Excuse me, it's not Gearrr, but aaaarrrrhhh! ("Jim lad" is optional)
And I think you mean parrot-on-shoulder, not monkey.
Try the melodies of some lusty chanties, that should get you fully in the spirit.
One of my secret pleasures is playing corny marches and yo ho ho stuff, using the C row of my B/C accordion to play in melodeon style. Lots of good double stops available.
The Leaving of Liverpool is a good sea song for single row playing.
When I was in the Coast Guard, in SE Alaska, we once anchored for the night in Poison Cove, which was off of Dead Man's Reach in Peril Straits. Somebody who had read too many pirate stories had obviously had a hand in naming things around there! And during the night, even though there were no signs we were dragging anchor, the radar showed the cove getting smaller and smaller around us. At first light, the mystery was solved, it was a cold night and the cove had been icing up, with the radar picking up the edge of the ice instead of the shore. We were already spooked because of the names, and legends that actual deaths in that spot were part of the reason for those names, and the radar mystery made for a long and edgy night of watchstanding.
Ooops, it doesn't take much to trigger a sea story........
I don't know if this is entirely on topic, but____. Wait, scratch that (I've been watching too much Court TV). It's as on as most of the stuff posted here (apologies to my co-contributors). My old man composed a reel called Granuaile's Castle (Caislean Ghrainne Ni Mhaille, an bearla ag m'athair agus an ghaeilge agam fhein). Grainne (Grace O'Malley) was known as the Pirate Queen of Connaught (contemp of Eilis I). I mentioned her on the Comments page of another of my father's reels that I posted a few days ago, The Cottage on the Hill. Both reels were recorded by Galway boxplayer, Seamus Walshe, on a 1987/8 cassette, Memories of Galway. It is the second tune on Track 1 Side 1 (first is Paddy Fahy's) and was called Martin Ruane's No. 1 by Seamus (who didn't know the names of MR's reels).
HAAARRR, laddie, have yeh ever been b*****ed at sea???
Mairtin
You Can't Be A Pirate
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses an ear;
It drips down your neck, and it falls on the deck,
Till someone shouts, "Oy, what's this 'ere?"
You can't wear your glasses, you can't poll the lasses,
Your friends have to shout so you'll hear;
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses an ear.
But it's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be)
With all of your parts;
It's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate)
With all of your parts.
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses an eye;
It stings like the blazes, it makes you pull faces,
You can't let your mates see you cry.
A dashing black patch will cover the hatch,
And make sure that the socket stays dry;
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses an eye.
But it's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be)
With all of your parts;
It's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate)
With all of your parts.
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses a hand;
It spurts and it squirts and it jolly well hurts,
Pain only a pirate could stand.
The fash'nable look is a nice metal hook,
But now you can't play in the band;
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses a hand.
But it's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be)
With all of your parts;
It's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate)
With all of your parts.
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses a leg;
It hurts like the dickens, your pace never quickens,
Hopping around on a peg.
Ask your sweetheart to marry, but too long you've tarried,
'Cause now you can't kneel down and beg;
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses a leg.
But it's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be)
With all of your parts;
It's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate)
With all of your parts.
It makes me quite irate -
It hardly seems fair,
You can't be a pirate -
If you are all there!
Sounds to me like what you're really looking for is sea shanty's and jolly pokers. They'd have been the songs of the pirates as well as the working deckman of honest naval men as well. Google for halyard shanties and that ought to get you on the right track.
As and after thought you might want to consider the works of the late Stan Rogers. He wrote a great shanty right here in my home town called Barretts Privateers. A great rowsing modern era seas shanty of bromdignagian proportions.
It's great to be on a ship with men
And sail across the sea-o
We don't know where we'll land or when
But it's great to be with men
'Cause men can sweat and men can stink
And no one seems to care-o
We'll throw the dishes in the sink
And clog the sink with hair-o
Men, men, men, it's a ship filled with men
So batten down the ladies room,
There's no one here but men
There's men above, there's men below
There's men down in the galley
there's Mitch and Dave and Jim and Bob
And one guy we call Sally
Men, men, men, it's ship all filled with men
You'll never have to lift the seat
There's no one here but men
We're men and friends until the end
And none of us are sissies
At night we'll sleep in separate beds
And blow each other kisses
Men, men, men, it's a ship all filled with men
So throw your rubbers overboard
There's no one here but men
Of course you do realise neither melodeons nor concertinas were around during the golden age of piracy, and a fiddle or flute would be much more authentic?
There are plenty of tunes and songs in Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Pirates Of Penzance". But I can't think of any about hooks, parrots or walking the plank. Oh, come to think of it, there's a very well-known song about a pirate called Captain Kydd, who I think was a real person and was executed for his crimes. Shouldn't be hard to find it somewhere.
Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Just got the loan of a melodeon - and suddenly found myself crying out "gearr!" and "ahoy". Urge to chop off leg and attach a wooden peg in its place.
Need pirate tunes. Pronto. Garrrrrrr......
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by _Steph_
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Try Jack's The Lad in G major http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1097
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by Dow
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
If you can bear to do so, you could put it with Soldier's Joy.
Or were you looking for something a bit more piratey?
"MARGARET?!... MARGARET?!!....."
...
"YES?!"
etc
(JohnJ'll know what I'm on about)
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by Dow
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Not just your run of the mill eye-patch piratey - I'm talking monkey-on-the-shoulder busty-wenches booty & plunder seeking piratey.
Jack the Lad's yo-ho-ho-ish enough, but too many modifications had to be made to render it fit for a melodeon pitched in C.
Newfy tunes seem to be doing the trick.
Gearrrrrrrrr
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by _Steph_
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Excuse me, it's not Gearrr, but aaaarrrrhhh! ("Jim lad" is optional)
And I think you mean parrot-on-shoulder, not monkey.
Try the melodies of some lusty chanties, that should get you fully in the spirit.
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by oldstrings
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Yarrrr, If ye can stand it, look up the Trumpet Hornpipe, That be as piratey as it gets, ye scurvy lubber!
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1408
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by Wurzel
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
You'll be wantin' to play Captain Pugwash, the Sailor's Hornpipe & The Three Sea Captains then _Steph_!
Oh, & if you haven't got your Parrot yet, you could do worse then choose one of these little beauties:
http://www.astepupbird.com/
Oh yeah:
Why do pirates have both ears pierced?
It only costs them a buccaneer!
Boom Boom!
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by joesmith
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
The Captain's hornpipe on Gerald Trimble's First Flight LP is a swashbucking little number
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
*swashbuckLing* (bloody keyboard!)
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Aye, for 'swashbucking', check this out:
http://facs.scripps.edu/surf/surfphotos.html
Have their actually been any good 'swashbucking' tunes written, since the glory days of the Beach Boys?
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by Ptarmigan
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
One of my secret pleasures is playing corny marches and yo ho ho stuff, using the C row of my B/C accordion to play in melodeon style. Lots of good double stops available.
The Leaving of Liverpool is a good sea song for single row playing.
When I was in the Coast Guard, in SE Alaska, we once anchored for the night in Poison Cove, which was off of Dead Man's Reach in Peril Straits. Somebody who had read too many pirate stories had obviously had a hand in naming things around there! And during the night, even though there were no signs we were dragging anchor, the radar showed the cove getting smaller and smaller around us. At first light, the mystery was solved, it was a cold night and the cove had been icing up, with the radar picking up the edge of the ice instead of the shore. We were already spooked because of the names, and legends that actual deaths in that spot were part of the reason for those names, and the radar mystery made for a long and edgy night of watchstanding.
Ooops, it doesn't take much to trigger a sea story........
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by AlBrown
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
I don't know if this is entirely on topic, but____. Wait, scratch that (I've been watching too much Court TV). It's as on as most of the stuff posted here (apologies to my co-contributors). My old man composed a reel called Granuaile's Castle (Caislean Ghrainne Ni Mhaille, an bearla ag m'athair agus an ghaeilge agam fhein). Grainne (Grace O'Malley) was known as the Pirate Queen of Connaught (contemp of Eilis I). I mentioned her on the Comments page of another of my father's reels that I posted a few days ago, The Cottage on the Hill. Both reels were recorded by Galway boxplayer, Seamus Walshe, on a 1987/8 cassette, Memories of Galway. It is the second tune on Track 1 Side 1 (first is Paddy Fahy's) and was called Martin Ruane's No. 1 by Seamus (who didn't know the names of MR's reels).
HAAARRR, laddie, have yeh ever been b*****ed at sea???
Mairtin
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by frozenstiff
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
aarrghhh !!!! A Pirates life for me !
