Coffee Klatch

Do you remember the first CD(s) you ever purchased? If you are now college aged, you probably don’t since CDs have been the primary medium of music since the late 1980’s and that’s probably all you’ve heard. At least until iPods and other portable digital media players.

Anyway, I first got a CD when I first got a CD player, which was at the end of college, in 1990. I think it was a graduation present. Anyway, I remember the two first CDs I got because I was already familiar with the music. But I had never heard them with such incredible clarity. Here were my first two CDs (and, yes, you can still get both of them at Amazon):

Wagner: Highlights from “The Ring” with Zubin Mehta conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. I remember especially “The Ride of the Valkyries,” where you could hear the timpani so clearly you thought the Valkyries were going to ride right out of the stereo and out the door!

Behind the Gardens-Behind the Wall-Under the Tree, by Andreas Vollenweider I had listened to a copy of the cassette tape of this album, and had enjoyed the “electroacoustic harp” that he played. Hearing this on CD made everything sound so crisp, it was like he was right there in the room with you! I’ve since gotten almost all of his CDs, but I still remember my mother’s reaction when she saw the CD cover: “There’s a man winking at me!”

Making the switch from cassette tapes to CDs was one of those defining moments in my musical life. For those of you who are too young to remember the impact made on listening to music when switching from tapes to CDs, there may never be another epiphanic moment like that in your lifetime. Switching to digital audio on iPods is only a matter of convenience, not nearly as much a matter of clarity. You’ve already got digital music, you’re just switching its broadcast medium.

If there DOES come a new musical medium that makes such a quality jump over CDs, I can’t wait to hear it!

You may have heard the song “What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor” and, if you have, you probably know just that one verse. Just like me. I decided to find out what the rest of the words to that song are, and here is what I found. (I had NO IDEA there were so many things we could do with him!)

The song first asks, “What shall we do… early in the morning?” then goes to refrain, followed by #1 (3 times, then “early in the morning”), refrain, #2 (3 times, then “early in the morning”), etc.

So, what SHALL we do with a drunken sailor (early in the morning)?

What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
Early in the morning?

Chorus:
Way hay and up she rises
Patent blocks o’ diff’rent sizes,
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

1. Sling him in the long boat till he’s sober
2. Keep him there and make ‘im bail ‘er.
3. Pull out the plug and wet him all over.
4. Take ‘im and shake ‘im, try an’ wake ‘im.
5. Trice him up in a runnin’ bowline.
6. Give ‘im a taste of the bosun’s rope-end.
7. Give ‘im a dose of salt and water.
8. Stick on ‘is back a mustard plaster.
9. Shave his belly with a rusty razor.
10. Send him up the crow’s nest till he falls down.
11. Tie him to the taffrail when she’s yardarm under.
12. Put him in the scuppers with a hose-pipe on him.
13. Soak ‘im in oil till he sprouts flippers.
14. Put him in the guard room till he’s sober.
15. Put him in bed with the captain’s daughter*.
16. Take the Baby and call it Bo’sun.
17. Turn him over and drive him windward.
18. Put him in the scuffs until the horse bites on him.
19. Heave him by the leg and with a rung console him.
20. That’s what we’ll do with the drunken sailor.

* A relative of the cat-o-nine-tails

Another version that I found online only had ten verses:

What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
Early in the morning?

Chorus:
Way hay and up she rises
Patent blocks o’ diff’rent sizes,
Way hay and up she rises
Early in the morning

1. Put him in the long boat till he’s sober
2. Pull out the bung and wet him all over.
3. Put him in the scuppers with the deck pump on him.
4. Heave him by the leg in a runnin’ bowline.
5. Tie him to the taffrail when she’s yard-arm under.
6. Put him in the bilge and make him drink it
7. Shave his belly with a rusty razor.
8. Soak ‘im in oil till he sprouts flippers.
9. Put him in bed with the captain’s daughter.

I’ve also seen “Let ‘im kiss the gunner’s daughter,” which meant being tied to a cannon while it was fired 4 or 5 times. Ouch!!

And apparently there’s a German version that keeps the same verse but changes the refrain. Go figure!

Current music: Boil the Breakfast Early, by The Chieftains