A friend emailed this, says it's in the new Rolling Stone. Test your Beach Boys knowledge (this friend and I were once in a band that covered this tune, if you must know, though I sang it about an octave lower than the BBs):
Match the character in the Beach Boys' "Sloop John B." with his maritime mishap:
A. First Mate
B. Captain
C. Cook
D. Constable
1. Had his trunk broken into
2. Got drunk
3. Arrested the first mate
4. Caught a case of the "fits"
(But they left out my favorite line, a touching culinary detail. For a bonus, which one of the above "ate up all of my corn"?)
Rob,
ReplyDeleteDo you like Okkervil River? Have you heard their song John Allan Smythe Sails where they use the melody of Sloop John B. at the very end of the song, but reconfigure the lyrics to be about suicide? It's ballsy and astonishingly effective.
Also, not to be a dork, b ut I believe Sloop John B. is itself a cover of a traditional carribean song.
Never heard of this Okkervil River. I will look into it.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes I know the Beach Boys didn't write it. Somehow that makes their sunny rendition of lyrics about having fits and eating corn and mean constables so much more odd. It's like the Beach Boys going crazy-nautical--overboard, if you will--which, in Brian Wilson's case at least, turned to be closer to the truth than anyone knew at the time.