My Top Ten Shark Songs

I see there's a new Jason Statham movie coming out today called The Meg featuring a giant prehistoric shark. I'm not a great fan of Jason 'The Plank' Statham, but I do like a good shark movie. And ten good shark songs...

Special mention to that terrifying predator that preyed on innocent bloggers a few years back... Feargal Sharkey.


10. Blue Oyster Cult - Shooting Shark

I will be the first to admit that this is not a classic. The video, however, is a wonder to behold. Sharks. Goats. Witch doctors. Guns. Ghosts. Unicorns. Snakes. Dragons. A giant dove. A shooting star... or is it a shooting shark? Plus that moustache. Utterly, utterly bonkers.

9. Split Enz - Shark Attack

A Finn singing about sharks. (Tim Finn, later of Crowded House, of course.)

8. The Courteeners - Sharks Are Circling

Someone call Jason Statham - there's a megalodon in this very song!

7. Throwing Muses - Shark

I love the lyrics to this, in which Kristin Hersh picks up an absolute loser of a bloke on the docks and tries to convince herself he's not that bad really.

This afternoon
Your bite's not so bad
Your bark's not too scary
I could kiss you
For remembering my address

6. Best Boy Grip - Sharks

A recent discovery, this Irish indie band promise great things, even if sharks do keep stealing all his friends.

5. Jimmy Buffet - Fins

Because you can never have enough Jimmy Buffet. (Well, you probably can. But I can't.) Bearing in mind that most of Jimmy's songs involve lazing about on a boat, it shouldn't surprise us that he occasionally gets scared of sharks. Turns out the sharks in this song are of the two legged variety though...

She came down from Cincinnati,
It took her three days on the train.
Lookin' for some peace and quiet,
Hoped to see the sun again.

But now she lives down by the ocean
She's takin' care to look for sharks.
They hang out in the local bars,
And they feed right after dark.

Can't you feel 'em circlin', honey?
Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around?
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
And you're the only bait in town.

4. Slaves - Hey!

Like a horror film in two and a half minutes - this starts out with sharks preying on bleeding hearts, but the twist soon shows us a much greater threat: "Hey! Watch out for those kids! They'll tear you apart!"

3. Silver Sun - Sharks

A great guitar ballad that just builds and builds and builds. Why weren't Silver Sun bigger than a megalodon?

2. Louis Armstrong - Mack The Knife

Oh, the shark, babe, has such teeth, dear
And it shows them pearly white...

Genius.

1. John Williams - Jaws Theme

If you can create an iconic, tension-filled theme tune based around what's basically two notes... well, you deserve to be the biggest fish in the sea.



Any sharks lurking in your record collection?