First song that comes to mind for this week’s SLS is this one. I had the album it was on. I played at playing acoustic guitar in the early 80s and bought the songbook for it. At one time I could play and sing it. There is so much to like about the song. Honoring Jacques Cousteau, who so many of us watched every week on The Undersea World of … is one of them. The upbeat rhythm is another. The lyrics sparkle. The way John sings it draws the listener in, with his yips and yodels.

“Calypso” is a song written by John Denver in 1975 as a tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his research ship, the Calypso. It was featured on Denver’s 1975 album Windsong.

Released as the B-side of “I’m Sorry“, “Calypso” received substantial airplay, enabling it to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. After “I’m Sorry” fell out of the #1 position, “Calypso” began receiving more airplay than “I’m Sorry,” thus causing Billboard to list “Calypso” as the new A-side, starting the week ending October 11, 1975. Hence, “Calypso” is itself considered a #2 hit on the Hot 100.

John Denver was a close friend of Cousteau. Calypso was the name of Cousteau’s research boat that sailed around the world promoting ocean conservation.

This song features the sounds of ship bells, which is heard in the instrumental introductions before both two verses, in which Milton Okun’s orchestral arrangement, featuring strings and winds, are heard mimicking the sounds of the oceans and seas.

Filk music is a musical culture, genre, and community tied to science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom and a type of fan labor. The genre has existed since the early 1950s and been played primarily since the mid-1970s. The genre has a niche but faithful popularity in the underground. You may be asking why I’ve injected this term into my post. Here is why:

A filk song exists in Star Trek fandom … based on John Denver’s “Calypso,” but adapted to the voyages of the Enterprise: “To sail on a dream in the sun-fretted darkness, to soar through the starlight unfrightened alone….”

Additionally, Tom Smith wrote parody lyrics for the song, which he titled “Callisto,” referring to a sexual desire for Callisto, originally a villainess in the TV show Xena: Warrior Princess and one of Xena’s enemies. After Callisto was redeemed in the Xena stories, he wrote an extra verse and a variation on the refrain that attacked her for having stopped being evil.

Source: wikipedia

Calypso

To sail on a dream on a crystal clear ocean
To ride on the crest of the wild raging storm
To work in the service of life and the living
In search of the answers to questions unknown
To be part of the movement and part of the growing
Part of beginning to understand

Aye, Calypso, the places you’ve been to
The things that you’ve shown us, the stories you tell
Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit
The men who have served you so long and so well

Like the dolphin who guides you, you bring us beside you
To light up the darkness and show us the way
For though we are strangers in your silent world
To live on the land we must learn from the sea
To be true as the tide and free as a wind swell
Joyful and loving in letting it be

Aye, Calypso, the places you’ve been to
The things that you’ve shown us, the stories you tell
Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit
The men who have served you so long and so well
Aye, Calypso, the place’s you’ve been to
The things that you’ve shown us, the stories you tell
Aye, Calypso, I sing to your spirit
The men who have served you so long and so well

Songwriter: John Denver

Jim Adams is the host of Song Lyric Sunday. This week Jim wants us to share a song about fishing, a mariner, sailing, seafaring, or ships