Hey. I’m Bord and i want to see if i can remember all the words to this song. No need to post after this, hell, no reason to read it (though it’s a damn good song).
It’s just something mundane and personal i feel i MUST share. Indeed, i do have a LOT of free time on my hands right now. Most of you have probably never heard this song anyway, very popular in Halifax during Last Call, also good for stumbelin’ home drunk…
And away we go! (feel free to clap)
Barrett’s Privateers
OH! The year was 1778
How i wish i was in Sherbrook now!
A letter of marque came from the king
To the scummiest Vessel i’ve ever seen,
God damn them all!
(chorus)
I was told we’d cruise the seas,
For American gold
We’d fire no guns, shed no tears
I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett’s Privateers
(end of chorus)
Well Old Sid Barrett cried the town
How i wish i was in Sherbrook now!
For 20 brave men, all fishermen who
Would make for him the Antelope’s Crew
God damn them all!
(chorus)
Well the Antelope Sloop was a sickening sight,
How i wish i was in Sherbrook now!
With a list to the port, and her sails in rags
And the cook in the scuppers with the Staggers and Jags,
God damn them all!
(chorus)
On the Queen’s birthday we put to sea
How i wish i was in Sherbrook now!
We were 91 days to Montego Bay
Pumping like mad men all the way,
God damn them all!
(chorus)
On the 93rd day we sailed again,
How i wish i was in Sherbrook now!
When a bloody great Yankee hove in sight
With our cracked 4 pounders we made to fight
God damn them all!
(chorus)
Oh the Yank was laid low down with gold
How i wish i was in Sherbrook now!
She was broad and fat and loose in stays
But to catch 'er took the Antelope 2 whole days
God damn them all!
(chorus)
And at length we lay 2 cables away
How i wis i was in Sherbrook now!
Our cracked 4 pounders made an awful din
But with one fat ball the Yank stove us in
God damn them all
(chorus)
Well the Antelope shook and pitched on her side
How i wish i was in Sherbrook now!
Barrett was smashed like a bowl of eggs
And the main truck carried off both me legs
GOD DAMN THEM ALL!
(chorus)
So here i lay in me 23rd year
How i wish i was in Sherbrook now!
It’s been 6 years since we sailed away
And i just made Halifax yesterday
God damn them all!
(chorus)
(Come on now, with feeeeeling, imagine there’s a shot of rum in yer gut)
I was told we’d cruise the seas
For American gold
We’d fire no guns, shed no tears…
I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier
The last of Barrett’s privateers!
What a moment to not remember the name of that song SOMEBODY recorded a few years ago about the failed US invasion of Canada during the War of 1812. We could cry in our beer about military incompetence. A four-pounder? Were they trying to sink a DINGHY?!?!?
Upham, the moderators tend to frown on posting copyrighted materials in their entirety, especially when you omit the author.
In case anyone’s interested, the song’s by Stan Rogers and is available on several albums on Fogarty Cove records. Between the Breaks, Live and Home in Halifax are particularly good live recordings.
Watch the field behind the plough turn to straight dark rows
Feel the trickle in your toes, blow the dust cake from your nose
And feel the tractor’s steady roar; every rod’s a gain,
And there’s victory in every quarter mile…
I often take these night shift walks when the foreman’s not around
And turn my back on the cooling stack and make for open ground
Far out beyond the tank farm fence where the gas flare makes no sound
I forget the stink and I always think back to my eastern town…
Ah for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage
To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea
Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage
To make a Northwest Passage to the sea.
And I just want to hold you closer than I’ve ever held anyone before
You say you’ve been twice a wife and you’re through with life
Ah but honey, what the hell’s it for?
After twenty-three years you’d think I could find a way to let you know somehow
That I want to see your smiling face forty-five years from now…
Ah, lies, all those lines are telling wicked lies
Lies, all lies…
Too many lines there in that face
Too many to erase or to disguise
They must be telling lies…
I didn’t name the author because i wasn’tsure who it was, Stan Rogers did the classic verson, but as far as i was told it was a rendition of a old folk song. As well (the version i heard the most of) was by The Irish Rovers.
I figured it would be like writing the lyrics to Hey Joe (covered by Jimi Hendrix, i’ve never heard anyone say who wrote it) or House of the Rising Sun (Bob Dylan and The Animals covered, no idea who wrote it)
Plus, it’s one hell of a good song
Dropzone: I’m not sure of the song you’re talking about, i know another about Americans plundering Charlottetown during the revolution… any good?)
Upham
(Note to mods: those are the choruses of five different songs, all by Stan Rogers. Specifically, “The Field Behind the Plough”, “The Idiot”, “Northwest Passage”, “Forty-five Years”, and “Lies”.)
I told that kid a hundred times, “Don’t take the lakes for granted
They go from calm to a hundred knots so fast they seem enchanted”
But tonight some red-eyed Wiarton girl lies staring at the wall
For her lover’s gone into a white squall…
-“White Squall”
The tall fast queen of the Grand Banks fleet portrayed on every dime
Knew hard work in her time, hard work in every line
That tall fast ship of great renown still lifts unto the sky
And who will know the Bluenose in the sun?
-“Bluenose”
Rise again, oh, rise again
Though your heart it be broken and life about to end
No matter what you’ve lost, be it a home, a love, a friend,
Like the Mary Ellen Carter rise again
-“The Mary Ellen Carter”
And crash the glass down, move with the tides
Young friends and old whiskey are burning inside
Crash the glass down, Fingal will rise with the moon…
-“The Giant”
Wednesday night is “East Coast Kitchen Party” at the Tir Nan Og (Irish pub here in Kingston), which means cheap pints of Keith’s – :lip smack: – and live music. This is one of the crowd pleasers, along with a bunch from Great Big Sea and other sources of which I remain ignorant. I think they sing the lyrics slightly differently, but this seems like a folk-type of song where that’s bound to happen. I’m gonna have to learn all the words…
Hey, I just heard a couple of young Canadian troubaders perform “Barrett’s Privateers” on the docks of Halifax this summer! It was August during the Busker’s Festival and they were between Cable Wharf and the CSS Acadia, I think. It was one of the things that reminded me that yes, I was in a foreign country! That and the toonies and Tim Hortons.
Halifax reminded me of nothing more than Hamilton, Bermuda, with the same layout. No palm trees and more Titanic-related historical sites, though.
This past summer I met up with a bunch of friends in Seattle. We went out canoeing, and I ended up in a canoe with Andy and Lars, two Canadians. Of course, we started singing Barrett’s Privateers as we came alongside the canoes with American-only crews and tipped them over.