Sloop John B.

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Sloop John B is a million seller of the Beach Boys in 1966, of a Caribbean folk song returns from the 1917th

History of origin

Both the text and the title have changed several times over the years. John B. Sails is quoted as a folk song in the 1917 novel Pieces of Eight by Richard Le Gallienne. However, the quotation leaves open whether the song was specially created for the novel or whether it already existed before. The latter can be assumed, since Le Gallienne previously presented the lyrics with another stanza in Harper's magazine. After that it was included in the folk collection of Carl Sandburg in 1927 .

The first record was made as an outdoor recording ("field recording") by musicologist Alan Lomax when he recorded the Cleveland Simmons Group with Histe Up The John B. Sails in Old Bight Cat Island ( Bahamas ) in July 1935 . After this recording, the folk song was forgotten for a while. The piece of music is listed again in Alan Lomax's book Folksongs of North America 1944 (page 530 as # 280).

The English word Sloop referred to a various types of smaller warships ( sloop-of-war , see Sloop ), smaller on the other hand, single-masted vessels with Schrattakelung ( Sloop ). In the Caribbean , these single-masted ships were usually used with a crew of two to transport goods between the islands. The ship's name “John B” stood for Captain John Bethel, one of the first settlers of Welsh origin on Eleuthera / Bahamas. The original lyrics of the tragic-comic song are about a ship with two passengers who got into an argument while drunk and longed for a port. The sloop sung around 1900 sank near Governor's Harbor, the administrative capital of Eleuthera. The wreck was discovered in 1926 off Nassau (Bahamas) and probably caused Sandburg to add the song to his collection.

Early covers

Weavers - The Wreck of the John B.
Alphonso "Blind Blake" Higgs & His Royal Victoria Hotel Calypso Orchestra - John B. Sail
Jimmie Rodgers - The Wreck of the John B.

The title and lyrics of the song qualifying as a shanty went through a series of morphologies after the folk group The Weavers recorded the song under the title (The Wreck of the) John B on November 3, 1950 (Decca # 27332). Lee Hays of the Weavers had adapted the copyright-free public domain song, so that from then on Carl Sandburg and Lee Hays frequently appeared as composers.

The first cover version was seen as the single from the Caribbean guitarist and calypso singer Alphonso "Blind Blake" with his Royal Victoria Hotel Calypso Orchestra , who took it up as John B. Sail in 1952 ( Art Records # 2) and only adapted the chorus, Stan Wilson took it on August 10, 1955 for the LP Ballads and Calypsos on (Verve MGV # 2019), Terry Gilkyson & the Easy Riders followed under the title Send For de Captain (LP Marianne and Other Songs , Columbia # C-990; March 1957).

The Kingston Trio included him as Wreck of the John B on their debut LP The Kingston Trio (track recorded February 5, 1958; released June 2, 1958; Capitol # 996) and stuck to the calypso- like roots of the original. Johnny Cash changed the title to I Want to Go Home (recorded March 12, 1959, released September 1959 on the LP Songs of Our Soil ; Columbia CS-8148). Jimmie Rodgers, in turn, reverted to an earlier version of the title The Wreck of the John B (LP At Home With Jimmie Rodgers , June 1960; Roulette # 4260), Lonnie Donegan adapted it as I Wanna Go Home (recorded in February 1960, released May 1960 ; Pye # 7N 15267), the tokens brought it out under the title Wreck of the John B (LP The Lion Sleeps Tonight , December 1961; RCA Victor # 2514), the Brothers Four titled it with John B Sails (LP The Big Folk Hits , October 1963; Columbia # 2033), Jerry Butler shortened to John B (LP Folk Songs , March 1963; Vee Jay # 1057), the British Them alienated to Go On Home Baby (LP The Angry Young Them , June 1965; Decca LK # 4700) or Barry McGuire reached back to Sloop John B back (LP Eve of Destruction ; September 1965; Dunhill # 50003).

Version of the Beach Boys

Beach Boys - Sloop John B.

During the recording session for the album Pet Sounds , which began on July 12, 1965 , folk lover Alan Jardine suggested to his group Beach Boys to also take up the song; Producer and group member Brian Wilson initially did not want to record the 3 chord song of the Kingston Trio. The music track, which required 14 takes , was created on July 12, 1965 at Western Recorders , but it was not processed further for some time. Jay Migliori (clarinet), Steve Douglas and Jim Horn (flutes), Frank Capp (glockenspiel), Carol Kaye (Fender bass), Lyle Ritz (double bass), Al Casey and Jerry Cole (guitars) played as accompanying musicians. , Al De Lory (organ), Jack Nimitz (baritone saxophone) and Hal Blaine (drums) with.

The actual work on the album began before 1 November 1965. In December 1965, asked Brian Wilson to session guitarist Billy Strange , the already recorded guitar part of the existing music track to Sloop John B to cover up what happened only on 22 and 29 December 1965th Since Strange came without a guitar, Wilson bought him a red 12-string Fender Stratocaster electric guitar with amplifier, which he gave Strange along with $ 500 for the session.

Sloop John B was released as a single from the album and released on March 21, 1966. The single sold 500,000 copies within two weeks, made it to number 3 on the US pop hit parade and sold more than 1 million copies worldwide. In nine other countries, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland, it even reached the top position. Sloop John B was placed as the 7th track on the album Pet Sounds , which initially achieved poor sales after its release on May 16, 1966; Columbia Records did not apply to the RIAA for gold status until the end of 1999 and had sales of 670,000 copies since 1986. It took 34 years until February 11, 2000 for the RIAA to award the influential album gold status - a first in the music industry .

More cover versions

Many more cover versions appeared after the Beach Boys. Coverinfo lists 55 versions, but there are probably well over 200. In 1966, the duo Peter & Alex promptly launched the German version with the title Wir want nach Haus' (Polydor # 52674) and was the first forerunner of the many German versions with other titles and texts like the party is out of Phil & John from the year 1973. in the army belonged We want to go home with abgeändertem text of graduates songs. Bruce Low offers such German text version under the title Sloop John B on. Numerous English language versions followed. Van Morrison , Lonnie Donegan and Chris Barber released the song on their CD Skiffle Sessions as I Wanna Go Home (recorded live on January 20 and 21, 1998 in Belfast, released in January 2000). Mention should also be made of Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (March 2001) and the Simple Minds (May 2009).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ E-Book, Novels.mobi, Chapter IV, Page 6:  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. : “You guys, can't you sing a song? How about John B. Sails? "@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / novels.mobi  
  2. ↑ Harper's Magazine, December 1916, Coral Islands and Mangrove Trees , p. 82
  3. ^ Carl Sandburg, The American Songbag , 1927, p. 22 f.
  4. ↑ The Pet Sounds Sessions: The Making Of Pet Sounds , Liner Notes, pp. 25–26
  5. ^ Joseph Murrells, Million Selling Records , 1985, p. 218
  6. ^ Rolling Stone magazine of March 10, 2000, Eric Boehlert, Lost Paperwork to Blame for "Pet Sounds" Meager Sales Numbers
  7. ↑ hitparade.ch
  8. ↑ [1]

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