I have thought that in all the political and economic issues of the day, the whales have been somewhat forgotten. I started thinking of the whalers, the pirates, the whales, and in inter-dependence of desire, good wishes, and the exchanges we all make in the process of trying to get what we want -- so I took the shanty mode, and sang a "Blow the Man Down" type song. I think it is timely, and I hope the OVI audience will enjoy the listen.

"Remember the Whales" is a song that is full of implications, and has a nice sound (I think). It is also a song that is over seven-minutes long. I don't know how many readers of OVI are going to be willing to listen that long while they browse, so I offer it as a free download (free under Creative Commons rights) to you here.

"Remember The Whales" is a song I first called "Whale Eye."  It is a song about a village of whale-men, who go out to catch whales in their boat, bring them in, and render them into oil, which they sell for their sustenance.  On this trip the Whalers leave their wives and children, just as every time.  As they grow lusty for Whales, they forget their families.  On the way out to the Whale fishing grounds a pirate ship passes them, but does not attack.  They wonder at this, but go on to sea and proceed to fill their ship with dead whales. 

As they had been gone some time, the pirates they had seen on their way out had already landed in their village, and through romancing or coercion, had seduced and moved in with the wives of the Whale-men.  When the Whale hunters returned they found their families and homes adopted by the pirates.  The pirates seized their ship and all the whale oil it held, then put the Whalers on the Pirate Ship and sent them off to sea.

They kept the Whale Boat, the whale fat, the women, the land, the houses, and the kids -- while the Whalers had to learn the life of pirates.  That's the basic story behind this shanty.  Whether the old issues of the oil derived from whales and the current issues of geological oil have anything in common is subject for speculation.

Click here to listen (or 'save link as' to save file to your computer).