Drunken Sailor

The song 'Drunken Sailor' performed by the Irish Rovers is a traditional sea shanty, which was originally sung by sailors to coordinate their work and to keep rhythm during the laborious tasks aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The repetitive and catchy nature of the song made it a popular tune for work and leisure at sea.

The lyrics of 'Drunken Sailor' pose a rhetorical question about what to do with a sailor who has had too much to drink. The song suggests a series of humorous or absurd punishments, such as shaving his belly with a rusty razor or putting him in a long boat until he sobers up. These suggestions are not meant to be taken literally but serve as a playful way to deal with the common problem of drunkenness aboard ships. The phrase 'early in the morning' suggests that the sailor's condition is discovered at the start of the day, which would have been a particularly inconvenient time for such an issue to arise.

The chorus 'Way hay and up she rises' is a refrain that likely refers to the raising of the ship's sails or perhaps the sailor himself getting up after his drunken stupor. The song's structure, with its call-and-response format, makes it an ideal shanty for group singing, fostering a sense of camaraderie and shared experience among sailors. While the song is light-hearted, it also reflects the harsh realities of life at sea, where discipline was strict, and the consequences for not performing one's duties could be severe.