Bringin' Home the Oil

Bringin' Home the Oil is an Irish-themed sea shanty written in 1969 by Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers as the theme for a two-minute long television commercial for Gulf Oil as part of their sponsorship of NBC News coverage of the US space program and in celebration of Gulf Oil's then-new operations in Bantry Bay.

Quite possibly the only song ever written about a modern-day oil tanker, the upbeat 6/8 melody is that of a traditional Scottish song, "The Gallant Forty Twa." It tells the story of Gulf's 300,000 dwt "Universe Ireland" as well as making mention of three other ships in the fleet: "Universe Kuwait", "Universe Japan" and "Universe Portugal". The song alludes to the construction of still more vessels; these would later be the vessels rounding out the six-vessel Universe-class fleet, namely the "Universe Iran" and "Universe Korea". Instrumentation in the song is simple, consisting of strummed banjo and guitar as well as a solo tin whistle between verses.

The song is told from the point-of-view of an "able-bodied sailor" who boasts of "sailin' all around the world" and "bringin' home the oil" to "keep all Europe movin' from our base in Bantry Bay." Gulf's operations from its Whiddy Island oil terminal in Bantry Bay ended on a night in January 1979 when a Total oil tanker (the "Betelgeuse") exploded while unloading its cargo of Arabian crude oil.

External links and references

*Section in Wikipedia's Gulf Oil article which tells of the commercial and song
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=jQZLde4tL8g&feature=related YouTube video featuring the original recording]
* [http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiGALNT42;ttGALNT42.html Music and lyrics to "The Gallant Forty Twa"]