Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Anchors Aweigh



Chas. Zimmermann wrote it in 1906 and the lyrics are revised periodically.

This is in honor of American Veterans Day. The song is from the Naval academy and isn't an official Navy song. In fact, it's most closely associated with the Army/Navy football game and the lyrics I have in my sheet music are specifically for the football game. This has a melody range that is beyond my ability so I'll play the melody on the piano and let you imagine the words.

Who doesn't love Negro Spirituals?
Verse 1
Stand Navy down the field, sails set to the sky.
We'll never change our course, so Army you steer shy-y-y-y.
Roll up the score, Navy, Anchors Aweigh.
Sail Navy down the field and sink the Army, sink the Army Grey.


This edition printed in 1930.
 I was in the Merchant Marines back when my knees did not pop when I walked. It was in the oil field of the Gulf of Mexico and technically not a war zone but putting a Yankee vegetarian Hippie on a boat full of Louisiana Swampers is not much different than a war. Every day, every minute, was a fight for survival. We didn't sing this song but every night at 4am before the false dawn I would stand on the salty deck and vow to survive the day at whatever the cost.
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Man in the Van by Oggy Bleacher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.