Drunken Sailor

Origins

The air of the song, in the Dorian mode and in duple march rhythm, has been compared to the style of a bagpipe melody. The authorship and origin of "Drunken Sailor" are unknown. However, the melody does sound quite similar to the chorus of the traditional Irish ballad "Óró sé do bheatha abhaile", and a possible adaptation may be suspected.

As a shanty

The first published description of the shanty is found in an account of an 1839 whaling voyage out of New London, Connecticut to the Pacific Ocean. It was used as an example of a song that was, "performed with very good effect when there is a long line of men hauling together". The tune was noted, along with these lyrics:

Way! Hey! and up she rises Way! Hey! and up she rises Way! Hey! and up she rises, Early in the morning.

Although this is the earliest discovered published mention, there is some indication that the shanty is at least as old as the 1820s. In Eckstorm and Smyth's collection Minstrelsy of Maine (published 1927), the editors note that one of their grandmothers, who sang the song, claimed to have heard it used during the task of tacking (i.e. "walking away" with braces) on the Penobscot River “probably considerably over a hundred years ago".

Despite these indications of the song's existence in the first half of the 19th century, references to it are rare. They include a reference in a work of fiction from 1855 in which a drunken female cook is portrayed singing,

Hee roar, up she rouses, What shall we do with the drunken sailor?

A five-verse set of lyrics and tune were published in the third edition of Davis and Tozer's shanty collection, Sailor Songs or ‘Chanties’. However, the title did not appear in any of the other major shanty collections or articles of the 19th century.

When John Masefield next published the lyrics in 1906, he called it a "bastard variety" of shanty which was "seldom used"—an assertion supported by the lack of many earlier references. This style of shanty, called a "runaway chorus" by Masefield, and as a "walk away" or "stamp and go" shanty by others (see: Sea shanty:Types), was said to be used for tacking and which was sung in "quick time". The verses in Masefield's version asked what to do with a "drunken sailor", followed by a response, then followed by a question about a "drunken soldier", with an appropriate response.

Capt. W. B. Whall, a veteran English sailor of the 1860s–70s, was the next author to publish on "Drunken Sailor". He claimed that this was one of only two chanties that was sung in the British Royal Navy (where singing at work was generally frowned upon). Moreover, the song had largely gone out of use as a "walk away" shanty when the size of ships' crews was reduced and it was no longer possible to use that working method. The lyrics given by Whall are essentially the same as those from Masefield: about a "drunken sailor", then a "drunken soldier". Significantly, he stated that these were the only lyrics, as evidently the task did not take long to complete.

Chorus: Hoorah! And up she rises [three times, appears before each verse] Early in the morning. What shall we do with a drunken sailor? [three times] Early in the morning. Put him in the long-boat and make him bail her. Early in the morning. What shall we do with a drunken soldier? Early in the morning. Put him in the guardroom till he gets sober. Early in the morning.

The above-mentioned and other veteran sailors characterized "Drunken Sailor" as a "walk away" shanty, thus providing a possible explanation for why it was not noted more often in the second half of the 19th century. Later sailors' recollections, however, attested that the song continued to be used as a shanty, but for other purposes. Richard Maitland, an American sailor of the 1870s, sang it for song collector Alan Lomax in 1939, when he explained,

Now this is a song that's usually sang when men are walking away with the slack of a rope, generally when the iron ships are scrubbing their bottom. After an iron ship has been twelve months at sea, there's a quite a lot of barnacles and grass grows onto her bottom. And generally, in the calm latitudes, up in the horse latitudes in the North Atlantic Ocean, usually they rig up a purchase for to scrub the bottom.

Another American sailor of the 1870s, Frederick Pease Harlow, wrote in his shanty collection that "Drunken Sailor" could be used when hauling a halyard in "hand over hand" fashion to hoist the lighter sails. This would be in contradistinction to the much more typical "halyards shanties", which were for heavier work with an entirely different sort of pacing and formal structure. Another author to ascribe a function, Richard Runciman Terry, also said it could be used for "hand over hand" hauling. Terry was one of few writers, however, to also state the shanty was used for heaving the windlass or capstan.

As a popular song

"Drunken Sailor" began its life as a popular song on land at least as early as the 1900s, by which time it had been adopted as repertoire for glee singing at Eton College. Elsewhere in England, by the 1910s, men had begun to sing it regularly at gatherings of the Savage Club of London.

The song became popular on land in America as well. A catalogue of "folk-songs" from the Midwest included it in 1915, where it was said to be sung while dancing "a sort of reel". More evidence of lands-folk's increasing familiarity with "Drunken Sailor" comes in the recording of a "Drunken Sailor Medley" (ca.1923) by U.S. Old Time fiddler John Baltzell. Evidently the tune's shared affinities with Anglo-Irish-American dance tunes helped it to become readapted as such, as Baltzell included it among a set of reels.

