The Radio London 'Sound of Music' Shanty
Sea shanties be songs with weird lyrics wot were in the pirate hit paaarade long afore ye Big L Fab 40. Seein' as 'ow them renegades didn't have much on-board entertainment, they resorted ta singin' an' dancin' hornpipes ta pass the long hours on the briny.

At seafests, you can hear people performing traditional shanties. We heard one called 'Chicken on a Raft', which commences with the memorable line, "Chicken on a raft on a Sunday morning". What the fowl was doing on the raft and how it got there, remains a mystery. Other shanties include: Roll Your Leg Over, Get Up Jack, John Sit Down (Jolly Roving Tar), Leave Her and Johnny, Leave Her (which maybe John Leyton could have recorded as a follow-up to Johnny Remember Me).

In honaaaar of ITLAPD, we at Radio London felt it was time to write our own pirate shanty.

(To the tune of 'My Favourite Things')

Cutlasses, peg-legs an' all sorts of riggin'
Plunder and pillage and treasure for diggin'
Biscuits with weevils and jellyfish stings,
These arr a few o' my favourite things.

Huge jolly rogers an' salty sea breezes
Feedin' the sharks with yer enemy's kneesies
Populaar shanties wot pirate guys sings,
These arr a few o' my favourite things.

Big 'andsome wenches with bosoms like boulders
Bad-tempered parrots wot crap on yer shoulders
Stuffin' me guts wi' fried albatross wings,
These arr a few o' my favourite things.

When the shark bites
When the mast snaps
When I've drunk me pay,
I simply remembaarr to talk like a pirate
And everythin' goes OK!

Lyrics copyright Mary Payne 2005, wi' apologies ta Rodgers and  Hammerstein, and Julie Andrews

Caroline pirate Steve Young has also penned a shanty, which is here.
The lyrics to Chicken on a Raft and many other shanties are available from a site called Arrr.net