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Today, I had the second opportunity to be on Pirate Radio with Charlie Wrobbel. This time, Steve Eulberg was available to join me.

After playing Silent Night the first time, I had a brainstorm of the perfect song to play on Pirate Radio - What do you do with a drunken Sailor?

My mom used to play this tune on the hammered dulcimer when I was a kid. I would bet that she could still pull it off if push came to shove.

Ironically, it was my mom's doing that got Steve and I playing music together in the first place. Steve taught my mom Hammered Dulcimer lessons, and mom kept telling Steve, "You really need to meet my son, Vi." And she kept telling me, "You really should get together and play music with my dulcimer teacher. I think you guys would really get along." Now, those kind of introductions make me think, "DANGER, Will Robinson, DANGER."

But, an opportunity arose last year to coordinate the musicians for FoCo Help Portrait, last year - an event where local photographers provide family photos for families who wouldn't be able to afford them otherwise. I asked Steve to play a set, and I ended up joining him for half of his set.

We jammed on various old time tunes and Christmas Carols and had a GREAT time. We both agreed that we needed to get together again and play more. That was the start of a great musical relationship, which has resulted in the creation of my latest project, Old School Old Time. Check it out. :)

Drunken Sailor According to Wikipedia

Drunken Sailor is a sea shanty, also known as What Shall We Do with a/the Drunken Sailor?

The shanty was sung to accompany certain work tasks aboard sailing ships, especially those that required a bright walking pace. It is believed to originate in the early 19th century or before, during a period when ships' crews, especially those of military vessels, were sufficiently large to permit hauling a rope whilst simply marching along the deck. With the advent of merchant packet and clipper ships and their smaller crews, which required different working methods, use of the shanty appears to have declined or shifted to other, minor tasks.

Although the song's lyrics vary, they usually contain some variant of the question, "What shall we do with a drunken sailor, early in the morning?" In some styles of performance, each successive verse suggests a method of sobering or punishing the drunken sailor. In other styles, further questions are asked and answered about different people.

The song is #322 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

The tune was noted, along with these lyrics:

Ho! Ho! and up she rises
Ho! Ho! and up she rises
Ho! Ho! and up she rises,
Early in the morning.[3]

Hee roar, up she rouses,
What shall we do with the drunken sailor?[5]
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'.[6] However, the title did not appear in any of the other major shanty collections or articles of the 19th century.

Chorus: Hoorah! And up she rises [3 times, appears before each verse]
Early in the morning.
What shall we do with a drunken sailor? [3 times]
Early in the morning.
Put him in the long-boat and make him bale 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.

Drunken Sailor Lyrics

Refrain:

Weigh heigh and up she rises (/Hoo-ray and up she rises)
Weigh heigh and up she rises (/Patent blocks of different sizes)[2]
Weigh heigh and up she rises
Early in the morning
Traditional verses:

What shall we do with a drunken sailor,
What shall we do with a drunken sailor,
What shall we do with a drunken sailor,
Early in the morning?
Put/chuck him in the long boat till he's sober.[7]
Put him in the long-boat and make him bale her.[8]
What shall we do with a drunken soldier?[2]
Put/lock him in the guard room 'til he gets sober.[7][2]
Put him in the scuppers with a hose-pipe on him.(x3)[12]
Pull out the plug and wet him all over[12]
Tie him to the taffrail when she's yardarm under[12]
Heave him by the leg in a runnin' bowline.[12]
Scrape the hair off his chest with a hoop-iron razor.[2]
Give 'im a dose of salt and water.[2]
Stick on his back a mustard plaster.[2]
Keep him there and make 'im bale 'er.[2]
Give 'im a taste of the bosun's rope-end.[2]
What'll we do with a Limejuice skipper?[2]
Soak him in oil till he sprouts a flipper.[2]
What shall we do with the Queen o' Sheba?[2]
What shall we do with the Virgin Mary?[2]
Additional verses:

Shave his chin with a rusty razor.[20]
Shave his belly with a rusty razor.[21]
Give 'im a hair of the dog that bit him.[22]
Put him in the bilge and make him drink it.[23]
Put him in bed with the captain's daughter.[24]