Soran: The Year They Didn't Come ⚓ Original Sea Shanty with Lyrics | Salt & Lantern

⚓ The lamp is lit. The tide is out. Sing while you work. We took on a hand from a coast none of us will ever see. He sings when the net comes up — a hauling song from his own village, where the water used to turn silver every spring and the whole town stood in the cold to bring it in. Then one spring it didn't come. And it never came again. They still go out. They still sing. The song was never for the fish. "The Year They Didn't Come" is an original capstan shanty, built on the call-and-response hauling songs of Japanese fishing villages. Two answers, two syllables each. 🪢 Sing the answers: "Soran!" and "Hai! Hai!" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ [Lyrics] Soran! Soran! Haul her in and sing her up! Soran! Soran! There's a hand we took aboard from a coast I'll never see (Soran!) And he sings when the net comes up — he taught the song to me (Hai! Hai!) Says where he's from the water turns to silver every spring And the whole village stands in the cold and hauls it in and sings He says you don't pray for the silver You only pull and keep the time The sea decides what it will give And the song is the only part that's mine Soran! Soran! (Soran!) Every spring until the spring they didn't come! (Hai! Hai!) Nets full of nothing and a village full of song! (Soran!) Sing it anyway — sing it all year long! (Hai! Hai!) He says his father's father never once came home light (Soran!) Then the water stayed grey one year and it stayed grey all his life (Hai! Hai!) And they still go out in the cold and they still throw the net 'Cause the song was never for the fish — it's for the men who haven't quit Soran! Soran! (Soran!) Every spring until the spring they didn't come! (Hai! Hai!) Nets full of nothing and a village full of song! (Soran!) Sing it anyway — sing it all year long! (Hai! Hai!) We think the good years are the ocean We think they're the way things are Then one spring you haul up nothing And you learn what they really were We think the good years are forever Right up until they're not Soran! Soran! Soran! Soran! (Soran!) Every spring until the spring they didn't come! (Hai! Hai!) Nets full of nothing and a village full of song! (Soran!) Sing it anyway — sing it all year long! (Hai! Hai!) Sing it anyway — sing it all year long! (ALL YEAR LONG!) Soran! Soran! Haul her in and sing her up! Soran! Soran! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 What this is for Singing along at full volume with nobody watching Rowing, lifting, hauling, and any work with a rhythm to keep Anyone who had good years and didn't know they were the good years Long drives, late shifts, and the last hour of a hard day 🪢 Six watches aboard this ship ⚓ The Capstan — rowdy crew singalongs, anchor-up and full-throated 🕯 The Fo'c'sle — off-watch ballads, quiet and homesick 🌊 The Squall — storm songs, danger, and holding on 🏠 The Homeward Tack — return, reunion, and the last league in 🌑 The Drowned Watch — ghost ships, omens, and what the sea keeps 🍺 The Harbour Inn — shore leave, spent wages, and bad decisions ⚓ The harbour never closes — 24/7 live stream → [https://www.youtube.com/live/Gvoy-n5G...] 🤖 AI-assisted music production | Lyrics on screen | Sing the chorus #seashanty #seashanties #folkmusic #maritimemusic #soran #fishingsong #singalong #originalshanty #shantywithlyrics #worksong