| Derelict
("Capt. Billy Bones, his
song") 1901 Broadway Show Tune Lyrics by Young E. Allison Arrangement by Mark Stahl of The Jolly Rogers, adapted by Bounding Main |
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| "Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest-- Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Drink and the devil had done for the rest-- Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!" The mate was fixed by the bos'n's pike, The bos'n brained with a marlinspike, And Cookey's throat was marked belike It had been gripped by fingers ten; And there they lay, All good dead men Like break-o'-day in a boozing-ken-- Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum! Fifteen men of the whole ship's list-- Fifteen men of 'em stiff and stark-- Fifteen men of 'em good and true-- More was seen through the sternlight screen-- Fifteen men on the Dead Man's Chest-- |
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I had the pleasure of meeting the men from "The Jolly Rogers" the weekend of August 14-15, 2004. A might fine bunch of sailing and singing boys they are! Among all of the wonderful things they sang at The Bristol Renaissance Faire they sang "The Derelict." Upon hearing "The Jolly Rogers" perform this I realized that the scratchy copy that had been given to me years ago was in fact a recording of THEM doing this rendition, not the Corsairs, as I may have been told! I had a conversation with Brian Price about our use of this arrangement in Bounding Main and some other issues with verses in Mingulay and wayward commentary back and forth between us. The long and short of it is the arrangement that we do of this song is largely based on Mark Stahl's arrangement of this song. We've created a backup chorus and changed the presentation of the Stern-light Screen verse; those are the principal changes that we've made. So Mark and the rest of The Jolly Rogers, thanks for the tune, borrowing it accidentally as we have! — Dean Calin Anthologized in "The Best Loved Poems of the American People" by Hazel Felleman. This piece was from a 1901 Broadway musical by Young E. Allison based on Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. clapped scullion ken scupper hawser bight fathom Click here to view a copy of the original broadside of the lyrics. The Dead Man's Chest was the name of the ship. |
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