The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

This was probably the most challenging song to get recorded on the album, going through several iterations before I was happy with it. Now I think it builds nicely, it has some interesting fills, and the pirate chorus fits. The break in the middle is ‘Drowsy Maggie,’ a fiddle tune suggested by Annie Rettic, which I’ve arranged for mandolin and pennywhistle. The video is my first attempt at using Final Cut; there’s lots to learn about that tool! ‘The Buccaneers’ was a 1956 British series that provides some fun footage. The only song on the album without Ramona Ault – they say wenches be bad luck at sea. Arrrgh!

Instruments: Six and 12 string guitars, bass, mandolin, bouzouki, whistle, miscellaneous percussion. https://www.youtube.com/embed/JKYhrhSruoM?feature=oembed

We set sail from Norfolk on the morning tide
bound to make our fortune upon the ocean wide
We got three dozen cannons and twice that many men
We’ll fill our hold with Spanish gold ‘fore we make port again
Pull, pull, pull you devils, pull you devils pull

It’s wind and wave and sharpened steel
It’s booty and blood for me
I got no faith in God or Man
Just the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

We had a mate named Billy good man with sword or gun
Wasn’t so good with his liquor and one morning woke up hung
I had another messmate his name was Pegleg Jim
Was in the shark filled waters that he first learned how to swim
Pull, pull, pull you devils, pull you devils pull

It’s wind and wave and sharpened steel
It’s booty and blood for me
I got no faith in God or Man
Just the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

We’ve got 40 casks of water and 40 more of rum
We’ve got enough black powder to blow us all to kingdom come
So hoist the sails and man the rails and pull the anchor free
And raise the jolly skull and bones for all the world to see
Pull, pull, pull you devils, pull you devils pull

It’s wind and wave and sharpened steel
It’s booty and blood for me
I got no faith in God or Man
Just the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea