The last post about unexpected evenings reminded me of something that happened a couple of years ago now.
It was a Saturday daytime – quiet as they always are unless there’s a big match on – and the normal crowd of Saturday daytime regulars were in (I should say that Saturday, for me and a few others, is always an all day affair), and for some random reason – as these things do sometimes tend to happen – somebody started to hum the tune to "What Do You Do With A Drunken Sailor"
[I forget who was working now]
And as often happens when you get a tune like that in your head, somebody else began to sing along. Now incidents of spontaneous (though quiet) singing aren’t entirely unknown and will sometimes happen on long afternoons sat at the bar when Dylan or the Beatles are playing and at the point of one of their more famous choruses, but it’s generally subdued, uncoordinated and short lived. Although nice in its own way for all that.
Anyway, so one by one, people start to join in.
Until by now the drunken lot of them take it up; fairly quietly at first but slowly, and verse by verse quickly building up until eventually they're all singing at the top of their voices in a baritone creshendo of noise (we’re talking about the usual crowd of Saturday dayers: Jim, Gerry, Peter, Gus, Mark, V and a few more), and all slapping their thighs, stamping their feet in time and sloshing their pint glasses in the air.
The amount of noise that a good coordinated crowd can make in such circumstances – and given the acoustics of the Taps – is really quiet impressive – but more than that it actually sounded quite good.
No, in fact more than quite good. Pretty damned good.
And for some obscure reason Gus knows the refrain for each of the verses, so as they’d get to the end of the verse….Earlie in the Morning!...they'd all look at Gus expectantly and then he’d sing out the next refrain…..Put him in the bed with the Captain’s Daughter!…and they’d all cheer and aaarrgh!! like pirates, and start singing the next verse.
And so on and so on.
It makes me smile now just thinking about it.
I would like to own up to the fact that I was the person working during this dayshift. It was quite possibly one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Football singing in the bar....fine (so long as its relevant...ie. the team are actually playing) but this strange outburst of song was very odd. Regardless of how strange it was, it was extremely entertaining and enjoyable, although I am convinced Gus did just begin to make up verses by the end.
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say is more random group singing will be encouraged by me (unless your singing an Irish song of which I do not know or understand). Not only will I accept it, I will embrace it.
The next time anyone sees Gus please ask him.
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