It was in the middle of 1965 that Brian Wilson got to work on "Sloop John B", a folk song originating in the Bahamas that seemed to change title depending on who recorded it. (It would also be known as "The John B Sails" and "Let Me Go Home", which, surprisingly, never became the standard) Fellow Beach Boy Al Jardine had been a big fan of The Kingston Trio, whose version appeared on their debut album back in 1958. While I would rate it above "Tom Dooley", it's still only adequate. There's not much to it that suggests that it may have inspired Wilson. Though, to be fair, neither does this even less well known version by Jimmie Rodgers.
Wait, what? "The Wreck of the John B" went to number one on Canada's CHUM charts and it surely performed strongly elsewhere too, right? Well, no. Its success in the Great White North proved to be an outlier. On the American Hot 100 it did no better than sixty-four. Outside of North America it was a complete non-factor and had been reduced to being the B-side to the brave but flawed folk baroque pop tune "English Country Garden" which itself didn't do a whole lot. (The British may or may not have been interested — Jimmie Rodgers never had a hit single in the UK — but a recent version by Lonnie Donegan made the Top 5 so it probably didn't stand much of a chance there anyway)
I have to say, I'm pretty taken by this. Brian Wilson may have transformed it into a great Beach Boys song (even though many consider it to be the weak link of their seminal Pet Sounds album, I've never thought it was out of place; if you ask me the real blot is "I Know There's an Answer") but Jimmie Rodgers managed to bring out far more of the beauty and desolation of "The Wreck of the John B". He isn't trying to bowl anyone over with his vocals — even though he was a great singer — but he's able to communicate a shattered homesickness about as well as anyone and he didn't even have to emote to any great extent in order to do so.
Musically, there's a nice tinge of exoticism which refreshingly isn't slap-you-in-the-face obvious. The clipped guitar gives off a calypso vibe and there's a hint of breezy, laid back Hawaiian music which is reinforced by the way Rodgers hits that final, extended note on "hoooome...". Had it been recorded, say, a decade later, the entire thing would have no doubt ended up as an affectionate spoof of reggae like 10cc's "Dreadlock Holiday" or Steely Dan's "Haitian Divorce" — either that or a tacky Don Ho type travesty — but the subtle use of Caribbean rhythms feels much more organic as well as a good deal less insulting.
As I mentioned above, the song's title could never quite be settled on, at least until The Beach Boys came along. But "The Wreck of the John B" works much better than "Sloop John B" if you ask me. This isn't a tale of shipwreck like Gordon Lightfoot's extraordinary "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" but instead that of wrecked individuals toiling on low pay and with appalling conditions to deal. Booze, as ever, takes the edge off but it could never really eliminate the desire to return home. While Wilson and cohort/nemesis Mike Love sing lines like "let me go home" and "this is the worst trip I've ever been on", the point somehow seems to get missed; Jimmie Rodgers seemed to have a far greater grasp of what it's like to be truly wrecked.
Score: 8
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