I'm pretty confident that the second line is indeed "waiting for the ship to list" -- that is, for the boat to lean precipitously to one side or the other. "Shift list" was going around the net early, but "shift list" makes less sense and doesn't match the sounds of what he sings. I hear a distinct unaccented sound after the "t"; if he sings "shift list," it's more like “shift-a list." But why would he be waiting for a "shift list" (whatever that might be) while showering? On the other hand, when you're showering in a boat, a sudden change in the boat's level can throw you; you want to be alert for a ship listing when you're standing in a slippery space.
I'm just listening to the demo from "The Life of the World in Flux," though, and he uses a different line in the demo from that recording.
"And in the shower the little soaps and shampoos seem like ancient bottled ambergris" -- so evidently he was working on that line through the recording process.
I'm pretty confident that the second line is indeed "waiting for the ship to list" -- that is, for the boat to lean precipitously to one side or the other. "Shift list" was going around the net early, but "shift list" makes less sense and doesn't match the sounds of what he sings. I hear a distinct unaccented sound after the "t"; if he sings "shift list," it's more like “shift-a list." But why would he be waiting for a "shift list" (whatever that might be) while showering? On the other hand, when you're showering in a boat, a sudden change in the boat's level can throw you; you want to be alert for a ship listing when you're standing in a slippery space.
I'm just listening to the demo from "The Life of the World in Flux," though, and he uses a different line in the demo from that recording.
"And in the shower the little soaps and shampoos seem like ancient bottled ambergris" -- so evidently he was working on that line through the recording process.