(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)
A ditty has occupied my head incessantly, continuously, importantly, for 2 days now, ever since Valtin mentioned something about watching it all come down from the vantage point aboard a boat, with single malt, in his essay, about how we are being force-fed shit, which also mentioned Berthold Brecht. I’ve not been able to think of hardly anything else, except for Edger and Magic. Pirate Jenny stomps out of Dreigrossenoper and into my head with the certainty of the stileto-staccato stride of Ahab. I think it is my salvation.
And for that reason, I must say…follow me below the fold…
Und ein Schiff mit acht Segeln
Und mit fünfzig Kanonen
Wird liegen am Kai.
Please pardon my elitism rudeness with the deutsch … but it’s just so much
so-too-much prettier auf deutsch…So, here’s the English:
And a ship with eight sails
And with 50 cannons
Will lie in the bay
Jenny, you see, is a wage slave, the ultimate prol. But she is more, she is so, so much more. She serves their drinks in the tavern, makes their beds in the hotel and tells them they don’t know who she really is. But she and her compatriot pirates will have their day, as the chorus lines continue:
And the ship with eight sails
And with fifty cannons
Will fire on the town.…snip to next chorus…
And the ship with eight sails
And with fifty cannons
Will fly flags from its mast.
And the last stanza and chorus:
And hundreds will come ashore around noon
And will step into the shadows
And will catch anyone in any door
And lay him in chains and bring him before me
And ask: Which one should we kill?
And at that midday it will be quiet at the harbor
When they ask, who has to die.
And then they’ll hear me say: All of them!
And when the heads roll, I’ll say: Hoopla!And the ship with eight sails
And with fifty cannons
Will disappear with me.
Read complete lyrics in both English and Germanright here
See ya aboard the Jolly Roger with single malt and red whiskey!
Garrhh!,
Pirate Jenny
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for single malt, rum, red whiskey, or whatever…
as we watch it all come down from the LOLing ocean rocking
of our boat OFF SHORE.
A pirate’s life for me!
this. However, all is forgiven, and I hope we remember it next year. Arrrrrr.
Author
…for hoisting this up the main post here!
The first version of that song I ever heard was “The Black Freighter” by Steeleye Span. I didn’t know there were others, or that it was a German song.
did one hell of a version of this song back in the 60s. Pairs well with Collins’ version of Marat-Sade.
Those of you who know what I’m talking about will agree (I assume). It was on her “In My Life” album.