day in the town we live in.

A place we usually visit during summer is small, old community that was basically made from wealth from privateering.

It looks like this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PGo3TZATbJanHpGGpGl5MFph8vpzuO4I/view?usp=drivesdk

[Paul Smeenus]

I also like His Last Voyage

[Hope]

[Psy-Fi]

Another obvious one that came to my mind...

The Beach Boys - Sloop John B.

[Lisnaholic]

Thanks for some nice and nasty nautical numbers, for some tasty tidal tunes !

The Book of Knots—"Back on Dry Land"
A great song about life at sea from a whole amazing album about life at sea.

^ I'll definitely be checking out that album on the strength of the song you posted, Janszoon.

Do submarines count as ships?

^ I'm guessing that submarines will never get a thread of their own on SCD, so sure, they are welcome here, Lexi !
I'm glad Orinoco Flow brought back some good memories for you. That's something we all need to do - remember our good times more.

This was the first one I thought of...
Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

^ That was the song that prompted me to discover the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Good call! Here's another true nautical story song that I'm sure you know:-

And here are a couple of other songs I've thought of:-

^ That isn't a very nautical song: it's just got the metaphor of the title, so perhaps barely deserves to be here.
Neil Young's song is more literal, with some nice boaty images, but is unfortunately way too short:-

...while Procul Harem came up with a beautifully mysterious voyage, and song:-

[Psy-Fi]

Since we're including songs about submarines, then here's the most obvious one of all...

The Beatles - Yellow Submarine

[Janszoon]

I doubt anyone's interested, but I first thought of this old Norwegian classic about a steamboat called Dampen 😄

I dig this. Of course I have no idea what he's saying, but I like the melody and the mood of it.

[Guybrush]

@Paul Smeenus His Last Voyage is brilliant as well. Great song from a great album!

I dig this. Of course I have no idea what he's saying, but I like the melody and the mood of it.

Oh cool! 😊 The lyrics are basically about the life and eventual death of Dampen, an old steamboat with a bell that goes dingelingelingelingelingelingeling.

A song I think of as kinda ridiculous in an overblown way, but also kinda fun, is Richard Harris' I am the Sea.

Maybe that was the sort of music that inspired Monty Python's very punny Accountancy Shanty.

[Janszoon]

A song I think of as kinda ridiculous in an overblown way, but also kinda fun, is Richard Harris' I am the Sea.

Maybe that was the sort of music that inspired Monty Python's very punny Accountancy Shanty.

Neither of those videos are available for me.