Bryan Ferry Contributes To Sea Shanties Record - Thu 18th May
Bryan Ferry Contributes To Sea Shanties Record
18 May 2006
Bryan Ferry Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Antony
And The Johnsons, Richard and Linda Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III
& Gavin Friday have contributed to a Johnny Depp project of Sea
Shanties. The albunm released on Epitaph Records is due out in July.
The album is produced by Hal Willner who produced the Harry Smith tribute show that Bryan Ferry appeared at in July 1999.
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest probably doesn't need much
outside promotion to make it one of the summer's biggest movies, but
its star is taking an extra step to get people into a swashbuckling
frame of mind.
Johnny Depp is the executive producer of an album of sea shanties
recorded by an impressive group of artists that's expected to arrive in
stores via Epitaph Records sometime around the movie's July 7 premiere.
Producer Hal Willner, who's probably best known for his 1985 Kurt Weill
tribute, Lost In The Stars, is overseeing the project. The former
Saturday Night Live music supervisor has also been responsible for
all-star musical tributes to Nino Rota, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus
and music from Walt Disney animated films.
Willner has assembled an extraordinary cast of contributors to the new
album, including Bono, Bryan Ferry, Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Antony And
The Johnsons, Richard and Linda Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III and
former Virgin Prunes singers Gavin Friday, Guggi and Dave-id.
Friday described his recording session in Dublin, Ireland as very "rum,
sodomy and the lash" on his website. He sang a song called "The
Baltimore Whores" that includes these bawdy lyrics: "Roly poly, tickle
my holey, smell of my slimey flue, then drag your nuts across my guts."
The three former Prunes vocalists reunited for the first time since the mid-1980s to sing "Bully In The Alley."
"It was Dave-id as head pirate on lead vocals, and myself and Guggi as
his shipmates on backing vocals," said Friday. "Hal said it was
probably closest to what pirates really would have sounded like."
Friday recorded another song called "Tommy's Gone To Hilo" with Andrea
Corr of The Corrs, whom he previously duetted with on 2003's "Time
Enough For Tears" from the In America soundtrack.
"It's not really a duet, though," explained Friday. "They're all
chanteys, which are call and response songs. Except Andrea's 'Caroline
And Her Young Sailor Bold' and Bono's song, which are both sea songs or
seamen's songs."
Bono was apparently able to get involved in the project because of the
postponement of U2's antipodean tour. Friday said that he performs a
song called "The Dying Sailor To His Shipmates