In my art creation, I document the lyrics of a pirate song. The song is about a rogue pirate who is discovered during a storm and thrown overboard on the plank.
A Walk on the Plank for the Seadog
Ahoy, ye pirates and all hands hoay!
Avast ye, make haste and abaft
Blimey! Batten down the hatches
Shiver me timbers, and the storm be upon orlop
Yo-ho-ho, we have a privateer among us
Son of a biscuit eater called us a storm
Raise the Jolly Roger
A hempen halter on his neck
A walk on the plank for the seadog
He deserves no mercy
We’ll tie that scoundrel to a rope
Shark bait we’ll drag him under the ship
Give no quarter, to that filthy landlubber
I will not say what he has done
It is not my place to judge a Buccaneer
In Davy Jones Locker he shall dwell
Reflection
Inspiration Piece
My art piece was inspired by Alestorm’s Keelhauled song. The lyrics for the first stanza of the song are as follows:
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“My friends I stand before you
To tell a truth most dire
They lust a traitor in our midst
Who haven’t vote the captain’s ire.”
The song is a heavy metal pirate song by the Scottish band Alestorm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-Z_psXODw
The song Keelhauled by Alestorm was featured in their Album “Captain Morgan’s Revenge.” The album was released as the debut album for the heavy metal band Alestorm by Napalm Records in 2008. The genre of the song is rock. The rock band has dedicated their songs to ocean pirates’ themes. The music video shows pirates on a ship. The presentation of the song reflects the golden age of 17 th and 18 th -century sailors and pirates.
My art piece was inspired by the Alestorm song as I was intrigued by their unique style of heavy metal rock. The band presents a style of music that reflects the life of ocean pirates. The lyrics and the music video present an accurate representation of pirates’ lives. My piece describes a similar stance to the song Keelhauled. The pirates usually have a way of executing rogue pirates or people they found unfriendly in their ship. I document how the captain found a privateer in the ship and blames him for the storm that is upon them. The captain orders the crew to throw the privateer overboard and drag him under the ship as shark bait.
The similarities between Alestorm’s song and my art piece is that both document typical behavior of pirates. Pirates had a unique way of punishment. The death penalty was commonly used, but other forms of punishment, such as keelhauling, achieved the same result (Puchalska, 2014). Alestorm had dedicated their music to the pirate theme (Puchalska, 2014). In a way, my art piece borrows the idea from the lyrics of Keelhauled. Both pieces describe a person who walked among the pirates and invoked the captain’s wrath. Keelhauled invokes the voice of the ship’s captain to assert the presence of a traitor who lurks in the midst of them. My lyrics describe a privateer who is discovered by the captain, walks the plank, and is thrown overboard.
The thematic connection between the two art pieces is the linguistic characteristics of the pirate’s language. Both art pieces are the same medium of lyrics and contain similar melodies. They impact viewers by creating involuntary reactions. Music is the most powerful in the arts because sounds create a sensory stimulus that creates pleasant or unpleasant reactions (Martin & Jacobus, 2014). Listeners can find out how pirates talk and behave from the lyric content and music video. The language of pirates is unique and may be difficult to understand. Viewers are impacted by the upbeat nature of the song and the uniqueness of the genre. Such a song cannot be easily replicated and therefore shows the prowess of the composer.
References
Martin, F. D., & Jacobus, L. (2014). Humanities through the Arts . McGraw-Hill Education.
Napalm Records (2009, June 26). Alestorm- Keelhauled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta-Z_psXODw
Puchalska, J. (2014). The scourge of the land and sea: an awful outlaw or a romantic hero?. Maska , (24).
