Today on Twitter, someone posted a link to a song off Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys. The song was Sloop John B and the first few notes immediately transported me to my grade 6 days as a member of the chorale group at school — we were hipper than choir: led by Ms. Keegan and accompanied by Mr. Flanagan on an acoustic guitar rather than piano, we sang a lot of popular folk songs.
Sloop John B sticks out in my head because, really, it’s about a drunken boat trip, something that wasn’t fully apparent to me when I was 11. Still, the harmony in the chorus is a treat to sing and who can resist lyrics like this:
The poor cook he caught the fits,
And threw away all of my grits,
And then he took and he ate up all of my corn.
Let me go home,
Why don’t you let me go home?
This is the worst trip, I’ve ever been on.
I also have chorale to thank when I sing along to Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler (reinforced by The Muppets), Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life (I had a solo in that one), Gordon Lightfoot’s Cotton Jenny (Anne Murray’s version of the same) or many songs by Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio, and more.
I used to sing a lot. After chorale, I was in musical productions, in choir (I shared the vocal award with a classmate in Grade 10) and even an a capella glee club in high school. While I’ve been known to get up and sing karaoke, I find it much more intimidating as I age; now I tend to sing only when I figure no one else is listening.