The Kraken's Out to Play
This was one of those pieces where the words and music came to me at the same time. It was really fun to write, but much more fun to see it enjoyed by others!
Thanks Trevor Shaw and Inversion Coda for premiering The Kraken's Out to Play at the Spider House Ballroom in 2023. Jeffrey Jones-Ragona really camped up the solo perfectly!
And thanks to Panoramic Voices and Goliath Was Bigfoot for their awesome rendition of the song in 2025! I'll probably add a video at some point.
About the Song
It's 1800, out on the open ocean. The night is pitch black, and no one's watching but the stars. Out here in the unknown, where monsters lurk and anything can happen, what does a crew of young sailors do to stay sane? They pump their leaky ships to the tune of a bawdy sea shanty. The strong and consistent rhythm of these songs keeps the men coordinated in their strokes. The lyrics are shrewd, crude, often lewd – humor for a randy crew.
In The Kraken's Out to Play, the lead singer titillates the crew with tales of the mighty Kraken, an enormous sea creature of Norse legend, probably inspired by the giant squid. The piece reimagines the sea shanty for an SATB choir, maintaining many of the tropes of the genre, but taking advantage of the expanded range of technique and color available in a trained choir to heighten the fantasy.
The Kraken’s Out to Play
a pumping shanty
When moon is new and flat the water,
Blacker than you ever sawr,
When fish have fled and birds have scattered,
Then ye must be on yer guard.
The smell of seamen draws him out--
A nasty brute without a doubt!
In sweat and urine he delights
The Kraken's out to play tonight!
So gird yer loins and stir yer rump
To clear the bilge ye've got to pump.
Pump it out, pump it dry,
Pump til it hurts and pump til ye cry.
Mind the hull and keep it tight
The Kraken's out to play tonight!
In distant waters far from home,
Where maps deceive and monsters roam,
Beneath the surface, there's a yearning
Ma'nya man has felt it burn.
The hunger in the Kraken's glance
Would make to moan the hardest man.
And if ye catch the creature's eye,
Ye'll cross your heart and hope to die.
Upwelling like an angry ghost,
His wetness will consume the boat.
Pump it out, pump it dry,
Pump til it hurts and pump til ye cry.
Mind the hull and keep it tight
The Kraken's out to play tonight!
I met a man who saw, he claimed,
The Kraken at his filthy game.
'Twas middle watch, three weeks from shore,
And restive was the crew aboard.
The coxswain was a rigid man
He paced the deck with whip in hand.
And on that night he'd hit the rum
To ease his mind and have some fun,
He staggered out to spring a leak,
But missed the mark and sprayed his feet.
Pump it out, pump it dry,
Pump til it hurts and pump til ye cry.
Mind the hull and keep it tight
The Kraken's out to play tonight!
And at his feet a drunken sailor
Sputtered at the yellow spray.
I need not say it wasn't long
Til words were said and swords were drawn.
Then suddenly the swell engorged,
As toward the aft the Kraken forged
He put the coxswain to his mouth,
Sucked 'im dry and spat 'im out.
Across the ship from aft to fore
The sailor's juices drenched the floor.
Pump it out, pump it dry,
Pump til it hurts and pump til ye cry.
Mind the hull and keep it tight
The Kraken's out to play tonight!
The Kraken's out to play tonight -
Prepare yerself and douse the light.
And if yer shaking makes a sound,
Abandon hope, for ye'll be found.
With tentacle ungodly wide
He'll breach the hatch and slip inside.
A trail of thick and viscous ooze
Will lead ye to the trembling crew.
From stern to bow ye'll hear them scream
But none would dare to intervene
And just when you can bear no more
The Kraken will let out a roar
And bursting through the lower decks,
He'll leave the ship a sopping mess!
Pump it out, pump it dry,
Pump til it hurts and pump til ye cry.
Mind the hull and keep it tight
The Kraken's out to play tonight!
© 2023 James Tecuatl-Lee