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The Beach Boys
Sloop John B.
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“Sloop John B” is the seventh track on The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album and was also a single which was released in 1966 on Capitol Records. It was originally a traditional West Indies folk song, “The John B. Sails”, taken from a collection by Carl Sandburg (1927). Alan Lomax made a field recording of the song in Nassau, 1935, under the title “Histe Up the John B. Sail”. This recording appears on the album Bahamas 1935: Chanteys And Anthems From Andros And Cat Island. The song was adapted by Weavers member Lee Hays, and that group recorded it as “The Wreck of the John B.“ The Kingston Trio’s 1958 recording of the song, also under the title “The Wreck of the John B.“, was the direct influence on the Beach Boys’ version. Johnny Cash recorded the song in 1959 as...
Read on...Song lines: ♪ Call for the captain ashore ... Let me go home, let me go home ... So hoist up the john bs sail ♫
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This song is listed #271 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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