Black Bartholomew Roberts (Lyrics)

[CaptainHellfire]

Ahoy there me buckos! I've just started trying my hand at the seafaring life and started me own pirate band. We've called Captain Hellfire and The Wretched Brethren and we've just had our second gig on the 25th of January. I thought I'd share some of the lyrics I've written. This first set of lyrics be from a song about that most famous pirate, Black Barty, I play this by meself on the piano at the moment but we are looking to develop it as a track incorporating the whole band.

Black Bartholomew Roberts (Seas of Chance)

In darkness we all swing together

Each man but skin and bone

Packed inside this floating coffin

We sail the seas as one

I'm staring at the ceiling

Concentrating on my mission

Thinking as my head it sways

With pendulum precision

The flame it flares more brightly

Then it flickers with indecision

I wonder how I came to find myself in this position?

Cast as a villain with no regrets

No feelings for the dying

As I twist my cutlass in their breasts

Laugh at them for trying

To protect their glittering gold and jewels

Like it was worth their wretched lives

Worth more than their daily bread

Their sons, daughters, wives...

But as I gaze out through the porthole

I spy the shifting seas

And realise what this bloodshed without reason really means

If kings want more

Then the pawns must have less

And the rest risk their lifeblood

On the cold dead seas of chance

A short life and a merry one

On this motto I've based my life

And backed it up with flintlock

Grapeshot, cannonballs

And knives

Sunk stout ships and men o' war

Burnt cities to the ground

Struck terror in the hearts of men

For doubloons, silver and pounds

But my men they slumber round me

Like intoxicated babes

Follow their orders well

As they march into their graves

But a slights not to be tolerated

And I've killed "good" men for less

Strung the Governor up the yardarm

And watched him dance with Ketch

But we live in a despicable world

And in hard and trying times

And it's best to die on the seas of chance

Than in the gutters of honour sometimes

If I pay the price for my misdeeds

I'll not have no regrets

Wrap my body up in chains

And send me sinking to the depths

In my heart I know I'm a good man

One that settles all his debts

Through the darkness and the horror

Down and down at od's bequest

In his image he created me

So the blame we share together

And in that final swim I'll smile

And rattle my way down to my maker!

But we live in a despicable world

And in hard and trying times

And it's best to die on the seas of chance

Than in the gutters of honour sometimes