While I was researching in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (I learned that they’re very particular about the "Upon") I started attending folk clubs like the Blackbird at Ponteland. One of the regular performers on the circuit was a chap called Jim Sharp, who had this song based on the alphabet, incorporating seafaring terms. I transposed it to climbing, so I suppose this is, technically, a parody.
One or two of the terms may be unfamiliar to the layman, but I’m not going to set up a dictionary - ask a climber, preferably one from the 1970’s. The last verse should be amended to include the name of whichever MC (mountaineering club) you’re singing this for at the time.
Many years later, I was performing this in a hut in Austria, and was amazed to hear one chap joining in with the verses as well as the chorus - he obviously knew the whole thing. It turned out that, quite unknown to me, it had been adopted as the unofficial song of the Edinburgh University Mountaineering Club (EUMC or Yummick) of which I had once been a member. I took that as a compliment, and am happy to give it its alternate title here. |