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Greenland Whale Fisheries

by xvelastín

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about

A cover of an old whaling song that always spoke to me. It has these really nice lilting phrases and highlights the human cost of the whaling industry - something that's often overlooked. Having said that, I think this is probably more from the perspective of a whale taking the piss.

VIdeo @ youtu.be/1FD_EdGkshs

Some background on the song: mainlynorfolk.info/lloyd/songs/thegreenlandwhalefishery.html

lyrics

They took us jolly sailor lads
A-fishing for a whale.
On the sixteenth of March in 1651
Bound for Greenland we set sail.

The lookout stood on the crow's nest high
With a spyglass in his hand.
“There's a whale, there's a whale, there's a whale-fish,” he cried,
“And she blows at every span.”

The captain stood on the quarterdeck,
And a prick of a man was he.
“Overhaul, overhaul, let your davit tackles fall.”
And we'll launch them boats to sea.

Well, each boat had its bold harpooner,
Trained to fire on the whalefish so,
And four other boys did pull at the oars.
Thus a-whaling did we go.

Well, our boats got down, and the men all in
And the whale was in full view.
Resolved, resolved, were them whalermen so bold
To strike hard when the whale-fish blew

We struck that whale and the line played out
But she gave a flurry with her tail.
And the boat capsized, we lost seven of our men,
And we never caught that whale.

Now the loss of seven fine seamen,
It grieved the captain sore.
But the losing of that bloody sperm whale
Oh, it grieved him ten times more.

The winter star did now appear,
And it's time for our anchor to weigh,
To stow below our hunting gear
And from Greenland bear away

Oh, Greenland is a horrid place,
Where our fisher lads have to go,
Where the rose and the lily never bloom in spring;
No there's only ice and snow.

Oh, Greenland is a dreadful place,
Where I have no choice but to go,
But when the call of the sea hits the industry
Then a-whaling must I go.

credits

released March 16, 2020
Unknown original. Lyrics here a mixture of ones used in other recorded covers (A.L. Lloyd, The Watersons, Stuart Gillespie, David Milton) and my own.

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xvelastín UK

Whale-obsessed british-chilean sound artist.

Sound in / as / by / along / with / without / throughout / inside performance.

Composition,
performance and sound design.

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