John Bethel was a sea Captain from Govenours Harbor, Eleuthera, The Bahamas. The “Sloop John B” was an actual boat (sloop) that Captain John Bethel built in the front yard of his house. He then rolled it down hill on logs and launched it into the harbour. Captain Bethel used the Sloop John B for many heays in commerce, both in The Bahamas and along the eastern seaboard of the United States, from Key West all the way up the New Foundland. At some point the boat hit a reef and sunk. Someone wrote a poem, the another someone put that poem to music. That song became a sailors sea song and was adapted widley and sang by many sailors. for many many years, depicting the drama on a typical sea voyage. Carl Sanburg, the famous American poet, found it and included it in a book he wrote about folk music. The Kingston Trio recorded it and made it popular in the states. Johnny Cash also recorded it as “I Wanna Go Home” before Al Jardine brought it to Mike Wilson in the late 1960’s.
The rest is history.
Whome ever came up with the lyrics being about LSD was on dope themselves. It is nothing more that a sea-diddy sang by sailors.
In June of 2014, I stayed in the Sea Captains House, which is over 300 years old. This story is common knowledge on Eleuthera.
Go to VRBO and search for The Sea Captains House, Eleuthera. Angelicka Bacchus, a realtor and restruant owner on Eleuthera can tell you more details.
In my head, the line “my grandfather and me” always conjured an image of a young kid who takes a job aboard a boat that his grandfather is working on, thinking that it’ll be an easy gig. Instead, he gets into a fight with his grandfather, gets hazed by the crew as the new guy and is generally miserable – wishing he could just “go home” which is of course impossible on a working vessel.
So, basically, a stock Deadliest Catch plot line decades before anyone cared about crab fishing.
I agree that the song has no actual drug references (beyond alcohol), but some of the lyrics are sufficiently ambiguous that, in the context of the times, they could be, and perhaps intentionally were, pressed into service as double entendres. Particularly the line “This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on”, which is really made to stand out by having the backing vocals and instrumentation drop out almost completely for that one line. Don’t tell me that at least some of the group members didn’t have a chuckle over that (the same way the Byrds did when they sang about being “eight miles high” in an airplane heading for England).
We sang this song in 5th grade. Everyone knew it predated any psychedelic meaning. “Pressed into service” by whom? Nobody then. People on threads now, maybe. To chuckle at that would be witless. That would make Beavis and Butthead look subtle. The Byrds song was intentional.
Pressed into service by the Beach Boys & many of their fans. We were quite young then & got a chuckle out of finding a new layer of meaning in old lyrics.
A “witless” chuckle? Lord Save Us from solemn Fifth Graders…
By Brian Wilson, it would seem. He changed the lyric from the original “This is the worst trip since I’ve been born” to “This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.” It is believed by many that this change was likely intended as a subtle reference to acid. Just sayin’. I have no proof.
Believed by who? Both ways could reference acid anyway. Man you’re stretching around like a yogi. Brian did acid. Any beach boys song with the word trip is a possible. Al Jardine brought this song to the group. But There’s got to be more interesting references to cite. This would be the most mundane example if it is.
This reminds me of a passage from Tom Lehrer’s song “Smut”: When correctly viewed
Ev’rything is lewd!
I could tell you things about Peter Pan, and the Wizard of Oz, there’s a dirty old man!
In short, as in “Sloop John B,” some people will see what they want to see.