SHIVER ME WOODEN LEG
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by lamh trom
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Here's some lyrics you might be able to use:
You Can't be a Pirate (Don Freed)
You Can't Be A Pirate
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses an ear;
It drips down your neck, and it falls on the deck,
Till someone shouts, "Oy, what's this 'ere?"
You can't wear your glasses, you can't poll the lasses,
Your friends have to shout so you'll hear;
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses an ear.
But it's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be)
With all of your parts;
It's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate)
With all of your parts.
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses an eye;
It stings like the blazes, it makes you pull faces,
You can't let your mates see you cry.
A dashing black patch will cover the hatch,
And make sure that the socket stays dry;
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses an eye.
But it's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be)
With all of your parts;
It's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate)
With all of your parts.
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses a hand;
It spurts and it squirts and it jolly well hurts,
Pain only a pirate could stand.
The fash'nable look is a nice metal hook,
But now you can't play in the band;
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses a hand.
But it's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be)
With all of your parts;
It's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate)
With all of your parts.
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses a leg;
It hurts like the dickens, your pace never quickens,
Hopping around on a peg.
Ask your sweetheart to marry, but too long you've tarried,
'Cause now you can't kneel down and beg;
Being a pirate is all fun and games,
Till somebody loses a leg.
But it's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be, you can't be)
With all of your parts;
It's all part of being a pirate,
You can't be a pirate (you can't be a pirate)
With all of your parts.
It makes me quite irate -
It hardly seems fair,
You can't be a pirate -
If you are all there!
http://www.donfreed.com/
# Posted on June 10th 2006 by grego
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Sounds to me like what you're really looking for is sea shanty's and jolly pokers. They'd have been the songs of the pirates as well as the working deckman of honest naval men as well. Google for halyard shanties and that ought to get you on the right track.
# Posted on June 11th 2006 by newfie percussionist
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
As and after thought you might want to consider the works of the late Stan Rogers. He wrote a great shanty right here in my home town called Barretts Privateers. A great rowsing modern era seas shanty of bromdignagian proportions.
# Posted on June 11th 2006 by newfie percussionist
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
MEN - by Steve Martin and Martin Mull
It's great to be on a ship with men
And sail across the sea-o
We don't know where we'll land or when
But it's great to be with men
'Cause men can sweat and men can stink
And no one seems to care-o
We'll throw the dishes in the sink
And clog the sink with hair-o
Men, men, men, it's a ship filled with men
So batten down the ladies room,
There's no one here but men
There's men above, there's men below
There's men down in the galley
there's Mitch and Dave and Jim and Bob
And one guy we call Sally
Men, men, men, it's ship all filled with men
You'll never have to lift the seat
There's no one here but men
We're men and friends until the end
And none of us are sissies
At night we'll sleep in separate beds
And blow each other kisses
Men, men, men, it's a ship all filled with men
So throw your rubbers overboard
There's no one here but men
Aaaaaaaammmmennnnn
http://www.carpazon.com/C2_Tundex_fr.htm
(a link to the mp3) Click on the "men" link
# Posted on June 11th 2006 by jrathbun
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Of course you do realise neither melodeons nor concertinas were around during the golden age of piracy, and a fiddle or flute would be much more authentic?
# Posted on June 12th 2006 by Martin Milner
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Who let the spoilsport in?
# Posted on June 12th 2006 by blas
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Probably Peter Pan.
# Posted on June 12th 2006 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Peter Pain did you say?
# Posted on June 12th 2006 by blas
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
"And now for something completely different"... check out the Arrogant Worms' song called "The Last Saskachewan Pirate".
# Posted on July 17th 2006 by vonnieestes
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
Here's a site focusing on pirate songs for the D-tinwhistle, but I'm sure you could adapt them for the melodean. http://www.fullybodyburn.com/html/flutes/tinwhistle_music.htm (The pirate songs are about a quarter of the way down the page).
# Posted on February 9th 2007 by mistercliff
Re: Help! I need Pirate Tunes!
There are plenty of tunes and songs in Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Pirates Of Penzance". But I can't think of any about hooks, parrots or walking the plank. Oh, come to think of it, there's a very well-known song about a pirate called Captain Kydd, who I think was a real person and was executed for his crimes. Shouldn't be hard to find it somewhere.
# Posted on February 9th 2007 by nicholas