At our last session, Larry wanted to do sea shanties. How may sea shanties would any of us know? We broadened it to sea shanties and calypso songs. Could we get 15 to 20 songs out of those two? No, probably not. We added another unrelated category: anything about ghosts, witches, scary stuff and the supernatural for the occasion of Halloween. Arlene brought in a bag of candy corn (which we used to call "chicken feed" when we went trick-or-treating.) Arlene, Patricia, Anne, Larry, Jack, Bob, Ken, Jen and WendySue were here tonight to play this mixed bag of songs.

1. For My Lady, Moody Blues, 1973 (Dan)

This is never played on the radio. I did hear it once 40 years ago on a jukebox in a Uniondale bar, and that's because it's the flipside of the hit single I'm Just A Singer In A Rock and Roll Band. It is a sea shanty only in the sense that he sings about a boat, a port, the sea, and in the background the lads are singing la la las as if they were doing a pirate chant. We just did a little piece of it, a verse and a chorus, because not many of us had heard of it. Any chance I get to slip in a Moody Blues song, I try it. Thanks for indulging my selfishness.

2. Spooky, Classics IV, 1968 (Dan)

This was Am7 to D7 almost all the way through with an Em7 turnaround. Doesn't get much easier. It was an excellent opportunity to practice ear-training, because the chords were only printed over the first verse. We had to wing it on the other two and we did well.

3. Yellow Bird, Arthur Lyman, 1961 (Bill/Ken)

Eastern Airlines used this melody in an ad campaign. Some lyrics I remember are:

Wow, our seats are wide

Lots more room inside

Food is cooked on board

Have your faith restored

So just fly away

In the sky today

Years later I was surprised to find out the song didn't originate with Eastern Airlines. This was a calypso number, calling for a specific strum pattern which I found difficult.

4. Drunken Sailor, 1839 (Bill/Larry)

In an episode of Wild Wild West, my favorite TV show as a kid, Jim West was trapped in a box and submerged into water by the evil genius, Dr. Loveless. As water starts filling the box and Mr. West is about to drown, Dr. Loveless and his female accomplice sing this song, but slightly different than we did it tonight. Jim West was played by the athletic and resourceful Robert Conrad. He escaped that one, thank God, but was never quite able to capture the wily Dr. Loveless.

5. Monster Mash, Bobby "Boris" Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers, 1962 (Arlene)

The G Em C D7 lent itself to singing wah-oohs to accompany the main melody. Arlene led us through Boris Karloff's parts, which was basically the whole song except for the parentheses.

6. The Addams Family, Vic Mizzy, 1964 (Arlene)

Lots of finger snapping. Back then, Lurch, Cousin It, Thing and Uncle Fester were my favorites. Now it's the dapper Gomez Addams, ever cheerful, ever confident, ever preposterous. What a great character.

7. Has Anybody Seen My Ghoul (Arlene)

You can't miss with this melody (5' 2", eyes of blue), so throw in jokey Halloween lyrics and you have a crowd pleaser.

8. Sympathy for the Devil, Rolling Stones, 1968 (Vin)

Great song. Easy chords. I couldn't get into the same groove with the vocals as with the playing. I wonder why. It looked like it'd be so easy.

9. Strange Brew, Cream, 1967 (Vin)

Another terrific number with one of my favorite chord combos: A7 to D7 repeating, with E7 as the turnaround.

10. Blueberry Hill, Fats Domino, 1956 (Bill)

He didn't sing sea shanties and was not a witch or ghoul (as far as I know), but we lost Antoine "Fats" Domino recently, at the age of 89, and Bill wanted to salute him. He had Top Tens from the mid-50s to 1960. On oldies programs, they play this all the time, along with Ain't That A Shame, but my favorite is the 1957 hit, Blue Monday.

11. Friend of the Devil, Grateful Dead, 1970 (Dan)

These guys were a touring band known for their live shows, but not played on AM radio. For those who quit their day jobs to follow them around the country on tour, this song was as much a staple to them as Hey Jude is to a Beatlemaniac.

12. Three Little Birds, Bob Marley, 1977 (Jen)

I didn't recognize this by the title, but once we started to play it, it was familiar. Very easy.

13. Roll the Old Chariot (Jen)

In the days of yore, a shanty was a song men sung while doing hard, repetitive manual labor on a boat, mostly pulling ropes to get sails positioned the right way. I had thought of them as songs sung while drinking rum, in between dirty stories.

14. Purple People Eater, Sheb Wooley, 1958 (Arlene)

Another of my youthful misconceptions was that the space creature was purple. No. He sought to eat purple people. Are there purple people in the United States? What was his real motive for coming to earth? He says, "I wanna get a job in a rock and roll band." He succeeds and is soon seen on a television program "playing rock and roll music through the horn in his head."

15. People Are Strange, The Doors, 1967 (Arlene)

Jim Morrison's message here is that when you're in a strange place it can be a lonely, unfriendly, unsettling experience. The "spoonful of sugar" which helps this message/medicine go down is the song's catchy melody.

16. Jamaica Farewell, Harry Belafonte, 1956 (Larry)

Ukulele players meeting for the first time will invariably play this, Under the Boardwalk and You Are My Sunshine. It's a staple.

17. Sloop John B, Beach Boys, 1966 (Larry)

Big hit for the fellas. Great arrangement. It shows off their singing talent, both in harmony and in taking parts.

18. Psycho Killer, Talking Heads, 1977 (Jen)

There were some quirky things going on here, making it a little tough to do. It also helps if you speak French. Bill sent a video of dozens of drunken Irishmen in a pub playing it, and they did a terrific version. We should aspire to their level. I wonder if we had plane tickets to Dublin and an open bar with endless Guinness stout, would that help.

19. Black Magic Woman, Santana, 1970 (Dan)

Peter Green, from an incarnation of Fleetwood Mac that we in the U.S. were not familiar with, wrote this in 1968. They didn't have a hit with it. It wasn't until 1976 that they took over American radio when two Yanks, Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, joined the group and propelled these Brits to stardom. Yet it was Santana, a group entirely unlike Fleetwood Mac, who had the big Top Five hit.

20. Love Potion #9, Clovers, 1959 (Ken)

Here's an example of something similar. The Clovers had a modest hit with this song, but six years later it was the Searchers who had the really big hit. Now you'll never hear anything but the Searchers' version.

For our next theme we'll do the songs of the Everly Brothers and the early rock and roll groups of the mid to late fifties, spilling into the early sixties, but ending before the Beatles came over and changed everything.

-- Dan.