At more than one performance, the great singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt covered a song about a shrimp. I do not know if he ever fully explained why he chose to perform “Song of the Shrimp” (aka “Shrimp Song”). At first, the selection seems an odd choice. Elvis Presley sang the unusual song in the 1962 film Girls! Girls! Girls! Why would Van Zandt choose what seems like one of the throwaway Elvis movie songs from a lightweight musical?
Perhaps it was part of a joke to Van Zandt. He famously had a dark sense of humor that came through in his songs, many of which are about death. And “Song of the Shrimp” is funny, not just for being a sea shanty originally heard from Elvis. The song also finds humor in a shrimp’s boast that will most likely lead to his own death.
Townes Van Zandt did seem to recognize that “Song of the Shrimp” was an unusual song choice for him. He even cracks up while performing the song on the live recording Live at McCabe’s. By contrast, when he once performed another song about an animal that Elvis Presley also recorded, the song was “Old Shep.” And instead of invoking laughter the song about a dog’s death seemed to make Van Zandt choke up.
The Shrimp’s Story
“Song of the Shrimp,” written by Roy C. Bennett and Sid Tepper, tells the story of a little shrimp saying farewell to his parents. He plans to jump into a shrimp boat net to catch a ride to Louisiana where he can come out of his shell.
The song is a parable about the young leaving their parents to go off on their own adventures, facing their own dangers. The twist is that we know the shrimp’s adventure most likely will end with him being served in a restaurant in New Orleans. But the shrimp does not know that.
Goodbye mama shrimp, papa shake my hand;
Here come the shrimper for to take me to Louisian’;
Here come the shrimper for to take me to Louisian’.
Townes performed the song as early as October 1990, with his version of “The Shrimp Song” appearing on the live album Live in Berlin: Rain on a Conga Drum (1991). Townes Van Zandt recorded the version below live at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California on February 10, 1995.
Elvis’s Movie Song
“Song of the Shrimp” is often cited as illustrating the fact that Elvis was lost in a musical wasteland during his movie-making 1960’s. In the abstract, it is somewhat shocking that the man who contributed so much to the rebellious birth of rock and roll ended up singing a ditty about a shrimp in a film called Girls! Girls! Girls!
But on the other hand, the song fits the scene in the movie. After all, it appears in a musical film. Elvis did not choose the song for a rock and roll record.
In the film, Presley sings the song aboard a fishing boat. The sound of the song and the setting remind one of an old sea shanty. In other words, it fits the movie. And, as Townes Van Zandt knew, it is a funny song.
Other Versions
There does not appear to be a large number of covers of “Song of the Shrimp,” for understandable reasons, I suppose. Not everyone has the sense of humor that Townes Van Zandt had. A few less famous covers appear on YouTube, including one with a ukulele by German artists Preslisa And Körnel Parka Twins and one by Lowlands (feat. No Good Sister, Maurizio Gnola Glielmo).
But another well-known artist who recognized the humor in “Song of the Shrimp” was Frank Black, aka Black Francis (formerly of the Pixies). He came to the song through Van Zandt’s version, which Black described to Uncut magazine as “a really deconstructed but very entertaining version.”
Black recorded his own version of the song, which appeared on his album Honeycomb (2005). Although he originally started playing a live acoustic version of “Song of the Shrimp,” the version he ultimately recorded sounds the most modern of all of the recordings. In it, Black takes Van Zandt’s deconstruction and finds a groove beyond the song’s sea shanty origins. Check out Frank Black’s version:
Whatever happened to the little shrimp, his legendary tale has gone into history as having been recounted by some very talented musicians.
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