Old Brig, The

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses relate various problems with the ship, an inept and/or drunk bosun, captain and/or cook, bad food. The usual sailor complaints, some of them probably justified. Hugill had four different language texts for this, all basically the same song.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (Opsang fra Seilskibstiden)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Shanty. Verses relate various problems with the ship, an inept and/or drunk bosun, captain and/or cook, bad food. The usual sailor complaints, some of them probably justified. Hugill had four different language texts for this, all basically the same song. Different versions listed were "Svineper" (a.k.a. The Dirty Old Pig, The Old Brig)-Norwegian, "Den Gamla Briggen"-Swedish, "Die Gut Alte Brigg"-German.
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty ship cook
FOUND IN: Norway Sweden Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 232-234, "Svineper" (2 texts-English & Swedish, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Waiting for the Day" (same theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dirty Old Pig
The Old Brig
Den Gamla Briggen
Die Gute Alte Brigg
The Good Old Brig
NOTES [52 words]: A note in Knurrhahn says this is an "old Scandinavian sailor song, of about 1800; known to many old-time seamen in other languages."
To second PJS's comment [in the notes to "How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?"], if we can't have "bitching" as a keyword, how about "complaining," or even "whining"? - SL
File: Hugi232

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