"Six Months in a Leaky Boat" is a single from New Zealand art rock group Split Enz's album Time and Tide. It was written by Tim Finn and released as a single in 1982.
The song is a reference to the time it took pioneers to sail to Australia and New Zealand (hence the reference to "The Tyranny of Distance" - a history by Geoffrey Blainey), and a metaphor that refers to lead singer Tim Finn's nervous breakdown.
The song was "discouraged from airplay" in Britain during the Falklands War by the BBC for reasons of morale - it was thought that references to leaky boats were not appropriate during the naval action in the war.
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Track listing
- "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" 4:21
- "Make Sense of It" 3:40
An introductory piece titled "Pioneer", written by Eddie Rayner, appears before the song on the Australian and New Zealand release of History Never Repeats - The Best of Split Enz. This track is not present on the American release. This track also forms an introduction to "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" on its original album release (on Time and Tide).
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Personnel
- Tim Finn - vocals, piano
- Neil Finn - vocals, guitar
- Noel Crombie - drums, percussion
- Nigel Griggs - bass
- Eddie Rayner - percussion, keyboards
Music video
The video shows band members dressed in nautical gear as well as Maori performers practicing traditional Maori acts called poi.
Chart performance
The song entered the RIANZ New Zealand singles charts at number 31 on 13 June 1982, and peaked at number 7 for two weeks. It spent a total of 16 weeks in the top 40.
Covers
- Canadian broadcaster and singer Liz Rigney covered the song for her 1999 album Chameleon (as "Leaky Boat").
- The song was covered by UK rock band Marillion as part of their "Friends" evening at the Marillion convention 2007
- "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" was covered by Australian indie rock band Little Birdy, and appears on the 2005 compilation album She Will Have Her Way. They also played the song during their set at the Sydney Sound Relief concert.
- Ted Leo and the Pharmacists covered the song as a solo performance on their album Tell Balgeary, Balgury Is Dead, and later recorded a full-band arrangement for their Sharkbite Sessions EP. (Leo also titled one of his albums The Tyranny of Distance, a phrase which he credited to "Six Months in a Leaky Boat," though Split Enz had actually taken it from the title of a book by Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey.)
- Children's entertainers The Wiggles covered this song on their cd/video titled Wiggly, Wiggly World, with Tim Finn singing back up and appearing in the video, but the lyrics had been significantly changed to be about Captain Feathersword.
- Pop band Elle Rae (consisting of Allison Robertson from The Donnas and her young sister Emily Robertson) covered "Six Months In a Leaky Boat".
Legacy
The song was voted the 5th best New Zealand song of all time in 2001 by members of APRA.
The song was used as the funeral song for explorer, environmentalist and sailor Sir Peter Blake, sung by Tim Finn with acoustic guitar, at Blake's service.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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