Sort of Boatish......

[AIDY]

The song "Life on the ocean wave" was by a chap called .......... Fox. Any ideas....

TIA

<hr width=100% size=1>/forums/images/icons/wink.gif <font color=blue> Regards Andy </font color=blue>

 

[Telstar26]

Yes, Uffa

I remember an old LP of Uffa Fox singing, may even have been called that.

His boats are better than his voice...

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[Prospero]

A search on Google suggests that "A Life on the ocean wave" was writen by Epes Sargent (1813 - 1880) and was included in the "Yale Book of American Verse" published in 1912. I seem to recall Uffa Foxe in the late 1950's isuing a recording of Sea Shanties including "A life on the ocean wave". I have not yet increased my supply of trivia to know who composed the music. Hope this helps.

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[Prospero]

Google a little bit lower gives a reference to this quote from a site:-
"The words of 'A Life on the Ocean Wave!' were presented to the composer, Henry Russell, by the poet after they had been rejected by a publisher. Russell, an Englishman by birth, was seeking his fortune in America and took the manuscript of the poem into a Broadway music store where, in his own words: "I was invited into a back room where there was a capital piano. I hummed an air or two, ran my fingers over the keys, then stopped, feeling baffled; suddenly an idea struck me and presently touching the keys with a confident exclamation, that bright little air rang out which is now so well known."
I now know too much about "A life on the ocean wave" But thanks for intruiging me enough to find out.

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[Telstar26]

I think this is the LP:
Uffa Fox - Songs Of Salty Sea - EMI MFP1083 Mono Vocal/Choral

Isn't MFP Music For Pleasure? Not quite how I remember it!

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[alldownwind]

I don't know if it was originally written for a brass band, but it's a tune that bands of the Royal Marines do brilliantly when out marching at ceremonies. When the RM had their school of music at Deal I can recall be taken down there as a kid on Sunday mornings to see them marching back from Church. It was rudely interrupted one morning by the lifeboat maroon - all the pub doors along the Strand burst open as the crew raced each other to the boathouse!

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