"God Take the King!"

[Blackbead]

God Take the King!

Ye ask me why I sail the seas beneath a flag stained black,

And why I risk both life and limb and take the pirate tack?

The answer is an easy one, a song I love to sing,

After years of bloody taxes, I have come to hate the king!

Chorus: Huzzah! Huzzah! It’s a new song I sing!

Give me rum, freedom and buckets of gold and God Take the King!

I bear the marks upon me back of scratches from his cat:

Too many times I’ve come up short when ‘is Majesty passed the hat.

At pike point he collects me pay before it can be spent

On niceties like milk or shoes or even to pay the rent.

Chorus

My Maggie she died coughin’ after a winter without a coat,

Me son, he drowned in a summer storm workin’ a fishin’ boat,

Me daughter sold her childhood for pennies to help our plight,

Until one cold, dark evenin’ when we lost her to the night.

Chorus

Now all me stanchions are overboard, me kids, me lovely wife,

So I spends me time in the sweetest trade, I live the pirate life.

No more will I pay me taxes with coins a coppery-red,

The only tax I’ll pay this king is shot that’s made of lead.

Chorus

But don’t ye waste a tear, shipmates, cryin’ for the likes of me,

For, in truth, I’ve come to love this life a’sailin’ on the sea.

There’s rum, there’s women, there’s glory, and sometimes even gold,

And maybe me own ship one day if I live to be that old.

Chorus

And don’t forget, me hearties, death is everywhere at sea.

A pirate’s life is a dodgy one, as I’m sure you’ll all agree,

Someday I’ll find me doorway among these many harms

And go to spend eternity in me lovin’ family’s arms.

Chorus (Repeat and shout out the last "God Take the King!")

Stephen Sanders

©2008

[Admiral Kilo]

I like this one. I think it's kind of funny, pirates became pirates for the same reasons America became America, but most of America doesn't bother to teach how alike our country is to the pirates during the golden age.