The Kingston Trio

Ever have a song stuck in your head? It most recently happened to me this week.

In the news a few days ago was a story about the discovery of the wreckage of the U.S.S. Lexington. Lexington was an American aircraft carrier that was lost during the Battle of the Coral Sea in 1942. Although the Battle of Midway is a more famous WW2 naval battle (as perhaps it should be; it turned the tide of the war in the Pacific), it was the Battle of the Coral Sea that halted the Japanese advance in the Pacific.

When I heard that the wreckage of Lexington was located, lyrics from a song I heard long ago popped into my head. The song was Ballad of the Thresher and was about the loss, with all hands, of the nuclear-powered submarine U.S.S. Thresher. Four ballads about Thresher were recorded by various artists, but the best known version was recorded by The Kingston Trio. The lyrics that popped into my head were these:

Oh, the Thresher, yes, now her reactor is still
But very good company she keeps
Men from the Lexington, Hornet and the Wasp
Are down there with her in the deep

It’s strange how the brain works. Mention the aircraft carrier Lexington and of all the knowledge in my head, a song about a submarine named Thresher is the connection my brain makes. And since it’s stuck in my head, the song of the day will be Ballad of the Thresher from the 1963 album Sunny Side! by folk music group The Kingston Trio.