Captain Sea Level
GENRE Folk
REGION D.C.
Captain Sea Level is a pseudonym used by an employee of the federal government, who realized in 1986 after playing his guitar at a large government meeting in Florida, that if he kept it up he would get in trouble. The front page of the local newspaper showed him playing guitar, and quoted the lyrics of his song as if a public official had made some rather outrageous statements about the consequences of rising sea level; but the paper did not quote the actual content of his official presentation, which generally suggested constructive steps to adapt to the consequences of global warming. Thereafter, he would persuade conference organizers to let him make his case for preparing for sea level rise early in the meeting; at then at the end of the meeting, Captain Sea Level (in disguise) came back and sang “Sea Level Rise.” Local reporters got the hint and quoted the public official and the troubadour separately.
In 1988, the Climate Institute asked Captain Sea Level to assemble an entire group at a dinner where the Institute would present an award to Sir Crispin Tickell. Because the meeting was in December, the Captain decided to perform “When the North Pole Melts.” He and John Huckans (a local jazz pianist, singer, and tuba player) had spent much of the summer transcribing and arranging songs by the Beach Boys Beach Boys for an a capella group. Hence, the Brian Wilson influence of this arrangement is noticeable--especially the modulation from C to E-flat during the third and fourth lines of each verse. Four members of the Environmental Protection Agency Chorus, his father, and three friends agreed to perform. The analogue recording was played by a WHFS (now WRNR) and a few other radio stations in 1988-89, but imperfections in the recording limited its usefulness and it sat on the shelf ever since. This year it was digitized so that readers of the Washington Post can hear the song’s message, which rings as true today as it did in 1988.
CREDITS & MORE
Walter Bauer--Jingle Bells, barritone
Kirby Biggs--bass
Carl Fletcher--barritone
Charlie Garlow--tenor
John Huckans--baritone and tenor, added modulation to E-flat in arrangement Santa Claus--bass
Captain Sea Level--melody, guitar
Kirby Biggs sings in local a capella groups.
Carl Fletcher runs a small recording studio in Ft. Washington, Maryland.
Charlie Garlow still sings with the EPA Chorus.
Captain Sea Level sings in the Ft. Washington Community Chorus and writes letters-to-the-editor of the Washington Post from his home in Glenn Dale, Maryland.
http://users.rcn.com/jwtitus/When_the_North_Pole_Melts.htm
