the-beacons-of-minas-tirith reblogged
soon may the wellerman come, your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb
the reviews are in
the-beacons-of-minas-tirith reblogged
Wellerman but an epic version that sounds like it should be playing in the background of a pirate fight scene
the-beacons-of-minas-tirith reblogged
If you like the wellerman, try on this classic
bull-business
this is a pathologic ass song
The Chemical Worker’s Song. Not far off our current days’ wage slave experience. I’m telling you, you need Union Songs.
Sailors aboard a ship used to hum to warn the captain they were THIS close to a mutiny and didn’t like conditions AT ALL. Because humming was something others could keep doing when you stopped. Anyone comes close you stop, but the hum of the rest keeps on and they can’t prove who, exactly, is doing it.
Just saying.
Sea shanties are a gateway drug to work/labour songs of all kinds, labour songs always end up including union songs, and that’s how you end up extremely hardcore for organised labour.
And if people want more information, this particular song is called “The Chemical Worker’s Song (Process Man)”, written by the Canadian folk group Great Big Sea.
Sea shanties and labour songs are an active tradition! Are you pissed? Sing about it.
Great Big Sea is the best!! Like, what other group has *two* songs about horses falling into ponds and another about hard partying and how great it is to grow up and be a good spouse and father? All their stuff is fabulous.
the-beacons-of-minas-tirith reblogged
Now sea shanty TikTok is turning regular songs into shanties and it is FANTASTIC.
Sea shanty TikTok is turning QUEEN into shanties and it is AWESOME
the-beacons-of-minas-tirith reblogged
so i’ve seen this around a lot and i always felt like the version i listened to just. didn’t have everything? sO! i edited together my three favourite versions of the tik tok sea shanty! enjoy!!
(listen with headphones if possible!)
(yes i know the ending is bad oKaY-)
the-beacons-of-minas-tirith reblogged
honestly pointing out that wellerman is a work song about having a shit job with a shit employer and that it isn’t some kind of endorsement of the slave trade is valid and all but like
are we not going to talk about how ridiculous the idea of “cancelling” a song from the 19th century for having problematic themes is
broke: you should stop singing or listening to the wellerman because it’s about the slave trade and suppression of native maori woke: wellerman is literally about working in indentured servitude for an oppressive company and isn’t a fucking endoresement of that do you even understand what work songs are, like, as a genre jesus give me strength bespoke: debating the moral purity of a song from the 19th century is fucking stupid
@karmenofchaos @banjedo I thought they were KIDDING about the discourse about Wellerman
banjedo
they are not!
yes, the company wellerman was oppressing maori people, but in a lot of ways it’s like how amazon is now. the people that work there have no choice but to work there, and they themselves can’t do anything about the fact that it’s oppressing another group because they need money to live, because that’s how capitalistic monopolies work.
you are correct! it is also important to note roughly 1/3 of the shore whalers involved here were themselves native maori and would have joined in with singing “soon mr. fuckface will come back and give me the tea he pays me in lieu of actual money. hopefully someday i can stop cutting out whale tongues and fuckin’ LEAVE! if we’re really lucky he’ll get killed by a whale!” no part of this song is remotely positive towards the weller brothers, let alone “glorifying violence against maori” or whatever the fuck. but the point remains that trying to cancel a song from the 1800s for referencing problematic themes is really really stupid because it’s acting like a) a colonialist-era work song referencing the colonialist system in which they worked is somehow news and b) that it would be at all reasonable to expect otherwise. “there’s stuff about the 1800s in my song from the 1800s!” oh word? on god?
If anyone does feel inspired to learn the historical background of the Weller’s whaling station at Ōtakou, and what life was like, here is a thesis about that very thing
I love how perfectly you have nailed this summary: “soon mr. fuckface will come back and give me the tea he pays me in lieu of actual money. hopefully someday i can stop cutting out whale tongues and fuckin’ LEAVE! if we’re really lucky he’ll get killed by a whale!”
Work songs are fun. They are also the chirpy malicious-compliance way of making rightful grievances about your inhumane job while the managers don’t bother to listen to the words.
“there’s stuff about the 1800s in my song from the 1800s!” oh word?
