Well I Couldn't Care Less

DESCRIPTION: "Well I couldn't care less for the killick of the mess Or the Buffer of the working party. I'm pulling off ashore at a quarter past four, I'm Jack-me-bleedin'-hearty."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1987 (Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy)
KEYWORDS: sailor ship escape derivative
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tawney-GreyFunnelLines-RoyalNavy, p. 48, "Well I Couldn't Care Less" (1 text, tune referenced)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Girl I Left Behind Me" (tune)
NOTES [101 words]: According to Grant Uden and Richard Cooper, A Dictionary of British Ships and Seamen, 1980 (I use the 1981 St. Martin's Press edition), p. 247, a "killick" was "a small all-purpose anchor," but the terms "is also used colloquially for a leading hand of any branch of the Royal Navy, because his badge is an anchor or killick; to 'ship the killick' is to be promoted to this rank. To 'up killick' is to run away or desert ship; in other words, to up anchor." Observe that this song plays with two of those meanings: the singer doesn't care about the killick of the mess, but will up killick at 4:15. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: Tawn032

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