Classical composers utilized the song in compositions. Australian composer Percy Grainger incorporated the song into his piece "Scotch Strathspey And Reel" (1924). Malcolm Arnold used its melody in his Three Shanties for Woodwind Quintet, Op. 4 (1943).

The glut of writings on sailors' songs and published collections that came starting in the 1920s and which supported a revival of interest in shanty-singing for entertainment purposes on land. As such, R.R. Terry's very popular shanty collection, which had begun to serve as a resource for renditions of shanties on commercial recordings in the 1920s, was evidently used by the Robert Shaw Chorale for their 1961 rendition. The Norman Luboff Choir recorded the song in 1959 with the yet uncharacteristic phrasing, "What'll we do...?"

Notable recordings and performances

The song has been widely recorded under a number of titles by a range of performers including the King's Singers, Pete Seeger, The Blaggards, and most notably The Irish Rovers. It also forms part of a contrapuntal section in the BBC Radio 4 UK Theme by Fritz Spiegl, in which it is played alongside Greensleeves.

For over 50 years The Irish Rovers have played the song as their usual show-closer. Several of their recordings of the song, sometimes under the name "Weigh Hey and up She Rises" have gone viral on YouTube. As a response, the band released the 2012 album, "Drunken Sailor" including the title track and a prequel that tells the earlier life of the 'Drunken Sailor', called "Whores and Hounds".

Don Janse produced an arrangement in the early 1960s which has been included in several choral music anthologies. The arrangement was first recorded by The Idlers, and has been performed by several collegiate groups over the years, including the Yale Alley Cats.

This song has been recorded by Sam Spence under the name "Up She Rises", and is frequently used as background music for NFL Films.

The Belgian skiffle-singer Ferre Grignard covered the song in 1966.

In 1969, Michael Dunn performed the song in an episode of The Wild Wild West entitled "The Night of Miguelito's Revenge".

The Two Ronnies featured the song in one of their comedy sketches, in which the opening chorus was modified as "Hoorah! And up she rises, She's got legs of different sizes, One's very small and the other wins prizes, Early in the morning."

Freddie McKay recorded a version of the song in 1972 at Studio 1 for producer Coxsone Dodd that was released on the Money Disc label. He later recorded the song for producer Jah Woosh in 1983 which was released on the Mr. Tipsy label.

In the Cheers episode "Woody For Hire Meets Norman of The Apes", a group of women in a book club come to the bar, get drunk and rowdy in the pool room and they sing the song.

A different version of this song titled "Drunken Whaler" accompanied the E3 trailer for the video game Dishonored, featuring darker lyrics and a much slower tempo. Within the game the song is also frequently whistled by NPCs, the lyrics can be found in a book during the first level, and the song is played during the finale.

In Muppet Treasure Island, Long John Silver (as played by Tim Curry) can be heard singing the song as Jim Hawkins, Gonzo, and Rizzo enter the galley.

In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank sings the song in the sea storm scene, trying to hold on himself to the boat and his sailing.

It is a part of the SpongeBob SquarePants soundtrack, serving as a theme for Mr. Krabs

In John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme, a sketch uses lyrics from the song as suggestions for punishments of a drunken naval officer.

A version of the song is sung by the crew in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, while the player captains the protagonist's ship, the Jackdaw.

A similar version of shanty from Black Flag is also sung by the crew in Assassin's Creed: Rogue, while the player captains the protagonist's ship, the Morrigan.

The song was covered on the popular children's television program The Backyardigans as "Scurvy Pirate", with lyrics such as "What do you do with a scurvy pirate? Raid their ship and then hot-wire it."

The song was sung by Rainn Wilson on the American sitcom The Office in episode 11 of season 2, "Booze Cruise", when character Dwight Schrute is tricked into thinking he is steering a small lakeboat that hosts the company's motivational speech.

The song was sung by Chief Crocker and crew in the season 1 episode "Bad Water" on the NBC series seaQuest DSV.

An arrangement of the song, "We Shall Sail Together", was made by Robin Beanland featuring vocals by Anna Hon for the Cinematic Trailer of Sea of Thieves.

A version of the song plays at the beginning of the trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales with the words "Drunken Sailor" replaced with "Cursed Pirate".

Song text

Refrain:

Traditional verses:

Additional verses:

Tie him to the mast and then you flog him. Keel haul him till he's sober.

Parody verses:

Pronunciation of "early"

The word "early" is often pronounced as "earl-aye" in modern performances. Publications in the 19th and early 20th century, however, did not note this was the case. Neither the field recordings of Richard Maitland by Alan Lomax (1939) nor those of several veteran sailors in Britain by James Madison Carpenter in the 1920s use this pronunciation. However, opera singer Leonard Warren recorded the song in July 1947 and pronounced "earl-eye". Later, on his popular recording of 1956, Burl Ives also pronounced "earl-eye". Subsequently, Stan Hugill, whose influential Shanties from the Seven Seas was published in 1961, stated in that work that the word was "always" pronounced "earl-aye".